Image festivals

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.

The closing ceremony of the 40^th-annual Manaki Brothers Festival was held on Saturday, 21 September 2019 in Bitola (Republic of Northern Macedonia), in the Great Hall of the local Palace of Culture. The jury, which was presided over by Ed Lachman, ASC, presented the golden Camera 300 award to Hélène Louvart, AFC, for her work on The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão, by Karim Ainouz. Due to her inability to be present in person, the award was accepted on her behalf by Eric Gautier, AFC. Yorgos Arvanitis, AFC, GSC, received the Golden Camera 300 for Life Achievement Award.

Philippe Rousselot, AFC, ASC, took advantage of his stay in Poland to participate in a number of events and seminars concerning cinematography. The former assistant to Nestor Almendros has become one of the legends of cinematography in France and abroad (John Boorman’s The Emerald Forest, Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons, and Patrice Chéreau’s La Reine Margot). The most relaxed and informal of these events was definitely the free-flowing discussion he had with the many attendees who came to listen to his vision of the profession.

During a seminar, a group of cinematographers joined together to “engage” a dialogue with managers of the American content distribution platform.

As every year for four years, the AFC gave, this Wednesday, November 14, a Master Class as part of the Festival Camerimage. As in previous years, the format of three cinematographers / speakers was preserved (each ½ hour) and in this year 2018, Céline Bozon, Gilles Porte and David Ungaro defended the colors of the AFC in front of a a large audience of young people, and under the leadership of Maestro Benjamin Bergery, Benjamin B, who, as usual, had studied and prepared his score well.

In the middle of Camerimage’s closing ceremony, Marek Zydowicz, the director of the festival, suddenly announced that Camerimage 2018 would be the last Camerimage festival to be held in the Bydgoszcz. As a result of the mayor’s decision to cut the city’s funding of the festival from 2.5 million zlotys to 500,000 zlotys, Mr. Zydowicz has launched an international appeal to other cities that would welcome Camerimage 2019.

In a deluge of wide-angle shots, Greek director Yórgos Lánthimos features a lesbian and Rock ‘n’ Roll version of Dangerous Liaisons at this year’s Camerimage Festival. A game of chess, of seduction, and of power between three women at the uppermost echelons of 1710 England. Natural lighting, fish-eye, and panoramic panning shots are on offer in this unusual historical picture, which is evocative of Barry Lindon for its use of natural lighting, the world of the theatre for its behind-closed-doors setting in a palace, and the world of music videos for its choice of lenses. The very Rock ‘n’ Roll cinematographer Robbie Ryan (a Rolling Stones pin affixed to his distressed blue jumper) participated in the traditional question-and-answer session following the end of the screening, just before midnight.

Consciously very different than the traditional American hero saga, Damien Chazelle’s biopic First Man is intended to be intimate and sober and depicts the difficulties of a couple in the aftermath of the loss of their first child. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren, FSF, used a variety of different cinematographic techniques for each particular take on this film where he is again working with its young director, both of whom were Oscar winners for La La Land. Here, he discusses with us the slightly-less glamorous, but just as important, aspects of the making of this film. (FR)

“The Terror” is a television series that lies somewhere between a historical study and a fantastic tale. It is an adaptation of Dan Simmons’ bestseller, which narrates the 1848 British expedition to the Arctic intended to locate the Northwest Passage. Both ships (the HMS Terror and Erebus) disappeared without a trace, providing the opportunity for Ridley Scott to explore a new variation on the theme he has been exploring since the first Alien movie, forty years ago. Florian Hoffmeister, BSC, was responsible for the cinematography on the series’ first episodes and therefore set the tone for the rest of the story, which is set in isolation between sea and ice. (FR)