FEATURE FILM

"We took our own carpet of snow to Switzerland"

	Luca Bigazzi, behind the camera, preparing a shot.

Camera crews are a common sight in beautiful snow-covered Switzerland, especially in winter. They hardly rate a second glance. But last winter the inhabitants of a small Swiss village kept returning to the location where Silvio Soldini and Luca Bigazzi were filming Brucio nel vento. "They were intrigued," said Director of Photography Luca, "We had searched Switzerland for snow, but - guess what - there was no snow anywhere! So we gave up searching and faked it - with synthetic carpet. Now ours was the only house in the village with snow. Quite an attraction for the villagers!"

Luca Bigazzi - on the right - discusses a shot with the crew. (STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: PHILIP ANTONELLO)

Brucio nel vento is an intense love story based on a book by Agota Kristof about the world of the immigrant workers in Switzerland. It is the latest collaboration between Director Soldini and DP Bigazzi. "Silvio Soldini and I have been working together for 22 years," said Luca "and it's always a true pleasure. I admire his vision and integrity as a filmmaker and I've lit most of his films. Italian audiences have always loved Silvio's wonderful movies, but his last film, Bread and Tulips, is an international box office success. It's being acclaimed not only in Italy but also in Germany, Austria other European countries.

"Brucio nel vento was planned and written while we were filming Bread and Tulips. I filmed Brucio nel vento with ARRIFLEX cameras, and the new, very good, S4 lenses from Cooke. They are sharp, but also, at the same time, gentle, with the softness of the old Cooke series. I am a big fan of anamorphic widescreen lenses, but I find them too heavy and limiting in practice. So I composed in Super-35 - a good alternative for a widescreen image composition. It gives you space and atmosphere - essential in a movie like Brucio nel vento - where we usually wanted both actors on the screen, in preference to using the 'shot and reverse shot' technique.

	Director Silvio Soldini, on the left, and Luca Bigazzi.

"I filmed with the new Kodak Vision Expression 500T negative stock 5284 because, to be honest, I find the 5279 has too much colour and contrast for my personal taste.

"For our story, I wanted a sharp - but intimate - realistic photographic mood, echoing with gentle colours. Having shot Brucio nel vento almost entirely on Kodak Vision Expression 500T, I am now really keen on the stock. I think I will always use it because it captures natural colours, contrasts and tones, just as I see them. And it is a perfect neutral basis should you want to make any change to the final look of your images in post-production.

"Brucio nel vento also needed some fantasy and dreamlike photographic variations. I had to distinguish one sequence, a flashback, from the rest of the film. I shot it with Vision 320T, skipping the bleach stage in the lab, to get more contrast and less colour saturation. The result is interesting - dark and abstract. With the addition of Kodak Vision Expression, DPs now have an impressive palette of stocks with which to paint their pictures.

"I like to use every source of available light -- neon, tungsten bulbs, candles . . . and even street lamps. Yes, I always have some street lamps in my kit for night exteriors (but don't ask me where I got them). I prefer to use only the available light sources, but I will augment them if necessary. I shot a close up of an actor in Brucio nel vento, lit only by the light from fireworks in the background; for me, the original source of light is always the best. By lighting this way -- in the most natural way possible -- I leave the actors more space for their performances.

"I normally work with a low level of light, so I need a sensitive stock, and one that readily tolerates overexposure or underexposure without losing its own features and texture. On different scenes in Brucio nel vento, I exposed Expression 500T at 320, 800 and 1000 ASA, pushing or pulling the process in the lab to compensate. It coped beautifully.

"Because I don't normally see dailies, to find the look I am aiming for I do several tests before I start. But once filming starts I rely completely on Pasquale Cuzzupoli, my trusted Cinecittà lab man, who tells me how my stuff looks.

"And I always operate the camera myself because I think composing the image and controlling the camera's movements is the core of the cinematographer's job. The other part is lighting, which is fully related to composition. Both parts help define the language of filmmaking.

"I believe cinematographers today have more freedom to experiment in new territories and moods. Thanks to new stocks, optics and other new tools, it's a great time to be a filmmaker. Especially for me. I feel that my crew does half of my job, and the lab does the other half. So, snow or no snow, mine is a great profession!"

Data File

Brucio nel vento

Director - Silvio Soldini
Director of Photography - Luca Bigazzi
Camera Operator - Luca Bigazzi
Camera Assistant - Salvatore Bognanni
Focus-Puller - Daria D'Antonio
Head Grip - Eraldo Barbona
Gaffer - Sandro Saulini
Grader (Cinecittà) - Pasquale Cuzzupoli
Post-Production Director (Cinecittà) - Pasquale Cuzzupoli

Luca Bigazzi loves working with the same crew whenever possible. His many feature films in partnership with Silvio Soldini include:

Pane e Tulipani (Bread and Tulips), Le acrobate Un'anima divisa in due and L'aria serena dell'Ovest