Assisted Nestor Almendros on three films directed by Eric Rohmer before graduating to director of photography in 1972. Rousselot had already enjoyed fruitful collaborations with directors Diane Kurys and Claude Goretta before landing in the spotlight with Jean-Jacques Beineix's slick, stylish thriller, "Diva" (1982). Heavily dependent on Rousselot's chic visuals, the film won him his first Cesar (the French Oscar) and kicked off a prestigious international career.
Rousselot won a second Cesar for Alain Cavalier's "Therese" (1986) around the time he began venturing into English-language cinema, evoking the passions of the 18th century French aristocracy in "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988) and those of 20th century literati Henry Miller and Anais Nin in "Henry and June" (1990, Oscar-nominated). Rousselot has often worked with John Boorman, adding a patina of fantasy to both the sober nostalgia of "Hope and Glory" (1987), which brought him a second Academy nomination, and the adventures within "The Emerald Forest" (1985). Woodlands have, in fact, provided a showcase for some of Rousselot's finest work--"A River Runs Through It" (1992), for which he earned a Best Cinematography Oscar, and "The Bear" (1988), for which he built a number of camera mounts and other devices to ingeniously mimic a bear's-eye view of the world.
Rousselot returned to France to shoot the epic "Queen Margot" (1994), which earned him a third Cesar. He subsequently provided the burnished tones for Neil Jordan's "Interview With the Vampire" (also 1994) and Stephen Frears' "Mary Reilly" (1996). In 1997, he stepped behind the camera to direct "The Serpent's Kiss", but the troubled film was not widely seen.