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Raoul Coutard - Jacques Demy (116/179)

104 views · Published 30 August 2017 · 1:40 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Film & Animation

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To listen to more of Raoul Coutard’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYde0bcy2eo&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFz94HTVkL-hi8sRSrIWv0iD

French cinematographer Raoul Coutard (1924-2016) was originally a war photographer. He made his debut as a director of photography in the film 'La Passe du Diable' and became a leading figure in French New Wave cinema. [Listener: Bernard Cohn; date recorded: 2004]

TRANSCRIPT: We didn't get on badly but we didn't get on well either. I think that he didn't want. No, the problem is that when Jacques did his film, it happened in the same way as it did with Jean-Luc, I mean Beauregard produced it. At the time, Beauregard thought, 'We're going to produce films by young people', etc. To try and renew things a little. And so he told him, 'You'll get the same means as Jean-Luc', meaning... So that was a catastrophe for him because Jean-Luc had used up 8000 metres of film, of course Demy wasn't happy about it. So Beauregard let it go a little, but... well, I mean, the equipment was light, and so was the lighting. And naturally he said, 'You'll take Coutard to do the photo'. So it didn't seem to be a problem for him, but it's obvious that he wasn't satisfied with what I was doing, I'm more than sure that, I mean he envisioned it differently.

But... well, at the same time, since it was... We got on relatively well, we never argued or anything. He wasn't happy because since I was with that lamp systems where there were some that needed to be changed regularly, when one of them broke down during filming, he had to redo the shot because there was... So that infuriated him, but it wasn't that important. There are... But at the same time, it was quite an enjoyable shoot, it was quite gratifying.

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