Van Gogh Interview: Producer Francois Bertrand

Written by: BMZ Staff
Date: March 12, 2009

BMZ talks with producer Francois Bertrand on his latest film, VAN GOGH: BRUSH WITH GENIUS, a Giant Screen film that takes an intimate look into the artist and his works.

Film producer and technical director, Francois Bertrand, is the General Manager of Camera Lucida productions, and has been producing documentaries for 25 years. His latest project is the Giant Screen film, Van Gogh: Brush With Genius, a journey through the surprisingly short 9-year period of the artist's career during which he painted more than 900 paintings.

Big Movie Zone: Firstly, thank you for the interview and congratulations with the film! Can you tell us a bit about your filmmaking background and how you first got involved with this project?

Francois Bertrand: I am first of all a producer. Camera Lucida, the company I manage, is producing around 25 documentaries a year. I try to direct a movie every 2 to 3 years because it lets me into an artistic process that I miss sometimes. I went to art school where I received special recognition for my cinematic approach. I have always been interested in fine art and how to bring together large audiences and different artists. The last film I directed was about cave diving which won a prize at the World Festival of Underwater Pictures in Antibes. I used to be very involved in deep-diving.

BMZ: How did the idea to create a film on Van Gogh originate? Was it always intended to be a Giant Screen film?

FB: The project was started by Peter Knapp as a documentary in HD for French TV. But during a screening where we could see all the close-up shots on a large screen, we decided the TV medium wasn't enough to capture the true magnificence of Van Gogh's work. We needed a picture big enough to immerse the public in the fields, in the landscapes, in the subject matter, in the paintings themselves, so audiences could see their true beauty. Very quickly, it became obvious that IMAX was the solution, even if this topic was somewhat unconventional for the giant screen format. We had the luck, first, to get Laurent Dondey, the director of La Géode, to be very enthusiastic about this project, and then later to get Greg MacGillivray enthusiastic too. I really needed those two people to make me feel confident enough to carry on.

BMZ: Van Gogh is really a departure from typical Giant Screen subjects. What can the IMAX format capture in his paintings that perhaps another medium could not?

FB: Simply the immersion. The IMAX format is used to immerse people in different worlds that most of us cannot get to. The Nile, Everest, the underwater world, etc. With Van Gogh, the IMAX format immerses viewers in a very special world, the world of an artist. The audience gets to experience the paintings and the landscapes that inspired them in a much more intimate way than other mediums would allow.

BMZ: The film is obviously a documentary, but it also employs the fictional character of Ellen, the museum researcher, and features director Peter Knapp. How did you land on Ellen and Peter to help tell Vincent's story?

FB: We had to decide how to tell the story without making a "slide show." It was also very necessary to escape from the powerful colors of Van Gogh from time to time, and we also had to find a way to tell his real story. I read a book written by Wouter van Der Veen. He worked for 18 months in the Van Gogh Museum's safe-room where Van Gogh's original letters, drawings and journals are kept. That gave me the idea of Ellen. She's working in a dark room with the original documents, and what she discovers takes us deeply into Vincent's life. It also gave us a darkly colored sequence that created an ideal counterpoint to further illuminate the brightly colored sequences on his paintings. With Peter, we wanted to have a "guide," someone that could take us to the different places where Vincent lived.

BMZ: Were there specific works you wanted to focus on? Were there any left out due to time constraints you wish could have been included?

FB: Honestly, at the end of shooting I was very happy with what I got. The Musée d'Orsay, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Kröller-Müller Museum opened their doors. Those three museums have the biggest collection of Van Gogh's work. We also went to the Thyssen Foundation in Madrid and to the Musée Rodin. Vincent Van Gogh painted more than 800 paintings so every day I am still discovering new paintings that are very interesting. But the film doesn't want to be exhaustive. The idea is much more to see the film and then see his work differently. If audience members go visit a museum after seeing the film, I will be very happy. I am quiet sure that they will look at Van Gogh's art with a new perspective.

BMZ: I understand the film features many locations that inspired Van Gogh's work. Were there any you found particularly fascinating? How familiar were you with Van Gogh's source material before making this film?

FB: Yes, I was very touched by Vincent's room in Auvers-sur-Oise where he died. It's a very small room that is kept the way it was. We were very familiar with Van Gogh's work and life before we started making the film. We had already produced Peter Knapp's TV documentary, and because all the museums welcomed us, especially the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, we were able to discuss Van Gogh's work with the museum directors and curators. Wouter van Der Veen was our scientific consultant for the film.

BMZ: What do you hope audiences understand about the artist and his work after viewing the film?

FB: Understand? I don't know. I want people to feel more. I hope this film gives them more intimacy with this artist. When you get this close you become a little bit more "aware" or "enlightened" by his work. Of course audiences will understand him and his paintings more, but that wasn't our first goal. This artist is so popular and special because of his simplicity, and the film had to be very simple, even if his life was complicated.

BMZ: Do you think there are other artists whose paintings would translate well on the Giant Screen? How about artists that perhaps wouldn't fair as well for the IMAX medium?

FB: That's a question everybody is asking me today. I do not know, because of what I said before. Vincent Van Gogh is a unique painter and it is difficult for a painter's life to have all the parameters necessary for a story on the giant screen. Maybe Leonardo de Vinci.

BMZ: Can you tell us about any upcoming projects, Giant Screen or otherwise?

FB: We have many upcoming projects. We will produce a feature film on Handel's life (the composer). We are working on a documentary on Chernobyl. And yes, we have a project for the giant screen, but I'll keep it quiet for the moment. I may present it at the next GSCA.