Robby Muller, the distinguished Dutch director of photography of such major 1980s and 1990s art films as Dancer in the Dark, Down by Law, Repo Man and Paris, Texas, died July 4 in his native Amsterdam.
He was 78 and according to Dutch publication “Het Parool” had been suffering from vascular dementia for several years.
Muller was known for his collaboration with filmmakers including Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Lars von Trier, Alex Cox and Barbet Schroeder, who created some of the most notable auteur films of the 1980s and 1990s.
Both Paris, Texas and Dancer in the Dark had won the top Cannes Fest Award, the Palme d’Or, in their respective years, 1984 and 2000.
As a European, he brought a memorable approach to portraying Los Angeles on film in William Friedkin’s “To Live and Die in L.A.,” Schroeder’s “Barfly” and Cox’s “Repo Man.”
The last feature-length film he shot was Michael Winterbottom’s 2002 “24 Hour Party People,” which vividly captured the Manchester music scene of the 1980s.
That same year, he collaborated with director Steve McQueen on an art installation, “Carib’s Leap.”