Masterclass
Born right into the cinematography: to an editor Nicole and cinematographer William Luchtchansky, two originators of the French New Wave. She first established herself as a camera and direction assistant. Then the opportunity presented itself as her father, for health reasons, couldn’t work on Jacques Rivett’s last film Around a Small Mountain, and so Irina covered for him. When William saw the result, he said with enthusiasm that he would sign such a work without hesitation (and for a brief moment it had seemed that he really wanted his daughter to give him the permission to do so). Her first main camera opportunity was entrusted to her by a couple of young and talented creators, Rabah Ameur-Zajimeche and Synava Gaye whose approaches are very different, but who thanks to Irina, soon gained a considerable reputation. She led the camera of an exclusive documentary on a film that never happened, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno. In 1968, she was invited to join the team of the director and revolutionary Romain Goupil, and in 2014 she shot a television film with the ensemble Comédie française, based on the eponymous Ostrovsky’s play The Forest. Arnaud Desplechin, a leading personality of the European cinematography in the millennium and the ‘10s, ran the direction. They together shot dramas My Golden Days, Ismael’s Ghost, and Oh Mercy!, all of which were ranked high at the Cannes IFF. Three of her films have been a part of the Ostrava Kamera Oko competitions (Around a Small Mountain, My Golden Days, Ismael’s Ghost) and her and Desplechin’s My Golden Days won the festival in 2015.
Her ability to adapt to different creative styles, to work on the highest level whether with low or high budget, her carefully prepared and well thought out technical background, mutual loyalty to the authors with whom she cooperates, and not least her undisputable intuition behind the camera — reasons she is one of the top European cinematographers of today. Irina Lubtchansky is one of the authors that have been shaping the Ostrava Kamera Oko festival.
A Masterclass with Irina Lubtchansky will take place on Friday 27th September in PLATO Ostrava. It will be accompanied by selections from her works and will herald the distribution of her latest film Oh Mercy!. It will enter distribution at the end of 2019 under Film Europe.
Selected filmography:
36 vues du Pic St. Loup > Around a Small Mountain (OKO 2010)
L’Enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot > Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno
La forêt > The Forest
Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse > My Golden Days (OKO 2015)
Les fantômes d’Ismaël > Ismaël’s Ghosts (OKO 2017)
Roubaix, une lumière > Oh Mercy! (OKO Speciál 2019)
