'Moïse' (collection La Bible - Ancien Testament, 1979).
Jean-Marie Vives is a French background painter for movies and advertising photographer. Early in his career, he drew two volumes of a comic book collection based on the Old Testament.
Early life and career
At age 14, Vives enrolled at the Maximilien Vox School of Graphic Arts in Paris, and graduated six years later as an illustrator. In 1979, he illustrated the third and fourth installments of Univers Media's biblical comic book collection about the Old Testament, dealing with Moses ('Moïse') and the Promised Land ('La Terre Promise'). Written by René Berthier, the collection's three other volumes were illustrated by Bruno Le Sourd (#1 and 5) and Marc Boulet (#2).
Matte painting
In the same period, Jena-Marie Vives began his career in background painting for live-action movie productions. Early films with his participation were 'La Vie est un Roman' (1983) by Alain Resnais and 'Bunker Hotel Palace' (1989) by Enki Bilal. Vives was one of the first "matte painters" in French cinema, and has become an internationally recognized expert in this technique, which adds the illusion of decorative landscapes and backgrounds that are not present at the actual filming location. Initially painting on glass, Vives switched to working digitally in 1989. A master of the optical illusion and 3D special effects, Vives has participated in productions like 'La Cité des Enfants Perdus' ('The City of Lost Children', 1995) and 'Alien: Resurrection' (1997) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 'Peut-être' (1999) by Cédric Klapisch and Alain Chabat's 'Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra' (2002), based on the 'Asterix' comics by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny. He was largely responsible for the lengthy hallucination sequence in the 2004 'Blueberry' film, based on the western comic series by Jean Giraud and Jean-Michel Charlier.
Other activities
Apart from his cinema work, Jean-Marie Vives is also a creative photographer in the advertising industry. Since 2002, he has worked on successful campaigns for Veolia, British Airways, IG, WWF, Toyota and Barclay. In 2004, he won two Gold Lions at the Cannes Festival for a BMW campaign for the BDDP & Fils Agency. Together with his wife Marie-Laure and his two sons, photographer Romain Vives and graphic novelist Bastien Vives, he founded the Atelier Manjari & Partners in the Parisian Cité de l'Ameublement. Active since 2007, the workshop was intended to "facilitate access to artistic expression", and has about twenty associated artists in all sorts of disciplines. Since May 2016, the atelier also organizes exhibitions of contemporary artists.
Digital scenery for the 2004 'Blueberry' film (top) radically changes the look of the original footage (bottom).