Theo Van de Sande, ASC
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
"During the 25 years that I have been working in this profession, I have, in moments of despair, often asked myself a variety of questions: 'How did I get into this? What made me decide to spend my entire life searching for the perfect combination of shadow and light, the deepest blacks and the most fragile highlights, for the ultimate frame and the strongest perspective to tell an often not-so-perfect story? Why did I choose to study Film at the Dutch Film Academy in Amsterdam, rather than following a more predictable path in biochemistry at the University in the more protected South of Holland?'
"Every time I ask myself these things, my thoughts go back to my last years in high school, when my brother organized a Film Liga, where I first saw the films of Bergman, Bu–uel, Fellini, Antonioni and others. Already obsessed by still photography, I was taken away by these masters of cinema. For me, their films were magic, but they didn't make me decide to put everything aside and go into films myself.
"The one and only film that really had a profound influence on my decision was Suna No Onna (Woman in the Dunes), a 1964 film from the Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara. The picture is very powerful, but at the same time, so simple. It tells an abstract story so intense that its extraordinary black-and-white photography can even affect you physically.
"It's no wonder that Woman in the Dunes won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1964. In my opinion, the only reason that the film didn't win the Grand Prize at Cannes and the Academy Award was because it was far ahead of its time. At the same time, the picture was so incredibly powerful that it couldn't be ignored.
"Since that first time I watched Woman in the Dunes during my brother's Film Liga, its sensation has stayed with me, and I've always hoped that just once I'll find a project as good as this masterpiece. It's kept me going for a long time.
"This year, the picture was re-released. I was very excited and went to see it, hoping that the film would not appear dated — I was not disappointed. For me, Woman in the Dunes was as powerful, as intense, as erotic and emotional an experience as it had been in 1965. It is still a sensual, stunning allegory of poetry and power. [Cinematographer] Hiroshi Segawa's black-and-white photography is as modern now as I felt it was years ago, and Toru Takemitsu's musical score does more than simply serve the story.
"It's often said that a film cannot change a person's perception, but in my case, Woman in the Dunes had a profound effect on my decision about what to do next in my life."
—as told to David Heuring
Theo Van de Sande's credits as a director of photography include Miracle Mile, The First Power, Once Around, Volcano and Blade.
© 1999 ASC