Raoul Coutard

Few days ago, we received from Kees Van Oostrum, President of the ASC, these kind words addressed to all the members of the AFC. “I was going to write you last week when I got the news that the great Raoul Coutard had passed away but then decided that I was going to write my upcoming Presidents desk article for the ASC magazine about him and my personal connection. I never had the privilege of meeting him but he was of great influence to me as a cinematographer. Anyway included is the article that will go out in the next issue but wanted to share it with you already.”

Raoul Coutard has passed away! The famous cinematographer and director left this world on Tuesday, 8 November 2016, near Bayonne, at the age of 92. With his passing, a major figure of the cinematography world of the last sixty years – from 1956 with Pierre Schoendoerffer’s La Passe du Diable to 2001 (Philippe Garrel’s Sauvage Innocence) – has taken his last bow.

Cinematographers Richard Andry, Jean-Jacques Bouhon, Céline Bozon, Jean-Noël Ferragut, Pierre-William Glenn, Pierre Lhomme, Baptiste Magnien, Gilles Porte, and Jean-François Robin, all AFC members, share what the memory of Raoul Coutard and his personality brings to their minds.