AFC-related activities

Wednesday, 7 November 2018, 9^th Arrondissement of Paris, 19:30
Ceremony Honoring Jean-Pierre Beauviala with a Special Award
 by the President of the ASC, Kees van Oostrum, with some AFC members in attendance. Aaton, Beauviala, these two names are inseparable from one another, a magic spell, a password on every continent and part of the vocabulary of all men and women who have chosen to make images their profession.

Jean-Pierre Beauviala, is an inventor amongst whose many creations are the Aaton cameras and Cantar recorders. He is also a consulting member of the AFC. In Paris, on Wednesday, 7 December 2018, he received a “Special Award” presented by Kees van Oostrum, President of the ASC, which honoured his exceptional contribution to the field of cinema. Accompanied by a few friends from the association, Gilles Porte, President of the AFC, addressed Jean-Pierre with the words in the following text.

We’ve all heard the saying: “Cats have nine lives.” It’s a popular myth, one that’s been around for hundreds of years — and one that even earned a reference from no less a legend than Shakespeare, who worked it into Romeo and Juliet, giving Mercutio the line, “Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives, that I mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight.”

As every year for four years, the AFC gave, this Wednesday, November 14, a Master Class as part of the Festival Camerimage. As in previous years, the format of three cinematographers / speakers was preserved (each ½ hour) and in this year 2018, Céline Bozon, Gilles Porte and David Ungaro defended the colors of the AFC in front of a a large audience of young people, and under the leadership of Maestro Benjamin Bergery, Benjamin B, who, as usual, had studied and prepared his score well.

In a deluge of wide-angle shots, Greek director Yórgos Lánthimos features a lesbian and Rock ‘n’ Roll version of Dangerous Liaisons at this year’s Camerimage Festival. A game of chess, of seduction, and of power between three women at the uppermost echelons of 1710 England. Natural lighting, fish-eye, and panoramic panning shots are on offer in this unusual historical picture, which is evocative of Barry Lindon for its use of natural lighting, the world of the theatre for its behind-closed-doors setting in a palace, and the world of music videos for its choice of lenses. The very Rock ‘n’ Roll cinematographer Robbie Ryan (a Rolling Stones pin affixed to his distressed blue jumper) participated in the traditional question-and-answer session following the end of the screening, just before midnight.

Consciously very different than the traditional American hero saga, Damien Chazelle’s biopic First Man is intended to be intimate and sober and depicts the difficulties of a couple in the aftermath of the loss of their first child. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren, FSF, used a variety of different cinematographic techniques for each particular take on this film where he is again working with its young director, both of whom were Oscar winners for La La Land. Here, he discusses with us the slightly-less glamorous, but just as important, aspects of the making of this film. (FR)

“The Terror” is a television series that lies somewhere between a historical study and a fantastic tale. It is an adaptation of Dan Simmons’ bestseller, which narrates the 1848 British expedition to the Arctic intended to locate the Northwest Passage. Both ships (the HMS Terror and Erebus) disappeared without a trace, providing the opportunity for Ridley Scott to explore a new variation on the theme he has been exploring since the first Alien movie, forty years ago. Florian Hoffmeister, BSC, was responsible for the cinematography on the series’ first episodes and therefore set the tone for the rest of the story, which is set in isolation between sea and ice. (FR)

Dutch cinematographer and director Claire Pijman’s touching and original documentary paints a portrait of cinematographer Robby Müller, NSC, the legendary partner of Wim Wender, Jim Jarmush, and Lars von Trier. The film was constructed from personal archival footage provided to the director by Robby Müller himself during the last years of his life. Because he was unable to express himself as a result of his illness, his testament to us is given via this filmed diary, shot with a Super 8. Many filmmakers share their memories of Müller during the film.

I remember meeting Julian for the first time twelve years ago when I was shooting Al Pacino’s Salome. Al had invited Julian to watch him directing. Julian sat behind the video monitor for several hours without interfering. I remember feeling quite under pressure.

Filmed in two weeks "like doing a movie among friends", the film Climax is faithful to the themes and style of Gaspar Noé (sex, drugs and a descent into hell). Mixing improvisation and extremely precise staging (like the choreography that opens the film), Benoît Debie, SBC, explains how he approached this shoot full of energy and things a little crazy ... (FR)

Quentin Bourdin, assistant cameraman, DIT and colour timer, a graduate of the Ecole nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière, accompanied the AFC cinematographers to London for a day of training and discussion around images and the expectations of contemporary colour timing. It was the opportunity to discover Baselight and its colour timing tools. He offers us a detailed report of the trip.

From 15-17 June 2018, Leica Camera AG celebrated the opening of the new Leitz Park, in Wetzlar (Germany) with many guests from the region and around the world. Gilles Porte and Vincent Jeannot represented the AFC, which was invited to attend, and here they recount their visit to the new complex, which is an important centre for the lens industry, combining research, art, and culture.

Dear Thierry Frémeaux, Dear Pierre Lescure, I wish to personally thank you for having made a little bit of room for me on the steps of your immense red carpet during a time of the year when Cannes becomes many peoples’ centre of gravity. Thierry, I hope that I didn’t ruffle your feathers when you mentioned Lyon’s football team to me at the top of the steps. Although I hail from Lyon, I have been a supporter of Saint-Etienne for years now and began supporting them even before I’d noticed that the colour of their jerseys was the same colour regularly used in the Seventh Art for chroma keying.

Laurent Tangy, AFC, began his career working on films such as Lars Blumer’s Mike and Alex Courtes’ The Incident. He went on to work with Cédric Jimenez on HHH and Johan Renck on The Last Panthers. He has just completed the cinematography on Gilles Lellouche’s latest film (and the first one he directed by himself), Sink or Swim, whose male cast is emblematic of French cinema. This film was presented Out of Competition at Cannes this year. (BB)

When Andréa Bescond and Eric Métayer were awarded the Molière Award for Best Solo Performance in 2016 for Les Chatouilles, a play about sexual abuse of children, they didn’t know they’d be back at Cannes two years later with the eponymous film they co-directed. Surrounding themselves with a shock team for their first movie, they called on cinematographer Pierre Aïm, AFC, who had shot Maïwen’s Polisse, a film that strangely resonates with Little Tickles… The film is being presented in the Un Certain Regard section (BB)

About ten years after his graduation from the Image Department of La Fémis, cinematographer David Chizallet, AFC, was recognized for his work on his classmate Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s film Mustang. A loyal collaborator of Elie Wajeman (Alyah, The Anarchists), he has recently been trying his hand at comedy with Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s film C’est la vie!. He had the opportunity to participate in a new adventure thanks to the Chinese film Long Day’s Journey Into Night, directed by Bi Gan, in Competition at the 71^th Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. (BB)

Julien Poupard, AFC, has lit a number of first films, including Claire Burger’s, Marie Amachoukeli’s and Samuel Theis’ Party Girl, Léa Fehner’s Les Ogres, Houda Benyamina’s Divines, and Morgan Simon’s A Taste of Ink. Then he met Pierre Salvadori, a seasoned director, and shot his last film The Trouble with You, selected in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. (BB)

Dominique Colin (I Stand Alone, L’Auberge Espagnole, The French Kissers) shot the first movie by young female Indian director Rohena Gera this year. It is in competition in the Critics’ Week. The film was entirely shot in Bombay, a city to which the Bollywood cinema industry is extremely important. A look at this love story in an upper-class apartment building between a maid and her employer. (FR)