festivals

Jean François Hensgens SBC, who joined the AFC in 2010, began his career as First AC on the Dardenne’s brothers movies La Promesse, Rosetta and Le Fils. He was then assisting Alain Marcoen SBC, long time cinematographer of the famous directors.
He photographed his first movie in 2004: Fratricide a film by Yelmas Arslan and then started his collaboration with Olivier Van Hoofstad on the 2 movies: Dikkenek and Go Fast.
Later he shot Banlieue 13-Ultimatum by Patrick Alessandrin, Tête de Turc by Pascal Elbé, Cat Run and Darktide by John Stockwell.
Joachim Lafosse’s last script is based on a real tragic story: a mother of five, killed her children by cutting their throat. This horrible story shocked whole Belgium five years ago.
For this drama, Emilie Dequenne ( Rosetta in the Dardenne’s film) and the partners from Le Prophète , Jacques Audiard’s actors , Niels Arestrup and Tahar Rahim joined the casting.

After working on Wilde Salome directed by Al Pacino, which was screened at the last Venice Film Festival, Benoît Delhomme, AFC, continues his career in the USA by filming Lawless. Following The Proposition in 2005, this is his second collaboration with Australian director John Hillcoat and his fellow countryman Nick Cave, singer and screenwriter.
This film has one of the most prestigious casts of any presented at the 65^th Cannes Film Festival (Guy Pearce, Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska et Gary Oldman). (F. R.)

As is the case every year, the AFC will be present at the Cannes Film Festival first and foremost by the films that have been chosen for the Official Selection (In Competition and Un certain regard), the Directors’ Fortnight and the Critics’ Week, that were filmed by some of its member directors of photography. Ten “AFC” films will be screened this year in these selections. An eleventh film will also be added with a restored classic to be screened at Cannes Classics (see the detail of the “AFC” films in the Official Selection and in the Parallel Selections).

Yves Cape studied at the INSAS film school in Brussels. After having started out as an assistant he made his debut as DoP on short films in the 90’s. His encounter with Alain Berliner on the short film Rose (1993) led to the signing for the photography of the successful feature Ma vie en rose.
Since then his filmography has included films in France (Persécution by Patrice Chéreau, White material by Claire Denis) and abroad (Le Gardien des buffles in Vietnam, L’amore inperfetto in Italy or In Gods Hands in the US). A close collaborator of director Bruno Dumont he is at his side for the fourth time at this years Cannes Film Festival with the film Hors Satan.

Alain Marcoen, SBC, studied at the IAD Brussels, but not being very attracted to the pressures a camera assistant has to face, he preferred to start out as a lighting technician. Getting some work on documentaries and drama, he met Jean-Claude Riga for whom he started to operate.
Being from Liège, he quickly got accustomed to shooting films that deal with the social problems of large steel city. In collaboration with operator Benoît Dervaux, another long time crew member of the Dardenne brothers, they signed for the photography of all their films since La Promesse.

After having worked his way up as a lighting technician, Glynn Speeckaert divided his career as a DoP on feature films and numerous international commercials. Based for some time now in the US , he has a filmography of English, German or French films. After having replaced Yorick Le Saux to shoot A l’origine for Xavier Giannoli, it is Radu Mihaileanu who calls upon his talents this time to shoot La Source des femmes (The Source), his second film in the official competition at Cannes.

For the past twenty years, Christophe Beaucarne has been working on features steadily, collaborating with many directors, including Bruno Podalydès, Cedric Klapish, Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, Jaco Van Dormael... So it was fitting to see his cinematography credit on not one but two films at Cannes this year: Outside the Law, by Rachid Bouchareb and On Tour, by Mathieu Amalric.

Laurent Brunet, who has photographed all of Raphael Nadjari’s films (including Tehilim, selected at Cannes in 2007), has a lot of experience filming abroad. But he didn’t know Africa, which he discovered while collaborating for the first time with Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, the only African to compete at Cannes 2010, with his fourth feature film, A Screaming Man. The original title was A Screaming Man is not a Dancing Bear a quote from The Notebook, Returning Home by the poet Aimé Césaire.

Presided by director Tim Burton, the jury of the 63^rd Cannes Film Festival awarded the Palme d’Or to the Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, with cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Yukontorn Mingmongkon and Charin Pengpanich.

During the last Cannes Film Festival, the AFC published on its website a series of interviews with directors of photography, some members of the association some not, who had a film in one of the selections.
On the occasion of the film’s release in theaters, we offer an interview with Guillaume Deffontaines about his work on The Voyage aux Pyrenees by Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu.
With Sabine Azema, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Arly Jover, Gurgon Kyap

In a playful homage to the fantastic genre, The Border of Dawn reunites a young photographer who falls in love with a star who commits suicide, and then reappears in the life of the young man. This second film with Philippe Garrel confirms an effective and serene collaboration. Garrel’s working method and William Lubtchansky’s vast experience (a hundred feature films in forty years) combine to create a free and efficient mise en scène. Their association allows for artistic expression without artifice or showiness.

From Wednesday May 14^th to Saturday May 24^th, the new Image Pavilion marked the AFC’s presence at the 61^st edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The Image Pavilion was made possible by the financial support of some of our associate members: Agfa, Cininter, Fujifilm, K5600, Kodak, Mikros Image, Panavision, Quinta and TSF. We would like to express our hearty thanks, with a special mention of our three "film stock fairy godmothers" who facilitated the lodging of AFC DPs. The Image Pavilion was also made possible by the generosity and dedication of AFC members.

Awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival

Pierre Milon, AFC, was in the penultimate class of the IDHEC, the French national film school that was the ancestor of the Femis. Among his classmates was director Dominik Moll. Milon lit Moll’s first film, Intimacy.

Milon quickly began working as a cinematographer on documentaries and short films. His transition to fiction came when director Philippe Faucon entrusted him with lighting three television films. Since then he has worked with Eric Zonca (The Little Thief), Lucas Belvaux (The Trilogy and The Right of the Weakest), and Robert Guédiguian (Lady Jane). He came to the Cannes Festival this year with The Classroom, his third feature film with Laurent Cantet.

Adapted from a Barbey d’Aurevilly novel, Une vieille maîtresse takes place in 1835. It is a story of passion, love, betrayal, bodies mingling and killing each other; a story of fire, blood and flesh… Yorgos Arvanitis, AFC, speaks of his collaboration with Catherine Breillat.

Raphaël Nadjari and Laurent Brunet worked together for the first time in 1998. It was their first experience, respectively as a director and a photographer. The Shade was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.
Tehilim (Psalms) marks the fifth collaboration of a duo who never parted since and now ends up on the Croisette. Entirely shot in Jerusalem and in hebrew, Tehilim tells of the mysterious disappearance of a father that leaves the family dumbfounded.

Two years ago, as I was grading Paradise Now, Israeli coproducer Amir Harel approached me. He wanted us to meet in Cannes to talk about Meduzot (Jellyfish).
He was looking for a foreign cinematographer to film the city of Tel-Aviv with what he called a “different” view. The script immediately charmed me with its whimsy tone.

A story about boxes: boxes to put away our memories, boxes to transport them, boxes that sit in the middle of the living-room, waiting to be eventually unpacked. All these memory boxes were being staged by Jane Birkin. Loads of actors accompanied her on this journey, into the past, into the present. A single location – a family house in Brittany – and Jane as herself, in her own house.
François Catonné, AFC, was among those who embarked on this ever so personal and timeless journey with her.

L’Avocat de la terreur was shot discontinuously over several months.
With the ongoing investigation, informations would keep coming in, which made for incredibly suspenseful meetings and constantly provoked new encounters.
Two lengthy interviews were conducted with Jacques Vergès at a few months interval, but the high point of the shooting was the trip to Algiers.