Darius Khondji
Encyclopedia
Darius Khondji A.S.C. ' onMouseout='HidePop("92723")' href="/topics/Tehran">Tehran
, Iran
) is an Iranian-French cinematographer
. He has worked with such well-known directors as Jean-Pierre Jeunet
, David Fincher
, Bernardo Bertolucci
, Alan Parker
, Roman Polanski
, Sydney Pollack
, Woody Allen
, and Wong Kar-wai
.
ian father and a French
mother. At an early age, his family relocated in France
. He became interested in film early on and made Super-8 films in his teens. Later in life, he moved to the United States
to study at UCLA and then majored in film from New York University
and the International Center for Photography. During this period two teachers influenced his decision to become a cinematographer: Jonas Mekas
and Haig Manoogian (Martin Scorsese
's film teacher). He realized that "all I wanted to do was shoot the other students' films. I was concerned with the power of the image and much less with story." Khondji returned to France in 1981 and worked as an assistant for cinematographers like Bruno Nuytten, Martin Schafer and Pascal Marti. He also began shooting commercials and music videos.
His second feature film was Le tresor des Iles Chiennes (1991), a low budget, black and white, post-atomic adventure film. His work on this movie was significant enough to warrant the Cahiers du cinéma
to publish one of its rare interviews with a cinematographer. It was on this film that he demonstrated an affinity for Cinemascope
. He remarked in an interview, "I think it's the most beautiful format to frame. one can become absorbed in the faces when they're framed in 'Scope." His subsequent work on Delicatessen
established his international reputation and earned him a Cesar nomination for Best Cinematography. One of his highest profile films was Se7en
which he got based on a Nike
ad he shot with David Fincher and his work on Delicatessen. His work on Evita
was nominated for an Oscar
for the Best Cinematography.
Khondji cites Gregg Toland
as his favorite cinematographer. "I particularly admire his work on John Ford
's The Grapes of Wrath
." He also greatly admires James Wong Howe
's work, in particular Hud
. Khondji has said that his dream project would be "a 16mm black and white film of On the Road
!"
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
) is an Iranian-French cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
. He has worked with such well-known directors as Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
-Life and career:Jean-Pierre Jeunet was born in Roanne, Loire, France. He bought his first camera at the age of 17 and made short films while studying animation at Cinémation Studios. He befriended Marc Caro, a designer and comic book artist who became his longtime collaborator and...
, David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
, Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...
, Alan Parker
Alan Parker
Sir Alan William Parker, CBE is an English film director, producer, writer and actor. He has been active in both the British cinema and American cinema and was a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.-Life and career:...
, Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
, Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
, Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, and Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
.
Biography
He was born to an IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian father and a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
mother. At an early age, his family relocated in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He became interested in film early on and made Super-8 films in his teens. Later in life, he moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to study at UCLA and then majored in film from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and the International Center for Photography. During this period two teachers influenced his decision to become a cinematographer: Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America.-Biography:...
and Haig Manoogian (Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's film teacher). He realized that "all I wanted to do was shoot the other students' films. I was concerned with the power of the image and much less with story." Khondji returned to France in 1981 and worked as an assistant for cinematographers like Bruno Nuytten, Martin Schafer and Pascal Marti. He also began shooting commercials and music videos.
His second feature film was Le tresor des Iles Chiennes (1991), a low budget, black and white, post-atomic adventure film. His work on this movie was significant enough to warrant the Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...
to publish one of its rare interviews with a cinematographer. It was on this film that he demonstrated an affinity for Cinemascope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
. He remarked in an interview, "I think it's the most beautiful format to frame. one can become absorbed in the faces when they're framed in 'Scope." His subsequent work on Delicatessen
Delicatessen (film)
Delicatessen is a 1991 French black comedy film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, starring Dominique Pinon and Karin Viard. It is set in an apartment building in a post-apocalyptic France of an ambiguous time period. The story focuses on the tenants of the building and their desperate...
established his international reputation and earned him a Cesar nomination for Best Cinematography. One of his highest profile films was Se7en
Se7en
Seven is a 1995 American thriller film, which also contains horror and neo-noir elements, directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It was distributed by New Line Cinema and stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, R...
which he got based on a Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
ad he shot with David Fincher and his work on Delicatessen. His work on Evita
Evita (film)
Evita is the 1996 film adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical of the same name based on the life of Eva Perón. It was directed by Alan Parker and written by Parker and Oliver Stone. It starred Madonna, Antonio Banderas, and Jonathan Pryce...
was nominated for an Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for the Best Cinematography.
Khondji cites Gregg Toland
Gregg Toland
Gregg Toland, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer noted for his innovative use of lighting and techniques such as deep focus, an example of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.-Career:...
as his favorite cinematographer. "I particularly admire his work on John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath (film)
The Grapes of Wrath is a 1940 drama film directed by John Ford. It was based on John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Nunnally Johnson and the executive producer was Darryl F...
." He also greatly admires James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe, A.S.C. was a Chinese American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films...
's work, in particular Hud
Hud (film)
Hud is a 1963 western film whose title character is an embittered and selfish modern-day cowboy. With screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., based on Larry McMurtry's 1961 novel Horseman, Pass By, it was directed by Martin Ritt and stars Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and...
. Khondji has said that his dream project would be "a 16mm black and white film of On the Road
On the Road
On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of...
!"
Feature filmography and videography
- The Bop Decameron, 2011
- LoveLove (2012 film)Love is an upcoming French-language film written and directed by Michael Haneke, starring Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva. The narrative will focus on an elderly couple, Anne and Georges, who are retired music teachers with a daughter who lives abroad. One day Anne...
, 2012 - Marry the NightMarry the Night"Marry the Night" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga. It was released as the fifth single from her second studio album, Born This Way . The song was written and produced by Lady Gaga and Fernando Garibay, and was recorded on the tour bus during The Monster Ball Tour with Garibay...
(Lady Gaga Music Video), late 2011 - Midnight in ParisMidnight in ParisMidnight in Paris is a 2011 romantic comedy-fantasy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The plot centers on a small group of Americans visiting the French capital for business and pleasure...
, 2011 - CheriCheri (film)Chéri is a 2009 drama film directed by Stephen Frears. Starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend, it is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by French author Colette...
, 2009 - The RuinsThe Ruins (film)The Ruins is a 2008 Australian-American horror film directed by Carter Smith and starring Jonathan Tucker, Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Laura Ramsey and Joe Anderson. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Scott Smith, who also wrote the screenplay...
, 2008 - Funny Games U.S., 2008
- My Blueberry NightsMy Blueberry NightsMy Blueberry Nights is a 2007 romance/drama/road film directed by Wong Kar Wai, his first feature in English. The screenplay by Wong and Lawrence Block is based on a short Chinese-language film written and directed by Wong...
, 2006 - Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, 2006
- The InterpreterThe InterpreterThe Interpreter is a 2005 political thriller film starring Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, and Catherine Keener. It was the final film to be directed by Sydney Pollack.-Plot:...
, 2005 - WimbledonWimbledon (film)Wimbledon is a 2004 romantic comedy film directed by Richard Loncraine. The film centers on a washed-up tennis pro named Peter Colt and an up-and-coming tennis star named Lizzie Bradbury during the Wimbledon Championships.The film was dedicated to Mark McCormack, who died on 16 May 2003 after...
, 2004 - Anything ElseAnything ElseAnything Else is a 2003 romantic comedy film. The film was written and directed by Woody Allen, produced by his sister Letty Aronson, and stars Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Woody Allen, Stockard Channing, Danny DeVito, Jimmy Fallon and KaDee Strickland....
, 2003 - Panic Room, 2002
- The BeachThe Beach (film)The Beach is a 2000 adventure drama film directed by Danny Boyle and based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Alex Garland, which was adapted for the film by John Hodge. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and features Tilda Swinton, Robert Carlyle, Virginie Ledoyen and Guillaume Canet...
, 2000 - The Ninth GateThe Ninth GateThe Ninth Gate is a 1999 horror film directed, produced, and co-written by Roman Polanski. It is a neo-noir, occult mystery thriller involving the rare book business, wherein rare-book dealer Dean Corso is hired by bibliophile Boris Balkan to validate a seventeenth-century copy of The Nine Gates...
, 1999 - In DreamsIn Dreams (film)In Dreams is a 1999 psychological thriller film directed by Neil Jordan. It stars Annette Bening as a New England illustrator who begins experiencing visions of a missing child who turns out to be her own daughter; through her dreams, she begins having psychic connections to a serial killer ...
, 1999 - FrozenFrozenFrozen may refer to:* the result of freezingIn film:* Frozen , a film by Wang Xiaoshuai* Frozen , a film by Juliet McKoen* Frozen , a film by Shivajee Chandrabhushan...
(Madonna Music Video), 1998 - Alien Resurrection, 1997
- EvitaEvita (film)Evita is the 1996 film adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical of the same name based on the life of Eva Perón. It was directed by Alan Parker and written by Parker and Oliver Stone. It starred Madonna, Antonio Banderas, and Jonathan Pryce...
, 1996 - Stealing BeautyStealing BeautyStealing Beauty is a 1996 drama film directed by Academy Award-winning Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci and written by Bertolucci and Susan Minot. It stars Liv Tyler, D.W. Moffett, Jeremy Irons, and Rachel Weisz...
, 1996 - Marie-Louise ou la permission, 1995
- Se7enSe7enSeven is a 1995 American thriller film, which also contains horror and neo-noir elements, directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It was distributed by New Line Cinema and stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, R...
, 1995 - The City of Lost ChildrenThe City of Lost ChildrenThe City of Lost Children is a dystopian French fantasy/drama film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet released in 1995. The film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and Amélie. It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:A mad scientist,...
, 1995 - Parano, 1994
- L'ombre du doute, 1993
- PraguePrague (1992 film)Prague is a 1992 British drama film directed by Ian Sellar. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Alan Cumming - Alexander Novak* Sandrine Bonnaire - Elena* Bruno Ganz - Josef* Raphael Meiss - Ralph...
, 1992 - DelicatessenDelicatessen (film)Delicatessen is a 1991 French black comedy film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, starring Dominique Pinon and Karin Viard. It is set in an apartment building in a post-apocalyptic France of an ambiguous time period. The story focuses on the tenants of the building and their desperate...
, 1991 - Le trésor des îles chiennes, 1991
- Le trou de la corneille, 1991
- Models: The Film, 1991
- Embrasse-moi, 1989
Exhibitions
•2010: Discovery award laureate and exhibition at Les Rencontres d'Arles festival, France.External links
- Darius Khondji at The Internet Movie Database
- An interview with Darius Khondji