Emmanuelle Collinot reflects on her image work for "Ulysse", by Lætitia Masson

Alice and Vladimir are the proud parents of a new baby : Ulysses. However, pediatricians have questions about his characteristics, and it soon becomes clear that the child suffers from a genetic syndrome. Ulysses will not be like the others.
With Élodie Bouchez, Stanislas Merhar, Alphonse Roberts, Thibaut Mahieux (Ulysse 6-10 ans) Romane Bohringer

This is a very personal film for the director, how did you support this project ?

Emmanuelle Colinot : I’m starting to get to know Laetitia Masson quite well, having worked with her on her last four films, including an 11-week mini-series. I knew that for Ulysse, we would need to be even more attuned to her expectations and perspective.
The film’s complexity lay in portraying a child with a disability over a fairly long period, from childhood to adulthood. This meant filming with very young children, including one around ten years old with a disability, as well as a young adult (Laetitia’s son, Alphonse) who also has a genetic syndrome. We didn’t know exactly how they would react on set… We had to work with this uncertainty and turn it into a strength.

You were already familiar with his work habits, were they also applied to Ulysses ?

EC : Laetitia is a fan of Jean-Luc Godard. I worked on his film In Praise of Love as a camera assistant (my last film as an assistant), and I remember he didn’t want any more lighting. He said it was too obvious and bothered everyone ! Laetitia shares this philosophy ; she wants to give actors freedom and also spend time with them. All the films I’ve made with her have been based on this principle. For Ulysse, it became even more obvious. We shot many scenes with children, very young children, and their time on set was very limited. Everything had to be ready before they arrived, and we didn’t touch anything ! We also didn’t know what they were going to do, and we had to give them as much freedom as possible. The director really wanted a small crew and as little lighting as possible so as not to frighten them. Furthermore, Thibault and Alphonse are very sensitive to bright lights, I realized this during camera tests, we really had to avoid lights from the front and even the side !

How to organize yourself with "as little light as possible" ?

EC : With an Aladdin light, an Astera case, Aputure bulbs, and a SkyPanel S60 to add a bit of atmosphere or for night scenes. I also had my own small, rechargeable LEDs that you can hold in your hand.
The main set, the apartment, was well-designed for a crew that needed to be as discreet as possible. There was a mezzanine above the living room that allowed us to stay away from the main set while still being able to participate. My assistant, Camille Bertin, and Amaury Brège, the gaffer, could control the focus and aperture from this mezzanine. Amaury had the aperture remote for certain situations where I was on my shoulder following the actors.

Your filming setup wasn’t strictly fictional ; there was some improvisation with the camera ?

EC : We shot some scenes in a slightly documentary style, like the first birthday sequence by the sea, the birthday tea with the little girl, or the cake-making. For these scenes, I suggested that Laetitia take control of the zoom lens herself. She loved it ! It was important that she could choose when she wanted to get close to a face or a gesture of the child. As a director of photography, I’ve shot a lot of documentaries, so I’m used to instinctive decisions… But for this film, I knew that Laetitia’s point of view was always the priority. I could have zoomed in on Élodie at times, whereas Laetitia preferred to focus on Ulysses’s lack of dexterity. This great freedom and the rapport between us were invaluable. We used intercom headsets to coordinate our shots.

How did you manage the main set design with this large bay window ?

EC : It was a real gamble to film for 10 days in that apartment because I was afraid we would have the same weather for all ten days ! The apartment was on the 25th floor, impossible to light from the outside and anyway that wasn’t the idea !! So we were totally dependent on the weather.

We planned our shooting schedule based on the sun’s position between morning and afternoon. I knew it would reach the far end of the apartment until a certain time, and we had to choose when to shoot scenes facing the bay window or with our backs to it. And above all, we had to try to link the sequences together within the time frame dictated by the natural light. When we were filming with the children, for example, for the birthday party scene, we had to be quick and choose the perfect moment.

But without light, how did you control the backlighting when you were focused on the bay window ?

EC : This apartment had a large volume, with high ceilings and white walls. So even when shooting against the light, the walls acted as reflectors, allowing me to achieve level lighting on all surfaces and rebalance the light.
With this camera, I had a great deal of latitude in both the shadows and highlights. I always made sure to maintain clarity in the highlights so that, during color grading, the landscape would be visible through the bay window, but the faces would also be clearly defined.

So color grading allowed you to compensate for a shoot with limited technical resources ?

EC : We had two weeks of color grading with Kevin Stragliati from Poly Son, who immediately grasped the film’s atmosphere. During tests, he had prepared a LUT, which gave us a good starting point for the color grading.
We worked on the grain to emphasize the different time periods. For the beginning of the film, I wanted the image to be a bit more diffuse, with a fair amount of grain and less contrast. For the second part, we used just the grain to avoid it being too smooth and we went for more contrast.

Were the equipment choices linked to the sometimes documentary style of filming ?

EC : I chose the Sony Venice 1, and a Sony Burano for the second camera. It’s a camera primarily designed for documentaries, but it pairs very well with the Venice 1. I like Sony cameras ; I find they have excellent color management, and I always manage to achieve the look I want during color grading.

Regarding lenses, Laetitia and I realized during the filming of Citoyens Clandestins (a miniseries for ARTE) that we could absolutely mix spherical and anamorphic lenses, and that’s what we did for Ulysse as well.

During camera testing, we tried several lenses and ultimately chose the Blackwing Tribe 7 spherical series. However, we didn’t have a sufficiently short focal length, so we opted for a 25mm Atlas Orion anamorphic lens. I also chose a lens I really like : the Canon 300-600mm. I particularly enjoy using the 300mm, but it turns out Laetitia is very fond of the 600mm, for its flare and its very diffuse effect, which sometimes creates a completely abstract image.

We also had a small anamorphic zoom lens, the Angénieux 56-152mm, which was originally intended for the second camera, but we ended up using it extensively with the first.

The trip to the United States is a somewhat unique moment, filmed differently, why ?

EC : Laetitia left with Ulysse (Alphonse), the production manager, and an iPhone 16 set to Apple Log ProRes 422. She filmed everything herself, almost as if these were videos filmed by Ulysse’s father and sent to his mother. These more intimate sequences reinforce the feeling of an epilogue.

Is making a film that speaks to our humanity and touches our hearts a gift for this new collaboration with Lætitia Masson ?

EC : We were all very moved during filming. There were some very powerful moments, like at the end of the film when Ulysse learns he’s been accepted to work at Café Joyeux. Alphonse was in tears, so sincere, as was Elodie, and the whole crew ! It was a truly magical moment !

It was exceptional to see Élodie Bouchez so involved, so close to the children and Alphonse, and sometimes even guiding them to help with the directing. When she had her back to little Thibault, she would say to him, "Give me your hand, come on, don’t turn around, let’s move forward". She was completely in charge ! She truly had a maternal relationship with them, even displaying genuinely affectionate gestures.

I truly enjoyed making this film with Laetitia Masson, because of the subject matter, of course, as it’s important to bear witness to the immense difficulty of supporting a child with this illness. It’s a struggle no one can imagine, and the difficulty is compounded by the misunderstandings and the lack of financial and human resources to care for them. It’s truly a gift to participate in this learning experience, which gives shape to a universal story.

(Interview conducted by Brigitte Barbier for the AFC)