He’s worked with everyone from Timothee Chalamet to Taylor Swift, and from Morgan Freeman to Madonna, but Darius Khondji is not one for celebrity egos.
“I don’t get intimidated,” says the Iranian-born, French-raised cinematographer. Well, most of the time. “I get intimidated if people really want me to be intimidated. And then I become very intimidated.”
Khondji is speaking from Qatar, where the 69-year-old has arrived to take part in Qumra. The annual Doha Film Institute event brings together master filmmakers with fresh talent from the Mena region.
With a career stretching back to the 1990s, shooting films like Delicatessen and David Fincher’s seminal serial killer thriller Se7en, Khondji has worked with the best of the best.
He recently wrapped Marty Supreme, the new movie from Josh Safdie, with whom he worked on the nerve-jangling Uncut Gems, with Adam Sandler. Little has been revealed so far about the film, which stars the hugely popular Chalamet. He plays a fictionalised version of Marty Reisman, a prominent figure in the table tennis community in 1950s New York.
But according to Khondji, audiences should raise expectations for the upcoming movie. The cinematographer is effusive about the project, speaking high praise while wearing a baseball cap with the film's title stitched on it.
“The character, he’s a ping-pong champion,” he explains to The National. “It’s a true story about an American ping-pong champion in the 1950s. It’s a fantastic experience. You’ll see.
“It’s going to be a big thing, a big surprise when it comes out. There are lot of unknown actors around two or three well known actors, like Timothee, Gwyneth Paltrow. The rest are people like filmmakers or friends or great characters they found on the street.”
Before that, he has Eddington, due to premiere in Cannes next month. It stars Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone in a story set in a small town in New Mexico. It marks Khondji’s first time with director Ari Aster, who made such intense, provocative movies as Hereditary, Midsommar and Beau is Afraid.
“He’s a fascinating director, a director I think you’re going to hear more and more about. For me as a cameraman, it was a major encounter,” says Khondji.
Loyal to a tee, Khondji loves a good reunion. Most recently, Bong Joon-ho, for Mickey 17, now playing in UAE cinemas. It’s their second collaboration following 2017’s Okja.
But while that starred a CGI pig, Mickey 17 is considerably more complex. This big-budget take on Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel stars Robert Pattinson and … well, Robert Pattinson. Pattinson’s Mickey is an ‘expendable’ clone, used to test out the dangers of space exploration. Until No. 17 survives death and confronts his replacement.
Bong’s first movie since his Oscar-winning Parasite, the film has been bankrolled by Warner Bros, making it the director’s most expensive movie to date. But in Khondji’s eyes, that didn’t matter.
“Bong manages to make it a very personal film, which I admire him for. He didn’t want to give in, to change anything. That’s why he had final cut. Even though it was a big-budget film, he could make it the way he wanted, and not to try to do it for the studio.”
Khondji has also worked with the cream of the music industry, including videos for Madonna (Frozen) and Lady Gaga (Marry the Night).
“Madonna was really exciting to film. Lady Gaga, it was really exciting to work with her. She gives herself a lot to a project.”
What about Taylor Swift? The video for Look What You Made Me Do is one of her most epic, featuring multiple incarnations of the singer, including as a zombie.
“Taylor Swift? I don’t know,” he sighs. “It was a different. It was more distanced. She was already a very, very big name. Maybe I didn’t do the right video. I don’t know.” He says he’s only seen the promo once. “After it came out, I just watched it because it got so many hits. It’s a fun, big American music video.”
Twice Oscar-nominated (for Evita, again with Madonna, and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Bardo), Khondji is increasingly aware that he needs to get his selections right.
“I’ve always been very picky,” he says. “What you really realise with time is that you don’t have that many years ahead of you. The movies you do, you have to be very sure.”
Maybe he should clone himself: Darius 17. He's indifferent to the proposition.
