CineTributes: Caroline Champetier
Working in French cinema in the 1980s really must have been something. Cinematographer Caroline Champetier, then only in her 20s and 30s, made her first four movies with the directors Jacques Rivette, Chantal Akerman, Daniele Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, and Jean-Luc Godard. Naturally, one might think her career could only go downhill from here, but in fact Champetier has seen her career take the opposite trajectory. Now, after 40 years in the business, she's rightly recognized as one of the great living cinematographic artists.
And yet she's not recognized enough. Though Champetier has worked pretty consistently since the mid-'80s, she's not quite the household name she ought to be (at least within cinephilic circles). And even her peers have been outrageously slow to pick up on her brilliance - she's only been nominated for awards for her cinematography these past ten years. Arguably, though, she's done her best work in those ten years, including Holy Motors and The Innocents, both wonderfully showing off her versatility and sensitivity as an artist. Household name she may not be (though what cinematographer is?), yet living legend she indisputably is! Hope you enjoy the video!
Films featured
Le Pont du Nord, 1981
Too Early / Too Late, 1981
Toute une Nuit, 1982
Class Relations, 1984
The Gang of Four, 1989
La Sentinelle, 1992
Dry Cleaning, 1997
Nanayo, 2008
Of Gods and Men, 2010
Holy Motors, 2012
Hannah Arendt, 2012
The Innocents, 2016