AFC’s Conversations

Kristoffer Engholm Aabo is a cinematographer based in Copenhagen. He divides his time between Denmark and Norway, where he studied cinematography. He has worked on the visuals of over 80 music videos and has also worked on a number of advertising films (Porsche, Redbull, Carlsberg, etc.) as well as short fiction films. Selected for the first time in competition at Camerimage for the music video "Crooks - Heart of Vengeance" by the band Farveblind, we meet to talk about this strange fake trailer, created for a revenge film that could almost be real... (FR)

After the highly acclaimed The Favorite (Audience Award at Camerimage 2018), Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has teamed up once again with Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan, ISC, BSC, on Poor Things. This project was largely shared in its making with actress Emma Stone - Oscar winner for Best Actress in 2017 -. Stone was the centrepiece of this project, giving her a probable chance of receiving a second statuette in 2024. This resolutely feminist fable tells the story of the journey and liberation of a dead young woman, brought back to life by a mad scientist, who implants in her a little girl’s brain... (FR)

Doubly honored in 2023 (at the Manaki Brothers Festival and soon at Camerimage), British cinematographer Peter Biziou, BSC, shares with us some memories from his long and prestigious career on commercial and fiction sets. Although Mississippi Burning (Oscar for Best Cinematography in 1989) was undoubtedly his highest distinction, his name has appeared in the credits of films such as Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, Richard Loncraine’s Richard III, or Peter Weir’s The Truman Show. (FR)

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 80^th Annual Mostra de Venise. (FR)

Created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, "Mrs. Davis" is an eight-episode series produced by Warner Bros TV released on its own streaming service Peacock in late April. Xavier Dolléans, AFC, was the cinematographer for episodes 3 and 4, directed by Alethea Jones and shot in Spain. Interviewed here by screenwriter and director Jonathan Bensimhon, he discusses the technical challenges he had to overcome and the artistic, organizational and human particularities of such a production.

After shooting The French Dispatch in France in Angoulême, Wes Anderson and his crew decided to set their new film in Spain’s desert. For Asteroid City is therefore a very brilliant hommage to 1950’s America and to stage play, as the prologue says. Robert Yeoman, ASC, whose long filmography notably includes William Friekin’s masterpiece To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) shares his lensing and lighting choices on this new nostalgic fable, where John Ford’s desert and SF imagery are sometimes meeting. (FR)

Justine Triet’s (Sybil, Victoria) new film is multidimensional, layer after layer being progressively peeled away as the film progresses. Starting as a family drama involving a Franco-German couple and their visually impaired son, the film evolves around a series of characters, in the context of a high-profile criminal trial. Simon Beaufils created the images for this closed doors thriller, with 2.5 hours divided between a high mountain chalet and a courtroom. Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute) was awarded the 76^th Palme d’or. (FR)

During the 76^th Cannes Film Festival, we have published 32 written interviews (13 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.

A film about young "ware-wolf" tiger girls? Yes, that’s how Amanda Nell Eu’s Tiger Stripes could be presented. This debut film from Malaysia opened the competition at the Critics’ Week, with great enthusiasm from both its crew and the audience. Its cinematographer Jimmy Gimferrer (Story of My Death - Histoire de ma mort by Albert Serra in 2013) talks to us about it... (FR)

One of Cannes most awaited screening was Sam Levinson’s new mini serie "The Idol". Discovered thanks to his award-winning series "Euphoria", – also produced by HBO – , he decided, for this new project, to tell a story about the heart of show business. Lily Rose Depp plays Jocelyn, an international pop star’s clone - surrounded by a swarm of people, orbiting financially around her.
New York based cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan was chosen by Sam Levinson to boldly begin the series, then handed over the cinematography to Marcell Rev HCA, ASC, who shot both seasons of "Euphoria".

Wacky and offbeat as per usual, Michel Gondry talks about himself in his latest film: a film director, in conflict with his producers, runs off to the Cévennes with the dailies to finish the film. Pierre Niney stars as Marc Becker, Gondry’s clone, alternately irritable and great, trying to finish his film at his old aunt Suzette’s (Francoise Lebrun) home, accompanied by his faithful editor Charlotte (Blanche Gardin) and his scapegoat assistant Sylvia (Frankie Wallach). Laurent Brunet, AFC (French society of Cinematographers) – now a part of the "Gondry family" since working on Microbes and Gasoil – was the cinematographer on this film... (FR)

British director and contemporary artist Steve McQueen presents with Occupied City an atypical film; altogether a tribute, a meditation on memory and archival work. This four hour documentary presented at Cannes draws a parallel between five years of German occupation in Amsterdam (with sound) and contemporary images of the pandemic filmed throughout a three year span. Dutch cinematographer Lennert Hillege, NSC, was in charge of the cinematography, shot on film. (FR)

Born in 1995, Haya Khairat is an Egyptian cinematographer and director who has been working for the past ten years, mainly in her country. Dividing her work between commercials, music videos, short fiction films and TV movies, this year she has been awarded the Angénieux Special Encouragement, along with Barry Ackroyd, BSC. She talks to us about the spark that ignited her passion, her journey, and being a woman filmmaker in the Middle East. (FR)

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)

What if rain suddenly became deadly? In the context of global warming, and worries increasing about this upcoming’s summer water reserves, this initial idea holds a meaning of its own.
This is Acide’s take, Just Philippot’s second feature film, screened during the Official Selection, at the Midnight showing, this year, at the Cannes Film Festival. Guillaume Canet plays a divorced father, living under probation with an electronic tagging device, trying to protect his daughter in the midst of a sudden eco-climatic disaster. Pierre Dejon, the film’s director of photography, talks to us about the challenges of such a project, and in particular the difficulty of filming in the rain... when it’s sunny. (FR)

Selected out of competition at this years Cannes Critics’ Week, Stephan Castang’s first film is a fantastic story in which the protagonist suddenly finds himself confronted with inexplicable violence. To bring this fable to life, which oscillates between a paranoid film and an epidemic film, Manu Dacosse, BSC, teamed up with this highly experienced theater actor. It is Karim Leklou who lends his features to Vincent, bringing both the fragility and the strength that characterize the character with talent. (FR)

The winner of the 2023 Pierre Angénieux Tribute is a filmmaker who loves movement. He honed his skills shooting documentary films,when his passion for cinematography led him to cross paths with British director Ken Loach who offered him the opportunity to shoot Riff Raff, in 1991. He teamed up with Loach on several major films (Raining Stones, Ladybird, My Name is Joe, amongst others) until their The Wind That Shakes the Barley won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2006.
He then altered dircetion and worked with Paul Greengrass (United 93, Captain Philips) and filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow, whose films The Hurt Locker and Detroit he shot. Barry Ackroyd, BSC, reminisces with us about his exceptional career and discusses how he creates cinema. (FR)

Comedies with a fantastical or eccentric statement are rare in European cinema. But The (Ex)perience of Love (Syndrome des amours passées), an exciting couples analysis by Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni, is one exception. The humour, tenderness and audacity of this Belgian film will do wonders during the Semaine de la Critique. Jorge Piquer Rodriguez, the director of photography, and the two directors, talk to us about rhythm, direction, and a giant inner tube. (FR)