All three photography directors of Emir Kusturica's films


Emir Kusturica has worked a long time with Vilko Filać, before asking Thierry Arbogast to take care of the photography of Black Cat White Cat ; he then worked with Michel Amathieu on his last 3 films.


Vilko Filać


Born on February 14, 1950 in Ptuj in Slovenia, Vilko Filać made the same school of cinema as Emir Kusturica : the FAMU in Prague. Until 1995, the filmography of Vilko Filać merges with that of Emir Kusturica, indeed since his beginnings in 1978 with Nevjeste dolaze (The brides are coming), Emir Kusturica asks him to manage the light and the camera and their complicity will last until Underground. Rich of this multiple experiment Vilko will then work with other directors.

"what I like, it is to take part in a project from the very start, as of the first outline, the first version of the scenario, and to follow all the versions until the final one. During this time, it is necessary to discuss with the director to impregnate the material of the film, and then to decide with him the way of making the movie."

"Emir leaves me a very great freedom for the light, but he also supports me and often makes me very interesting suggestions because he belongs to these directors who have a great sense of light, and of composition. "

Vilko won the prize of the best camera in 1985 at the Festival of Yugoslav Film for When father was away on business.

Filmography. Collaborations with Emir Kusturica :

With other directors :

  • 1997 - The Brave, by Johnny Depp
  • 1997 - Chinese Box, by Wayne Wang
  • 1999 - Children of the century, by Diane Kurys
  • 2002 - Secret Passage, by Ademir Kenović


Thierry Arbogast


Thierry Arbogast is undoubtedly one of the most well known French directors of photography in the world. Films by films, he acquired the reputation to not only be able to film in any place, under all the conditions of heat, or weather, but also to have a great sense of light through his pallet of remarkable colors and his perfectly controlled lights .

Thierry Arbogast worked with lots of directors, among whom Luc Besson that he accompanied on most of his films. We finds his blazing colors in the only film he made with Emir Kusturica : Black Cat White Cat.

Contraryly to other directors or other photographers, Thierry Arbogast did not make a cinema school. He started as a technical assistant for photography on small productions and was quickly remarked for his technical sense and his original ideas. It is thanks to his remarkable work on Luc Besson's Nikita that he acquired an international reputation. With Gilles Mimouni's "L'Appartement", he makes very strong impression by completely withdrawing the green from the pallet of the film in order to mark in a stylized way the difference between the present and the past. The recognition came in 1996 with a César for Jean-Paul Rappeneau's The Horseman on the roof, then in 1997 in Cannes for the Best Technical Palm at the same time for Nick Cassavetes' She's so lovely and Luc Besson's Fifth Element.

Thierry Arbogast obstinately refuses to work for Hollywood, in spite of the colossal sums that are proposed to him, and prefers to work with the French directors.

Filmography. Collaborations with Emir Kusturica :

With other directors :

  • 1990 - La femme Nikita, by Luc Besson
  • 1991 - I don't kiss, by André Téchiné
  • 1993 - My favorite season, by André Téchiné
  • 1995 - The professional, by Luc Besson
  • 1995 - The horseman on the roof, by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
  • 1996 - The Apartment, by Gilles Mimouni
  • 1997 - The Fifth Element, by Luc Besson
  • 1997 - She's so lovely, by Nick Cassavetes
  • 1999 - Messenger, the story of Joan of Arc, by Luc Besson
  • 2000 - The Crimson rivers, by Mathieu Kassovitz
  • 2003 - Bon voyage, by Jean-Paul Rappeneau


Michel Amathieu


Michel Amathieu was called to replace Thierry Arbogast at the end of Black Cat White Cat's shooting because of the delays : Thierry had engagements elsewhere. Michel and Emir quickly agreed on the question of the colors and the light : they like the same things ! Since then, Michel followed Emir on the No Smoking tours and took part in Super 8 stories, and today, he comes back from one year and a half of work in Serbia on Life is a Miracle !

"Since the first spots in Serbia, Emir Kusturica and me, decided that the natural sets (small mountains with brown rocks, railways and tunnels, villages...) would constitute a first element, almost a character of the film.

While shooting, there were surprises, like in the helicopter. In fact it was the time where the weather was splendid, the colors were superb, so we rented an helicopter. Emir did not like it very much. Everyone was a little afraid. Finally he agreed to come, and in fact, he was like a ten year old child on board. He loved it, he wanted all the time to pass from Serbia to Bosnia, that amused him very much, considering we were close to the border. He said that there were colors which do not exist elsewhere. I don't know if they exist elsewhere, but in any case it was very beautiful.

In general, for the first shoot of the morning, we speak the day before about it. The beginning of the day is always a little chaotic, because there is always something that doesn't work before Emir comes. For example, with the trains, there's no more diesel, etc. In any case, the plans evolve with the time. We usually start on an idea then Emir adds things, and the plan builds itself. We can easily make ten takes, even more sometimes. And as he has thousand ideas per hour, the last take doesn't look like the first one. At the end, when the framework is really full, when there are things occuring everywhere in the foreground and in the background, he is happy. "

Filmography. Collaborations with Emir Kusturica :

With other directors :

  • 1997 - Dobermann, by Jan Kounen
  • 1997 - The Thousand Wonders of the Universe, by Jean-Michel Roux
  • 1998 - Le cousin, by Alain Corneau
  • 1998 - I love L.A., by Mika Kaurismäki
  • 2000 - Hijack Stories, by Oliver Schmitz

Official site : www.michel-amathieu.com