The late Robby Muller was a brilliant cinematographer of many classic movies directed by Jim Jarmush, Wim Wenders and Lars von Trier, among others. This documentary about Robby Muller life's work is impressive, touching and playful, showing family snapshots and many other personal camera recordings, in which Robby Muller is playing with different shades of light. Catching reflections of light on film, was Robby Muller's intention. Robby Muller's work is breathtakingly beautiful to watch. Life long colleague and friend, director Wim Wenders (Paris,Texas),praised Robby Muller's gift to play with the reflections of light in such a way that he referred to him as a "Dutch Master of Light", which is a reference to the great 17th century Dutch painters, who excelled in portraying landscapes with gorgeous dynamic contrasts.
What was most striking for me about this documentary was the fact that director Wim Wenders and Robby Muller knew how their pictures should look like, way before they started shooting, by simply looking at photographs and talking about the mood of the picture beforehand. Many scenes in Robby Muller's films do have the same stunning quality and intensity as a still picture or a painting and that is probably due to the affection Robby Muller had with art photos.
For many years to come I will cherish and rewatch the many great classics Robby Muller has made during his lifetime. What an incredibly marvelous photographer!
Robby Müller: Living the Light
2018
Action / Documentary
Robby Müller: Living the Light
2018
Action / Documentary
Plot summary
Director of Photography Robby Müller is one of the few people in the world who knows how to play the sun. How to catch its rays like butterflies. How to strike its beams like chords. When Robby moves his camera, the camera turns into a musical instrument. And the whole world dances, radiates, is illuminated. For her extraordinary film essay Director and DoP Claire Pijman had access to Müller's personal archive: thousands of Hi8 video diaries, personal pictures and Polaroids that Müller photographed throughout his career; often with long term collaborators such as Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch and Lars von Trier. The film intertwines these images with excerpts of his oeuvre, thus creating a fluid and cinematic continuum. In his score for Living the Light Jim Jarmusch gives this wide raging scale of life and art an additional musical voice. With his ground-breaking camerawork, inventive lighting methods, his exceptional sense for the depth of colour, and the freedom of framing, plus his on-going quest for simplicity, he has encouraged generations of DoPs to discover their own eye. Besides being a master of the analogue, Müller became a pioneer of the digital when he shot his first features with Lars von Trier. His work has been compared to that of painters like Vermeer and Hopper, like him, also masters of light. But even when his films are finished, his images keep on moving. The light never fades. Because he has always created space for the human story to speak through the images. To come into the light. Living the Light - Robby Müller is the story of that light.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Dutch Master of Light
Like reading a photographic journal of the legendary cinematographer
When I watched this movie, I felt like I was reading Robby's journal that was composed of photos and videos including his fellows' interview. Therefore, the audience would understand how much he was obsessed with taking pictures with practical elements especially art of lighting. His responsibility as a cinematographer was sometimes similar to thespian's role because he needed to interpret lots of screenplays for his portrayals but he did not act out. He just shot with cameras and let the pictures tell everything.