One particularly fruitful collaboration of recent cinema has been Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles and Uruguay born Cinematographer Cesar Charlone. Fernando Meirelles and Cesar Charlone have collaborated since 2002. They made together City of God (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005), Blindness (2008), and recently The Two Popes (2019) – a Netflix production. All movies have been highly acclaimed for that. For The Two Popes , Angenieux Optimo zoom lenses were on set most of the time. Cesar Charlone graciously accepted to tell us more about his experience.
« Les Misérables » tells the story of the suburbs, an area that French film director Ladj Ly knows well. He lived in Montfermeil, a suburban neighborhood outside of Paris. “Les Misérables” is a long-matured first feature film. The documentaries he did before were just the path to this movie. After the Prix du Jury at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the film was selected to represent France at the 2020 Oscars, and nominated by the Academy in the Best International Feature Film category. Director of Photography Julien Poupard (AFC) shot the entire film using only Angenieux zoom lenses.
After 50 years almost fully dedicated to high-end zoom lens design and production, Angénieux announced in 2019 a complete set of high-end Full Frame prime lenses – the Optimo Prime series, in partnership with Band Pro Film & Digital, Inc and Jebsen Industrial Technology Co LTD. Following the worldwide presentation in 2019 of the FF Optimo Prime F40mm, Angénieux is pleased to present for the first time in France at MicroSalon AFC 2020 (Jan 16 -17) the Full Frame Optimo Prime F135mm and to unveil the unique user-features of this Angénieux new lens series.
“Invasion” is a sequel of popular Russian Sci-Fi Movie Attraction (2017) directed by prominent Russian director Fedor Bondarchuk*. Attraction, that spoke about an extraterrestrial spaceship that crash-landed in the Chertanovo district of Moscow, was the fourth Russian film transferred to Imax 3D format and became the highest-grossing Russian Sci-fi movie with more than 1 billion rubles.
In cinemas worldwide from October 2 to 6, 2019 “Roger Waters Us + Them”, a film by Sean Evans and Roger Waters - concert visuals and live actions production by Grasshopper Films. Roger Waters is an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, and composer. He is best known as the bass player, co-lead vocalist, lyricist and the principal songwriter in the rock band Pink Floyd (https://rogerwaters.com/)
Cinematographer Brett Turnbull (http://brett-turnbull.com/) photographed Roger Waters’ concert in Amsterdam at the Ziggodrome during the “Us and Them” tour on June 19, 2018, as well as all the other scenes of the film. Brett Turnbull has an incredible experience in filmmaking : music videos, drama, documentaries, but also multicamera live events, mainly concerts: Beyoncé, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Coldplay, U2, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Paul Mc Cartney, Iggy Pop, The Who, Rihanna, Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake, Adele, Peter Gabriel, David Gilmour, Radiohead, Nick Cave, The White Stripes, One Direction, Queen , Pet Shop Boys, Kings of Leon, Bjork, Noel Gallagher, Shakira, Kylie Minogue, Tom Petty…
Angenieux zoom lenses have always been “a staple choice” for his work all along his career.
We had the privilege to get his feedback on Roger Waters’ concert shooting.
“Overall technical requirements for live event productions vary greatly for this kind of work. Typically we'll be shooting with anywhere between 6 to 24 cameras, depending on the scale & ambition of the show. Combining a variety of grip solutions, from traditional cranes & dollies, to specialist robotic & aerial systems. One constant factor is always the need for versatile, fast, high quality zoom lenses. Filming any live event with a paying audience, the director and cinematographer do not have the freedom to put cameras wherever they want, or move them at will during the performance. So every camera position needs to offer a variety of shot sizes, often in low light."
On July 20, 2019 in the US, July 21 in France, the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. The retransmission of the incredible images of the success of this mission remains one of the most significant broadcast events of all time. To create these images, NASA selected, among other equipment, the lenses of a small French company: Angenieux optics. The Angenieux 6x25 zoom mounted on a Westinghouse camera and Angenieux 75mm prime lens on a Maurer 16mm camera were on-board the command module of Apollo 11.
On May 24, 2019, one day before the closing of the Cannes Film Festival, Angénieux paid tribute to the director of photography Bruno Delbonnel (AFC and ASC) and for the second consecutive year, also highlighted the work of a young cinematographer during the Ceremony.
After 50 years almost fully dedicated to high-end zoom lens design and production, Angénieux chooses the Cannes Film Festival to announce a complete set of high-end Full Frame prime lenses – the Optimo Prime Series, in partnership with Band Pro Film & Digital, Inc and Jebsen Industrial Technology Co LTD.
Just two days before receiving the 2019 ExcelLens award at Cannes, Bruno Delbonnel talked exclusively to Angénieux about a wide range of topics, including the various professions that make up a film crew, the role of directors of photography and the recognition they receive, the digital transition, equipment choices, and his advice for young people.
Young Indian cinematographer Modhura Palit EICA (Eastern India Cinematographers Association), IWCC (Indian Women Cinematographers Collective) will receive the 2nd Angénieux “special encouragement” award on May 24th, 2019 during the “Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens in Cinematography” ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival. This recognition will allow Modhura the opportunity to use the most sophisticated Angénieux lenses on an upcoming project. She told us more about herself and her vision of cinematography.
