American Cinematographer - May 2017 - 14

Short Takes

Railway Romance
By Jim Hemphill

The Swiss film La Femme et le TGV, which was nominated for
an Oscar in the Best Live-Action Short Film category at this year's
Academy Awards, tells a subtle, romantic story of a lonely widow
(Jane Birkin) whose spirit is reinvigorated by her correspondence with
a driver whose train passes by her home each day. It's a delicate and
life-affirming story that uses light and color to chart its heroine's
progression, but it wasn't an obvious fit for cinematographer
Nausheen Dadabhoy - at least as far as director Timo von Gunten
was concerned.
"I wasn't his first choice," Dadabhoy says, laughing. "I went
to school with one of the producers, Giacun Caduff, and had shot
his first feature as a director. That film was a broad comedy like
Superbad - nothing like La Femme et le TGV." Thanks to their
successful working relationship, Caduff kept pushing for Dadabhoy,
and ultimately von Gunten was won over by Dadabhoy's enthusiasm
for the project and a look book she put together to convey her vision.
"I had a really great interview with Timo, and we saw that our vision
for the film was aligned," she recalls.
Dadabhoy and von Gunten's initial conversations revolved
around references such as Roger Pratt, BSC's work on Chocolat,
which had a sense of whimsy that they wanted to emulate, and cinematographer Eduard Grau's use of blue and yellow in A Single Man.
"My look book was filled with old Kodachrome photos with satu14

May 2017

rated colors that had yellowed over time," Dadabhoy explains. "But
the funny thing is that while the director and I exchanged all these
photos and watched a bunch of movies, by the time we got to the
location we tried to forget about all of them. We just wanted to let
the location inspire us."
Dadabhoy had the luxury of four weeks of prep in the actual
location, which was in the Rhône-Alpes region in France. "It's a
Swiss film, but we chose the location because it just happens to be
where we found the perfect house - a little house next to a passing
train," Dadabhoy recalls. "The house was close to a quaint village
where we found all our other locations."
Living at a campsite near the town for four weeks allowed
Dadabhoy to precisely plan each shot, a necessity given the amount
of second-unit work on the project. "The script grew once the
budget and production schedule were locked," Dadabhoy says.
"We had a second unit working simultaneously with us every single
day of the seven-day shoot, so it was vital that I give them a very
specific plan. During prep I scouted all the locations where the
second unit would be shooting and gave them precise times of day
during which I wanted to capture certain angles, with instructions
for what lens I wanted and so on. I took photos of everything we
were scouting and created a bible for the film so that everyone
would know what they were doing." Bela Böke and Senso Stampa
shared 2nd-unit cinematography duties during principal photography, after which workflow manager Janis Huber stepped in for additional photography.
➣

American Cinematographer

Images courtesy of the filmmakers.

Elise (Jane Birkin) is a lonely widow who is energized by the daily passage of a train next to her home, and by correspondences with its driver.

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