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Photo of Raoul Coutard

Raoul Coutard

Actor, Director, Additional Credits
Died November 8, 2016 (92 years)
Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016) was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the Nouvelle Vague period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard. Coutard also shot films for New Wave director François Truffaut as well as Jacques Demy, a contemporary frequently associated with the movement.

He shot over 75 films during a career that lasted nearly half a century.

Coutard originally planned to study chemistry, but switched to photography because of the cost of tuition. In 1945, Coutard was sent to participate in the French Indochina War; he lived in Vietnam for the next 11 years, working as a war photographer, eventually becoming a freelancer for Paris Match and Look. In 1956, he was approached to shoot a film by Pierre Schoendoerffer, La Passe du Diable. Coutard had never used a movie camera before, and reportedly agreed to the job because of a misunderstanding (he believed he was being hired to shoot production stills of the film).

Coutard's first work collaboration with Jean-Luc Godard was Godard's first feature, À bout de souffle, shot in 1959. He was reportedly "imposed" on Godard by producer Georges de Beauregard; the director had already settled on a different cinematographer.

Coutard photographed nearly all of Godard's work in the Nouvelle Vague era (1959 - 1967), with the exception of Masculin, féminin; their last work during this period was Week-end (1967), which marked the end of Godard's work as a 'mainstream' filmmaker. The two did not work together again until Passion; their final collaboration was Godard's next feature, Prénom Carmen. ...

Source: Article "Raoul Coutard" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For
  • First Name: Carmen
  • Passion
  • The Sailor from Gibraltar
  • Operation Leopard
  • Hoa Binh
  • S.A.S. San Salvador

Filmography

1970
Hoa Binh · as Angry French Man (uncredited)
1969
Z · as English Surgeon (uncredited)
1963
Contempt · as Cameraman

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