RPS AWARDS
2017
HOYTE VAN HOYTEMA LUMIÈRE AWARD
The Dunkirk director of photography tells Kathleen Morgan why we should never forget
794 / THE RPS JOURNAL / OCTOBER 2017 / VOL 157
© 2017 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC
RANKIN © 2015 EON PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
H
e is the director of photography who brought the evacuation of Dunkirk crashing into our cinemas, recreating the story of 400,000 allied troops trapped on a French beach after retreating from Hitler’s forces. Working his magic with an IMAX camera, Hoyte van Hoytema united with the film’s director and writer Christopher Nolan to reimagine the aftermath of the shattering 1940 defeat. Together, they have dragged their audience on to that desolate beach, into Spitfire cockpits and aboard sinking boats in a relentlessly tense film. ‘We weren’t wanting to give an intellectual interpretation of the event,’ says Van Hoytema, speaking from Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and daughter, a couple of days after Dunkirk opens in the UK to critical