Philippe Rousselot
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Cinematographer, Artist, Filmmaker
To this day, Philippe Rousselot is still sensitive to the obstacles
facing the independent, bright child, who is not
the mainstream kid. In my first conversation with him, I was
unaware of his “childhood reality,” one of the few Jewish children
living in a town in post-World War II France. As a result
of this reality, his childhood was filled with loneliness and
isolation, but he learned to embrace this loneliness and make
it a part of who he is and who he has become.
His career is admirable. He began as an assistant to famed
cinematographer Nestor Almendros on Eric Rohmer-directed
films of the late 1960s and early 1970s. On his own, he lensed
several of the nostalgic films of director Diane Kurys (Peppermint,
Soda, Cocktail Molotov). For his versatile camerawork
on the film Diva, he won the first of his César awards
(the French Oscar). It was noted that the film was dependent
on Rousselot’s chic visuals.
His second César in 1986 was for the realistically stylish
film Therèse, and it was at about this time that he began
venturing into English-language cinema with Hope and Glory
(1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and Henry and June
(1991), for which he earned Oscar nominations. With A River
Runs Through It (1992), he finally won the Oscar, and two
years later, he won his third César for his camera work for
La Reine.
Although Rousselot is an acclaimed cinematographer and
his career has been a steady ascent, it is his childhood story
that tells you what you really need to know about the person
he has become.