Conversations with cinematographers

Yves Cape

80th Venice Film Festival Yves Cape, AFC, discusses the cinematographic challenges on "Memory", by Michel Franco
"Brooklyn Love Story", by François Reumont for the AFC

Always catching his viewers by surprise, Michel Franco’s latest film is an authentic love story. This improbable romance between two people who have been wounded by life gives Jessica Chastain (Sylvia) and Peter Sarsgaard (Saul) the opportunity to explore two beautiful characters who must face their flaws and their courage. Yves Cape, AFC, has once again (for the fifth time) teamed up with the Mexican director to shoot this independent film in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Memory is in Official Competition for the Golden Lion at the 80th Annual Mostra de Venise. (FR)
Yves Cape

Yves Cape, AFC, discusses "Plus Que Jamais" ("More Than Ever"), by Emily Atef

Describing a young couple facing an existential choice, Plus que jamais (More Than Ever) is also a journey towards accepting another’s choice, starring Vicky Krieps and Gaspard Ulliel . Yves Cape, AFC, was the DoP for this film shot in France, Luxembourg and Norway. He shares what it was like to make this film, at once hard and bright. (FR)
Yves Cape

Interview with Yves Cape, AFC, SBC, about "New Order", by Michel Franco, selected at the 2020 Venice Film Festival

The Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco (Después de Lucia, Les Filles d’Avril, Chronic…) portrays in his new film a popular revolt in the heart of the Mexican capital and its repercussions on society. Preferring a progressive narration from a single starting point (a big wedding party in high society), we observe the different layers of society coexist before suddenly everything explodes. For cinematographer Yves Cape, AFC, SBC, this film marks his fourth time alongside this director who has won several awards at Cannes. New Order is a film shot entirely in Mexico City in six weeks in the spring of 2019, and winner of the Silver Lion at the 2020 Venice Film Festival (FR)
Yves Cape

Voodoo at the boarding school
Interview with cinematographer Yves Cape, AFC, SBC, about his work on Bertrand Bonello’s film "Zombi Child"

In his latest film Bertrand Bonello juggles genres and eras between ethnological documentary, historical recreation and fiction. On the one side it depicts female teenage life at a boarding school and on the other a history of Voodoo practices and slavery in Haïti. Yves Cape, AFC, SBC, lensed this unusual film in competition at the Quinzaine des réalisateurs (Directors Fortnight). (FR)
Yves Cape
Yves Cape

Cinematographer Yves Cape, AFC, SBC, speaks about his work on "Hors Satan" directed by Bruno Dumont
64th Cannes Film Festival, Un Certain Regard

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.
Yves Cape

Interview with Yves Cape, AFC, SBC
About his work on "Persecution" by Patrice Chereau and "White Material" by Claire Denis

Eric Guichard: Yves Cape, hello. Two films that you’ve photographed were in competition at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. Let’s talk about both films, but perhaps we can begin by talking about the one by Patrice Chereau.

You spoke to me about doing tests with the Red, but you ended up shooting in 35 mm. When did you decide to do these tests in Red and why the final choice of 35 mm?
}}Yves Cape: During one of my first encounters with Patrice Chereau, he discussed the possibility of making a film in HD without being specific. He wanted to know if I was up for it. Without hesitation, my answer was yes. Once it was established that I was doing the film, Patrice told me his idea: he had documented one of his plays with the Red and had been surprised by the quality. He wanted to explore that option to see what it could bring from an aesthetic and an economic standpoint.

Caroline Champetier

Caroline Champetier, AFC, talks About the Shooting of "Man in Black", directed by Wang Bing
Memory in the Skin, by François Reumont

Performance, art film, testimony of an artist in his autumn years - Man in Black is a new film by Chinese director Wang Bing, known for his documentary work, such as Youth, in Official Competition. Wang Xiling, a Chinese artist in exile and composer aged 87, bears witness to what he has seen and experienced as an artist. Naked, showing the scars of torture and abuse, he wanders through the spaces of the Bouffes du Nord, the legendary and beautiful Parisian theatre. He plays fragments of his works, sings… and above all recounts, in sparing unemotional prose, the experience of an artist under the Chinese regime. An intensely personal and moving film, with an image as powerful as the force of his narrative.
 Caroline Champetier spoke with us briefly about her collaboration with Wang Bing. (FR)
Caroline Champetier

Caroline Champetier, AFC, talks about her work on Leos Carax’s "Annette"

Leos Carax is back in Cannes’s Official Competition nine years after Holy Motors with Annette, a sung-through film written and scored by the musical duo Sparks. Telling the story of a star couple (Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard) and their young daughter, Annette is Carax’s most spectacular work. The director’s faithful companion in arms since the medium-length movie Merde (2008), cinematographer Caroline Champetier, AFC, recounts here the making of Annette, whose every sequence was a technical and artistic challenge. (YT)
Caroline Champetier

Where cinematographer Caroline Champetier, AFC, speaks about her work on "The Innocents", directed by Anne Fontaine
By François Reumont for the AFC

The Innocents, directed by Anne Fontaine, recounts the meeting of a young Red Cross volunteer with a group of nuns, in the Polish countryside, just after the War. The occupants of the convent, victims of rape by Red Army soldiers during the liberation of Poland, are confronting the ensuing pregnancies, which they do not want disclosed to the outside world. Torn between religious obligation and maternal instinct, the destiny of these women, who have taken vows of celibacy, is suddenly in question...
Caroline Champetier

In which Caroline Champetier, AFC, discusses “Nyutten/Film”, a film she directed about Bruno Nuytten and his work
The documentary was screened on 5 July 2015 at the FID in Marseille

Selected for the Marseilles FID Festival, the documentary directed by Caroline Champetier on Bruno Nuytten was screened on 5 July. Director and cinematographer Caroline Champetier, AFC, discusses this sensitive portrait of a legendary cinematographer who brutally decided to end his career after twelve continuous years of work on some of the greatest French films of the 1980s. (FR)
Caroline Champetier

Cinematographer Caroline Champetier, AFC, discusses her work on "Holy Motors" by Léos Carax

Caroline Champetier, AFC, has worked alongside Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Lanzmann, Benoît Jacquot, Jacques Doillon, Amos Gitai, Arnaud Desplechin and Xavier Beauvois, to name a few. It was thanks to the success of Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux) that she won the César award for Best Cinematography in 2001. Her work has been frequently selected for competition in the Cannes Film Festival (The Sentinel, Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die, The School of Flesh, H Story, Tokyo, Of Gods and Men), she is back this year with Holy Motors, the first new feature-length film by Léos Carax in eleven years. This film reprises ten characters, including the character invented during their 2008 collaboration on the Merde segment from the skit-based film Tokyo, also directed by Michel Gondry and Bong Joon Ho).
César Charlone

Piano lessons for penalty shots
Video interview with cinematographer César Charlone, ABC, about her work on Fernando Meirelles’s film “The Two Popes", conducted by François Reumont for the AFC

By beginning his film with a very funny story (Pope Francis tries to make an airplane reservation himself, but the travel agent hangs up on him when he says his name), Fernando Meireiles gives his story a humourous tone. This is also a film that describes the intimacy of papal life with a great deal of realism, which gives way to moments of great warmth on screen between Anthony Hopkins (Joseph Ratzinger) and Jonathan Price (Jorge Mario Bergoglio). Cesar Charlone, the Brazilian filmmaker’s faithful collaborator, is at Camerimage to present this Netflix film.
Tristan Chenais

Interview with cinematographer Tristan Chenais about his work on the music video for "New Start"

Tristan Chenais works in both France and the UK, where he studied at the National Film and TV School. It is there that he met director Richard Hall, with whom he has been working ever since on advertisements and music videos. "New Start", for singer Moss Kena, is one of them, produced by Riff Raff Films, one of the most prestigious advertising and music video firms in London.
Rémy Chevrin

Rémy Chevrin, AFC, looks back on the shooting of Christophe Honoré’s "Winter Boy"
"Mourning through Rose-Colored Glasses", by François Reumont

Christophe Honoré and Rémy Chevrin, AFC, are one of the most emblematic director/cinematographer couples in French "cinéma d’auteur". They have already shot nine films together and their faithful collaboration has been going strong since Seventeen Times Cécile Cassard, 24 years ago. Their next feature has already been wrapped and scheduled for release in spring 2024. Last year, they released Winter Boy, a film for which young actor Paul Kircher won the award for Best Actor at the San Sebastian Festival. A look back on the photographic challenges of this adolescent drama with the cinematographer who was selected out-of-competition at Camerimage 2023 in the Contemporary World Cinema section. (FR)
Rémy Chevrin
Manuel Alberto Claro

Sex, Lies, and Cinema: behind the scenes of "Nymphomaniac"
Conversation with cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro, DFF

After the release of his film Melancholia in 2011, Lars Von Trier was banned from the Cannes Film Festival for controversial statements on Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer. This year, he has returned with Nymphomaniac, an ambitious exploration of female psychology from a sulphurous, sexual perspective. Manual Alberto Claro, DFF, replaced Anthony Dodd Mantle, BSC, in order to film the last two projects by the Danish maestro of atypical cinema.