Ruben Impens on shooting Animale
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Emma Benestan’s Animale explores the world of bullfighting through the eyes of Nejma, a young woman forming her path in a world dominated by men. Set in Camargue, France, a region notorious for its bullfighting traditions, Nejma dreams of winning the local bullfighting competition. After news of a rogue bull, the local community is soon plagued by a series of brutal murders. The film was masterfully captured by DP Ruben Impens.
At 16, Impens first became attracted to filmmaking after visiting a film set, which put everything in motion. “That was the spark. I saw a guy behind the camera on set and before then I had obviously watched films and I went to the cinema a lot as my parents didn’t own a TV, but that made me realise that there were people doing this for a living,” he begins. “My uncle was a producer and that helped of course and was an entry door. I went to film academy, but I didn’t finish. I did lots of TV stuff and worked in different departments, including as a gaffer and a trainee.”
Impens then later worked with DOP Frank van den Eeden for a couple of years and later as a clapper loader for Walther van den Ende. “Walther was very inspiring for me and I could steal a lot with my eyes. I had at least five or six years where I was able to make a living from hanging around on film sets and at the same time shooting short films,” says Impens. “I also shot Felix van Groeningen’s first feature film, Steve + Sky in 2004. Since that first feature, I considered myself a cinematographer. I was lucky to be able to have a relationship with a couple of directors I got along with. Felix of course was the most important one as we’ve done eight movies together, which is quite unique. I’m prepping my third movie now with Julia Ducournau and I had no idea if she’d ask me again. I don’t take it for granted. I’m excited. It’s an interesting relationship you have with a director. It’s intense for a short period and then some time passes and they come back with another project. It’s beautiful in a way.”
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When Impens received the Animale script, he thought it was original, but also saw it as a big challenge. “I met with director Emma Benestan,” says Impens. “Emma came to Ghent and we went for a walk and some drinks. The initial process of directors and cinematographers meeting is like dogs sniffing around each other and seeing what happens. Sometimes you click and then the project doesn’t get greenlit and it dies. This is the crazy, but also interesting part of our job. It’s very unpredictable. For example, I’m in the middle of shooting a Dutch movie called Joe Speedboot. The main actor is in a wheelchair and he needs to do some arm wrestling for the movie. He was doing some for fun after a shooting day and ended up breaking his upper arm. So, you’ve done 60% of the movie and then the whole thing collapses. It’s pretty unpredictable.”
Impens looked at Julio Medem’s work as reference during the research process for Animale. “I looked at Medem’s Vacas. He has this very interesting and surrealist side to his work. I found his work very inspiring. We also looked at An American Werewolf in London,” notes Impens. “In the original Animale script there was more mystery. The pace of the movie is fast and efficient, but the original script had a softer pace and more reflective moments. We still have those moments, but there was one scene with a blackhole where Nejma disappears. We had to make creative choices and we couldn’t fit it all in with the shooting days.”
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When it came to Impens initial conversations with Benestan about the look of the film, they discussed the idea of the Western, with it’s dusty and gritty setting. “Of course, with the film’s very flat landscape we picked the scope format,” adds Impens. “At the same time, it was a very mobile camera and it’s all very subjective from Nejma’s perspective. For me it felt organic. The biggest challenge that we faced was logistics. We also had some difficulties with production design. Filmmaking is working with people and different ideas. The start-up was a bit complicated and of course we had to deal with these animals that we wanted to shoot from nearby. I was intrigued and I didn’t know that bullfighting was so big in Camargue. It’s a world in itself.”
Impens worked hard to find local collaborators to help with the production. “We quickly found a guy who had a big ranch and animals. He’d done a couple of commercials previously. He understood quite quickly the language and what we were trying to achieve. Without him it would have been impossible to make the film. I have a lot of respect for him. The problem is that they keep these bulls wild otherwise it doesn’t work. They bring them in the arena and they have to be scared. The more guts the bulls have to resist then the higher the points are. The size of these farms in Camargue are immense. We went to one farm that was massive and when you drive in there you can’t even see the animals. It was really something.”
One of Impens main concerns was the audience’s emotional resonance with Nejma. “I thought if you can emotionally follow Nejma and you feel for her, then I think we succeeded,” says Impens. “Oulaya Amamra is an amazing actor and very promising. I think we will see her in more things. She’s amazingly talented and it was a pleasure to work with her. We also spoke in depth about the ending and it had many forms. At a certain point it was in these low water parts and then she would stand up naked, but then it would have been too sexualised. It was complex, but finally I think we did it in the right way and I can’t see a way of doing it better. The final transformation was achieved with prosthetics. They were done by Olivier Afonso whom I met on Titane. He’s also doing Julia’s next film. He did an amazing job. For the final transformation there is a part done digitally, but a lot of it is prosthetics. That was cool to do.”
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The overall shoot lasted 31 days, although 35 were originally scheduled. “Similarly, the one I’m prepping now we had 50, but ended up with 41. Filmmaking has become so expensive after Covid. It has always been, but it’s even more so now. I think in France, especially it’s always more expensive,” explains Impens.
Impens opted to shoot the film using a RED, which he admits was slightly out of his comfort zone. “I always had this love hate relationship with RED. I was also looking for a small camera that could fit on a gimbal. I needed two bodies for the shoot and they were less expensive than the Alexa. RED have quite a bad reputation in Belgium and they have a horrible way of branding their cameras. But the image was fine and it was good for this film. We were looking for this slightly warmer desaturated look anyway and we got that from this camera. It was good size and I was happy with it. The lenses I used were Zeiss Supreme. So, it was quite straightforward.”
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Capturing the bullfight sequences proved to be particularly challenging, especially with the added danger Impens faced while shooting. “The goal was to really be on theirlevel,” he explains. “All of these fights you are seated much higher, but we wanted this lower perspective, from Nejma’s perspective, to give a subjective feeling from her perspective. We tried everything for these shots. We even built a cage that I sat in. At one stage the camera actually goes into the arena because I wanted to be closer. So, I asked one of the bull trainers because I was too scared to do it. You are completely exposed and the bull’s horns can kill you. So, he was happy to try it and we came up with a plan. I gave him a camera and he did it and it really comes together. I’m happy that nobody really got hurt because there is a real risk with these kinds of projects. When we were in prep, one of the actors, Vivien Rodriguez, was putting a stamp on a young bull. Part of the ritual is to grab them and he broke three ribs during the process. So, I thought the shoot was over, but he was fine after two weeks, we just rescheduledhis scenes. I didn’t believe he’d be fine, but he was. They are fearless.”
Although Impens enjoyed the process of making Animale, one aspect he won’t miss is the mosquitos. “It’s insane. You can have a white horse in the Camargue and when the sun goes down it turns into a black horse due to being completed covered in mosquitos. At one stage I had 85 bites. The locals seem immune to it and you feel stupid for it, but I still enjoyed it.”
By Oliver Webb