Ariane Stérin

In the 1970s and 1980s, Bulgaria is one of the most communist countries in the world. The "Russian Big Brother" does not even bother to dispatch an occupation army there as the Bulgarian population fully adheres to the system. Propaganda is beyond effective and one risks one’s life at the mere hint of a protest.

Evoking one’s debut as a cinematographer and remembering it as a professional experience at once too beautiful, too unexpected and too...special, inevitably makes one nostalgic. Furthermore, as one celebrates its 20th anniversary, the phrase "track record" hits one in the face like a boomerang !

Grenoble est une ville des Alpes cerclée de hautes montagnes d’où l’on ne voit jamais l’horizon. À la saison froide, le soleil peut ainsi apparaître puis disparaître brutalement plusieurs fois par jour.

When director Jaco Van Dormael gives 18-year-old Christophe Beaucarne the oral exam prior to his graduating from the INSAS (the famous Belgian film school), neither can imagine that twenty years later, they will be brothers-in-cinema, partners-in-crime on such films as Mr Nobody (2009) and The Brand New Testament (2015).

“I can’t get enough of this impression of blinding light and absolute blackness.” Darius Khondji, AFC, ASC, loves the dazzling effect of strong lights and, by contrast, the deep blacks where the light is engulfed and disappears completely.

In 2017, the Ministry of Culture offered cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman to honor him by making him “Knight of the National Order of Merit.” Being offered that so-evocatively named reward pleased the man no end... but he never finished filling the proper documents and never went to fetch it.

En 2017, le ministère de la Culture avait proposé au chef opérateur Guillaume Schiffman de le distinguer comme chevalier de l’ordre national du Mérite. Cette offre de récompense - au nom si évocateur - lui avait beaucoup plu mais il n’avait finalement pas rempli les papiers et n’était jamais allé la chercher.

First things first. When you are the eldest son of a merchant navy captain whose ancestors, fishermen and sons of fishermen, came all the way from Ukraine..., when you were born and grew up in Marseilles as a certified "Corniche Kid" (the local equivalent to a Bow-bell Cockney)..., when you’d always dash wherever the fancy takes you - preferably beyond the horizon..., somehow, "moving up" to Paris to make movies in the 1980’s is not exactly the "normal" thing to do.

Dans les années 1970-1980, la Bulgarie était l’un des pays les plus communistes du globe. Le "grand frère" russe n’avait même pas eu besoin d’y installer une armée d’occupation tant la population bulgare adhérait au système. La propagande y était particulièrement efficace et on risquait sa vie à émettre un début de contestation.