American Cinematographer - July 2009 - 20

Above: Séraphine (Yolande Moureau) brings one of her new paintings to German expatriate art dealer William Uhde (Ulrich Tukur). Below: After the war, Uhde tracks Séraphine down to see if she is still painting. Outsider Art in France by Jean Oppenheimer The drama Séraphine was unlike any project Laurent Brunet, AFC had ever undertaken. “It was really an experiment for me,” he confesses, speaking with AC by phone via a translator. Despite an extensive list of credits, including La Belle Personne (2008), Le Fils de l’épicier (2007) and five films with Raphaël Nadjari, Brunet had never worked on a period piece. “Trying to feel and recreate another time period [forced me] to think about lighting in a way I never had before,” he says. Based on the life of an obscure 20th-century French painter who spent the last decade of her life in a mental institution, Séraphine won seven Césars last year, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography. “On one level, the film was quite easy technically,” notes Brunet, explaining that he used one camera, a few lenses, a single film stock and a modest lighting package, and finished the picture photochemically. Budgetary constraints definitely influenced creative decisions but rarely compromised them, he adds. The film begins shortly before World War I, when Séraphine (Yolande Moureau), a devout Catholic, begins housecleaning for William Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), a German émigré and art dealer. At first, Uhde is unaware that Séraphine is an artist — she claims to have taken up painting at the behest of her “guardian angel” — and when he sees her canvases, bursting with colorful but disturbing images of fruit, flowers and plants, he is stunned by their primitive beauty. He offers to pay her living expenses so that she might devote herself full-time to her art, but war intervenes, and although Séraphine eventually enjoys some success as a painter, her deteriorating mental state soon gains the upper hand. Séraphine has a painterly qual- ity, with darkness often dominating the frame. Brunet says this was not a conscious attempt to imitate a particular artist, and director Martin Provost, in a separate interview, concurs. “People didn’t have electricity back then, so they used sources with a limited range, like candles and oil lamps, and I wanted to remain true to that,” says the director. Brunet’s lighting package comprised 6Ks, Jokers and Lucioles, which are lighting cubes made by Maluna. Although they have yet to penetrate the American market, Lucioles have become increasingly popular in Europe, according to the cinematographer. “I chose the smaller sizes in order to avoid spilling light all over the place,” says Brunet, “but getting the right level of warmth was very important. I went with 250-watt bulbs.” He points to a late-night scene that shows Séraphine climbing the stairs in her rooming house. It’s pitchblack except for a small oil lamp she carries that provides the faintest outline of her. The scene was shot on a practical staircase, with two Lucioles suspended above the actress. “The cubes were on boom sticks held by two electricians, and the 250-watt bulbs were on dimmers,” recalls Brunet, adding that he often shot wide open. At that time, people made do with whatever natural light came through windows and doors during the day; as a result, day interiors could be quite dark. Similarly, Brunet relied on the light coming through the windows, always exposing for the outdoors. “That was one of our guiding principles, and with 500-ASA film, you can manage a lot of shots with natural light,” he notes. An example of this is a late-afternoon scene that shows Séraphine rifling through papers on Uhde’s desk. The scene plays out in one shot. “The desk is right in front of a window, and I relied solely on the light coming through it,” says Brunet. “She is opening his notebooks and entering his world for the first time, and I wanted to suggest a certain intimacy. Exposing for the outdoors put Séraphine in silhouette, creating just the ¢ ambience I wanted.” 20 July 2009 Séraphine photos courtesy of Music Box Films.

American Cinematographer - July 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2009