Buying lamps for car roofs, Selena Gomez filming a selfie on her iPhone and capturing one of the project’s biggest and most complex scene on the first day were all on cinematographer Paul Guilhaume’s call sheet for Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical thriller Emilia Pérez.
The primarily Spanish-language song-filled film details the story of cartel leader Emilia, who enlists an unappreciated lawyer Rita to help fake her death so Emilia can live authentically as her true self. It won both the Cannes jury prize for director Audiard and a shared best actress award for its female cast Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana and Adriana Paz.
Guilhaume – who also served as director of photography on Audiard’s previous film, Paris, 13th District (2021), and also shot the two episodes of French espionage series The Bureau that were directed by Audiard, in 2020 – spent nearly three years prepping for the project.
With a production budget reported at €16m ($16.5m), Emilia Pérez shot in Mexico for 10 days and in France for 55 days on a sound stage, fitted with giant blue-screen walls, built in an old disused clothing warehouse and outbuildings on the outskirts of Paris.
Guilhaume is nominated for best cinematography by both the Bafta Film Awards and Oscars – his first nominations at both sets of awards. Guilhaume – whose early resumé includes three documentary features for director Sébastien Lifshitz – spoke to Screen at the Cameraimage film festival in Poland last November.
How did you and Audiard work on the evolution of Emilia Perez?
I first heard about the project during Covid when it was one name for two projects. It was Emilia Perez, a standard film to be shot with the grittiness, look and energy of Amores Perros, a film I love. Then there was Emilia Perez the opera, with a libretto in five acts that Jacques [Audiard] was writing with musicians and another scriptwriter. After a few months the two projects merged into a musical [film].
What were the highlights of the Mexico shoot?
In Mexico, the question was always what is the best and most relevant way to capture what we want? Sometimes in a sequence, it would be one blue screen, one natural exterior, one interior shot, all being combined. We had a little kid riding his bike with a camera rigged to the bicycle through a market. We had cars riding in the desert with the camera attached to the outside and there’s Rita’s apartment with a view over Mexico. And there were several drone shots.
Did you use iPhone footage?
We have multiple formats mixed on the film. Selena Gomez does a selfie with an iPhone and we used a compact RED Komodo for rig shots on a bicycle and car scenes. We used an Arri Alexa for the film’s final procession scene.
What was the moment you thought, “This is going to be difficult”?
The opening sequence where Rita is imagining her plea for a client in Mexico in the street market. Jacques wanted the street to start empty before suddenly real people from Mexico, and a real market with the energy of one, begin to build around her. We had 150 extras pushing carts, 50 dancers with all of the market stalls on wheels so they can move around her as she’s walking.
For planning and availability reasons, we had to start the first day of the shoot with that sequence. The biggest scene of the film is probably the most expensive one, and we’re lighting it with light bulbs we imported from Mexico because we loved them in the street markets we had seen on our scouting trips. We equipped every market stall with a battery and a wifi receptor, and had a console that would enable us to switch them on as soon as they were on camera and switch them off if the camera was doing the 360 so as not to cast a shadow on the face and to keep the contrast we wanted.
How did you light the desert scenes at night?
We used the light from the cars. We had the car headlamps and got on eBay to buy those roof-mounted car lamps like the ones on the trucks in Jurassic Park.
What was your favourite part of the shoot?
It’s strange to say but it was the last thing we shot: the procession at the end. I felt very comfortable, maybe because of my documentary background and also because we had planned so meticulously. We had chosen a specific street in Mexico that we liked and the exposure was good for me. It was the right time of the day and everything just popped.
What are you doing next?
I’m shooting Arnold Desplechin’s Une Affaire, with François Civil [recent French box office hit Beating Hearts] and Charlotte Rampling in Lyon, France. It’s all natural sets with a minimal crew, handheld cameras – it’s very different to Emilia Perez.
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