AFC’s Conversations

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)

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)

In Paris Memories, Virginie Efira plays Mia, a victim of the 13 November 2015 attacks, who returns to Paris three months after the attack and attempts to recover her memories of the event. With sincerity and humility, the film paints the portrait of a young woman and a city, both of whom are trying to rebuild after the trauma. After having been presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, the film was presented at Camerimage, in the Contemporary World selection. On that occasion, Margot Cavret met with Stéphane Fontaine, AFC, cinematographer on this film, to discuss his first project with director Alice Winocour.

Since The Beat that my Heart Skipped, for which he was awarded the César Award for Best Cinematography in 2006, Stéphane Fontaine has worked on Jacques Audiard’s films and received a second César Award for A Prophet. He has once again joined forces with Arnaud Desplechin, ten years after working together on In the Company of Men, for a film shot in the USA entitled Jimmy P., which was nominated in the Official Selection at Cannes 2013.

Since her graduation from La Fémis in 1998, Crystel Fournier, AFC, has distinguished herself as a cinematographer mainly through her work on three of Céline Sciamma’s films (Naissance des Pieuvres, Bande de Filles, Tomboy). In the last few years, she has chiefly worked on foreign productions, including Great Freedom (Große Freiheit), the third feature film by German director Sebastian Meise (Stillleben, Outing), selected in the Un Certain Regard competition at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. (MC)

As part of the eclectic selection in the Directors’ Fortnight this year, festivalgoers were able to discover a strange American film by Babak Anvari (Américano-iranien director) in which the fantastic cyclically appears in a rather classic plot centred on a love triangle. In the end, the mix isn’t always well-proportioned between the jumpy moments and the relationship falling apart in an apartment – New Orleans style – full of alcohol and giant cockroaches. British cinematographer Kit Frasier signed off on the visuals of this film, which follows the main character’s inexorable downward spiral. This is a Netflix film, and will soon be released on their platform. (FR)