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Michael Seresin: Let there be light

As readers of this blog will know, I have a thing about films—a little too much, I hear you say. Well, I'm sorry. I love them and the people behind the making. Hence, this publication will be almost simultaneous with Design Week. It's a piece I wrote about cinematographer Michael Seresin, whose career has taken him from New Zealand to the U.K.

Here he is working hard in his beautiful waterside home in Malbrough, New Zealand...

Michael bedIn the late 1970s, I attended a 'rough cut' screening of a new children's film that the publisher I worked for was considering. It was the first feature from a young director who had also written the screenplay.

 Cut to a Soho screening room. Enter a blue-jeaned, leather-jacketed David Puttnam, followed by Alan Parker. The film was Bugsy Malone…

Bugsy Malonejpg

Bugsy Malone 1976

and I was spellbound, most of all by the cinematography. It was by Michael Seresin.

Seresin went on to shoot eight more Parker features. So distinctive was his approach that it was termed 'Lumiere Anglais' and helped change the face of cinema.

For Seresin, it started in his native New Zealand, where his mother would take him to the local cinema. Due to a programme change, they inadvertently saw Carol Reed's The Third Man

The_third_man_bd

Young Seresin was smitten. The Orson Wells character was called Harry, the same as Seresin's absent father. In the dark, he fantasised about his father being a spy.

The film was dramatically lit by Robert Kraskerand. I suggest to Seresin that it must have had a subliminal effect on his destiny. 'I never thought about that. Maybe you're right,' he shrugs. Later, he organised film clubs at the university showing the latest European releases. Eventually, his elusive father stepped in to give much-needed guidance. Seresin ended up working for a small documentary production company. He quickly rose from gofer to assistant cameraman to director.

As with many Antipodeans, the lure of travel took hold. Seresin found himself in Italy, where he did very little but loved every minute. A good-looking 20-something, he was cast to play in a feature. The film never materialised, but the taste of the cinema was with him again, and he moved to London to try his luck.

 The early 1960s still had the residue of post-war austerity. This bleakness, reflected in the many kitchen-sink dramas popular in British cinema, wasn't to Seresin's taste. He preferred the glamour of Continental cinema. He obtained a union card, and one of the earliest films he worked on was The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour. From there, he joined Brooks Baker & Fulford, originally stills photographers that had moved into commercials.

 This enabled him to improve his craft and experiment with a new form of lighting. Tabletop set-ups were flooded with a powerful single-source light, creating an intense naturalistic feel. He became friends with Parker - then a young copywriter at ad agency Collett Dickenson Pearce. Parker was hankering to become a director and persuaded Seresin to help him make test commercials in the basement of CDP, where the prototype for future commercials was being born. Parker was elevated to director and started his own production company. There followed a stream of award-winning work from the duo...

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Alan Parker (left) with Seresin

Parker's trust in Seresin has spanned four decades, and his most important films - Midnight Express, Birdy, Fame, Shoot the Moon, Angel Heart and Angela's Ashes ...

Brutality

Midnight Express 1978

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Birdy 1984

Angelheart

Angel Heart 1987

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Angela's Ashes 1999

They have all been shot by Seresin.

 As a director, Seresin has been confined to commercials, but he always brings a cinematic quality to the production. Renault's Papa and Nicole series...

Papa and Nicole

Underlines his narrative style. He is photographed, often using a long lens to create an intimate, graphic feel, which is evident in his beautiful 'Jacques de Florette' Stella Artois commercial. A recent feature, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban...

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

It was a significant stylistic departure for the series. Seresin created a far darker world than in the previous films.

 Although still a big fan of shooting on film, Seresin is aware of the move to high definition and is making his first foray into the digital world. 'I am not so concerned about what kit is behind the lens. It's the lenses that count,' he says. His latest feature is Hippy, Hippy, Shake...

Hippy hippy shake

Directed by Beeban Kidron until she quit last month. His project, Jump, is a dramatised feature about the pioneers of bungee jumping.
  

Mike Dempsey Copyright Centaur Publications 2009

P.S. On top of all the above, he also produces some of the finest wines from New Zealand.Seresinb


March 03, 2015