On Screen

Since his beginnings as a director of photography in the early 1990’s alongside Jean-Pierre Jeunet and FJ Hossang, Darius Khondji, AFC, ASC, has developed an international reputation through his work on films by some of the greatest directors on both sides of the Atlantic. His impressive filmography includes David Fincher’s Seven, Roman Polanski’s The Ninth Gate, Wong Kar-wai’s My Blueberry Nights, or Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen. Today, he is competing in the 65^th Cannes Film Festival with his film Love, directed by Michael Haneke.
This is his second film with this great director, following Funny Games in 2007.

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).

At the Seville European Film Festival the European Film Academy and EFA Productions announced the nominations for the European Film Awards 2011. The more than 2,500 EFA Members will now vote for the winners which will be presented during the awards ceremony on 3 December in Berlin.

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.

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..."