Maryse Alberti (born March 10, 1954) is a French
cinematographer who mainly works in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
on independent fiction films and
vérité
Kelsey Regina Byrne (born May 6, 1990), known professionally as Vérité (stylized as VÉRITÉ), is an American singer and songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York City. Her first single "Strange Enough" was self-released in July 2014, reaching n ...
, observational documentaries.
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
''American Cinematographer'' is a magazine published monthly by the American Society of Cinematographers. It focuses on the art and craft of cinematography, covering domestic and foreign feature productions, television productions, short films, mu ...
'' for her work on Todd Haynes' ''
Velvet Goldmine
''Velvet Goldmine'' is a 1998 musical drama film written and directed by Todd Haynes from a story by Haynes and James Lyons. It is set in Britain during the glam rock days of the early 1970s, and tells the story of fictional bisexual pop star ...
''.
Early life
Alberti was born in Langon, France. At the age of 19 in 1973, Alberti traveled to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
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.
There, she began a job as an
au pair
An au pair (; plural: au pairs) is a helper from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a mon ...
before turning to film.
Career
In a podcast interview with Movie Geeks United!, Alberti states that she never attended film school.
She first landed in the film industry as a still photographer for porn films.
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.
Alberti began her cinematography career working for the film company, Apparatus, run by short-film director
Christine Vachon
Christine Vachon (; born November 21, 1962) is an American film producer active in the American independent film sector.
Christine Vachon produced Todd Haynes' first feature, ''Poison'', which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundan ...
. 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.
She secured her career after being hired for
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...
' controversial pseudo-documentary feature film ''
Poison'' (1991).
The cinematographer is most famous for shooting both feature films and small 16mm documentaries- her favourite camera being an Aaton 16 mm camera.
She has voiced that her favourite genre of film is documentary because she finds there is "always an adventure
nda lesson" with this medium and she enjoys learning how to use simple tools and work with small groups of people.
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.
In June 2006, Alberti traveled to
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
to film portions of the
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
for scenes to be shown in
Michael Apted
Michael David Apted, (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was a British television and film director and producer.
Apted began working in television and directed the '' Up'' documentary series (1964–2019). He later directed '' Coal Miner's ...
's soccer documentary ''
The Power of the Game'' (2007).
A more recent work includes
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are noted for their surrealistic, melodramatic, and sometimes disturbing elements, often in the form of psychological fiction.
Arono ...
's wrestling drama, ''
The Wrestler The Wrestler may refer to:
* ''The Wrestler'' (1974 film), an American film directed by James A. Westman
* ''The Wrestler'' (2008 film), an American film directed by Darren Aronofsky
* "The Wrestler" (song), a song from the 2008 film written and ...
'' (2008), starring
Mickey Rourke
Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films.
During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles i ...
. 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
he film stylework 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
restlingplace". 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
''MovieMaker'' is a magazine, website and podcast network focused on the art and business of filmmaking with a special emphasis on independent film. The magazine is published on a quarterly basis.
See also
* List of film periodicals
Film period ...
, "
mbracea slightly grainy, edgier look". She used the Arriflex 416 camera and Kodak Vision3 500T color negative film 7219.
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".
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
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
, 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".
Filmography
Feature films
Documentaries
Awards and nominations
* 1990 Sundance Film Festival Excellence in Cinematography Award Documentary - ''H-2 Worker'' (1990)
* 1995 Sundance Film Festival Excellence in Cinematography Award Documentary- ''Crumb'' (1994)
* 1999 Independent Spirit Award Best Cinematography- ''Velvet Goldmine'' (1998)
* 2004 Independent Spirit Award- ''We Don't Live Here Anymore'' (2004)
* 2006
Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...
Kodak Vision Award
* 2006
Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming (Single Camera)- ''All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise'' (2006)
* 2009 Independent Spirit Award Best Cinematography- ''The Wrestler'' (2008)
References
External links
''Making the Wrestler Real''at
Moving Image Source
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alberti, Maryse
1954 births
Living people
French cinematographers
French women cinematographers
French expatriates in the United States
People from Langon, Gironde