AFC Newsletter Editorial, June 2017

By Richard Andry, President of the AFC

by Richard Andry AFC newsletter n°276

[ English ] [ français ]

May began well. We escaped the b“rown swine” and its national / barbed wires Kulture. What, our friend Kees Van Oostrum, President of the ASC, immediately greeted by a strong: “Vive la France, congratulations! Let’s destroy populism”.

Then, went out from the ballot boxes a young and dashing President, talking to his people before the Louvre Pyramid, running up the stairs and pulling up the Champs-Elysées in a command-car. It can appear as a remake of Abel Gance’s Napoleon but these beautiful images “made in France” went round the world because, however unpleasant it might seem to someones, the world becomes really global and, from now it’s going to be necessary to plan the most of our making with the Others.

What we could appreciate in Amsterdam during the Symposium Imago Inspiration featuring Jeanne Lapoirie, AFC, Phedon Papamichael, GSC, ASC, and Anthony Dod Mantle, DFF, BSC, ASC, followed by the 70th Cannes Film Festival, the second world event in terms of media feedback after the olympic games, and the very alive proof of this globalization. And if our new Minister of Culture - who, by the way, we welcome and to whom we ask to take care of the cinema and its “little guys” - missed the opening ceremony because of late appointment, that did not prevent the festival to hit the ground running as far as goes the Netflix contreversy, although, it is true, quickly swept and sneaked under the famous red carpet, setting aside by the way a debate on the media chronology so dear to our country.
Are the international platforms going to dictate their law in the media landscape, now? Are “smartphoners” going to replace the movie goers? Truce of debate thus, we returned quickly to the artistic creation and greeted the work of our colleagues. Numerous “AFC movies”, numerous foreign friends who were accompanying their films, of whom we were able to follow, to see, read and reread the interviews in our daily Cannes newsletter, thanks to the tremendous work of Jean-Noël Ferragut, AFC, Laurent Andrieux, Brigitte Barbier, Eric Guichard, AFC, and François Reumont: about thirty articles! A good job. Bravo.

Then comes the time of the “ExcelLens Pierre Angenieux Tribute” to Christopher Doyle, HKSC, who was awarded, during a memorable ceremony, a zoom engraved at his name: a 15-40mm, his favorite lens. What an extraordinary artist who presented to us a short autobiographical, poetic and almost psychoanalytical movie directed by malaisian director Tio Guan Saw. What an immense generosity by somebody who has becomen a genuine living legend.
From Chris, whose Chinese name is “Du Ke Feng”, let us move to China whose presence is more and more felt there and let us thank Pierre-William Glenn, AFC, for having organized a conference and a meeting with leading persons in charge of the Chinese cinema, among whom the famous director Zhan Jizhong, who clearly exposed the importance of an artistic and technical collaboration between France and China.

Yes we are all together and I leave the last words to Barry Ackroyd, the President of the BSC, in his answer to our homage to the victims of the terrosist attack in Manchester: “As when you in Paris and Nice recently had to face the same horrendous attacks on innocent people and when those attacks are especially directed towards the youth of our countries, we need to stand together. These events put into sharp focus what our priorities are and although cinema is merely cultural tool…, its a great tool to help make sense of this world.”