On Screen

At the Camerimage festival, God only knows why, we award frogs (zaba in Polish, I forgot to ask why…) instead of palm fronds. I received a golden one fifteen years ago, and it earned me an invitation to be a member of the jury for the 2016 festival.

When, last year, I arrived at Camerimage, I was carrying with me the painful trauma of the attacks perpetrated two days earlier in the streets of Paris. This year, I came with the sadness of just having lost Raoul Coutard, a teacher and a friend. But I was welcomed with an equivalent dose of warmth by our foreign counterparts and especially by Ed Lachman, ASC, and Dick Pope, BSC, both of whom are colleagues and friends.

Super Friday: what better way to wrap up an invigorating week immersed in "all things cinematographic" than to have an entire day devoted to female cinematographers with screenings, workshops and master classes by women that culminated with an animated panel discussion on Gender and Diversity entitled “What Works”.

Since Slumdog Millionnaire, in 2008, opened the doors of Hollywood to him, Anthony Dod Mantle, DFF, BSC, ASC, has been alternating between movies with directors the likes of Ron Howard, Kevin Mc Donald, or his faithful accomplice Danny Boyle. Always looking for new forms of visual expression, as in his past films with Lars Von Trier and Harmony Korine, he has just signed off on the visuals of Snowden, directed by Oliver Stone.

Following in the footsteps of the likes of Roger Deakins, BSC, ASC, it is now Bradford Young’s turn to work alongside director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies, Prisoners, Sicario). Arrival is a daring exercise in style that focuses on the arrival of a fleet of extraterrestrial spaceships on Earth and the way in which the global community must react. The story hones in on a young female specialist in linguistics who is sent by the military officials to attempt to communicate with the creatures. Bradford Young, the radiant cinematographer from Baltimore, who is preparing a new Star Wars, shares his vision of this film with us.

Ari Wegner is an Australian cinematographer who worked on a number of short films before moving on to feature-length productions in 2011. She presents, in the Directors’ Debuts competition, Lady Macbeth, a film by British director William Oldroyd. A feminine tale set in the Victorian period that is as sombre and tragic as it is rigorous in its form. A look at this project that is at the crossroads between painting and cinematographic imagery.

Currently in Poland (Bydgoszcz – Nov 12/ 19, 2016), the 24^th edition of the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography: the most expected meeting of cinematographers in the world. Angénieux is there and very pleased to present all cinematographers and future cinematographers who came to Bydgoszcz its newest zoom lenses. In 2016, Angénieux presented to the market a 10x anamorphic zoom lens – the Optimo 44-440 A2S and the Angenieux Type EZ series.

Avi Nesher’s latest film, shot between Łódź and Jerusalem, is in competition for the Golden Frog at Camerimage this year. Michel Abramowicz, AFC, discusses the making of this period film that plunges viewers into Israeli society of the 1970s.

Nicolas Loir has become a regular in Camerimage’s Video Clips competition. He won a double prize in 2013, and this year he’s back in competition with KCPK "Who Wants It". (FR)

In a video interview, the cinematographer James Laxton talks about his work on Barry Jenkins’ movie, Moonlight, in Main competition. On movie mates, isolation, swiming lesson, moonlight on the beach, dark skins lighting...

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...

Apprentice is the second feature-length film by young Singaporean director Boo Junfeng. It deals with a subject that is taboo in the small, prosperous Southeast-Asian city-state: the death penalty.

The AFC will be represented at the 24^th Annual Camerimage Festival (Bydgoszcz, Poland) thanks to selected films that will be screened, the attendance of eight of its member-cinematographers, and the publication of a daily newsletter reporting on the highlights of this annual event focusing on cinematography and cinematographers.

Since Laurent Mannoni joined the AFC as a consulting member, the ties between the Conservatoire des techniques cinématographiques of the French Cinematheque, where he is the Director of Patrimony, and the AFC have become closer. I was able to attend the annual meeting of the Conservatory’s scientific counsel as a reciprocal representative of the AFC, which was attended by Frédéric Bonnaud, the new general director, in the equipment storage room on 2 June 2016. Here is a brief review of the conferences and acquisitions for the 2015-2016 season at the Conservatory.

For his seventh feature film, the Belgian director Joachim Lafosse meets again the cinematographer Jean-François Hensgens, AFC, SBC, with whom he already worked on Avant les mots, Our children and The White Knights.

Following 17 Girls, which garnered attention at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Delphine and Muriel Coulin are once again in selection for Un Certain Regard with Stopover. This film explores a little-known facet of the French Army: the decompression sessions that take place at the end of each mission and allow soldiers to return to “normal” life, far from the theatre of operations. Their faithful cinematographer, Jean-Louis Vialard, AFC, explains the challenges of this film that was principally shot under the sunlight of the Island of Rhodes.

Peter Suschitzky, ASC, was awarded this year’s Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens in Cinematography Prize at Cannes. This was the opportunity for us to meet with David Cronenberg’s faithful fellow traveller for a filmed interview in English. His high-profile filmography also contains a few cult classics like The Empire Strikes Back, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Mars Attacks.

Somewhere in Canada’s Great North, Sam and Lucy are passionately in love with each other. But when she decides to leave their small town for her studies, Sam considers breaking up. Their love will be put to the test… In this video interview, Cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc, CSC, discusses the cinematography of this romantic story filmed at -40°C with snowmobiles, a rifle, the aurora borealis… and a whisky-loving white bear.