How Robert Richardson’s portrait came to life: Two emails, 424 clips, and 10 years of life

After the screening, the packed audience at the Pupp Cinema gave a warm round of applause to the creative team behind the documentary portrait Robert Richardson: The White Devil, led by director Jana Hojdová. She first approached the legendary cinematographer ten years ago. What began as a student project eventually grew into a feature-length documentary. “When I look back, I honestly don’t know whether I’d have the courage to do it today,” she admitted. In fact, getting in touch with Richardson turned out to be surprisingly straightforward: all it took was sending him a couple of emails. Although he only replied to the second one, several months later, that was enough to get the project started.

“Bob realised that if he didn’t change his approach to filmmaking, he might lose Quentin Tarantino, whom he deeply admired. It made him reflect on the way he approached both people and filmmaking,” said the director, describing the darker side of the acclaimed cinematographer. On set, Richardson could often come across as a ruthless general, relentlessly striving for absolute perfection and expecting the same commitment from everyone around him. “Making this documentary became a kind of therapy for him. For most of his life, his family came second. Now he wishes he could devote more time to them,” she added.

Producer Matěj Chlupáček then spoke about the exceptionally complicated process of securing rights to the film clips used in the documentary, which features scenes from Kill Bill, JFK, and Casino. “Finding our way through the rights was incredibly difficult. It was painstaking work. Many of the studios no longer exist, and the rights are scattered across dozens of different entities. Jana and Bob pointed us in the right direction when it came to contacts, and eventually we reached an American law firm. We even had to take out insurance. Altogether, there are 424 clips from other films in the documentary. I’ll never forget that number. We also had to pay for the music. California Dreamin’ doesn’t come cheap,” he explained, adding that, due to the licensing fees, it is probably the most expensive Czech documentary ever made.

For Hojdová, maintaining emotional distance from the material was anything but easy. “I spent years organising the footage and knew it inside out. Bob used to joke that I knew more about him than his own family. During the making of the documentary, I also directed four feature films, completed my studies at the Prague film academy FAMU, and gave birth to my daughter. Robert was there through all of it. Sometimes I even rang him during filming to ask for advice. He’s incredibly humble and free of prejudice – otherwise this documentary could never have been made,” she said about their collaboration.

“We gradually sent Bob different cuts of the film. I was really nervous. He had entrusted me with deeply personal material and was fully aware that it revealed his flaws. But he never once suggested removing anything. We only discussed minor details,” Hojdová added, revealing that the documentary ultimately went through around thirty different edits.