Willy Kurant
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Willy Kurant (15 February 1934 – 1 May 2021) was a Belgian cinematographer, famous for shooting films such as Trans-Europ-Express (1966), Anna (1967), Man on Horseback (1969), Cannabis (1970) and Je t'aime moi non plus (1976).
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Overview
A second-generation cinematographer whose father had shot films for Alfred Hitchcock and Jean Renoir, Kurant began as a documentary cameraman before establishing himself as a director of photography for such filmmakers as Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Orson Welles, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jerzy Skolimowski, Chris Marker and Maurice Pialat. Kurant also collaborated extensively with musician Serge Gainsbourg.
Kurant was a member of the French Society of Cinematographers and the American Society of Cinematographers.
Biography
Kurant was born in 1934 in Liège, Belgium, who had begun his career in the silent era and gone on to shoot films for Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jean Renoir. Kurant lived in Liège until the age of eight, when, due to World War II, he was forced to move to the Belgian countryside with his older sister and her husband. Kurant was later sent to an orphanage, where he lived until the age of 17. As a teen, Kurant read issues of American Cinematographer magazine at an American Cultural Center.
Kurant was initially reluctant to pursue a career as a cinematographer, instead studying still photography. While working at a job processing film at a research lab in France, Kurant took an evening class at a small film school; it was then that he decided to pursue cinematography as a career.
Kurant began his career as a cameraman in 1954, when he spent six months in the Belgian Congo as part of a documentary film crew. There, he worked on ten short propaganda films produced for the Ministry of Overseas France and her Colonies, and upon returning to Belgium, Kurant worked as a news cameraman for a television station. In 1957, Kurant received a scholarship to study as a trainee cameraman at Pinewood Studios. There, he worked as first assistant cameraman to English cinematographers Geoffrey Unsworth (on A Night to Remember), Harry Waxman (on Innocent Sinners) and Jack Hildyard (on The Gypsy and the Gentleman).
At the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, Kurant saw a German film crew using an Arriflex camera. This inspired Kurant to buy a camera of his own, as well as a set of lenses and a sound recorder. He then worked extensively as a freelance cameraman, travelling to Vietnam and again to the Congo. In 1962, Kurant moved to France to formally study cinematography.
Kurant then began to establish himself as a cinematographer, shooting shorts for filmmakers such as Jacques Rozier and Marin Karmitz. In 1966, Kurant shot his first two features: Agnès Varda's The Creatures and Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin Feminin. Both films were shot in high-contrast black-and-white on 4X, a then-new Kodak film stock; Kurant later referred to the films' distinctive look as his "signature."
The next year, Kurant shot the TV movie Anna, directed by Pierre Koralnik starring Godard's ex-wife, Anna Karina. The film was co-written and scored by musician Serge Gainsbourg; this marked the first of several film collaborations between Kurant and Gainsbourg.
Around the same time, Kurant served as the cinematographer on Orson Welles' French production, The Immortal Story. Welles then hired Kurant as the cinematographer for his thriller The Deep, which spent three years in production but was never finished.
In 1968, Kurant shot his first American film, The Night of the Following Day. In the 1980s, he worked on two films with director Maurice Pialat: A Nos Amours, from which Kurant was fired after two weeks of shooting, and the Palme d'Or-winning Under the Sun of Satan. He also worked on Boris Szulzinger's Mama Dracula (1980).
Later in his career, Kurant shot a handful of films in the United States, including The Baby-Sitters Club and Pootie Tang. His most recent feature is Un été brûlant (2011), directed by Philippe Garrel; it marked Kurant's first work in seven years.
Filmography
Longs métrages
- 1964 : Bosphore de Maurice Pialat
- 1965 : Les Créatures d'Agnès Varda N/B
- 1965 : Masculin féminin de Jean-Luc Godard N/B
- 1966 : Trans-Europ-Express d'Alain Robbe-Grillet N/B
- 1966 : Au pan coupé de Guy Gilles N/B et couleur, codirecteur de la photographie : Jean-Marc Ripert
- 1967 : Mon amour, mon amour de Nadine Trintignant
- 1967 : Anna de Pierre Koralnik
- 1967 : Le Départ de Jerzy Skolimowski N/B
- 1967 : Loin du Vietnam d'Alain Resnais, William Klein, Joris Ivens, Agnès Varda, Claude Lelouch, Chris Marker, Jean-Luc Godard
- 1967 : Idea de Jean-Christophe Averty
- 1967 : The Deep d'Orson Welles, codirecteur de la photographie : Ivica Rajkovic, prod 1967-1969 (inachevé)
- 1968 : La Nuit du lendemain (The Night of the Following Day) de Hubert Cornfield et Richard Boone
- 1968 : Michael Kohlhaas de Volker Schlöndorff
- 1968 : Une histoire immortelle d'Orson Welles
- 1969 : Tout peut arriver de Philippe Labro N/B et couleur
- 1969 : Le Temps de mourir d'André Farwagi
- 1969 : Cannabis de Pierre Koralnik
- 1969 : Bhakti de Maurice Béjart
- 1969 : Michael Kohlhaas (Michael Kohlhaas - Der Rebell) de Volker Schlöndorff
- 1970 : Le Feu sacré de Vladimir Forgency
- 1974 : Les Jours gris
- 1976 : Je t'aime moi non plus de Serge Gainsbourg
- 1977 : Le Monstre qui vient de l'espace (Template:Lang) de William Sachs (où il est crédité sous le nom de Willy Curtis)
- 1980 : Mama Dracula de Boris Szulzinger
- 1982 : TAG : Le Jeu de l'assassinat (Tag: The Assassination Game) de Nick Castle
- 1983 : Equateur de Serge Gainsbourg
- 1983 : Les Îles de Iradj Azimi
- 1986 : Charlotte for Ever de Serge Gainsbourg
- 1986 : Flagrant Désir de Claude Faraldo
- 1987 : Sous le soleil de Satan de Maurice Pialat
- 1991 : La Contre-allée d'Isabel Sebastian
- 1992 : Le Grand Pardon 2 de Alexandre Arcady
- 1993 : Cuisine et Dépendances de Philippe Muyl
- 1994 : Priez pour nous de Jean-Pierre Vergne
- 1994 : Lune rouge (China Moon) de John Bailey
- 1995 : Le Petit Garçon de Pierre Granier-Deferre
- 1995 : Le Cheval de cœur de Charlotte Brändström
- 1997 : Le Jour et la Nuit de Bernard-Henri Lévy
- 1998 : Les Naufragés du Pacifique (The New Swiss Family Robinson)de Stewart Raffill
- 2001 : Delivering Milo de Nick Castle
- 2011 : Un été brûlant de Philippe Garrel
- 2013 : La Jalousie de Philippe Garrel
Pages linking in as of May 2021
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, The Baby-Sitters Club (film), Delivering Milo, Pootie Tang, Masculin Féminin, White Man's Burden (film), The Night of the Following Day, Under the Sun of Satan (film), Running Scared (1980 film), César Award for Best Cinematography, China Moon, The Departure (1967 film), Je t'aime moi non plus (film), Harper Valley PTA (film), Trans-Europ-Express (film), 13th César Awards, A Business Affair, Rose Hill (film), 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Man on Horseback, The Deep (unfinished film), Tag: The Assassination Game, Anna (1967 film), Cannabis (film), A Burning Hot Summer, Charlotte for Ever (film), Manaki Brothers Film Festival, Mama Dracula, Curt Courant, The Heroine, Day and Night (1997 film), Jealousy (2013 film), The Sitter (1977 film), Outside Chance, 2021 in film, When a Stranger Calls (film series)