Thierry Arbogast

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Thierry Arbogast (born January 24, 1956 in Paris , France ) is a French cameraman . He has won several European awards in his career and is the cameraman most frequently nominated for the French César film award. His career now spans three decades and includes mainly French productions, but also Hollywood films.

Life

Beginnings

According to his own statements, Arbogast became interested in the photographic image at the age of about eleven. He began taking pictures and made films in the narrow film formats Super 8 and 16 mm . He decided early on that he wanted to work in the film sector. At the age of 17, Arbogast got his first job as a camera assistant for a film through an acquaintance in the film industry. In the following years, Arbogast worked his way up to a cameraman via the initial auxiliary and assistance activities, a position he has held regularly in film productions since 1982.

Activity as a cameraman

For Arbogast, the focus of his work is the collaboration with the director of the film. He considers the ability to get involved with the director's ideas and support him in their implementation as one of the central requirements for a cameraman. Accordingly, Arbogast selects his film projects primarily according to the director and prefers a personal meeting with him to reading scripts.

Arbogast has often worked with the French director Luc Besson . Their joint works include Besson's first feature film Nikita and Léon - The Professional and The Fifth Element . About the collaboration, Arbogast reports that he and Besson were on the same wavelength from the start, even if Besson sometimes does exactly the opposite of what Arbogast does. During the first half of the shooting, Besson is usually tense and only switches to a less powerful work mode after a while.

Other directors with whom Arbogast has worked several times include Jean-Paul Rappeneau , André Techiné , Eric Barbier and Mathieu Kassovitz . Arbogast's favorite actress is Isabelle Adjani , with whom he worked for the 2003 film Bon Voyage . He attests to her ability to put herself in the right light, which makes his work much easier.

Arbogast appreciates working on many different films and is reluctant to name favorite films among them. Arbogast names the Italian cameraman Vittorio Storaro and the American cameraman Gordon Willis , who, among other things, directed the camera for many Woody Allen classics, as direct models of his work . Arbogast also admires the camera work by the French cameramen Bruno Nuytten , Pierre Lhomme and Ghislain Cloquet . Arbogast says he prefers to film with a lightway and a studio in 2006 , after having previously given preference to the Panavision (e.g. for Die purple rivers ) . He chooses the optics together with the director; personally he prefers Cinemascope despite the design restrictions that come with this choice of format.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

In 1997, Arbogast won the Technology Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival for camera work in All for Love and The Fifth Element . The following year Arbogast received a nomination for the European Film Awards for his cinematography in Black Cat, White Cat .

In total, Arbogast was nominated eight times for a César , which makes him the most frequently nominated cameraman for the French national film award. He was able to take home the award three times: in 1996 for The Hussar on the Roof , in 1998 for The Fifth Element and in 2004 for Bon voyage .

His work was also honored at a Macedonian and a Polish film festival, which focuses on camera work in film.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e cf. Interview with Arbogast ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on August 30, 2008 (French) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ecranlarge.com
personal data
SURNAME Arbogast, Thierry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris , France