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FILMS Netherlands / Germany

Review: Living the Light – Robby Müller

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- Cinematographer-turned-director Claire Pijman has made a poetic documentary on legendary DoP Robby Müller

Review: Living the Light – Robby Müller

Even if you don’t know the name Robby Müller, chances are you have seen his work. He is famed for his numerous collaborations with Wim WendersJim Jarmusch and Lars von Trier, who all provide anecdotes about the cinematographer who died in July of this year, aged 78. Müller also shot Barbet Schroeder’s Barfly (1987), Alex Cox’s Repo Man (1984) and William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), to name but a few of his more than 70 movies. Cinematographer-turned-director Claire Pijman’s documentary Living the Light – Robby Müller [+see also:
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 celebrates the Dutchman’s work by letting the poetic images do most of the talking, with added comments from luminaries such as Steve McQueenAgnès Godard and von Trier. The documentary played at the Venice Film Festival, in the Venice Classics Documentary Films section, is now screening at the 28th Netherlands Film Festival, and will be of particular interest to those wanting to make movies themselves.

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The meat of the film focuses on Robby’s contemporaries and collaborators describing how he lit scenes, such as a bedroom sequence in Barfly where he created tubing and hid it behind the curtains to make the light bounce off the wall, or how he used his intuition to capture beautiful moments, as explained by editor Jay Rabinowitz when discussing the point-of-view shot from the Empire State Building, where Müller instinctively drifts with a bird that crosses into the frame. As evidenced by the title, it is the use of natural sunlight that director Pijman is most fascinated by, and there is a wonder with which Wenders in particular talks of their collaborations, where his complete trust in Müller becomes very apparent.

Through watching clips and by listening to the commentary that accompanies them, we also get an idea of some of Müller’s personal troubles, as apparently it was he who insisted on Paris, Texas’s downbeat ending, as he had himself just gone through a divorce. We also learn how the cinematographer was constantly away from home on the job, which wasn’t best for building relationships. The film eschews a chronological narrative and biopic tropes, resulting in poetic and serene observations, rather than glib fact checking.

Although much of it is hagiography-like, there is also a melancholic tone to the tale, which is reinforced by the score provided by Sqürl bandmates Jarmusch and Carter Logan. This mood is set by an intertitle created by sun and shade to specify that the documentary is made up of his archives, which contained boxes full of Hi8 tapes, Polaroids and pictures that Müller shot, and that several years ago, he was overcome by an illness that made him lose the power of speech. Thus his images speak for him, although Pijman does add in some archive footage of Müller talking that appears on DVD extras, where he explains his thoughts and cinematic drive. It’s a fitting tribute to Müller’s work.

Living the Light – Robby Müller was produced by the Netherlands’ Moondocs and Stichting Docu Shot, and Germany’s Chromosom Film GmbH. The world sales are being handled by Wide House.

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