Biography
Born in the Netherlands Antilles in 1940, Robby Müller moved to Amsterdam in 1953, and studied at the Netherlands Film Academy from 1962 to 1964. He began collaborating with director Wim Wenders when the director was still in film school. The two made seven feature films together between 1970 and 1977, including "Summer in the City" (1970), "The Wrong Move" (1970), and "The American Friend" (1977), helping to establish Müller's simple aesthetic: highlighting the natural light from his locations and using the camera to pull the audience focus to the emotional plight of the characters. It was this focus that made him one of the premiere cinematographers for personal independent filmmakers. In 1979, Müller made his first English language film, "Saint Jack" (1979), directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Müller first collaborated with director Jim Jarmusch on the film "Down by Law" (1986) and earned his first nomination for Best Cinematography at the Independent Spirit Awards. He repeated the honor with Jarmusch at the helm on two other films, "Mystery Train" (1989), and "Dead Man" (1995). Müller was cinematographer on Lars von Trier's legendary film "Breaking the Waves" (1996) the director's first to honor his Dogme 95 manifesto requiring, among other things, no artificial lighting. Müller and von Trier collaborated again on the notorious musical drama "Dancer in the Dark" (2000), starring Björk in the lead role. His final feature film was Michael Winterbottom's "24 Hour Party People" (2002), a well-received movie that told the story of music manager and record producer Tony Wilson and his label Factory Records. In 2013 Müller was awarded the ASC International Award, honoring his career and contribution to cinematography. He passed away in 2018.
