Raoul Coutard

Raoul Coutard

Born: September 16, 1924
Died: November 8, 2016
in Paris, France
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.

Movies for Raoul Coutard...

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel
Title: CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel
Character: Self
Released: September 16, 2018
Type: Movie
An epic exploration of the Czechoslovak New Wave cinema of the 1960s and 70s, structured around a series of conversations with one of its most acclaimed exponents - Closely Observed Trains director Jiří Menzel.
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Pierre Schoendoerffer, the Sentinel of Memory
Title: Pierre Schoendoerffer, the Sentinel of Memory
Character: Self
Released: October 15, 2011
Type: Movie
Pierre Schoendoerffer revisits his life and career, with a strong focus on the impact that his experience as a war cinematographer for the French army during the Indochina War had on him.
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Godard, Love and Poetry
Title: Godard, Love and Poetry
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2007
Type: Movie
Documentary about director Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina. In 1960, Jean-Luc Godard films for the first time Anna Karina and falls in love. His cinema is transformed by it forever. Spanned from "Little Soldier" to "Crazy Pete" through "A Woman is a Woman", "My Life to Live" andd "Alphaville", this documentary tells how, during five years , Godard and Karina consciously mixed cinema and private life, with constant will to film "as in true life" and to live "as in film"
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The Making of Rocky Road to Dublin
Title: The Making of Rocky Road to Dublin
Character: Self
Released: October 11, 2004
Type: Movie
This documentary reunites director Peter Lennon and cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who recount the making of their then controversial but now classic documentary on Ireland in the Sixties. Rocky Road to Dublin was screened for only a few weeks at a single Dublin theatre.
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The Outskirts of Alphaville
Title: The Outskirts of Alphaville
Released: January 1, 2003
Type: Movie
Making of Jean Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965)
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Nouvelle Vague : El cine sin dogmas
Title: Nouvelle Vague : El cine sin dogmas
Character: Self
Released: April 2, 2000
Type: Movie
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Jean Seberg: American Actress
Title: Jean Seberg: American Actress
Released: January 16, 1997
Type: Movie
On September 8, 1979, actress Jean Seberg was found dead in her car not far from her home. Conclusion: suicide. Directors Fosco and Dubini believe she was murdered. The documentary is abundantly illustrated with film fragments and testimonials with people who knew her. Dubini and Fosco wrote the screenplay and edited it.
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Chambre 12, Hôtel de Suède
Title: Chambre 12, Hôtel de Suède
Character: Self
Released: May 27, 1993
Type: Movie
Claude Ventura's documentary Chambre 12, Hotel de Suede, was made for the French television channel Arte in 1993. Ventura checks into room twelve in the hotel's final week of operation: it is demolished the day after he checks out. Room twelve was one of the principal locations for Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave masterpiece Breathless, and Ventura's documentary investigates the production of Godard's film.
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Cinéma! Cinéma! The French New Wave
Title: Cinéma! Cinéma! The French New Wave
Character: Self
Released: June 18, 1992
Type: Movie
An intimate window into one of the great movements in film history that brought about an evolution in the art of cinema. The documentary portrays the movement with insight on the lives and works of Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and other principal players in the New Wave.
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Title: Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
Character: Self
Released: January 12, 1975
Type: TV
A talk show presented by Michel Drucker
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The Hideout
Title: The Hideout
Released: July 21, 1971
Type: Movie
A jewel thief hides his loot in a WELL while escaping. He returns several years later only to find there is a Resort on the site and the well is the centerpiece of the place. He then has to find a way to retrieve his haul.
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The Bamboo Incident
Title: The Bamboo Incident
Character: Angry French man (uncredited)
Released: June 22, 1970
Type: Movie
A young Vietnamese boy's life is thrown into turmoil by the war raging in his country. The ten year old remains with his mother and baby sister as his father goes off to fight for the Viet Cong. During his father's absence, his mother dies from overwork and the inability to find proper medical care for her illness. He cares for his baby sister and struggles to earn a living by shining shoes and doing other odd jobs before his father returns. Both an American soldier and a Viet Cong regular are shown defending their country's political agenda. Also shown are guerilla tactics and bombings in this feature directed by veteran combat photographer Raoul Coutard.
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Z
Title: Z
Character: English Surgeon (uncredited)
Released: February 26, 1969
Type: Movie
Amidst a heated political climate, the opposition leader is killed in what appears to be a traffic accident. When a magistrate finds evidence of a government cover-up, witnesses start to get targeted. A thinly-fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963, Z captures the outrage about the military junta that ruled Greece at the time.
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La Chinoise
Title: La Chinoise
Character: Self - Cinematographer (uncredited)
Released: August 30, 1967
Type: Movie
A small group of French students are studying Mao, trying to find out their position in the world and how to change the world to a Maoistic community using terrorism.
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Contempt
Title: Contempt
Character: Cameraman
Released: October 29, 1963
Type: Movie
A philistine in the art film business, Jeremy Prokosch is a producer unhappy with the work of his director. Prokosch has hired Fritz Lang to direct an adaptation of "The Odyssey," but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb at the box office, he brings in a screenwriter to energize the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife.
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Title: Cinépanorama
Character: Self
Released: February 4, 1956
Type: TV