Born: 1954, Paris, France, as Caroline Champetier de Ribes.
Education: IDHEC, Paris.
Career: ‘I began classically by entering the French school of cinema. I studied for three years and then decided to go into cinematography. I started 1976 as a second assistant and then a first. I worked with the same crew for nine years. This was the crew of French DP William Lubtchansky. During this time I learned my trade and did my first film as a DP in 1981, ’Toute une nuit’ by Chantal Akerman.’
Also active as director. Teaches at La Fémis. Married to actor Louis-Do de Lencquesaing. Appeared in the doc ‘Women Behind the Camera’ [2001-2006, Alexis Krasilovsky].
Awards: As doph: Grand Prix National – Films et Images [1998; awarded by le Ministère de la Culture].
As dir: Cabourg Romantic FF ‘Golden Swann’ 1999 for ‘Marée haute’.
Caroline Champetier: ‘Toute une Nuit’ with Chantal Akerman was my… read more
Born: 1954, Paris, France, as Caroline Champetier de Ribes.
Education: IDHEC, Paris.
Career: ‘I began classically by entering the French school of cinema. I studied for three years and then decided to go into cinematography. I started 1976 as a second assistant and then a first. I worked with the same crew for nine years. This was the crew of French DP William Lubtchansky. During this time I learned my trade and did my first film as a DP in 1981, ’Toute une nuit’ by Chantal Akerman.’
Also active as director. Teaches at La Fémis. Married to actor Louis-Do de Lencquesaing. Appeared in the doc ‘Women Behind the Camera’ [2001-2006, Alexis Krasilovsky].
Awards: As doph: Grand Prix National – Films et Images [1998; awarded by le Ministère de la Culture].
As dir: Cabourg Romantic FF ‘Golden Swann’ 1999 for ‘Marée haute’.
Caroline Champetier: ‘Toute une Nuit’ with Chantal Akerman was my first movie as a DP. It is difficult to go back such a long time and remember how it was, but I think that it is a great movie. There is something strong in looking at people during one night and what is love and what is a movie about love. As for the lighting, it was very instinctive. It was my first film and I believe that I have an instinct for light. On this film we had very little equipment but we managed. She was very precise about the framing and wanted little movement in the film. For the lighting she told me about a painting by Edward Hopper, and it was not just about the light but the feeling of loneliness of the people in this work. And the other important element for Chantal was the work of Pina Bausch, a great choreographer. She had done a documentary on Pina Bausch and used her sense of movement, of how two bodies come together, in ‘Toute une nuit’. […] I worked with him [Jean-Luc Godard] at the beginning of my career. With him I learned how to expose the negative; he does not like to see much light in his image, or have many people or equipment on the set. He asks the DP to tell him exactly how he/she will expose the negative, and to be very precise. The second thing Godard taught me was to look before I lit, to look at the time of day and the room and then to decide how to light. So now I take a lot of time before a film to plan my lighting, and when we shoot I can go quickly.’ [From the CSC website, 2000.] —www.cinematographers.nl/PaginasDoPh/champetier.htm
