On Screen

With Conclave, German filmmaker Edward Berger (All is calm on the Western Front, multiple Oscars winner including Best cinematography in 2023 for James Friend, BSC), radically change the universe and decide to adapt a novel which tells how the election of a new pope is held at the Vatican. Served by a dazzling cast (Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini...), the film navigates between investigation, alcove secrets and political campaign between cardinals. It’s Stéphane Fontaine, AFC (The Beat My Heart Has Stopped, A Prophet, Jackie...) who is behind the camera this time. He comes to talk to us about this rebuilt Vatican at Cinecittà, about faces and how to film them and about red color, which regularly cross the image. Conclave is presented in European preview at Camerimage and competition for the Golden frog in the Main competition (FR)

"Baby Reindeer" was undoubtedly one of the year’s most striking pieces in terms of writing, acting, and audience impact. In just a few months, it quickly became one of Netflix’s flagship series, largely due to its creator Richard Gadd, who also stars as the lead. Gadd bravely brings to the screen an extremely grave and personal episode from his own life in an unprecedented manner. This series is groundbreaking in its audacity, proving that even the boldest projects, initially seeming far from mainstream, can captivate the public. Here we reflect on the making of this series with Krzysztof Trojnar, who was the cinematographer for the first four episodes, directed by Weronika Tofilska. (FR)

For his first film as director (and co-operator with Nico Aguilar), Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC adapts for the 3^rd time for the screen a so called unadaptable classic of Mexican literature. An evocation of Mexico during the revolutionary period which takes place over several eras with the dual recreation of a village and its ruins after its abandonment.
A strange 130 min Netflix experience which deals with surrealism, dreams and the nostalgia of an era. As in Toruń to present his film to cinematographers from around the world, the filmmaker talks to us about it and his transition to directing. (FR)

Lucy Cohen’s first film is a summer portrait of a boy and a girl leaving childhood. Filmed in a village on the Cornish coast, with windswept cliffs, this very sensitive film is based on the relationships and unsaid things between adults and their children. British cinematographer Rachel Clark shot the film. It runs for the Golden Frog (Best image for a first film) at Camerimage 2024. (FR)

Telling the story of a kind of Amélie Poulain with sewing superpowers, Sew Torn is a bit of a UFO in this panorama selection of contemporary cinema. Coming from German-speaking Switzerland, where this film was shot in a peaceful town lost in an idyllic valley. Director of photography Sebastian Klinger comes to talk to us about this shoot where the actress is killed at least three times on screen, and where the influence of the Coen brothers sometimes hovers over the crazy situations and somewhat strange characters. (FR)

On November 21 at Camerimage, the AFC will be hosting a seminar on the challenges of look development in digital cinema. Moderated by David Ungaro, AFC, this conference will be an opportunity for Olivier Patron, DIT, and Martin Roux, AFC, to present Diachromie and Diaphanie, two plug-ins they have developed with cinematographer Paul Morin, and to explore the transformation of a raw image into a rich, sensitive and striking composition.

Entirely filmed on the small island of Mandø, located on the southwest coast of Denmark, Basque filmmaker Juan Palacios’ documentary is both a tender portrait of its inhabitants and a testimony to life continuing against all odds in the face of rising sea levels and climate change. Shot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio by the director himself, the film resolutely oscillates between a documentary approach in its content and a highly cinematic stylization in its form. We revisit with him this exploit, which took several years, spanning from the pandemic to the initial interactions with the locals, the filming, and the finalization of the film. This documentary is in competition for the Golden Frog award for Best Cinematography in Toruń.

A chronicle of the female condition during the 18^th century, The Devil’s Bath, directed by the duo of filmmakers Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, portrays the life of Agnes, a young peasant who discovers married life with her new husband. Filmed with great historical accuracy, this meticulous recreation of rural German customs during the Enlightenment is as chilling as it is haunting.
Austrian cinematographer Martin Gschlacht, AAC, brought this dark and cruel story to life. Based on a book and the analysis of trial records from 1701, the film is masterfully acted by the young Austrian singer Anja Plaschg ("Soap & Skin"). In this interview, we discuss this piercing production, filmed on location in the Austrian and German forests during the depths of winter. (FR)

This is my first time at the Manaki Brothers Festival and from early morning till late at night, I am filled with the joy of listening, talking and thinking about filmmaking. So much so that I have decided to make a few portraits of Directors of Photography from my day to day encounters, whether between two screenings or from rubbing shoulders at the Epinal Café. These exchanges are rich and passionate and I hope you find this journal inspiring.

It’s my first Manaki Brothers film festival and I am really thrilled to watch movies whilst paying particular attention to the cinematography.To be able to listen, talk and think about cinematography with my peers and mentors in person is a real treat.
Whilst here I have decided to make portraits of the cinematographers I meet and I talk with, from the coffeeshops of Bitola to the streets between the two screening venues.

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint is a first film from Argentina, directed by Tomás Gómez Bustillo and shot by Pablo Lozano. It features a woman of around sixty years old, living in a very rural community who is about to discover a providential lost statue. With her husband, she suddenly shares a plan to set a kind of funny miracle... But everything isn’t going to turn out exactly as she thought.
Recently released in Argentina, with real success (more than six weeks of theatrical release), this fantastic comedy is in official selection for the 300 Camera at Manaki 2024. (FR)

In The Gate, a documentary on the psychological and human toll of war on veterans and soldiers’ families, directors Michael David Beamish and Jasmin Herold paint a particularly bleak portrait of America. Blending a style that at times resembles fiction with classic documentary elements - such as voiceovers and everyday life - The Gate is shot and edited by Dutch cinematographer and director Claire Pijman, NSC. While in Bitola, she discussed this unconventional project, which was filmed in two sessions separated by the pandemic. (FR)

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)