March 20, 2012

Technicolor serves Bel Ami

Creative Services London contributes to Bel Ami starring Robert Pattinson

Bel Ami is a drama based on the 1885 French novel of the same name by Guy de Maupassant, chronicling a penniless young man’s rise to prominence in Paris via his manipulation of the city’s most influential and wealthy women. Starring Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci.

Technicolor was delighted to provide services for this movie - completing the full 35mm dailies, 2K Digital Intermediate. Colorist Paul Ensby worked closely with DP Stefano Falivene and Producer Uberto Pasolini, on this tale of an ambitious man working his way up the social ladder in 1890’s Paris was timed using Autodesk Lustre towards the end of 2011. The main aim of the timing was to savour and enrich the feel of the lavish interior settings depicting late 19th century Parisian interior décor, taking care to enhance the excellent costume and set design used to mimic this period. In contrast, the less salubrious parts of town were timed with less richness therefore embracing the claustrophobic, smoky interiors of the gentleman’s club for example.

As Robert Pattinson’s character ‘George’ ruthlessly manipulates his way round the three leading ladies, we see many decadent, glorious interiors in contrast to his humble beginnings in the movie.

With several atmospheric close up’s of all the actors in the movie, it was imperative that these were handled with a softer contrast – thankfully due to the 35mm origination, this proved not to be a problem. 

Technicolor also assisted with the Film, Video and Digital Cinema Deliverables for this movie.

Producer Uberto Pasolini stated “Technicolor matched our brief to capture the contrasts and timing required to savour and enrich the feel of the scenes as we wished to convey them