Luc Montpellier csc - Director of Photography
Images created by the award-winning Director of Photography Luc Montpellier have entertained and engaged feature film audiences, festival cinephiles and television viewers for over 15 years. He is equally at home interpreting the vision of directors seeking a broad commercial audience or with an avant-garde perspective, directors who favour textured, voluptuous palettes and dramatic composition (Sarah Polley's Away From Her and Cement Virgo's Poor Boys Game) and those whose films are visually edgy, playful or experimental (Michael Snow’s Prelude, Philip Barker’s Night Vision, or Guy Madden’s fantastical black-and-white re-imagination of the 1930s in The Saddest Music in the World, starring Isabella Rossellini). Montpellier purposefully explores new ways of seeing for each project; he says that every script has its own visual story, so he looks for the cinematic style to convey the uniqueness of that story. Similarly versatile with mood and genre, he can deftly portray intimate drama and explosive action, comedy and historical re-enactment, illustrating as well a mature balance between art and technology, freedom and form.
His work has contributed to the success of feature films like Ashgar Massombagi’s Khaled, which earned Montpellier the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography at the Woodstock Film Festival, and Luck, Peter Wellington’s gambling adventure, which won Best Narrative Feature at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
His experience in all forms of filmed art is extensive, ranging from feature films to music videos to and network television series. Montpellier’s contribution of talent, wisdom and generosity of spirit has proved vital to the work of aspiring and accomplished professionals both domestically and internationally.
Montpellier’s credits as Director of Photography include the biopic TV mini-series Hemingway vs Callaghan (dir: Michael Decarlo), which earned him a Gemini Award for Best Photography in a Drama, and the Pilot for the hit series Flashpoint which airs on CBS.
Montpellier’s most recent films include, Paolo Barzman’s Emotional Arithmetic which was nominated for Best Theatrical Feature Cinematography at the 2008 CSC Awards, the Patricia Highsmith adapted thriller Cry Of The Owl (dir: Jamie Thraves) starring Julia Stiles and Paddy Considine, and Cairo Time (dir: Ruba Nadda) shot entirely in Cairo, Egypt. The film was honoured with the Best Canadian Feature prize at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, and has been released world-wide.
Luc has recently wrapped production on the Psychological Thriller Cell 213 featuring Eric Balfour & Bruce Greenwood, and Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz starring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogan and Sarah Silverman.