The sad news would have fallen on Monday.
Willy Kurant, cinematographer of the biggest names in cinema such as Jean-Luc Godard, Orson Welles, Maurice Pialat, Agnès Varda, Serge Gainsbourg, or more recently Philippe Garrel, would have died at the age of 87, according to the information. from several sources.
Neither the date nor the circumstances of his disappearance have been specified for the moment.
Since then, tribute messages have followed one another.
Originally from Belgium, in Liège, Willy Kurant left a mark on the minds of his colleagues.
Thus, the Belgian Society of Cinematographers (SBC) evokes "
a pioneer of the New Wave
".
On Facebook, the French novelist and historian Noël Simsolo (
Sergio Leone
,
Le Poulpe
) regrets the sudden disappearance of his friend, who has left to travel to “
other lights
”.
The eye of the greatest
Man in the shadows, Willy Kurant made his debut in the 1950s as a news cameraman reporter for French-speaking televisions, thanks to which he was able to travel around the world, as reported by the Cinémathèque Française during its retrospective devoted in 2013.
From this experience will be born a desire to practice a cinema of truth, where the image speaks for itself, deployed through the long sequence shots that we know.
In the 1960s, Willy Kurant naturally fell into the New Wave movement, carried by directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Maurice Pialat, and Agnès Varda.
Read also: The new wave, what remains 50 years later?
After some stammering in the short film, he will sign his first film as cinematographer on
Les Créatures
d'Agnès Varda (1966), then will collaborate with Jean-Luc Godard on
Masculin Féminin.
The doors will open the following year. From the
Departure
of Jerzy Skolimowski, to
Anna
by Pierre Koralnik passing by, ultimate consecration, Orson Welles in 1968. Serge Gainsbourg will also call on him in 1976 to put in images his first film
Je t'aime moi non plus,
with his partner and actress Jane Birkin in the key role. The two men will meet later on
Ecuador
(1983) and
Charlotte for ever
(1987).
All his life, Willy Kurant will have lent his eye and his talent to the biggest names in French cinema. Across the Atlantic, American film critic Richard Brody, specialist in the New Wave and journalist for the New Yorker also lamented his disappearance, calling him "
one of the greatest directors of photography
".
