AFC films in festivals

After her first film, Personal Affairs, selected for Un Certain Regard in 2016, Maha Haj returns to the Croisette this year with her second feature, Mediterranean Fever. In this chilling tragedy, the director, a Palestinian and Israeli citizen, very freely addresses the loss of identity of Palestinians who live in Israel. She entrusted the visuals of Mediterranean Fever to Antoine Héberlé, AFC, who has been the cinematographer for many foreign films. During his career, Antoine has acquired extensive filming experience in the Middle East and constantly adapts his skills to make these sometimes hazardous and often low-budget productions. (BB)

Ashkal, by Youssef Chebbi, is a film set in a particular district of the Tunisian capital: "Les Jardins de Carthage", a real estate development that is symbolic of the old regime, and which has remained under construction since the 2011 revolution. This crime drama is also a political and social film about contemporary Tunisia, and it also involves a metaphysical and religious dimension. Hazem Berrabah, AFC, TSC, was behind the camera and, here, he discusses this film whose visuals cause this neighborhood under construction to play a starring role in this film in its own right. (FR).

After winning the Camera d’or in 2017 for her first film Jeune femme, Léonor Séraille returns to the Croisette in Official Competition with Un petit frère. The story spans twenty years, we first accompany the mother, Rose, a young Ivorian woman who arrives in Paris with her two children in 1989. Thanks to ellipses, the director then guides us to one of the sons, Jean, then to the youngest, Ernest. Three eras, three points of view. Director of photography Hélène Louvart , AFC, discusses about her collaborative work with Léonor. (BB)

Describing a young couple facing an existential choice, Plus que jamais (More Than Ever) is also a journey towards accepting another’s choice, starring Vicky Krieps and Gaspard Ulliel . Yves Cape, AFC, was the DoP for this film shot in France, Luxembourg and Norway. He shares what it was like to make this film, at once hard and bright. (FR)

The film is set in the 1980s and tells Valeria’s personal experience from her time at the Théâtre des Amandiers school, but with contemporary actors. I wanted that to be reflected in the image. The memory of images is more important than the image itself. When you see the film, you must feel the both 1980s and the 2020s. Because the film is a meeting between the past and the present.

For his tenth feature film, Rachid Bouchareb decided to immerse viewers in the student demonstrations of December 1986. At the center of Nos frangins is the free reconstruction of two tragedies: the deaths of the young Malik and Abdel who became the symbols of police brutality during the Pasqua-Pandraud years. Because it alternates between real archival footage, recreated archival footage, and more classic fiction, it was a particular challenge on this film to reproduce the texture of the video used in television reporting at the time. Guillaume Deffontaines, AFC, explains how he did it. (FR)

After several projects about crime stories in Marseilles (La French, Bac Nord), director Cédric Jimenez decided to seize on a global news story: the hunt for the terrorist mastermind responsible for the Parisian attacks of November 13, 2015. Bringing together a star-studded cast, headed by Jean Dujardin (also in La French), this adaptation of the event, written by Olivier Demangel, immediately begins immersing viewers in the workings of the SDAT (Anti-Terrorist Subdivision of the French Police). This team’s methods and goals sometimes evoke those of the DGSI (French equivalent of the FBI), popularized by the series "Bureau"... To illustrate this race against time, Nicolas Loir, AFC, had to come up with a very flexible approach to filming, with two cameras, or even more, to capture these very intense moments during which national history is being made with each passing minute. (FR)

Mia Hansen-Løve, Nicolas Bedos, Owen Kline, Serge Bozon, Charlotte Le Bon, Nicolas Pariser and Jesse Eisenberg all shoot on Kodak film stock.

Philippe Faucon and Laurent Fénart, AFC, have been working together for twenty years. One is a director with a commitment to a cinema rooted in social realism – Fatima, which received the 2016 César for Best Film and the Louis Delluc Prize in 2015, Amin, La Désintegration – the other is a cinematographer who has an equal passion for documentaries and fictions. We meet with them here to talk about their latest collaboration on Les Harkis, a film that denounces the tragic destiny of the Algerians enlisted in the French army. Les Harkis is selected in the Directors’ Fortnight in this 75^th Cannes Film Festival. (BB)

After The Nile Hilton Incident, Tarik Saleh, a Swedish director of Egyptian origin, continues his exploration of genre film. He moves more towards a more realistic drama on Boy from Heaven but still keeps us in suspense with, this time, a power struggle at the heart of Sunni Islam. The cinematographer Pierre Aïm, AFC, who already worked with Tarik Saleh on The Nile Hilton Incident, has created a more restrained, naturalistic image that pushes us to eliminate the border between reality and fiction. Boy from Heaven is being presented in Official Competition at the 75^th Cannes Film Festival. (BB)

After the very tender Garçon chiffon, in official competition at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, cinematographer Raphaël Vandenbussche is back at the Festival, with Rodéo, in the Un Certain Regard selection. Lola Quivoron’s first feature film depicts, with passion and sincerity, the world of Bikelife, and the struggle of a young woman to find her place in it. (MC)

Unselfconsciously embracing its status as a remake of a concept film from Japan, Final Cut, by Michel Hazanavicius, is above all a comedy about the world of cinema, with a star-studded cast. This latest film from the director of The Artist with its hectic pace, its thirty-minute opening long take and its very particular construction, which is faithful to the original but has literally been translated into the language of French cinema, is being screened at the opening of the 75^th Cannes Film Festival. Jonathan Ricquebourg, AFC, is the director of photography and here, he recounts the behind the scenes of the shooting of this film, a great, ambitious game. (FR)

During the 74^th Cannes Film Festival, we have published 34 written or video interviews (20 are in English, others in French), in which directors of photography speak about their work on the selected movies. Here are the links allowing you to read or watch each of them.

The AFC will be especially well-represented at the 74^th Cannes Film Festival with over 25 films screened, two of its members will be on juries, a third member will receive an award, and others will be in attendance to represent one of their films in selection. The AFC will be housed by the CST at its stand – as usual – and will be sending out its Cannes newsletter, a daily recap of articles, images and interviews carried out especially for the occasion with cinematographers (both AFC and non-AFC members) with a film in selection.

Every year, Angénieux, an official partner of the Cannes Film Festival since 2013, honors a great director of photography. This year, the Pierre Angénieux Tribute will be awarded to Agnès Godard, AFC, on 16 July at 8 pm in the Buñuel Hall of the Palais des Festivals during an exceptional evening opened by Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, and the award will be presented by Pierre Zéni.

The story of fidelity between Arnaud Desplechin and Irina Lubtchansky is being written here with their fourth collaboration on Roubaix, une lumière, which is in Official Competition at Cannes this year. The cinematographer recently finished work on the image of L’Homme fidèle, by Louis Garrel, and Julie Bertuccelli’s La Dernière folie de Claire Darling. (BB)

During the 72^nd Cannes Film Festival, we have published 33 written or video interviews in French and 14 in English, in which directors of photography speak about their work on the selected movies. Here are the links allowing you to read or watch each of them.

In his latest film Bertrand Bonello juggles genres and eras between ethnological documentary, historical recreation and fiction. On the one side it depicts female teenage life at a boarding school and on the other a history of Voodoo practices and slavery in Haïti. Yves Cape, AFC, SBC, lensed this unusual film in competition at the Quinzaine des réalisateurs (Directors Fortnight). (FR)