Capturing Passion: The Journey of Yann Richebourg

Welcome Yann, we are very excited to have you today with us to discuss about your work.

Who is Yann Richebourg and how did the passion for creating begin?

I’m a lover of words. I’ve always written, before I started photography when I was a teenager, probably unconsciously, to write differently, in another temporality, and with another efficiency. A camera is a second hand to write. It was the fastest visual medium connected to life, even more since the advent of digital : I am a self-taught photographer who, younger, chemically developed my own pictures.  The other art I am - and more - attached to, is the art of song, even though it is not considered as a major one. So I could just as well have chosen to sing, or to play as an actor. Actually, I come back too to the work of actor, I’ve already been cast in small films in the past, I’m still for theater, but I prefer the osmosis with the camera. The theater has taught me another way of interpreting.

Can you tell us about your previous work ?
In the cinematographic field, I already intended to make a kind of UFO : a first try of a short poem but supported by a music, called “Le Baiser de Pise”, with young actors in their first roles, and on the same theme of bitter love. It was already outside of the rules of shots and reverse shots of cinema, like a fresco of living pictures, but without the symbolic or metaphorical elements of "L’amour est temps de reflets". Its emotional vitality was carried by a short melody on the electric guitar, while my 2nd short film calls more on the understanding of the actors who were able to deliver, still without dialogue, an inner tension; and the clockwork precision of the editing is more important and precise. Other works are poetry published in a journal, and a photographic making of a theater play with refugees, other artists and activists.

The film explores an "impossible relationship" between a young girl and a young man. What drew you to telling a story about doomed love ? Were there any personal experiences or stories that influenced this narrative ?

I think it is inherent to the experience of every human being in life, it is universal. I was moved by “The Way We Were”, “Yentl” by and with Barbra Streisand : "Nothing's impossible!" is one of her words, two films that are not only sentimental. “Dead Poets Society”, “West Side Story” and one of the rare LGBT films at the time, “Beautiful things” (1996), with a soundtrack by Mama Cass, The Mama’s And The Papa’s, impressed me too. “Carrington” was also about difficulty to love, as well as “Total Eclipse” between Rimbaud and Verlaine. I do not like to talk about influence, I think we produce by intuition, either before, either simultaneously or after other creators. What remains striking is I consider voice as much important as image, it becomes a kind of music guiding a story. My vision is that every shot and sound can be essential, and talks to other ones, like duality in a couple. Even without understanding French you have access to the meaning. Life and cinema are kind of scores. Love is one of a note you can play : what is possible in life without this key ?

CONVERSATION ABOUT: ‘‘Love is a time of reflection’’

Your background as a photographer is evident in the way the film is visually framed. How did you approach the cinematography for this project, especially in terms of using mirrors to create visual metaphors ?

The mirror is already present in the title, because “temps” (time) can be heard as “tant” (so many) reflections in French. Lets’ remember Pablo Picasso's words, "Je ne cherche pas, je trouve". I intentionally avoided the consummate kis, to highlight the same aborted gesture of each actress/actor. Surprisingly I understand what I’ve done a posteriori. This balance was already metaphorically present in the term “Pisa” of my 1st short try. For example, while writing these lines, in addition to the gestures that are repeated and to the echoes with and between words, I just realized that the young man's gaze directed towards water is also a reflection in what could be a natural mirror : a scene that I shot myself after the filming without questioning it. The multifaceted mirror obviously guided me. The slight blur of the reflections of the actresss and actor in it anticipate their love erasure, which is finally violently broken at the end. “La Haine” of Mathieu Kassovitz also used close-ups with a strong visual and inclusive impact, which captures the attention and remain in the memory as iconic images. As for the images, “Gattaca”, due to its visual aesthetic purism and chromatic balance, is another inspiration for a perfect palette.

The film appears to involve intense emotions. How do you convey the depth of these emotions without relying too heavily on dialogue or exposition ?

I didn't really think about it before script and filming. I relied on my direction of the actors' attitudes and gestures and their talents, the symbiosis with the words. It has turned out that the symbolic images were indeed enough clear to the audience, the narration even uses the total disappearance of the image in favor of a black screen and the voice alone. It has been told to me it was as an intense meditation, maybe due to the power of silence… with a slight rustling that keeps the breath of life present from the first image. Anguish ? Sigh of embrace ? Effort of the actor running ? Whatever ! The sound of the alliterations is a wave that connects you to the feelings of the characters.

This is your second short film, following a successful career in photography and poetry. How does the process of making a film differ from your experiences in those other mediums ?  Did you encounter any unexpected challenges ?

The process of a movie is much more humanly engaging because you do not work alone, and the result is much more enjoyable and satisfying. Nevertheless, I wanted to tell the most with very few, even though cinema is the richest art and perhaps the closest to life, with the songs that we sing in the street… It is one of the arts par excellence, the most popular, again with songs. It “simply” requires more time, human and technical resources, as well as budget for features. The original challenge of "L’amour est temps de reflets" was that the film was shot in the opposite direction to the traditional chronology because for several reasons I had to record my voice before the shooting. So we filmed with the timing of the voice-over track in mind, or written to the nearest second on the editing plan. For the first film we obviously recorded both my voice and the musician live, on the images of the edited film in front of me in the engineer sound studio. So this 2nd one was made upside down, but it has worked, and furthermore helped me for the rhythm of the story.

What do you hope the audience takes away, and what emotions or reactions do you intend to evoke through your storytelling?
I hope they will take away that the theme of love is not hackneyed, and that storytelling voices can still be innovative. The same for poetry, which can get out from, and live outside of books and does not always need to be complex. Maybe some people will change their mind about the fact that poetry is sometimes boring. I imagine that feelings through some shots, sounds, or words - separated or associated - may remain in the memory of the spectators.

In future projects, do you plan to explore similar genre intersections, or are there other genres you're eager to explore?

I am also writing a novel that is composed of prose, poetic passages, and which, I hope, will also be visual by integrating photographs, or even sound via QR codes, if it is printed. So, another probably unusual object. This type of work is not very widespread. A common thread uses romantic relationships again, but aesthetically it will be more complex than my film, particularly because of the photographs and thematically I do not want to spoil the fields covered but they are broader.

Can you give us an overview of upcoming projects or themes that you are eager to explore in your future works?

Rather than only publishing poetry, I plan to record my texts in song, which is for me the most effective vector. I’m never happier than when I listen to Juliette Gréco’s, Léo Ferré’s or Jeanne Moreau’s, Jane Birkin’s and Françoise Hardy’s records, and nowadays to songs by Laura Cahen and Raphaële Lannadère, or Bertrand Belin and Dominique A. About my novel in writing : retroactively, the evolution of our current societies, our customs makes me connect in my characters subjects as varied as quest for identity, morals, art itself, religion, themes that also give rise to divisions. But in which every human being can find his own solution and way to live. It could also be a basis for a feature film script for an unconventional hybrid musical feature movie.

This marks the conclusion of the interview featuring our esteemed artist, Yann Richebourg. Our community is growing steadily, with a continuous influx of skilled filmmakers and screenwriters joining us. Explore our other interviews, and consider scheduling one for yourself to showcase your creative endeavors.