RAOUL COUTARD

Written by Michael Darvell
 

(16 September 1924 - 8 November 2016)

Raoul Coutard

The great French cinematographer Raoul Coutard was formerly a war photographer who served in the Indochina War and later worked in Vietnam as a news photographer for Time and Paris Match magazines. His streetwise way of filming with handheld cameras and natural light suited the film directors of the French Nouvelle Vague, so he often worked with the likes of Godard, Truffaut and Jacques Demy who wanted the look of simplicity in their work. Notable films that Coutard worked on – and there were over eighty of them spanning forty years from 1958 – include, for Godard: Breathless, Une Femme est une femme, Vivre sa vie, Le Petit soldat, Le Mépris, Bande à part, Alphaville, Pierrot le fou, La Chinoise, Weekend, Two or Three Things I Know About Her…. For Truffaut Coutard filmed Shoot the Pianist, Jules and Jim, La Peau douce, The Bride Wore Black; and for Demy he shot Lola. He also worked with Costa-Gavras, Tony Richardson, Édouard Molinaro, Jean Rouch, Nagisa Oshima and many other respected directors. His last film was Wild Innocence for Philippe Garel in 2001.

MICHAEL DARVELL

 
Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

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