Maryse Alberti

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Maryse Alberti
Born (1954-03-10) 10 March 1954 (age 70)[1]
Langon, France
OccupationCinematographer
Children1

Maryse Alberti (born 10 March 1954) is a French cinematographer who mainly works in the United States on independent fiction films and vérité, observational documentaries.[2] Alberti has won awards from the Sundance Film Festival and the Spirit Awards. She was the first contemporary female cinematographer featured on the cover of American Cinematographer for her work on the Todd Haynes-directed Velvet Goldmine (1998).[3]

Early life

Alberti was born in Langon, France. At the age of 19 in 1973, Alberti traveled to New York City planning to see Jimi Hendrix in concert, but only discovered of his death after her arrival. Instead of returning to France, she hitchhiked around the US for three years before she settled in New York City.[4] There, she began a job as an au pair before turning to film.[3]

Career

In a podcast interview with Movie Geeks United!, Alberti states that she never attended film school. [5] She first landed in the film industry as a still photographer for porn films. [3] In 1982, after having worked on enough film sets and getting to know people within the industry, she persuaded the filmmakers of the small punk film-noir film Vortex (1982) to let her be an assistant to the cinematographer. At the time, she had known nothing about film-making and was trained by the film's cinematographer, Steven Fierberg. [3]

Alberti began her cinematography career working for the film company, Apparatus, run by short-film director Christine Vachon. The first full-length documentary she shot was Stephanie Black's H-2 Worker (1990). She won her first Sundance Film Festival award as a cinematographer for this film. [5] She secured her career after being hired for Todd Haynes' controversial pseudo-documentary feature film Poison (1991). [6]

The cinematographer is most famous for shooting both feature films and small 16mm documentaries- her favourite camera being an Aaton 16 mm camera. [3] She has voiced that her favourite genre of film is documentary because she finds there is "always an adventure [and] a lesson" with this medium and she enjoys learning how to use simple tools and work with small groups of people. [5]

Alberti's first big budget film was Haynes' Velvet Goldmine (1998) with a spending allowance of $8 million. Working on this film also consisted of her first time having to use a camera operator. [3]

In June 2006, Alberti traveled to Germany to film portions of the FIFA World Cup for scenes to be shown in Michael Apted's soccer documentary The Power of the Game (2007). [6]

A more recent work includes Darren Aronofsky's wrestling drama, The Wrestler (2008), starring Mickey Rourke. Aronofsky hired Alberti as the cinematographer due to her documentary background. Prior to working on this film, Alberti had no knowledge or experience with wrestling so she would study the sport by attending wrestling matches with members of the crew every Saturday night for a period of time. She revealed that viewing the sport in person was helpful to see the world of wrestling. The director and her decided on a "naturalist look"; her aim was to "make [the film style] work for the drama of the film and keep it as natural as possible" in order to let the viewer feel like they were in a "real [wrestling] place". Important film elements, styles, and techniques were decided between Alberti and the director including an aspect ratio of 2.4:1 in order to capture the wrestling ring, fans, and the arena which they decided were very valuable to the sport. Alberti also used a handheld camera for the action scenes and shot in 16mm film to, as she states in an interview with MovieMaker, "[embrace] a slightly grainy, edgier look". She used the Arriflex 416 camera and Kodak Vision3 500T color negative film 7219. [7]

In 2013, her photography series called The Pool Series was featured in the gallery 'Show Room' located in Brooklyn, New York. Alberti has stated that she could not see what she was photographing and could "only anticipate what the next fragment of time might look like" and thus aimed to create an "artistic anticipation".[8]

On being a woman in a male-dominated field

Alberti has discussed that being a woman in a field of work that mainly consists of men has not hindered her career and success. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she mentions that in the beginning of her career crew members would tease her for being a petite woman working a physically demanding job. In response, she would reply with "The little lady doesn't carry the big lights. She points and the big guys carry the lights".[4]

Filmography

Short film

Year Title Director Notes
1988 Cause and Effect Susan Delson
1989 The Way of the Wicked Christine Vachon
1996 The Dutch Master Susan Seidelman Segment of Tales of Erotica
Dear Diary David Frankel
2001 Here Brendan Donovan
2002 Gasp
2005 Hidden Inside Mountains Laurie Anderson
2006 A Journey That Wasn't Pierre Huyghe
2016 Mr. Robot Virtual Reality Experience Sam Esmail

Feature film

Year Title Director Notes
1990 The Golden Boat Raúl Ruiz
1991 Poison Todd Haynes
1992 Zebrahead Anthony Drazan
1993 I Am a Sex Addict Vikram Jayanti
John Powers
Deadfall Christopher Coppola
Mob Stories Marc Levin
1995 Give a Damn Again Adam Isidore With Robert Levi and Kramer Morgenthau
1996 I Love You, I Love You Not Billy Hopkins
1997 Stag Gavin Wilding
1998 Happiness Todd Solondz
Velvet Goldmine Todd Haynes
2000 Joe Gould's Secret Stanley Tucci
Twilight: Los Angeles Marc Levin With Joan Churchill
2001 Tape Richard Linklater
Get Over It Tommy O'Haver
2002 The Guys Jim Simpson
2004 We Don't Live Here Anymore John Curran
2008 The Onion Movie James Kleiner
The Wrestler Darren Aronofsky
2010 Stone John Curran
QC Notorious Robert Agro-Melina
2015 The Visit M. Night Shyamalan
Freeheld Peter Sollett
Creed Ryan Coogler
2016 Collateral Beauty David Frankel
2017 Chappaquiddick John Curran
2019 The Kitchen Andrea Berloff
2020 Hillbilly Elegy Ron Howard
2021 A Journal for Jordan Denzel Washington
2022 Jerry & Marge Go Large David Frankel
2023 The Burial Maggie Betts

Television

TV series

Year Title Director Notes
1988 American Playhouse Calvin Skaggs Episode "Journey Into Genius"
1998 Sex and the City Alison Maclean Episodes "Models and Mortals" and "Valley of the Twenty-Something Guys"
2006 Great Performances Phil Bertelsen Episode "Dance in America: Beyond the Steps - Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater"
2022 Inventing Anna David Frankel
Tom Verica
Episodes "Life of a VIP" and "The Devil Wore Anna" (With David Franco)

TV movies

Year Title Director
1993 Dottie Gets Spanked Todd Haynes
2018 My Dinner with Hervé Sacha Gervasi

Documentary works

Film

Year Title Director Notes
1990 H-2 Worker Stephanie Black With Tom Sigel
1991 All Our Children with Bill Moyers Tom Casciato
1992 Incident at Oglala Michael Apted
Confessions of a Suburban Girl Susan Seidelman
In Women's Hands Rachel Field
Juan Mandelbaum
1994 The Heart of the Matter Amber Hollibaugh
Gini Reticker
Moving the Mountain Michael Apted
1995 Crumb Terry Zwigoff
She Lives to Ride Alice Stone
Harlem Diary: Nine Voices of Resilience Jonathan Stack
1996 When We Were Kings Leon Gast With Paul Goldsmith, Kevin Keating,
Albert Maysles and Roderick Young
1997 Inspirations Michael Apted With Amnon Zlayet
1999 Me & Isaac Newton
2001 James Ellroy's Feast of Death Vikram Jayanti
2003 Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine
2007 Taxi to the Dark Side Alex Gibney With Greg Andracke
The Power of the Game Michael Apted
2008 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson Alex Gibney
Finishing Heaven Mark Mann With Liz Dory and Boaz Freund
The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector Vikram Jayanti
2010 Casino Jack and the United States of Money Alex Gibney
My Trip to Al-Qaeda
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
2011 Apache 8 Sande Zeig
Biba! One Island, 879 Votes Ben Bloodwell
2012 West of Memphis Amy J. Berg With Ronan Killeen
Love, Marilyn Liz Garbus
Dear Governor Cuomo Jon Bowermaster
Alex Gibney
Natalie Merchant
With Ronan Killeen
2013 We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks Alex Gibney
2014 Bending the Light Michael Apted
Mr. Dynemite: The Rise of James Brown Alex Gibney With Antonio Rossi

TV movies

Year Title Director Notes
1992 Minimum Wages: The New Economy Tom Casciato
2004 Rape in a Small Town: The Florence Holway Story Jeffrey Chapman With Ken Van Sant
2006 All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise Shari Cookson With Beth Wichterich and Sandra Chandler
The Human Behavior Experiments Alex Gibney With Mira Chang, Adam Feinstein,
Richard Neill and Jon Shenk
Beyond the Steps: Alvin Ailey American Dance Phil Bertelsen With John Foster
The New Medicine Muffie Meyer
2007 In God's Name Jules and Gédéon Naudet
2014 A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY Liz Garbus

TV series

Year Title Director Notes
2005 Independent Lens Alex Gibney Segment Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
American Masters Martin Scorsese Segment No Direction Home
2010 Truth in Motion: The US Ski Team's Road to Vancouver Brett Morgen TV short
2014 John Leguizamo's Ghetto Klown Fisher Stevens TV special
30 for 30 Alex Gibney Episode "Fields of Fear"
2014-2016 Years of Living Dangerously 7 episodes
2018 Dirty Money Alex Gibney Episode "Hard NOX"

Miniseries

Year Title Director Notes
2013 History of the Eagles Alison Ellwood With Samuel Painter
2016 Cooked Alex Gibney Episode "Fire"
2022 The Andy Warhol Diaries Andrew Rossi

Awards and nominations

  • 1990 Sundance Film Festival Excellence in Cinematography Award Documentary - H-2 Worker (1990) [9]
  • 1995 Sundance Film Festival Excellence in Cinematography Award Documentary- Crumb (1994) [10]
  • 1999 Independent Spirit Award Best Cinematography- Velvet Goldmine (1998) [7]
  • 2004 Independent Spirit Award- We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004) [11]
  • 2006 Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards Kodak Vision Award [11]
  • 2006 Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming (Single Camera)- All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise (2006) [12]
  • 2009 Independent Spirit Award Best Cinematography- The Wrestler (2008) [7]

References

  1. ^ "Maryse Alberti- IMDb". Internet Movie Database Article. IMDB. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Maryse Alberti- IMDb". Internet Movie Database Article. IMDB. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lee, Linda (10 December 1998). "Framing a Vision, Invisibly Maryse Alberti, an Independent Force in Independent Films". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  4. ^ a b Chabria, Anita (10 December 2008). "Now it's a co-ed sport". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  5. ^ a b c "MGU Interview: Cinematographer Maryse Alberti". Youtube. Movie Geeks United!. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  6. ^ a b Nelson, Steffie (6 June 2006). "D.p. makes mark in mostly man's world". Variety. Variety Media.
  7. ^ a b c Fisher, Bob. "Maryse Alberti Captures the Spirit of The Wrestler". MovieMaker. MovieMaker Magazine. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  8. ^ "SHOW ROOM presents... Maryse Alberti: The Pool Series". Show Room Gowanus. Show Room Gowanus.
  9. ^ "1990 Sundance Film Festival". Sundance. Sundance Institute.
  10. ^ "1995 Sundance Film Festival". Sundance. Sundance Institute.
  11. ^ a b "Alberti feted at women in film celebration" (PDF). Kodak. Kodak. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  12. ^ "2006 Emmy nominations list – part 2". Variety. Variety Media. 6 July 2006.

External links