Supporting Directors With His Darker Vision

With so many films that peer into the darkest corners of humanity you have to wonder what cinematographer Darius Khondji must see in his mind’s eye.

In fact, one of the things that has made the 44-year-old Khondji one of the most sought-after directors of photography was his disturbing handiwork five years ago on David Fincher’s creepy “Seven.”

His “The Ninth Gate,” directed by Roman Polanski, which opens today, was finished before his most recent previous release, “The Beach,” but each of these films also explores darkness, although “The Ninth Gate” is an occult thriller about a man obsessed with finding the keys to hell, and Danny Boyle’s “The Beach” deals with more realistically unappealing sides of human nature.

Released by Artisan Entertainment, “The Ninth Gate,” which stars Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin and Polanski’s wife Emmanuelle Seigner, opened in Europe last fall to fairly strong box office but mixed reviews.

Artisan President Bill Block said the film’s U.S. release was postponed until the Easter season “because of the religious implications and satanic aspects of the story” after Artisan missed the Halloween slot last October. The company is hoping for the same audience that turned its “Blair Witch Project” into a hit and put Artisan on the show business map.

Khondji’s alluring signature lensing has turned up in Alan Parker’s political musical “Evita,” which earned him an Oscar nomination; Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Alien: Resurrection”; Milcho Manchevski’s “Before the Rain”; Neil Jordan’s supernatural thriller “In Dreams”; and Bernardo Bertolucci’s lush “Stealing Beauty,” his one film where light warms to the eye in caressing the characters and golden Tuscany countryside.

That warmth comes in fits and starts in “The Beach”--one minute light is dancing off the vibrant blue waters and bleached sands; the next it is used to reverse mood as a frightening, stark contrast to dark--a Khondji trademark.

“It is true, I guess, that most of my films I’ve shot have to do with the darker side, not just in terms of how they are shot but the story. I am drawn to the story, the spiritual quest, as with the woman obsessed [“In Dreams”] with finding the tragic truth in her dreams at any cost,” says Khondji from his home in Paris, relaxed and reflective from a “much needed” recent respite basking in India’s uniquely intense light.

With fewer than a dozen films, he has distinguished himself as a master of chiaroscuro lighting--a deft ability at using light and shading to dramatically delineate a character. In addition to the Oscar nomination, his work has garnered other honors--France’s Cesar (“The City of Lost Children”), the American Society of Cinematographers Award (“Evita” and “Seven”) and from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (“Evita”).

“If he gets famous from a film like ‘Seven’ because he does the dark and spooky stuff, OK. But it was really what I had seen of his work before. A good director of photography can do anything,” says Polanski, during a late-night phone interview from his home in Paris. “Some guys know how to light. But he’s original, inventive. He doesn’t play it safe and he doesn’t leave anything half done. It’s hard to explain his talent, just something you know as a director, something you sense. He learns how to follow what you are trying to do, backs you up, adapts and brings something to it. He doesn’t just say ‘fine’ and goes off to do his own thing like so many. It is why directors want to work with him.

“And you know I am really very picky. I have had the chance to work with the cream over the years and Darius is right at the top.”

What separates Khondji from the rest, at least for “Beach” producer Andrew MacDonald, “is his amazing interest and tolerance for the new, for trying something different. Most cinematographers tend to be conservative. He’s adventurous.”

The son of an Iranian father and a French mother, Khondji was born in Tehran, raised in France, studied cinema at New York University and took courses at New York’s International Center of Photography, where he studied with Martin Scorsese’s teacher Haig Manoogian and experimental film director Jonas Mekas. After three years in the U.S. he returned to Paris and worked as an assistant cameraman and studied editing at the Clair Labs. It was there that he honed his craft and became a lighting director on commercials and music videos.

‘Delicatessen’ Was His Theatrical Break

“Delicatessen,” his first collaboration with the directing team of Marc Caro and Jeunet, was his theatrical break. A second turn with the same team followed with “The City of Lost Children.” Khondji would work with Jeunet a third time in the director’s solo outing on “Alien: Resurrection.” But “Seven” was the turning point.

“We chose him because of the work he had done on ‘Delicatessen,’ ” said “Seven” producer Arnold Kopelson. “What he brought to ‘Seven’ is being looked at as a milestone in cinematography. He and David Fincher employed the process of putting silver back on the release prints to create true blacks and true reds, something that really took the look of the film to a different level.”

Tom Rothman, president of 20th Century Fox Film Group, perhaps knows Khondji better than most. “I’ve done three films with him ‘Alien: Resurrection’ and now ‘The Beach’ at Fox and ‘Stealing Beauty’ when I was [head of] Fox Searchlight. I don’t think you often find a cameraman that is good at both interiors and exteriors, although he is sort of known for his interiors. His work doesn’t just bring a tremendous texture and quality to the film. He has a sensitivity for the characters and character-based issues that actually comes across in how he shoots.”

Variety film critic Todd McCarthy, a producer on the cinematography documentary “Visions of Light,” says all of Khondji’s films have a “stylization that coordinates with the director, the production designer, what everyone else is trying to do. He will get in sync with that and really execute whatever the desired look is. But he seems to go for the really black blacks. Sometimes they have a muddy quality or gray look and he’ll boldly display another color against them as he did with the gold in ‘Evita.’ It’s almost as if he starts with black as his base and uses colors with it.”

Aim Is to Complement Director’s Vision

Khondji concedes that modus operandi.

From the time he first picked up a Super-8 camera at 13, Khondji was smitten with the camera. “I initially wanted to be a director but when I was in film school and was behind the camera, well, I just knew that was it,” Khondji recalls. “For me the thrill is not to direct, but to work with exciting directors, and I have been lucky. I am happy they compliment my work and this is not about humility. I really want to express this. Film directors, not cinematographers, are responsible for the look of the film. It is their vision and it should not be diminished. I am there to complement their vision, to follow their obsession and to be better at feeling the director’s soul with a story.

“It is hard to say, but all directors I have worked with do have something in common,” Khondji relays. “They say a few lines when I first talk to them about the story. With David Fincher it was a long-distance call and it was the tone of his voice, this dark sense of despair when he told the story. That sort of passion you find yourself compelled to capture with photographing the story.

“It was the same instinctual feeling when I met Neil Jordan and [Jordan’s producing partner] Stephen Woolley to discuss ‘In Dreams.’ I remember meeting them at an outdoor cafe. There they were sitting in that strong L.A. light, looking like two vampires dressed in black, with their long hair and pale white skin. It’s just something you sense the moment you see it or hear it.”

‘A Fascinating Experience’

But Polanski was in another realm.

“Working with him was like watching a movie by itself,” Khondji says. “It was a fascinating experience and I’ve not been the same since. He has this intriguing way of shooting actors that I’ve never seen. There’s a scene in the baroness’ library where he is shooting Johnny Depp from the back and the camera appears steady but it’s tracking sideways, a little to the left, a little to the right. What it does is open up the depth of space and it makes a very strong connection with the audience that you realize later.”

But there was more to the Polanski experience. “He is the only director I have ever worked with who was just really happy to be on the film set the whole time like a child”--an attitude Khondji found infectious. “It is something I take with me from that experience--something I hope to always keep.”