By Dan Hutchinson
If there is such a thing as a citizen of the World then self-styled “permanent gypsy” Michael Seresin would fit that bill.
Mixing movie making and wine is a bit like landing and taking off at the same time – one keeps you grounded and the other shifts a person all over the World.
Michael Seresin is back in Marlborough for a break over summer – Christmas at his home in Waterfall Bay and regular sorties around the Seresin Estate Vineyards.
He has cut back on his commitments in recent times – no longer doing endless commercials and focussing instead on feature films and the wine business.
As a cinematographer, Michael has been involved with the biggest names in the business and has an impressive list of credits.
He has just finished filming on ‘All Good Things’ starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling and is taking a breather back home, if you can call it that.
He certainly doesn’t identify with a particular place and since he left Wellington 40 years ago he has travelled the World, occasionally popping back to his country of birth.
Michael left university in Wellington in 1963 and went to work as a PA at Pacific Films. He left New Zealand in 1966 to pursue a career as a freelance camera assistant in Europe, initially going to Rome “on a flimsy pretext”.
“There was just something I liked about the lifestyle, food, wine and just how they lived.”
After eighteen months in Rome and London, he graduated to lighting camera status and by 1968 was working alongside his future BFCS partners; Bob Brooks and Len Fulford.
From 1970 he combined commercials work with shooting movies, becoming a director of photography for Harold Becker, Adrian Lyne and Alan Parker, on films such as "Bugsy Malone", "Midnight Express", "City Hall", "Angela's Ashes", "Harry Potter - The Prisoner of Azkaban" and most recently ‘All Good Things’.
He has five adult children living in London and New York.
His grandson spent the Christmas with him in Waterfall Bay and got an unusual present – two Arapawa Island goats that have now made themselves quite comfortable in their new home.
He enjoys the history and hundreds of years of culture associated with Europe and the UK and admits to a bit of a “love-hate” relationship with New Zealand.
“The food is truly appalling which is sad. There are little towns in California that have been transformed by the grape industry but here, we stick with safe, boring food. We are pretty conservative with our food.”
As an example, he cited a woman who sells fresh fish off a boat in Picton. She is only allowed to sell for a few hours every week, which he finds extraordinary compared with other seaside villages around the World, where fresh fish from the wharf is the norm.
He doesn’t really have a place he calls home.
“I like the landscape here but culturally I feel like a fish out of water.
“I don’t grieve for places and say ‘oh, I wish I was at Waterfall Bay’. I love the Old World – Britain, France, Italy, Europe.
“I like that we are not hide bound by tradition here.”
Seresin Estate was purchased and planted in the early 1990’s and it was not long before Michael built up a dislike of the chemical culture prevalent in vineyards both here and abroad.
He observed the vineyards in Tuscany where the only thing growing out of the ground were grape vines.
“A lot of guys are putting too many chemicals on.
“The soil and the land is not just a medium for chemicals and if you can make wine without it, why not?”
Just a year after purchasing the vineyard he made the decision to produce grapes without any chemicals and the estate is now renowned for its organic and bio-dynamic production methods.
“It is tough but New Zealand has sold itself as a clean, green land and green is not just a colour.
“It is not so tough now. They used to do it because they had to but if I used a little bit of weed killer now I think half the staff would walk.”
He is still deciding what he will do this year movie-wise and therefore where he will make his home but he does have a couple of good options.
If there is such a thing as a citizen of the World then self-styled “permanent gypsy” Michael Seresin would fit that bill.
Mixing movie making and wine is a bit like landing and taking off at the same time – one keeps you grounded and the other shifts a person all over the World.
Michael Seresin is back in Marlborough for a break over summer – Christmas at his home in Waterfall Bay and regular sorties around the Seresin Estate Vineyards.
He has cut back on his commitments in recent times – no longer doing endless commercials and focussing instead on feature films and the wine business.
As a cinematographer, Michael has been involved with the biggest names in the business and has an impressive list of credits.
He has just finished filming on ‘All Good Things’ starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling and is taking a breather back home, if you can call it that.
He certainly doesn’t identify with a particular place and since he left Wellington 40 years ago he has travelled the World, occasionally popping back to his country of birth.
Michael left university in Wellington in 1963 and went to work as a PA at Pacific Films. He left New Zealand in 1966 to pursue a career as a freelance camera assistant in Europe, initially going to Rome “on a flimsy pretext”.
“There was just something I liked about the lifestyle, food, wine and just how they lived.”
After eighteen months in Rome and London, he graduated to lighting camera status and by 1968 was working alongside his future BFCS partners; Bob Brooks and Len Fulford.
From 1970 he combined commercials work with shooting movies, becoming a director of photography for Harold Becker, Adrian Lyne and Alan Parker, on films such as "Bugsy Malone", "Midnight Express", "City Hall", "Angela's Ashes", "Harry Potter - The Prisoner of Azkaban" and most recently ‘All Good Things’.
He has five adult children living in London and New York.
His grandson spent the Christmas with him in Waterfall Bay and got an unusual present – two Arapawa Island goats that have now made themselves quite comfortable in their new home.
He enjoys the history and hundreds of years of culture associated with Europe and the UK and admits to a bit of a “love-hate” relationship with New Zealand.
“The food is truly appalling which is sad. There are little towns in California that have been transformed by the grape industry but here, we stick with safe, boring food. We are pretty conservative with our food.”
As an example, he cited a woman who sells fresh fish off a boat in Picton. She is only allowed to sell for a few hours every week, which he finds extraordinary compared with other seaside villages around the World, where fresh fish from the wharf is the norm.
He doesn’t really have a place he calls home.
“I like the landscape here but culturally I feel like a fish out of water.
“I don’t grieve for places and say ‘oh, I wish I was at Waterfall Bay’. I love the Old World – Britain, France, Italy, Europe.
“I like that we are not hide bound by tradition here.”
Seresin Estate was purchased and planted in the early 1990’s and it was not long before Michael built up a dislike of the chemical culture prevalent in vineyards both here and abroad.
He observed the vineyards in Tuscany where the only thing growing out of the ground were grape vines.
“A lot of guys are putting too many chemicals on.
“The soil and the land is not just a medium for chemicals and if you can make wine without it, why not?”
Just a year after purchasing the vineyard he made the decision to produce grapes without any chemicals and the estate is now renowned for its organic and bio-dynamic production methods.
“It is tough but New Zealand has sold itself as a clean, green land and green is not just a colour.
“It is not so tough now. They used to do it because they had to but if I used a little bit of weed killer now I think half the staff would walk.”
He is still deciding what he will do this year movie-wise and therefore where he will make his home but he does have a couple of good options.
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