AFC films in festivals

Comedies with a fantastical or eccentric statement are rare in European cinema. But The (Ex)perience of Love (Syndrome des amours passées), an exciting couples analysis by Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni, is one exception. The humour, tenderness and audacity of this Belgian film will do wonders during the Semaine de la Critique. Jorge Piquer Rodriguez, the director of photography, and the two directors, talk to us about rhythm, direction, and a giant inner tube. (FR)

The 76^th Cannes Film Festival’s opening film, Jeanne du Barry, is American actor Johnny Depp’s first French-language role, alongside Maïwenn, who directs and stars as the lead character in her sixth feature film. She entrusted Laurent Dailland, AFC (French Society of Cinematographers), with the cinematographic direction of this film of an unexpected genre in her filmography. Experienced in period films, – but not only – , Laurent Dailland talks about his work using 35mm film, and the choices he made to create a sober yet modern world to accompany the story of King Louis XV’s favourite. (BB)

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and David Ungaro, AFC (French Society of Cinematographers), team up once again on Black Flies. A very realistic and desperate dive into the world of American paramedics. Shot mainly at night, in Brooklyn, this film brings together for the first time on screen the acting duo Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan. David talks to us about the city as its own character in the film, shooting in an emergency truck and his approach to scaling lighting on a set. (FR)

Following the decision by the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival to approve the AFC’s choice of cinematographer Nathalie Durand to represent the Association this year on the Golden Camera jury, Dominique Gentil, AFC, thought it important to write up the history of this award, which is important to all directors of first films, in all selections.

Franco-Cambodian director Davy Chou’s second feature film, Return to Seoul, focuses dispassionately but as closely as possible on a young woman who returns to retrace her Korean origins. The visuals, by Thomas Favel, AFC, who has been working with Davy Chou since the start of his career, helps us embark on this voyage of self-discovery. He reveals to us the behind-the-scenes choices he made for Return to Seoul which has been selected in Un Certain Regard at the 75^th Cannes Film Festival. (BB)

Before becoming a writer, Paolo Cognetti was a student at Milan’s filmmaking school. This was put to good use in the making of this film, over which he kept a watchful eye “like a good guardian angel,” according to Ruben Impens, SBC. With The Eight Mountains, the first adaptation of his novel, the lover of alpine hiking seems to have found a duo of directors on the same wavelength as him. The result is an Italian-language ode to mountain peaks, a film about friendship and life’s unpredictable paths. Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi are the two main actors. (FR)

Norwegian cinematographer Benjamin Loeb, FNF, has two films in selection at Cannes this year: When You Finish Saving the World, the first feature by actor Jesse Eisenberg (Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network), and Sick of Myself, by his countryman Kristoffer Borgli. Two independent films shot on film (16 and 35mm 2 perf), testifying to the return of many projects at Cannes that have chosen film to translate their vision onto the screen. (FR)

After the highly acclaimed Just 6.5, filmmaker Saeed Roustaee presents Leila’s Brothers at the 75^th Cannes Festival. This is a family story whose themes are intimately linked to those of present-day Iranian society. Filmed largely in a modest apartment in the Iranian capital, the film shows great ingenuity in the way it handles the scenes with the six-member family. Hooman Behmaanesh talks to us about his experience as director of photography on this film. (FR)

German filmmaker Marie Kreutzer, in a desire to give contemporary appeal to the somewhat fusty figure of the Empress of Austria, has decided to offer her own resolutely feminist version of this historical figure. Once she is tightly bound by the corset firmly laced around her wasp waist, Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps becomes the embodiment of Sissi. In order to film this princess who is constantly engaged in an emotional flight, cinematographer Judith Kaufmann, BVK, produced very subtle work, in 3P 35mm film and spherical 2.39 format. This film was remarked during the 75^th annual Cannes Film Festival in the "Un Certain Regard" official section. (FR)

Producer Gina Gammel and actress Riley Keough decided to shoot their first feature film as co-directors in the heart of Pine Ridge Native American reservation, in South Dakota. War Pony is a film featuring non-professional actors, which describes the daily lives of several young people belonging to the Lakota tribe. This is also a deep dive into the lives of marginalized Americans, who live in mobile homes, and whose lives are severely impacted by drug trafficking. David Gallego, ADFC, a cinematographer originally from Columbia (I Am Not a Witch, by Rungano Nyoni, noticed at Cannes in 2017) took on this political and emotional film. (FR)

A dark, autumnal film bathed in flickering golden sunlight, James Gray’s Armageddon Time is a feature film full of memories from its director. The story is composed of a gallery of characters all drawn from the director’s real childhood in the borough of Queens. At the center of the plot is a teenager in search of himself – played on screen by young actor Banks Repeta – surrounded by Anne Hathaway (his mother), Jeremy Strong (his father) and Anthony Hopkins (his grandfather). Darius Khondji, AFC, ASC was the mastermind behind this film’s visuals, creating a sober and soft image of mid-1980s New York, where hip hop music was being born just as the punk movement was slowly dying out. (FR)

During the 75^th Cannes Film Festival, we have published 31 written 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 each of them.

Nicolas Pariser’s latest film, Le Parfum vert, in selection at the Directors’ Fortnight, is set in the world of the theater. Between a spy film and a comic-strip, reflections of Hitchcock and Tintin hover above the somewhat incredible adventures of the strange duo of Vincent Lacoste and Sandrine Kiberlain. Sébastien Buchmann, AFC, has loyally worked alongside Nicolas Pariser in the past, and the Directors’ Fortnight screened their film Alice et le maire in 2019. This year, they’re back with Le Parfum vert, a film with colored and contrasted visuals, with waves of green… (BB)

After The Square (Palme d’or 2017) and Snow Therapy (Un Certain Regard 2014), Swedish director Ruben Östlund makes his return to the Croisette with a hilarious bombshell where certain scenes rise to the height of Monty Python’s Himalayas. Triangle of Sadness thrilled audiences during the first weekend of the festival, sparking hilarious laughter in the theater as buckets of vomit spilled onto the screen. Cinematographer Fredrik Wenzel, FSF, teamed up with the Gothenburg director again on this marathon shoot of nearly eighty-five days (interrupted at the very start of the pandemic in March 2020, then resumed in the fall). He tells us of his joy at having been able to film this new film, which is a serious contender for this year’s top prize. (FR)

Arnaud Desplechin’s films have often plunged viewers into the heart of family dramas; with Frère et sœur, the director reinvents his favorite theme and offers an exploration of the feelings that oppose Alice (Marion Cotillard) and Louis (Melvil Poupaud). Cinematographer Irina Lubtchansky, AFC, has loyally worked alongside the filmmaker since their first film together, Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse. She developed an image for this drama that is both soft and realistic, contrasting and romantic... Frère et sœur is in Official Competition at Cannes for the 75^th Festival. (BB)

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)