On Screen

John Seale, ACS, ASC is one of Australia’s most famous director of photography (along with Dean Semler and more recently Greig Fraser). Working with his compatriot and director friend Peter Weir on most of his greatest films (Picnic at Hanging Rock, as cameraman, then Witness and The Dead Poets Society) he is also the DoP of several George Miller films (including Lorenzo’s Oil or Mad Max Fury Road).
He also won the 1996 Best Picture Academy Award for The English Patient, by Anthony Minghella. He is the president of the jury of the 45^th Manaki Brothers festival and comes to talk to us, among other things, about colors, control and tolerance.... (FR)

Presented during a special out-of-competition screening at the very beginning of the 77^th Cannes Film Festival, director George Miller’s Furiosa adds a new dimension to the Mad Max saga he began 45 years ago. Focusing on the youthful character Furiosa (originally played on screen by Charlize Theron in Fury Road in 2015), this unprecedented change of lead character for the franchise allows the Australian director to feminise his narrative. And most of all to offer a duo of actors from the new generation (Anya Taylor Joy and Chris Hemsworth) an opportunity to portray a true Shakespearean revenge tragedy amidst apocalyptic chase scenes. Simon Duggan, ACS, ASC, also new to the franchise talks to us about this 109-day shoot (for A team), conducted during the Covid period in the heart of the Australian desert. (FR)

The 2024 winner of the Pierre Angénieux Special Encouragement Award is of Estonian origin. She has been based in the USA for 12 years, spending time in China first, just after finishing high school. This was her first experience living abroad, where she studied, learned a bit of the language and shot her first documentary films. Kadri Koop is a curious young woman, with varied experiences around the world, now working between Europe and Hollywood, where she resides and tends to a beautiful vegetable garden under the Californian sun.
She’s here at Cannes to talk to us about images, faces and zoom lenses! (FR)

“You’re not taking the road tonight?”, and now that Jérémie’s stay in his childhood village, where he’s come to attend the funeral of his former boss, lasts longer than expected. As he wanders the autumn forest in search of porcini mushrooms and pays incongruous visits to his childhood friends, he weaves a web of desires and frustrations whose threads seem to escape him. For their third film together, after L’Inconnu du lac and Rester vertical, Alain Guiraudie and Claire Mathon plunge us back into a film noir whose exploration is infinite, and whose astonished faces will mark us for a long time to come.

Carried by a dazzling cast, with young Mikey Madison in the lead role as a stripper, Sean Baker’s Anora is a captivating film. Its writing is both simple and precise, steering the plot in one direction only to better surprise the audience and ultimately deliver a powerful final scene that is likely to go down in festival history. Shot like great American cinematographers of the 70s used to do (Kodak film, 4-perf Scope, zoom lenses, and negative flashing during shooting), this cinematic tour de force is truly one of the major events of the 77^th edition of the Festival. Drew Daniels, who shot the film, explains that nothing replaces the thrill one can experience on such a film as a director of photography, making creative decisions live on set rather than relying solely on modern digital camera & post-production tools. (FR)

Niki, a biopic about Niki de Saint Phalle, presented in the Un Certain Regard selection, is the directorial debut of actress Céline Sallette. In this interview, the film’s cinematographer, Victor Seguin, AFC, answers questions from his colleague Jean-François Hensgens, AFC, SBC.

An adaptation of Vanessa Schneider’s story Tu t’appelais Maria Schneider, Jessica Palud’s second feature film, Maria depicts the destructive beginnings of actress Maria Schneider’s career. Through the reconstruction of a scene which caused a scandal in Bernardo Bertollucci’s 1972 film Last Tango in Paris, the director condemns domination and the abuse of power in the film industry, a subject that has become highly relevant and necessary. The cinematography, by Sébastien Buchmann, AFC, is a subtle reminder of the seventies, and revisits the film sets of that era. He reflects on this particularly captivating experience as a cinematographer. Maria is presented in the Official Selection, Cannes Première, at the Cannes 2024 Festival. (BB)

Successfully combining family drama, a narcotics thriller, and a musical ending with a Georges Brassens song is not an easy task. This is the extraordinary challenge that Jacques Audiard set himself with Emilia Perez, the strangest and most original film of the 77^th Cannes selection. And since its 12-minute standing ovation at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, one of the most serious contenders for the Palme d’Or. Paul Guilhaume, AFC, who also worked on Audiard’s previous film, Paris, 13^th District, shares the behind-the-scenes details of this unique project, which required nearly three years of preparation. He discussed, among other things, the reproduction of Mexico in a Paris studio and how rhythm influenced his visual approach to the film (FR).

After a diversion through England to shoot Firebrand, which was selected for the official competition last year on the Croisette, Karim Aïnouz returns to his homeland to direct Motel Destino, a colourful erotic thriller shot very close to his hometown of Fortaleza, Brazil. It marks the third collaboration between the director and cinematographer Hélène Louvart, AFC, aiming to (re)create the visual universe of an unusual place and to convey the human relationships that take place there, filled with humour and tension. For the second year running, Karim Aïnouz’s work has been selected for the Official Competition, at the 77^th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. (BB)

For his first feature-length fiction film, director Jonathan Millet proposes a truer-than-life plunge into the contemporary hunt for a Syrian war criminal. A film about spies in spite of themselves, but above all a gallery of characters with looks damaged by exile and the atrocities of war. Belgian cinematographer Olivier Boonjing, SBC (already interviewed three years ago with Rien à foutre, by Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre, also at Critics’ Week) is behind the camera to direct this thriller set between Strasbourg and the Middle East. This film is presented in the opening session and is also a serious contender for the Caméra d’or. (FR)

Tacitly referring to the show once hosted by the New York real estate tycoon, Danish-Iranian director Ali Abbasi brings to us The Apprentice, a biopic unlike any other, in which archival footage and fictional documentary share the same DNA on screen. A portrait, therefore, of the former US president - currently campaigning for re-election in November - who has announced wanting to ban the film from being released. Actor Sebastian Stan portrays a very convincing Donald Trump, during the 1972-1986 period, accompanied by his mentor, lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the other flamboyant gem of the film and possible award-winning performance. Danish cinematographer Kasper Tuxen (The Worst Person in the World in 2021) created the images for this highly realistic immersion into contemporary US history. He talks to us about Anakin Skywalker, analogue video and whether it is necessary to like the film’s protagonist to film them well. (FR)

Julien Colona’s first feature film, Le Royaume, tells the story of a young girl who discovers her father’s true nature, and tries to love him at all costs. The relationship thus forged resembles a journey of initiation along the roads of the Isle of Beauty. A film with Corsicans, shot in Corsica, by a Corsican filmmaker. With cinematographer Antoine Cormier, we immerse ourselves in the making of this two-faceted thriller. Le Royaume is in the Un Certain Regard Official Selection at the 77^th Cannes Film Festival. After three years as a camera assistant, Antoine Cormier went on to light short films, music videos and commercials. His passion: shooting on film. When he met Julien Colonna on a commercial, they shared a passion for doing "well with little". (BB)

I’m happy and moved to be filming again with Caroline and Jonathan, ten years after the short film Tant qu’il nous reste des fusils à pompe. I love their work. Eat the Night is fascinating and mesmerizing. The characters are pictured with tenderness, and the actors are directed with taste, talent and accuracy. And humor! The film is in selection at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes. (RV)

During the 77^th Cannes Film Festival, we have published 39 written and video interviews (26 are in English, others in French), in which directors of photography speak about their work on the selected movies. Here are the links allowing you to read each of them.

Set in the snowy landscapes of northern Japan, filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama delivers a figure skating film bathed in pastel colours and timeless charm. A trio of characters; a former skating star turned coach in this very rural village, a highly promising student, and a clumsy, dreamy young hockey player whose eyes light up for the latter. Filmed by the director himself, this delicate fable about adolescence, unspoken feelings and transmission is presented in the Un Certain Regard selection of the Cannes competition. (FR)

A 2015 graduate of La Fémis film school, Balthazar Lab has worked on numerous music videos, commercials and short films. In 2022, he signed the photography for La Jauria, by Andrés Ramírez Pulido (awarded the Grand Prix de la Semaine de la Critique in 2022). At Cannes this year, he is part of the Un Certain Regard selection with September Says, Ariane Labed’s first feature.

A unique blend of Buster Keaton-style silent comedy and vampire film invoking Expressionism, "Sister Midnight" by Karan Kandhari is above all an original female portrait set in the slums of Bombay. Although the director is of Indian origin, he lives and works in England, and his directing style and use of music reveal his distinctly British sense of humor. Here are the secrets behind the making of this strange comedy, whose style alternates between the frenetic and the very calm, reminiscent of the rhythm of a Pixies song. The cinematography is by British-Norwegian director of photography Sverre Sørdal, and the film was shot on Kodak and Panavision.

Adapted from the latest novel by writer Pierric Bailly, Le Roman de Jim (published by POL in 2021) explores fatherhood outside of blood ties. The film was shot entirely in the Haut Jura, in the settings described in the book. The Larrieu brothers, Arnaud and Jean-Marie, - the directing duo who shoot all their films in the mountains, such as Peindre ou faire l’amour and Tralala – directed this melodrama. They called on cinematographer Irina Lubtchansky, AFC, to craft the visuals of this saga spanning 25 years. She reflects on this first collaboration with two directors who set the tone for French auteur cinema. With Le Roman de Jim, the Larrieu brothers return to the Cannes Film Festival in 2024, in the Cannes Première official selection. (BB)