François Ray

With The Love That Remains (Ástin sem eftir er), Icelandic filmmaker and contemporary artist Hlynur Palmason offers a very personal story, shot over a few years in Iceland. His own children play the leading roles, and most of the locations were found in the surroundings of his home. The same powerful visuals fuels the films, just as his precedent shows (Godland, Into the White). But in a lighter narrative context, sometimes dreamy, where fantasy and third-degree Icelandic humour reigns. He lensed himself this bittersweet family with his own 35mm Arricam. The Love That Remains was selected this year in the Cannes Première section. (FR)

A la fois film labyrinthe et laboratoire scénaristique, Le Roi Soleil, de Vincent Maël Cardona, est un bien étrange objet de cinéma. On y rentre, on y suit parfois de fausses pistes pour mieux revenir en arrière et se laisser emporter dans une sorte de conte en huis clos parfois surréaliste qui invoque à la fois les pièces de Luigi Pirandello ou le cinéma de genre asiatique. C’est Brice Pancot, AFC, qui s’est chargé de filmer cette histoire où une très rigoureuse gestion spatio-temporelle de l’intrigue a dû être mise en place... (FR)

Both a labyrinth movie and a screenwriting laboratory, Vincent Maël Cardona’s Le Roi Soleil (No One Will Know) is a very strange piece of cinema. We enter, sometimes following false leads, only to return and be swept away into a kind of surreal, one room tale that evokes both Luigi Pirandello’s plays and Asian genre cinema. Brice Pancot, AFC, was responsible for filming this story, which required a very rigorous management of the plot’s space and time...

PREMIÈRE PROJECTION LE 14 MAI À 19H30

After Sous les figues (Under the Fig Trees), which was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2022, director Erige Sehiri has once again teamed up with cinematographer Frida Marzouk, AFC, to shoot Promis le ciel, her second feature film. The film is opening the Un Certain Regard section. This story of Ivorian women in Tunis sheds light on the often-overlooked experiences of Black African immigrants in the Maghreb and, above all, offers a multifaceted portrait of three women. (FR)

Dans une forme narrative ultra réaliste qui ne peut qu’évoquer celle des maîtres du cinéma belge francophone, et à leur première Palme d’or en 1999 (Rosetta, porté par la regrettée Émilie Dequenne), Laura Wandel emmène le spectateur dans un quasi huis clos en temps réel au cœur du service pédiatrique d’un hôpital. Suivant l’infirmière en chef interprétée par Léa Drucker, on s’enfonce peu à peu dans l’intrigue et dans les liens qu’elle va nouer avec une mère en situation de détresse et son enfant de quatre ans. C’est Frédéric Noirhomme, SBC, qui, du haut de son 1,86 m, s’est chargé de filmer en caméra portée cette plongée en apnée dans le milieu hospitalier de nos voisins belges qu’on sent tout aussi débordé et en souffrance que le nôtre... L’Intérêt d’Adam fait donc l’ouverture en séance spéciale de la Semaine de la Critique 2025. (FR)

In an ultra-realistic narrative style reminiscent of the masters of Belgian cinema and their first Palme d’Or in 1999 (Rosetta, starring the late Émilie Dequenne), Laura Wandel takes the viewer into a single environment, in real time at the heart of a hospital’s paediatric ward. Following the head nurse played by Léa Drucker, we gradually become immersed in the plot and the bonds she forms with a distressed mother and her 4-year-old child. Frédéric Noirhomme, SBC, 1.86 metres tall, was responsible for filming this deep dive into the hospital environment of our Belgian neighbours, who seem just as overwhelmed and suffering as our own... L’Intérêt d’Adam (In Adam’s Interest) will therefore open the 2025 Critics’ Week with a special screening. (FR)

Shot on the island of Chiloé, in southern Chile, Brujeria is a fantasy film in which history and politics intertwine in an unexpected and very animalistic way. Set in the late 19^th century, at a time when European settlers were arriving alongside the newly formed Chilean state, the script depicts the rebellion of a native teenager when her father is unjustly killed by his German employers. 
This is the second feature film by Christopher Murray, a filmmaker whose academic work in anthropology inspired the subject matter. The cinematography is by María Secco, AMC, who is originally from Uruguay but lives and works in Mexico City. We talk to her about the making of this spellbinding story, which has been selected for the "Contemporary World Cinema" section at Camerimage 2023. (FR)

"The Deal" is a series that recreates a recent historical event by showing the inner workings and behind-the-scenes of an international negotiation on the shores of Lake Geneva. Steeped in the atmosphere of realistic spy series and films (including "The Bureau"), where the plot is conveyed largely through the relationships between characters rather than through action per se, it is also a kind of closed-door drama set in a luxury Swiss hotel. The setting is reminiscent of Edward Berger’s recent film Conclave, in which other international negotiations were taking place within the Vatican. Adrien Bertolle is the director of photography for this six-episode series, directed by Jean-Stéphane Bron, co-produced by Arte & Gaumont, and in international competition at Séries Mania. (FR)

Le Locataire, de Roman Polanski, a été réédité en Blu-ray aux États-Unis. Une édition de qualité après la restauration du film. Les bonus contiennent des entretiens avec Polanski, Sylvette Baudrot, sa scripte, et moi, assistant de Sven Nykvist (Bruno de Keyzer était mon second). C’est mon entretien que je mets en ligne. Certains seront surpris par mon enthousiasme mais tels sont mes souvenirs. (FC)

Récemment diplômé de La Fémis département Image, j’ai eu le privilège d’être membre du Jury du Prix CST de l’Artiste-Technicien 2019. Ce jury était présidé par Pierre-William Glenn, directeur de la photographie-réalisateur et président d’honneur de la CST, et composé de Christine Beauchemin-Flot, directrice du cinéma Le Sélect à Antony, Patrick Bézier, président de Audiens Care, Gérard Krawczyk, réalisateur, cinéaste, Elisabeth Perez, productrice chez Chaz Productions, et moi-même.