Word: coutard
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Binh is the first feature film to be directed by the superb French cinematographer Raoul Coutard, 47, who has photographed much of the work of Godard and Truffaut. Made entirely in Viet Nam during 1969, the movie is full of scenes of severe beauty: gas-masked soldiers outlined against a metallic sky, actors in elaborate Oriental costume running from a bombed theater, whole rows of huts bursting suddenly into flame...
Confession has enough individual merits to redeem its overall flaws. Though their film lacks the compact literacy of The Prisoner, Costa-Gavras and his Z squad (Screenwriter Jorge Semprun and Director of Photography Raoul Coutard) are too subtle and ingenious to make anything conspicuously bad. The brutal indifference of lower-echelon toughs is conveyed with deadly certainty. The pathetic buffoonery of a courtroom defendant losing his pants is an excruciatingly effective touch of humor. Nor is it possible to fault Montand's performance as a Camus figure cast into a dialectic inferno...
...spite of its ambiguities, everyone should see Z because it is brilliant cinema and has superb acting and beautiful music. Probably more talent has gone into the making of this film than any other of the past year. The color photography by Raoul Coutard (who directed the photography for almost all of Godard's films as well as Jules and Jim by Truffaut) is exceptional. The camera is not a passive observer of the scene but plays an active role. The shots of the fights in the demonstrations are superb because the camera moves around and sweeps you into...
...with Godard, Coutard often shoots his scenes with plain white backgrounds and focuses on the individuals and the tensions between them...
Yves Montand is perfect as Z's charismatic hero. Coutard's camera heightens his magnetism. Irene Pappas is, of course, magnificent as Lambrakis' widow. Her facial expressions speak for her suffering. Jean-Louis Tritignant ( A Man and a Woman, Ma Nuit Chez Maud ) plays the judge whose investigation, along with that of a crusading young journalist, exposes the fascists...