Cinematographer Maryse Alberti Talks CREED And Women In Film

CREED continues to be a box office success and a favorite with audiences and critics. Globally Ryan Coogler’s film has passed the $100 million mark since its initial opening this fall.

The film reunites Coogler with his FRUITVALE STATION star Michael B. Jordan as the son of Apollo Creed, and explores a new chapter in the ROCKY story, starring Academy Award nominee Sylvester Stallone in his iconic role.

For the director, there was no question that CREED would be set in Philadelphia, where it all began. And for the filmmakers, there was no doubt that principal photography would be accomplished there as well.  In order to bridge the two films artistically, Coogler brought together the talented creative team of costume designers Emma Potter (“Song One”) and Antoinette Messam (“Orphan”) and his “Fruitvale Station” team: editors Michael P. Shawver and Claudia Castello; production designer Hannah Beachler; and composer Ludwig Goransson.

To bring the visual images of this motion picture to the screen, the director called on multi-award-winning French cinematographer Maryse Alberti.

Most recently, Alberti lensed M. Night Shyamalan’s film THE VISIT, which opened in theaters this fall, followed by FREEHELD, starring Julianne Moore, Ellen Page and Steve Carell.

In 2008, she received a Best Cinematography Independent Spirit Award for her work on the Oscar-nominated, Darren Aronofsky-directed film THE WRESTLER. She also received plaudits for director Todd Haynes’ POISON and VELVET GOLDMINE (Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography), and the hard-hitting drama HAPPINESS for Todd Solondz. Her other awards include Sundance Film Festival Best Cinematography honors for documentaries CRUMB, in 1995, and H-2 Worker.

She has lensed acclaimed documentaries with her long-time collaborator Alex Gibney: “The Armstrong Lie”; “We Steal Secrets”; “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer”; “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson”; the 2008 Best Documentary Academy Award winner “Taxi to the Dark Side”; and “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” (2006 Best Documentary Academy Award nomination).

During our recent phone conversation we discussed not only CREED, but Alberti’s cinematography on her other films. Being one of the few women cinematographers in the United States, we also talked about her views on the progress of women DP’s working on every type of studio film.

WAMG: Did you love movies as a kid growing up?

Maryse Alberti: I grew up in the South of France in a small town and I didn’t go to the movies until I was 15.  The first time was in a city called Bordeaux and I don’t remember who took me there, but I will always remember the dark theater and I saw Steven Spielberg’s film DUEL. It blew me away.

I really didn’t watch TV. My grandmother was the first one to have a TV on the block where we lived and people would come once a week to where she lived to watch a televised play. When I came to the States as an au pair at the age of 19, I stayed with a family in New Rochelle, NY and there was a TV in every room.  I had a little TV in my room and I would watch many movies on the “Late, Late Show.”

WAMG: Artistically, the stars aligned for this film – from your cinematography, to the score, to the editing. How were you offered the job and how was it to work with Ryan Coogler?

MA:  When I found out that I was considered for the job, I was a little bit surprised. When I heard that it was Ryan Coogler, I was really interested in working with him.  It made a little more sense because he’s an Indie filmmaker.

I was really happy that the studio trusted a woman cinematographer with a good sized budget, a franchise and an action movie. It’s time for studios to give all women directors and women cinematographers these opportunities.

WAMG: Tell me about the much talked about boxing scene shot in a single take.

MA: It is a single take and was Ryan’s idea. It was to show that the boxer is on his own in the ring. Then he goes to his corner where he’s with his trainer who gives him support and advice, and then he’s right back in the ring by himself.

A lot of work went into choreographing the scene with stunt coordinator Clayton Barber and Steadicam camera operator Benjamin Semanoff, who not only had to memorize all the moves, but executed them to perfection twelve times.

It was a team effort – the fight coordinator wanted the Steadicam shot to be in the right place so it looks like the boxers’ punches connect and I wanted to keep the drama and emotion and face of the fighters.

Michael B. Jordan was amazing because he was in the ring with professional boxers. He also had to memorize the complex choreography like one would a long monologue and we were so happy with his performance.

WAMG: Did you have a look at the original 1976 film?

MA: I looked at it a little bit, but films like THE WRESTLER and THE PROPHET were also an influence, and we wanted to go with our own style with that first fight and then with the big end fight.

WAMG: How did Ryan Coogler approach you about replicating the two iconic ROCKY scenes for CREED – the running down the street scene and the one of Rocky running up the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps?

MA: Ryan was very smart and very talented in keeping those iconic scenes from the ROCKY movie while bringing his own signature to it and bringing the characters and story into the present. He wanted this generation to be able to relate with the music and the circling of the bikes. Ryan was able to merge both things while making his own film. I think he really succeeded there.

Plus Sylvester Stallone gave such an amazing performance.

WAMG:  How much input did you receive from Stallone with him being on-set most of the time?

MA: He was so cool about the whole thing and completely trusted his director. He would make an occasional suggestion and we would certainly listen because he is a filmmaker, and it is his creation, but he really let us do our work with trust and respect. He was really great.

© Warner Bros. Pictures

WAMG: On FREEHELD, you captured the immediacy of the time, the place and the situation with the performances.

MA: The idea from the director (Peter Sollett) was to keep the cinematography very simple. He wanted the camera in the background with the actors in the foreground. The story was very powerful and we had great actors.

Courtesy: Lionsgate

WAMG: I loved your cinematography on the Lance Armstrong documentary.  How did you work on what became an ever-changing story?

MA: There’s a tradition of the Cinéma Vérité to it – when he trains and for the Tour – to pair it with the beauty of the image of the cycling. You have to create the intimacy and gain the trust of the character which the director, Alex Gibney, and I did as we’ve worked together on a lot of movies. Lance trusted us and we were able to get an inside look at the Tour de France which was kind of amazing.

Then there was the controversy after what happened. We were still be able to talk and listen to Lance and his version of the story. It’s a moving portrait of an athlete – I think he’s still an amazing athlete. It’s also a great film about a man who has a very dark side as well as a sport going awry. It’s not just about Lance but the doping of the sport which was going on long before he arrived. Plus it was also about the people who called him on that.

WAMG: Speaking of documentaries, you lensed M. Night Shyamalan’s THE VISIT in documentary style to make the audience understand the fear and terror that kids in the film are experiencing as they shoot their own movie. Everything is shot with handheld cameras because it is a documentary.  It’s really a clever way to tell a story.

MA: It is a very fun and unique film. The kids were holding the camera through the scene in the crawlspace.

Peter Nolan did all the handheld pretending to be the kids. We helped them to frame themselves when they were not moving, but all of the shots of them running were actually shot with a smaller camera than we’d normally use for the rest of the film. For the rest of the film it was the camera operator.

© Universal Pictures

WAMG: Which do you prefer shooting on – digital or film?

MA:  I think it depends on the film and location. With digital you don’t have to carry all these rolls of film, especially on a documentary. Plus digital is more environmentally friendly.

I’m not a hardcore “film” person, but in the one instance when the director wants the look of 16mm then I think you would need film. I think it would be difficult to achieve the look of 16mm with digital.

I also love the ALEXA camera which has a pretty fantastic look. I love that it allows you to shoot in very low light.

WAMG:  As a cinematographer, are you looking forward to seeing Quentin Tarantino’s THE HATEFUL EIGHT with all the hype that it was shot in 70mm?

MA: I’m actually looking forward to it and I want to see it in 70mm.  I haven’t seen a film in 70mm since LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. You go for the spectacle of it and 70mm doesn’t necessarily make a film great – it can be a part and add to the greatness of a movie. The image really counts.

When I see a movie like CAROL shot by Edward Lachman, that movie IS beautiful and is perfectly shot. That is the kind of movie you shoot on film and it shows. The cinematography is so much a part of how it feels and the look of that film. The images are so much a part of the storytelling.

WAMG:  Not one woman has ever been nominated, never mind winning, an Academy Award.  There are not many women in the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC’s roster).

MA: Before the Oscars, before the ASC, before all that, let’s get women to work. That’s what we need. Let’s get the studios to not be afraid of hiring women. Let’s get the directors to not be afraid of hiring a woman DP for any kind of movie – for a movie like CREED, for a movie like CAROL, for a movie like FAST AND FURIOUS. Women are perfectly able to shoot any kind of style of movie, so before the Academy Awards let’s put women to work. Let’s give them a chance to win that Academy Award.

WAMG: Do you think it is changing?

MA: Yes. I think it is changing very slowly and women are still a very small percentage of all cinematographers. The fact that a big deal is being made that a woman shot CREED, it shouldn’t be. It should be normal.

I am a woman, but I am a cinematographer and I am experienced. Contrary to the progress of women directors, which I think is in recession, in the 25 years that I’ve been a DP, I’ve seen a slow progress.

More women are shooting movies. It is improving and it is still a very slow progress.