Camerimage 2019

Norwegian cinematographer Pål Ulvik Rokseth, FNF, is making his mark with such recent high-profile films as Paul Greengrass’ 22 July and Espen Sandberg’s Amundsen both of which landed him in the main competition at the EnergaCamerimage Intl. Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography in Toruń, Poland. Rokseth spoke to Variety about the challenges of shooting Amundsen, working with Sandberg and the difficult experience that was 22 July.

With Joker, Todd Phillips has confirmed his great talent as a director, a writer, and a producer, which was already evident on the Very Good Trip franchise (2009) or the incredible Project X (2012). This film was created in an atmosphere of mutual trust, which makes daring experimentation possible: the producer was his actor/director friend Bradley Cooper, his editor was Jeff Groth (Project X), and the cinematography was by Lawrence Sher, who has been his faithful companion since the start of his career. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance has already been acclaimed several times (likely opening the pathway to his first Oscar), and the film has enjoyed enormous success with audiences since its release, unleashing polemics and passions in an international social context which sometimes makes reality into fiction. Lawrence Sher, ASC, joins us for an in-depth interview on the creation of this classic yet unique film about insanity.

Teenage girl Tati lives at the very top of a flight of stairs in a favela in Rio de Janeiro with her mother, who is almost young enough to be her older sister. Her father is the former local crime boss and has been in prison since before she was born. But one day, he returns. For her first film, Laura Merians has created an image full of strength and colors at the heart of a classic tale of redemption whose visual narration elegantly takes over from the literary narration of the script. The strong and endearing characters round off this dizzying dive into contemporary Brazil, where violence has become totally normalized and is a part of the daily lives of millions of people.

At Camerimage 2019, cinematographers and AFC members Julie Grünebaum, Eric Guichard, and Julien Poupard will give a Master Class, Wednesday November 13 – 11:15-13h:15 – Cinema City, Screening Room n° 6.

For the purposes of HBO’s teen series “Euphoria”, Hungarian cinematographer Marcell Rév (Jupiter’s Moon, White God) went down a visual path that mixes the realism of dramatic situations with a sometimes-baroque stylization of the lighting. The result on the screen is the recreation of an entire universe, that of young people in 2019, whose thirst for life, whose free and sometimes destructive passions, are not so dissimilar to a famous Californian portrait painted by director Nicholas Ray in 1955… (FR)

Rodrigo Prieto, who first visited Poland’s Camerimage fest in 2000 to take the top prize for Amores perros and later filmed Brokeback Mountain and The Wolf of Wall Street, says his cinematography in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman presented challenges that pushed him into new territory.

In late 2018, the AFC, with ENS Louis-Lumière Film School, performed a comparative test of sixty-six lenses from thirty-three different spherical and anamorphic series. We are organizing a blind screening of the results on Tuesday 12 November at 16:00 at the Cinema City, Screening Room N° 12, and Friday 15 November at 13:30 at the Cinema City, Screening Room N° 6.

Denis Lenoir, AFC, ASC presents the great film lens test which is about be shown in Camerimage for the first time abroad. 33 lenses tested, an unique opportunity to enter the lensing of a scene.

Gilles Porte, AFC is an operator who likes changing visual universes on each project. For example, in 2017, on The Royal Exchange [1], by Marc Dugain, a film set in the French royal court during the 18^th century, or the following year on Budapest [2], by Xavier Gens, a much more festive contemporary comedy. For this 2019 edition of Camerimage, he is presenting Who Do You Think I Am? [3], the latest film by Safy Nebbou, starring Juliette Binoche (released in Paris in February 2019). This is a film about the lies and the dangers of social networks which has been a hit abroad [4] since its release (ranked 3^rd-highest French film by ticket sales abroad). (FR)

For his latest film, director Roman Polanski decided to create an extremely historically accurate adaptation of a major event of the late 19^th century: the Dreyfus Affair. Despite the very large number of characters and the frequent shifts between different time periods, the Franco-Polish filmmaker shows his excellence as a director and editor with this simple and captivating story. At the camera, once again, his Polish countryman Paweł Edelman officiates (his sixth film with Polanski, starting with The Pianist in 2002). A film in glacial tones, shot in large part in the authentic locations of the story. This film will open the new EnergaCamerimage 2019 Festival in Toruń. (FR)

Today, how do we train the directors of photography of tomorrow? An appropriate answer cannot be reached without the opinion of those principally concerned. That’s why Pascal Lagriffoul, director of photography, AFC, and teacher at the school, has created a questionnaire aimed at understanding the rapport DOP have with their tools and the technique.

Today, how do we train the directors of photography of tomorrow? A round table and discussion organized, on Monday, november 11^th, by Louis-Lumière Film School (France) amongst directors of photography.

Angenieux and its team will be at the 2019 Camerimage edition in Toruń (Poland), November 9/16.

The FilmLight team will be present at the 27^th edition of Camerimage, with two seminars, Monday 11 and Tuesday 12, where it will be question of visual adaptation and digital images development.

Leitz is this year again partner of Camerimage taking place in Torun from November 9^th to 16^th 2019. You can find us on our stand and discover the new zomm lenses, the new Large Format set of prime lenses, and you will have several opportunities to meet us.

Panasonic will be in attendance at Camerimage 2019 in Toruń, Poland, from November 9^th to16^th.