Michel Amathieu is a French famous DOP, as many DOP he discovered his passion in a strange way.
Michel a mathematics teacher in his first life, but spending its time practicing photography with his friends from les Beaux arts de Paris. It's his participation to a 16mm workshop that allowed him to meet Jorge Blanco who immediately saw Michel's potential and decided to hire Michel for his feature film Argie.
Very arty film shot in the rush but ended in the Cannes selection in 1984. Michel 's carrer was then launched, he quit his teacher job, integrated the prestigious Louis Lumière french cinéma school to finilize his knowledge and work as assistant with great DOP like Jerry Fisher, Tonino Delli Colli.
Then he started to light as DOP tones of music videos, short films and commercials. But that was not enough for Michel envy to serve stories with his light, to give some meaning to his knowledge.
So he goes back to what he loves the most feature films and never stopped till then, catching the audience attention with a very creative light that caught the attention in the 90's with Doberman from Ian Kounen, that remarkable style allowed him to meet Emir Kusturica on Chat Noir Chat Blanc.
The two become friends and naturally Michel was the DOP of Life is a miracle from the same Kusturica. Then his very creative approach to light and his taste for very author films attracted lot of great directors: he lighted I Love LA for Mika Kaurismaki, worked for Dev Benegal, Israel Horovitz, Volker Schloendorff, Agnieska Holland and many more director's that are used to the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival.
He also works on premium French series, he is the DOP of two of the most successful French series in the world: Versailles and Braquo. Recently, he contributed to seasons 1 and 2 of the American series Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.
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2024
©MICHEL AMATHIEU