Welcome to the new AFC active members
The AFC welcomes Laurent Brunet, Claude Garnier, Marc Koninckx and François LartigueLaurent Brunet by Hélène Louvart
Laurent, we don’t know each other, we have never even met. I called you two months ago when I was looking for someone to replace me on a project. On the telephone, you asked me whether I would agree to be your “godmother” in the AFC. Of course I would, I was delighted... I had just tried to get in touch with “the person” whose work I had appreciated on Keren Edaya’s film, Mon trésor... the lighting was straightforward and beautiful, it held its own... as was the framing. I went to see La Petite Jerusalem and my feelings were confirmed... Obviously the sets were small, there was no space and the ceilings were certainly too low but you still made up your mind not to accept “ugliness” on the grounds that... you will not accept double shadows, spotlights that are too obvious or wrongly positioned, the casts’ faces are still handsome and stand out from the background, etc. etc. So now Laurent, the only thing that remains to be said is, “Welcome to the AFC...”
Laurent Brunet
77 rue Véron - 94140 Alfortville FRANCE
Tel. : + 33 1 49 77 06 14
Mobile : + 33 6 07 31 98 48
E-mail : laurent.brunet2@9online.fr
Claude Garnier by Eric Guichard
My Dear Claude,
I am struggling to find the right words to describe what I felt when you joined the AFC. I’m definitely proud, I’m also delighted to welcome you and I have great respect for all the work you did when you were my assistant.
I think back to the insight into the aesthetic and technical aspects you showed when we worked on a film, all the half-spoken conversations we had when we had to rush for dusk or dawn when it rose too quickly.
Then came the time for you to set up the frame with me being difficult, firstly on Tony Gatlif’s Gadjo Dilo, then on many other films.
The doubts we shared about our work and the future of a fragile vocation, the quality of the relationship you always manage to establish with actors when you focus on them and even more so once you have set up the frame.
The joy and despair we went through together, the projects that were abandoned and the successful trips to the Himalayas and more recently to Afghanistan.
The difficulty in standing your ground as a female camera operator and quite simply D.P. The films that you have shot, from Swing by Tony Gatlif to Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé by Stéphane Brizé. And many more.
I have no doubt that all of our members will discover your commitment to the passion that drives you and they in turn will appreciate meeting you and will find the words that escape me today.
Welcome to the AFC.
Claude Garnier in 2003, during the shooting of Atiq Rahimi’s Terre et cendres.
One of the rare occasions when Claude came to set up the frame, next to him is his second camera assistant, whom we trained like all the rest of the Afghan team.
Claude Garnier
44, rue de Tourtille - 75020 Paris FRANCE
Mobile : 06 85 11 76 48
Fax : 01 40 33 26 12
E-mail : claudegarnier chez libertysurf.fr
Marc Koninckx
When the time came to sponsor Marc Koninckx, Darius Khondji sent us this letter :
“I am writing to support Marc Koninckx’ application to the AFC. He is a director of photography whose work I find interesting and promising.
I have had the pleasure of working with Marc in the past. He was my Steadicam operator and cameraman, then Marc also worked with me as D.P. in the second team on Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty. He is always greatly appreciated by directors, who are reassured by his presence and find his work very sensitive in films such as Les Irréductibles and Le Thé d’Ania.
I am therefore glad if Marc can join the AFC as he hopes, since he considers us as a family whose work and thoughts he shares and to which - I feel - he should now belong.
With my best regards.”
Marc Koninckx by Willy Kurant
It was back in 1979 - if I remember correctly. I was living in Hollywood and a producer asked me to come to Brussels to shoot a vampire film with Louise Fletcher and Maria Schneider (Boris Szulzinger’s Mama Dracula).
There were several well-known faces in my team at that time, Berto - my youthful co-first camera assistant - and a young Flemish trainee who was a great admirer of Haskell Wexler, Marc Koninckx (his first job in film-making).
Several years later and now with greying hair (in my case), Marc, after being the first and best “steadicamer” in France - and in all Benelux - gradually moved on from his choreography of movement to tackle the even stranger choreography of light.
His CV as D.P. is exotic and spicy and I feel that Darius’ and my own joint sponsorship is solid and just as exotic.
The recommendations from Owen Roizman, ASC - who is generally very stingy with compliments - are a bonus. Owen worked with him on a film by Lawrence Kasdan as DP in the second unit, much to his satisfaction !
Even if it sounds like the Mafia, Khondji - Kurant - Koninckx : KKK, for Koninckx to write AFC after his name would obviously be much better and he definitely deserves it !
Marc Koninckx
17, rue Montyon - 75009 Paris FRANCE
Tel. : + 33 1 48 24 92 76
Mobile : + 33 6 09 80 59 61
E-mail : marc.koninckx chez wanadoo.fr
François Lartigue by Robert Alazraki
Une journée bien remplie, a film by Jean-Louis Trintignant with Willy Lubtchansky as director of photography, my first film working with him as second assistant and François Lartigue as first assistant.
And then thirty years down the line, François and myself found ourselves in Poland, working for Camerimage ; he was there to present The 7th Day by Carlos Saura and I was on the Polish film jury. It was an exciting week with him, full of discussions about images, films, photography, Yves Robert, the temperature of the vodka... In any event, I am very happy to be entrusted with welcoming François to the AFC.
François Lartigue
5, villa Perreur - 75020 Paris FRANCE
Tel. & fax : + 33 1 40 31 74 04
Mobile : + 33 6 74 83 33 55
E-mail : françois.lartigue chez wanadoo.fr