On Screen

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.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie, shot by Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, ASC, has been named the best-shot film of 1998-2008 in a recent online poll conducted by American Cinematographer. "This is real honor for me, especially considering the other movies in this list," said Delbonnel. "These are some of the finest cinematographers, and I’m not sure I deserve to be among them, but I am very happy to be. They are all explorers." (More comments from Delbonnel and other Top 10 cinematographers will appear in AC’s August issue.)

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.

We learned of this via a Newsletter from its founder Marek Zydowicz. The Plus Camerimage festival will no longer take place in Lodz (Poland). This important decision follows a total disagreement with the new policy of the township.

The 17^th Plus Camerimage Festival was held between November 28 and December 5, 2009 in Łódź, Poland. This year’s international jury, composed of chief designer Alan Starski and directors of photography Dean Cundey, ASC, CSC, Edward Lachman, ASC, Igor Luther, Phil Meheux, BSC, and Anastas Michos, ASC, had to decide between 17 feature films.

At the Seville European Film Festival the European Film Academy and EFA Productions announced the nominations for the 22^nd European Film Awards. At the same time, the new EFA-website with lots of information about the Awards went online at www.europeanfilmawards.eu
The nominations for Carlo Di Palma European Cinematographer Award 2009:
- Christian Berger, AAC for Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon)
- Anthony Dod Mantle, Anthony Dod Mantle, DFF, BSC for Antichrist & Slumdog Millionaire
- Maxim Drozdov & Alisher Khamidkhodzhaev for Bumazhny Soldat (Paper Soldier)
- Stéphane Fontaine, AFC for Un prophète (A Prophet) directed by Jacques Audiard.

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 October first to November fifth 2008, the French Cinematheque screened a series of films in tribute to the director of photography Pierre Lhomme, AFC. In his presentation, The Way of Light, Serge Toubiana retraces Pierre’s journey:
"After Giuseppe Rotunno and Raoul Coutard, the French Cinematheque honors Pierre Lhomme. As a way of entering into cinema, not through the door of directors, but through that most beautiful of windows: the film’s lighting. The royal road of those "making" film lighting. Pierre Lhomme has been one of the greatest directors of photography of French cinema for the past four decades..."

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.