American Cinematographer - December 2012 - 18

Production Slate
Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) helps Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) out of the ocean in a scene from Rust and Bone.

Rust and Bone, the third feature-film collaboration between director Jacques Audiard and cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine, AFC, is a modern fable about a love affair between two lost souls. Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a struggling single father who ekes out a living as a street fighter. Stephanie (Marion Cotillard) is a marineanimal trainer who loses both of her legs in a work accident. Slowly, Ali helps Stephanie emerge from her darkness, and she, in turn, helps him overcome his self-imposed isolation. AC recently met with Fontaine in Paris to discuss his work on the picture. American Cinematographer: How would you describe what this film is about? Stéphane Fontaine, AFC: Simply put, it’s beauty and the beast, but with a fallen princess and a beast who doesn’t realize he is one. It’s a kind of melodrama, a love story that begins where others might end. They meet, they sleep together … and then, their story has to develop. What did you and Audiard discuss for the look of the film? Fontaine: We wanted a film of contrasts, not necessarily contrast inside a scene, but contrast in the relationship between two scenes. The cinematography is not subtle. When the image is dark, it’s really dark, and the scene that follows is very bright, dazzling. Also, there is a sort of constant movement. Ali and Stephanie are both falling apart and rebuilding themselves, and the image accom18 December 2012

American Cinematographer

Rust and Bone photos by Roger Arpajou, courtesy of Why Not Productions and Sony Pictures Classics.

A Rough Road to Romance By Benjamin B

panies that movement. The film goes in all directions. The approach was a kind of naturalism, but an assertive naturalism, with images that are very deliberately pronounced. And we didn’t attempt to smooth out transitions or accidents. This is your first digital feature, and the first for Audiard. Why did you choose digital, and what made you select the Red Epic? Fontaine: I think the choice of digital came out of curiosity. Also, we had to digitally erase Marion’s legs in post for many scenes, and it seemed like a good idea to simplify the workflow by shooting digital. I shot a lot of tests; we compared the Epic, the [Arri] Alexa, the Canon [EOS] 5D and 7D, and Kodak [Vision3 500T] 5219 and [200T] 5213. I was really happy with the Epic. There’s a lot to say about the Epic vs. the Alexa. I feel that there is more detail with the Epic, sometimes too much, and the bokehs are much rounder. Also, the Epic is very light and compact. I didn’t want to shoot handheld with the weight and bulk of an Alexa and a Codex [recorder]. In addition, the Epic gave us the ability to quickly go from 24 fps to 300 fps with the same camera body; that was a big advantage. We captured in 5K, cropping a 2.40:1 window out of the 1.90:1 frame. We tested different compressions at 5K, and my eye wasn’t able to see a difference between 3:1 and 5:1, but we started to feel a bit of a difference at 6:1. So we shot 5K with 5:1 compression except for the 300-fps shots, which are 2K with 6:1 compression. They have an interesting texture. I have to add that some image flaws don’t bother me. In fact, in the context of this film, they were desirable. A flawless image would have been un-breathable. ➣

American Cinematographer - December 2012

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