Luciano Tovoli: "I arrived to the love of cinema trough photography. Mostly did I photograph lights. At home. Lights that come from the window, shadows. I do always the same thing. I have a great collection of this stuff. Sometimes it helps me, when I am inside a studio, shooting a movie, if I need the atmosphere of a dawn or dusk I go to my archives and I see. One great passion at that moment was real photography. And one photographer, most of all, of the group of photographers I like, was Cartier Bresson."

Shooting with the Wescam system for 'The Passanger'. Director of photography Luciano Tovoli: "He was a funny guy, Antonioni, you don't imagine: so serious. No, no. He was all the time saying things for laughing. Playing cards. Dancing all the time. The nearest nightclub: he was there! But he didn't want to speak about the movie!" (image courtesy of Sony Picture Classics)

"Cartier Bresson has formed me a lot. I have been in Paris just to meet Cartier Bresson. I had no money, I moved to Paris, I knew the restaurants where he was going every day. I stayed outside the restaurant. Waiting. Some day I saw Cartier Bresson entering. I thought: Now I wait, he is going to eat. When he comes back I go to him to speak to him. I don’t want to disturb him. He entered, he stayed three hours inside. Waiting there, waiting. And then he came trough the exit, alone. So it was a great occasion.I didn’t say one word. And I looked at him, walking to him, maybe 100 meters. And I realized: I don’t have the courage to speak to Henri Cartier Bresson. He is a myth . He has to stay for me a myth, far from me . This is an experience that remain in me very strongly of course. Until today . When I speak of that I am moved in a certain way."

Director of photography Luciano Tovoli, A.I.C., A.S.C. in Rome (photo: Bart van Broekhoven)

Introduction

The reason I took the opportunity to meet you, Luciano Tovoli, was to hear you talk about composition. Your work for Barbet Schroeder's Reversal of Fortune expressed, almost perfectly, how intelligent, well executed visual language adds to the understanding of the story. One could turn off the sound -- which I did, over and over again -- and experience the film's deepest intentions. On a different level: the strength of visual language goes beyond words. The position of Glen Close and Jeremy Irons in the frames, the movement of the camera to accentuate, anticipate their complicated relationship, et cetera, et cetera.

Glen Close and Jeremy Irons in 'Reversal of fortune' (directed by Barbet Schroeder, photographed by Luciano Tovoli)

Finally there came a chance to meet you, in Rome. And I had my questions prepared, based upon the thought that the Italians have a special eye for composition. Are they specially educated in composition at the filmschool? Is it that many Italian films were shot without direct sound, allowing to concentrate more on the visual language? How does the collaboration with the director lead to the choice of camera-angles, camera-movement? Where does it come from?

When I arrived in Rome, you stood in front of a studio set, a few weeks before starting to shoot a new American film there. You were surrounded by 50 European cinematographers. As the host of the IMAGO General Assembly, you conducted a tour over the Cinecittà studio lot, prior to the meeting, the next day. As one of the NSC delegates I was to attend. During the tour I expressed my admiration for your work to you and asked:

How did you do that, how did you collaborate with Barbet Schroeder, how did you succeed in this effective use of the camera to reveal the story purely visual?

"It is all intuïtion."

You smiled and walked away.

Two days later, after the meeting and several excursions, we met again, in the AIC room at the Cinecittà studio lot. The subject of composition we left untouched: everything you had to say about that, you had already done. We talked about identity; the formation of your identity as a Cinematographer, trough education and experience. Thank you Luciano for sharing your story!