LIVING THE LIGHT

Director and Director of Photography Claire Pijman had access to thousands of Hi8 video diaries, pictures and polaroid’s that Müller photographed while he was at work on one of the more than 70 features he shot through his career; often with long term collaborators such as Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch and Lars von Trier. The film intertwines those images with films excerpts, thus creating a fluid and cinematic continuum. Robby Müller's work has been compared to painters like Vermeer and Hopper, other masters of light. Even when his films are finished, his images keep on moving. The light never fades because he always creates space for human emotions to come into the light.

In 1990 Claire Pijman graduated in cinematography at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. Since then she works as a cinematographer on documentaries and fiction. Pijman has worked as a cameraman in the feature ‘Good Morning Karachi, by Sabiha Sumar and ‘Jermal’ by Ravi Bharwani. A longtime friendship and apprenticeship with Robby Müller started after she operate one of the cameras on the “Buena Vista Social club”, by Wim Wenders. Pijman considers Robby Müller as one of her most important inspirations. Pijman made several documentaries amongst. This documentary, on Robby Müller and his work, based on his personal archive, is her most recent film.

It also slowly emerges that Muller was always more interested in the feelings and emotions of any scene in a film than in the technical aspects behind the shot, though one very detailed exploration of a “natural light” scene from Barbet Schroeder’s Barfly suggests Muller could be an obsessive technician as well, when required.

Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter