Éric Gautier (born 2 April 1961) is a French cinematographer. He has received numerous accolades for his work, including a César Award for Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train and an Independent Spirit Award for The Motorcycle Diaries.

Éric Gautier
Born (1961-04-02) 2 April 1961 (age 63)
Paris, France
NationalityFrench
OccupationCinematographer
Years active1982–present

Early life

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Gautier was born and raised in Paris; he grew up in its eleventh, twelfth, nineteenth and twentieth arrondissements with his construction engineer father, mother, and younger sister.[1] During his youth he excelled in music, and from the age of eleven played the piano and organ. He originally aspired to become a professional musician before becoming disillusioned with the field and deciding to pursue a career in cinema instead, which he felt combined many different creative pursuits. He attended the film school of the Louis Lumière College.[2]

Career

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After graduating from the Louis Lumière film school [fr] in 1982, Gautier began work as an assistant camera operator director on Alain Resnais's film Life Is a Bed of Roses.[1] He left the job soon after, however, and chose instead to work as the director of photography on short films. He shot 60 films before returning to feature film work.[3] The first feature-length film he photographed was La Vie des morts, released in 1991 and directed by Arnaud Desplechin.[1] He won a César Award for his cinematography on Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998), and received nominations for his work on Sentimental Destinies (2000), Clean (2004), Gabrielle (2005), Private Fears in Public Places (2006), and A Christmas Tale (2008).[4] He has worked on many other French films, collaborating most often with Resnais and the directors Olivier Assayas, Arnaud Desplechin, and Claude Berri.[4]

Gautier began working in the international film in the early 2000s, beginning with The Motorcycle Diaries, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography and the 2004 Cannes Film Festival Technical Grand Prize, and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography.[4] After seeing The Motorcycle Diaries, American actor/filmmaker Sean Penn approached Gautier to shoot the 2007 film Into the Wild,[3] for which he won a Lumière Award.[4] He subsequently served as director of photography on the American films Taking Woodstock (2009) and Grace of Monaco (2014).[1]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Director Note
1991 La Vie des morts Arnaud Desplechin
1994 The Favourite Son Nicole Garcia
1995 One Hundred and One Nights Agnès Varda
1996 Irma Vep Olivier Assayas
1996 Tykho Moon Enki Bilal
1998 Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train Patrice Chéreau César Award for Best Cinematography
1999 Pola X Leos Carax
2000 Esther Kahn Arnaud Desplechin
2001 Intimacy Patrice Chéreau
2001 Brief Crossing Catherine Breillat
2001 Savage Souls Raúl Ruiz
2003 His Brother Patrice Chéreau
2004 The Motorcycle Diaries Walter Salles Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography
2004 Clean Olivier Assayas
2004 Kings and Queen Arnaud Desplechin
2006 Paris, Je T’Aime Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas; Olivier Assayas Segments, "Loin du 16ème", "Quartier des Enfants Rouges"
2006 Noise Olivier Assayas Documentary
2006 A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints Dito Montiel
2006 Quelques veuves de Noirmoutier Agnès Varda Documentary
2006 Private Fears in Public Places Alain Resnais
2007 Into the Wild Sean Penn
2008 Summer Hours Olivier Assayas
2008 A Christmas Tale Arnaud Desplechin
2009 Wild Grass Alain Resnais
2009 Taking Woodstock Ang Lee
2010 Miral Julian Schnabel
2012 On the Road Walter Salles
2012 You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet Alain Resnais
2012 Something in the Air Olivier Assayas
2014 Grace of Monaco Olivier Dahan
2015 Hitchcock/Truffaut Kent Jones Co-cinematographer with five others
2015 Aloha Cameron Crowe
2015 Rabin, the Last Day Amos Gitai Docudrama
2017 The Elephant and the Butterfly Amélie van Elmbt
2017 The Mercy James Marsh
2018 The Apparition Xavier Giannoli
2018 Ash is Purest White Jia Zhangke
2018 A Tramway in Jerusalem Amos Gitai
2019 The Truth Hirokazu Koreeda
2022 Both Sides of the Blade Claire Denis
Stars at Noon Claire Denis

Short films

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Year Title Director Note
1997 Sans Titre Leos Carax
2014 Incident Urbain John Lalor

Television

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Year Title Director Note
1994 Personne ne m'aime Marion Vernoux Television film
1994 Travolta and Me Patricia Mazuy Television film

Part of the "All the Boys and Girls of Their Age" anthology[5]

Personal life

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Gautier was married until 1995, when his wife Valentine died from cancer at the age of 32. His current partner is Nathalie Boutefeu, an actress with whom he has two daughters, Suzanne and Angela.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Champenois, Sabrina (November 3, 2009). "Elément moteur". Libération (in French). Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  2. ^ Labarussiat, Alexandre (November 1, 2011). "Éric Gautier" (in French). AlloCiné. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Mottesheard, Ryan (October 31, 2007). "Eric Gautier". Variety. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d "Eric Gautier". Focus Features. 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  5. ^ "Lincoln Center". www.lincolncenter.org. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
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