Looking back at Caméflex-Amiens 2013

By Alain Coiffier, Dominique Gentil, Rémy Chevrin, Jean-Noël Ferragut, and Eric Guichard
3 directors, 22 cinematographers, 20 industry partners and representatives attended the events hosted by Cameflex-AFC at the Amiens International Film Festival between 11-15 November 2013.
Cameflex-Amiens and its attendees - From L to R: Philippe Piffeteau, Fabien Gaffez, Pascal Ridao, Olivier Assayas, Rémy Chevrin, Denis Lenoir, Richard Andry, Ricardo Aronovich, Jean-Marie Dreujou, Jean-Noël Ferragut, Hélène Louvart, David Quesemand, Robert Alazraki, Vincent Muller, Gérard de Battista, Laurent Dailland, Michel Abramowicz, Alain Coiffier, Dominique Gentil, Michael Henri Wilson - Photo Germain Suignard
Cameflex-Amiens and its attendees
From L to R: Philippe Piffeteau, Fabien Gaffez, Pascal Ridao, Olivier Assayas, Rémy Chevrin, Denis Lenoir, Richard Andry, Ricardo Aronovich, Jean-Marie Dreujou, Jean-Noël Ferragut, Hélène Louvart, David Quesemand, Robert Alazraki, Vincent Muller, Gérard de Battista, Laurent Dailland, Michel Abramowicz, Alain Coiffier, Dominique Gentil, Michael Henri Wilson - Photo Germain Suignard

A big thank you to all those who participated for the interest they showed towards this second annual event dedicated to the cinematographic profession. We were delighted to have had a full house and many young attendees for the main events.

During the event honouring Denis Lenoir’s work as a cinematographer
9 movies filmed and presented by Denis Lenoir: 

- Disorder (1986), by Olivier Assayas
- Tandem (1987), by Patrice Leconte

- Monsieur Hire (1989), by Patrice Leconte

- Cold Water (1994), by Olivier Assayas

- Carrington (1995), by Christopher Hampton

- Demonlover (2002), by Olivier Assayas

- Angel (2007), by François Ozon

- Righteous Kill (2008), by Jon Avnet

- Carlos (2010), by Olivier Assayas

2 movies filmed by Yorrick Le Saux, guest of Denis Lenoir, with whom he co-filmed Carlos, by Olivier Assayas
- When I Was a Singer (2006), by Xavier Giannoli

- Amore (2009), by Luca Guadagnino

Screening of Série Noire, by Alain Corneau, cinematography and presentation by Pierre-William Glenn, AFC

Conference by Denis Lenoir: "My life as an artist through 15 movies I did not film"
 15 extracts from films that influenced Denis’ eye, such as Pierrot le Fou, Edward Munch, and Ordet, amongst others. The voyage of a master of lighting and eternal cinephile.

Master Class Denis Lenoir: "Who is responsible for the lighting of a movie?” This controversial question was the theme of a talk by Denis Lenoir, with guest Olivier Assayas, who tried to convince the audience that it was the director who, in the end, was responsible for the lighting of his film. This controversial point of view led to over two hours of rich discussion, brilliantly moderated by Michael Henri Wilson and Fabien Gaffez.

In Memoriam of Cinematographer Luc Drion who suddenly passed away this year, followed by the preview of Belle and Sebastien, directed by Nicolas Vanier, which is the last film Drion collaborated on and that has been dedicated to him (cinematography by Eric Guichard).
Before its screening, we were shown a selection of clips prepared by Dominique Gentil from Oceans, Toto the Hero, Himalaya, and Winged Migration. This enabled us to show the audience of the Cinéma Gaumont-Amiens how precise, dynamic, and impressive Luc Drion’s camera work was.
Jacques Perrin spoke about his personal gratitude towards the cinematographer who had contributed to his most important films.
Thanks to him, Dominique Gentil, and Eric Guichard (who was born the same day as Luc and who often worked with him), we were able to give him a fitting and vibrant memorial and thank him for his talented contribution to the noble profession of cinematography, which Eric aptly describe as “the eyes of the director” before screening a breath-taking flow of images that we will not soon forget.

Awarding the Golden Unicorn to Denis Lenoir with a few words by Vincent Muller: “Dear Denis, I have only been a member of the AFC for a few days. In 1989, while working as a projectionist in a suburban movie theatre, I saw Monsieur Hire. When I saw that film (and Sandrine Bonnaire), I knew that I wanted to make images like that, get inside the screen and create what I was seeing. I didn’t know anything, I wasn’t aware of anything, I just admired those images. It was chimeric.
Today, thanks to the AFC, I’ve been able to get my hands on one of these Golden Unicorns and I hand it over to you with all of our admiration for your life as a cinematographer.”

Without forgetting to mention Gérard de Battista’s participation in the jury of the official competition alongside Stéphane Brizé (director and President of the jury), Hélène Ruault (scriptwriter), Sonia Rolland (actress), Nicolas Sarkissian (editor).

Via its support of our event, via the quality and size of its round table talks (including the membership of the jury itself), the Amiens Film Festival has confirmed its transversal approach to all the various professions of the cinema world and its interest for enabling us to share our abilities. The magnificent Master Class by Lam Lé on the story-board or Mike Hodgis’ on staging are some other examples.
Soon, we will post the interviews we filmed at Amiens:
- an interview between Denis Lenoir and Channa Desapryia, Asoka Andagama’s cinematographer who came from Sri Lanka to present his films. Intense images on the condition of women and the follow up of the Tamil revolt filmed in an impressionistic style with references to Nestor Almendros,
- an interview between Vincent Lignier, a photographer whose portraits of stars were being shown at the Maison de la Culture, and Gerard de Battista, on the theme of The Portrait in Photography and in the Cinema.
- an interview between Pierre-William Glenn and cinema students from the University of Amiens.

A big thank you
- To the Amiens Festival for its cooperation and financial support
- To Fabien Gaffez and the entire team of the Festival led by Hélène Rigolle who helped us prepare this event
- To Germain Suignard who improvised a studio on location in order to photograph us all behind the legendary eyepiece of a Caméflex lent by Ken Legargeant and accessorized by Panavision Alga.
- To Vincent Muller, Rémy Chevrin, and David Quesemand, who, along with Dominique Gentil, after examining their applications, began a fruitful dialogue with young directors who came to present their projects to the Amiens screenplay development assistance fund.
- To Pierre Frank Neveu, Sony, and their R2D1 installer for their contribution to the quality of the digital screenings.
- To Eric Vaucher and Angelo Cosimano of the CST for their technical assistance.
- To Marc and Kenny Galerne (K5600) for their friendly support and lighting equipment.
- To Tommaso Vergalo and Digimage for their editing of the film on Luc Drion.

… And to all of you, for without your support and your attendance these delightfully convivial moments that are so important to the life of the AFC would not have existed.

In closing
“At Amiens, I rediscovered Breakfast at Tiffany’s in DCP 4K, screened thanks to the generosity of Sony, who installed a 4K projector for the occasion of the festival. A big thank you to the entire Sony team for their support and allowing us to see this magnificent film again.” Eric Guichard, AFC.

(The photo above shows Denis Lenoir and his Golden Unicorn, surrounded by Fabien Gaffez on his left and Alain Coiffier)