Antoine Bonfanti (23 October 1923 – 4 March 2006) was a French sound engineer and a professor at cinema schools and institutes in France and other countries. He taught at INSAS in Brussels and EICTV in Cuba. Early life He was born 26 October 1923 in Ajaccio, Corsica, and died 4 March 2006 in Montpellier, France.
Career
He began learning his profession as a trainee boom-operator on the film La Belle et la Bête by Jean Cocteau. He is considered one of the pioneers of direct-sound in film-making on location: "the school of direct-sound is French—said sound-engineer Jean-Pierre Ruh—it began with Antoine Bonfanti".
He is known for his collaborations with directors as Bernardo Bertolucci, André Delvaux, Amos Gitaï, Jean Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Chris Marker, Gérard Oury, Alain Resnais, René Vautier, and Paul Vecchiali (see filmography below).
Bonfanti's primary occupation is the authenticity of sound: above all he likes building the whole universe of sound of one film, through every stage from filming to sound-mixing. In this pattern, he had 120 films of which 80 feature films. His filmography includes about 420 titles of long and short Films of fiction or documentary; and within this number, some can be still missing because–as involved in cinema as in politics—Antoine did lots of "for free" that may have not been listed.
Member of the Résistance and volunteer soldier in the years of 1943-1945, militant, communist by spirit, and vigilante, he was a part of SLON collective—which later became ISKRA - and of the Medvedkine-groups.
He shared his sound-artist's talent and he has trained several generations of sound-engineers in many countries (Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Morocco, Mozambique, Peru, Portugal, Tunisia, Venezuela), where cinema is a form of resistance.
The film Antoine Bonfanti—Traces sonores d'une écoute engagée, directed by Suzanne Durand, traces more than 50 years of Bonfanti's professional career, highlighting his collaborations with numerous filmmakers and his approach to sound practice beyond its technical aspects.
Bonfanti himself recounts this in an interview by Noël Simsolo on France-Culture, called "Mémoire du siècle, Antoine Bonfanti" on 20 August 1997, broadcast during "Les Nuits de France-Culture" at midnight of 25 January 2016.
Biography
Antoine, nicknamed "Nono" by his Corsican family, "Toni" by his war comrades, "Bonbon" within the world of cinema, was born in Ajaccio in 1923. The family leaves again for Africa in 1926, having already spent some years in Conakry in "République de Guinée", (formerly "Guinée française"). His father is "receveur principal des postes" in Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina-Faso (formerly "Haute-Volta"). Antoine spends some of his youth there but, when his eldest brother must go to high-school, the family returns to Corsica, before his father be appointed "percepteur" (tax-collector) at Saint-Rambert d'Alban, and after at Touquet-Paris-Plage.
As a child, he discovers the paroquial-cine in Corsica. At Touquet, the family goes to the cinema pretty often. He remembers fondly the showing of the film "Les marins de Kronstadt" d'Efim Dzigan, organised by his father to mark the death of Roger Salengro in 1936, where spectators leave the theater singing "l'Internationale". He is 13 during the "Front populaire". At Boulogne-sur-Mer in the boarding-school at the "Collège Mariette" - and on his train journeys - he uses to pass near the steelworks, red flags hanging from the rooftops; and he remains very touched by the workers who were raising their fists to salute the train. The "pros and con" fight in the school-yard. There, Antoine "has been lucky enough to have Jean Marcenac as his teacher of Philosophy and French, who opened up the eyes and his library".
His political awareness began in June 1940, after the "drôle de guerre". He didn't understand Paul Reynaud's phrase who said after the debacle: "I don't believe in miracles, but if someone were to tell me that a single miracle could save France, I'd believe in that miracle". But two days later the Germans were occupying Touquet.
Later, boarding at College in Orléans (his "correspondent" is a Corsican chief of police), he was expelled in November 1941 for knocking out the chief-supervisor who deprives him of his meal; Antoine was a lightweight boxer and competitive swimmer.
He feels the pull of the resistance. He produces pamphlets on linoleum "in private", and tries on several times to reach England by small boats with friends. He is becoming dangerous for his father who is part of one resistance-movement; and when Antoine is called up, in May 1942, for the construction of the "Mur de l'Atlantique", his father orders him to escape to Corsica (it's his formerly correspondent who obtains a pass for him). He then forms part of the " Résistance armée urbaine" at the "Front National" (at this time: Front national pour la libération et l'indépendance de la France): "we were in a war of liberation against the Germans, and also in a war of revolution against the Petain-regime". In 1943, he commit himself as voluntary-soldier in the "Bataillon de choc". He becomes "chasseur" in the fourth company. After the Toulon-loading, his batallon goes up as far as Tyrol; Antoine loses numerous comrades on the way. To his great detriment, he is only demobilized in September 1945.
He has two children from a first marriage, Jean-Claude and Francis. Years later, he married Maryvon Le Brishoual whom he met in Brazil in 1968, during the filming of "Le grabuge" (O tumulto) by Edouard Luntz, produced by Fox. They have three children: Kalanna, Solène and Maël.
In 1946, he took correspondence lessons from the "Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers"; and thanks to his cousin, Mathieu Bonfanti, he was chosen as boomer-trainee on " La belle et la bête" by Jean Cocteau, at the "Studios de St Maurice" where, in the following time, he learns all the roles, all the trades of sound. In 1948, he started to work at " Radiodiffusion française" (which become RTF en 1949 and ORTF in 1964) where he learns " à faire ce qu'il ne faut pas faire" (what not to do). Ardent militant, he fights against the American politics which refuses to accept quotas; but with the "Accords Blum-Byrnes", Léon Blum sacrifices French cinema, in order "to put France back on the right track" with the Plan Marshall accepted, and announced in June 1947.
In 1962, he began teaching several times a year at l'INSAS in Brussels.
He took a keen interest by Cuba in 1963 during the filming of the documentary of Claude Otzenberger "Fidel si, Fidel no" ("Cuba 63"). He donated then to the ICAIC his favorite appliances (Nagra III and his fetish micro Beyerdynamic M 160). For him "Cuba is the discovery of a single application of a socialist concept, but the Cubans, remarkable people, don't deserve what they were to endure afterwards". He is rebelling constantly against l'embargo (called blocus in Cuba) that U.S.A. established in 1962, and still applied.
In 1989, he began teaching at EICTV each year until February 1999.
Antoine Bonfanti and directors, René Vautier, Yann Le Masson, Bruno Muel, and Jacqueline Meppiel, were very close, but he wasn't one to exclude anyone due to political differences, the only thing important to him was that he could "make his sound to become the sound of the film". When he has that freedom, the actors of his films are more likely to improvise and can't be dubbed in post-production (as Louis de Funès in the films of Gérard Oury).
He is invited to talks, seminars and conferences on sound, is a jury member or president at film festivals, but he is mostly solicited to institutes, centers and cinema schools in numerous countries; the Cinemathèque of Lisbonne devoted a week to him in 1985.
Filmography Filmography of his different sound collaborations and at different novels according to the years; (the dates of the films - Long or Short, fiction or documentary - are those of filming or release). 1945-48 : Studios de Saint-Maurice 1946 : La Belle et la Bête de Jean Cocteau 1948-50 : la Radiodiffusion française 1950-56 : Auditorium MGM-France 1955 : Afrique-sur-Seine de Paulin Soumanou Vieyra 1956 : Un général revient de René Vautier 1956-61 : Auditorium "la SIMO" (Direction Jean Neny), Studios de Boulogne 1956 : Les Aventures de Till L'Espiègle de Joris Ivens/Gérard Philippe 1957 : Les Marines de François Reichenbach 1958 : Hiroshima mon amour d'Alain Resnais 1959 : Os Bandeirantes de Marcel Camus 1960 : Les honneurs de la guerre de Jean Devewer 1960 : Magritte ou la leçon de choses de Luc de Heusch 1961 : L'oiseau de paradis de Marcel Camus 1962 : La Jetée de Chris Marker 1962 : Le Joli mai de Chris Marker 1962 : Muriel, ou le temps d'un retour d'Alain Resnais 1962 : Marvejols de Mario Ruspoli 1962 : Octobre à Paris de Jacques Panijel 1963 : Neuf émissions sur le cinéma polonais d'André Delvaux 1963 : Fidel si Fidel no (Cuba 63) de Claude Otzenberger 1963 : Les plus belles escroqueries du monde de Jean-Luc Godard 1963 : À Valparaíso de Joris Ivens 1963 : Les Félins de René Clément 1964 : L'insoumis d'Alain Cavalier 1964 : Une femme mariée de Jean-Luc Godard 1964 : Le Corniaud de Gérard Oury 1964 : L'homme au crâne rasé d'André Delvaux 1964 : Le coup de grâce de Jean Cayrol/Claude Durand 1964 : Bande à part de Jean-Luc Godard 1964 : Le train de John Frankenheimer 1965 : Le Bonheur 1re part. d'Agnès Varda 1965 : Up to His Ears de Philippe de Broca 1965 : Qui êtes-vous Polly Maggoo ? de William Klein 1965 : The War Is Over d'Alain Resnais 1965 : Pierrot le fou de Jean-Luc Godard 1965 : Two or Three Things I Know About Her de Jean-Luc Godard 1965 : Masculin Féminin de Jean-Luc Godard 1965 : La brûlure des mille soleils de Pierre Kast 1965 : Nick Carter et le trèfle rouge de Jean-Paul Savignac 1965 : Suzanne Simonin, la Religieuse de Diderot de Jacques Rivette 1965 : Les Ruses du diable de Paul Vecchiali 1965 : Les Cœurs verts d'Edouard Luntz 1966 : La Loi du survivant de José Giovanni 1966 : La Grande Vadrouille de Gérard Oury 1966 : Jeu de massacre d'Alain Jessua 1966 : Le Père Noël a les yeux bleus de Jean Eustache 1966 : Le Peuple et ses fusils de Joris Ivens 1966 : La terre et la boue de Joris Ivens 1966 : Si j'avais 4 dromadaires de Chris Marker 1967 : Les jeunes loups de Marcel Carné 1967 : Un soir, un train d'André Delvaux 1967 : Je t'aime, je t'aime d'Alain Resnais 1967 : La Sixième face du Pentagone de Chris Marker 1967 : A bientôt j'espère de Chris Marker/Mario Marret 1967 : Lamiel de Jean Aurel 1967 : Le Viol de Jacques Doniol-Volcroze 1967 : La Chinoise de Jean-Luc Godard 1967 : Loin du Vietnam du Collectif : J.L.Godard, W.Klein, J.Ivens, C.Lelouch, Ch.Marker, A.Varda 1967 : 17th Parallel: Vietnam in War de Joris Ivens, Marceline Loridan 1967 : Week-end de Jean-Luc Godard 1967 : Mexico, Mexico de François Reichenbach 1967 : Rotterdam de Joris Ivens 1968 : One Plus One de Jean-Luc Godard 1968 : Mr. Freedom de William Klein 1968 : Le Grabuge d'Edouard Luntz 1968 : Three de James Salter 1968 : Nous n'irons plus au bois de Georges Dumoulin 1968 : L'amour c'est gai, l'amour c'est triste de Jean-Daniel Pollet 1968 : Classe de lutte du Groupe Medvedkine (Pol Cèbe) 1968 : Sept jours ailleurs de Marin Karmitz 1969 : La Panaf (Festival Panafricain) de William Klein 1969 : Eldridge Cleaver de William Klein 1969 : Tout peut arriver de Philippe Labro 1969 : Le Dernier Saut d'Edouard Luntz 1969 : La Maison des bories de Jacques Doniol-Volcroze 1969 : Lettres de Stalingrad de Gilles Kast 1969 : Le peuple et ses fusils de Joris Ivens 1969 : La parcelle de Jacques Loiseleux 1969 : Wind from the East de Jean-Luc Godard 1970 : Popsy Pop de Jean Herman 1970 : La fin des Pyrénées de Jean-Pierre Lajournade 1970 : Les premiers jours de la vie de Claude Edelman 1970 : Nigeria, Nigeria one d'Henri Hervé