Antoine Bonfanti
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 regularly at INSAS in Brussels and EICTV in Cuba, and occasionally at Fémis and ENSLL.
He was born 26 October 1923 in Ajaccio, Corsica, and died 4 March 2006 in Montpellier, France.
He began learning his profession as a trainee boom-operator on the film La Belle et la Bête by Jean Cocteau. He is considered as being one of the pioneers of direct-sound in film-making on location: “the school of direct-sound is French - said the sound-engineer Jean-Pierre Ruh- it began with Antoine Bonfanti”.
He is characterised by 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.
His 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 (that means the live-sounds, the ambiances in location and after the sound-effects, the dubbing and the mixing in auditorium). In this pattern, he had 120 films of which 80 feature films. Otherwise, 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 be, haven't been listed.
Member of the Résistance and, after, volunteer soldier in the war-years 1943-1945; militant, communist by spirit, vigilante, he is part of SLON collective - which later becomes 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 to make of the cinema is a matter of fight.
The film "Antoine Bonfanti - Traces sonores d’une écoute engagée" by Suzanne Durand, reconstitutes a professional path of more than 50 years which demonstrate a commitment going far-beyond the simple trade and his collaboration with a lot of film-makers; it is also an original approach of the sound's practical.
He recounts it himself also, interviewed by Noël Simsolo in a transmission on France-Culture, called "Mémoire du siècle, Antoine Bonfanti" on 20 August 1997, and broadcast during "Les Nuits de France-Culture" at midnight of 25 January 2016.
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. ...
Source: Article "Antoine Bonfanti" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Photos
Movies (106)
Un soupçon d'amour
2020 · Sound
Antoine Bonfanti, sonic traces of an engaged listening
2002 · Self
Fragile as the World
2001 · Sound Designer
Life Lesson
1995 · Sound Mixer
Rosa Negra
1993 · Sound Editor
Guys in the Cafe
1989 · Sound
Earthen Man
1989 · Sound Mixer
Killing the Saudades
1988 · Sound Mixer, Sound
Repórter X
1987 · Sound Mixer
Silent as a Fish
1987 · Sound Mixer
Yawar fiesta: Fiesta de sangre
1986 · Sound mixer
Rosa la rose, fille publique
1986 · Sound Mixer
The Insomniac on the Bridge
1985 · Sound Designer
Notre mariage
1985 · Sound Mixer
The Judge
1984 · Foley Recordist
Lucky Luke: Daltons on the Loose
1983 · Mixing Engineer
Sans Soleil
1983 · Sound Mixer
Salut la puce
1983 · Sound Mixer
Ana
1982 · Sound Mixer
Le rose et le blanc
1982 · Sound Mixer
Carnaval de Guinée Bissao
1982 · Sound
Instinct de femme
1981 · Mixing Engineer
Oxalá
1981 · Sound Mixer
C'est la vie !
1981 · Sound
Simone Barbès or Virtue
1980 · Sound Re-Recording Mixer
To Woody Allen from Europe with Love
1980 · Sound Mixer
Utopia
1979 · Sound
West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty
1979 · Sound
Le rouge de Chine
1978 · Sound
Daguerréotypes
1978 · Sound
Djerrahi: une cérémonie soufie
1978 · Sound
Exit 7
1978 · Sound
The Theatre of the Matters
1977 · Sound
The Moving-Picture Man
1977 · Sound
La Machine
1977 · Sound
Last Exit Before Roissy
1977 · Sound Director
We shall have the whole of death to sleep
1977 · Sound Mixer
Aide-mémoire... pour une autre histoire
1977 · Sound
Gloria Mundi
1976 · Sound Editor
Je suis Pierre Rivière
1976 · Sound Engineer
I Love You, I Don't
1976 · Sound
Guerre du peuple en Angola
1975 · Director
Hu-Man
1975 · Sound Mixer
Met Dieric Bouts
1975 · Other
India Song
1975 · Sound Mixer
Zig Zig
1975 · Sound
Raging Fists
1975 · Sound
The Ambassadors
1975 · Sound
Le voyage d'Amélie
1974 · Sound
Sweet Movie
1974 · Sound Mixer
The Madwoman of Toujane
1974 · Sound
SOUVENIR DE GRASSE, Un certain 12 Juin 1973
1973 · Sound
Day for Night
1973 · Sound Mixer
The Vertical Smile
1973 · Sound
Belle
1973 · Sound
Last Tango in Paris
1972 · Sound Engineer
To Be Twenty in the Aures
1972 · Sound
Tout Va Bien
1972 · Sound
The Inner Scar
1972 · Sound
Les jonquilles
1972 · Sound, Mix Technician
Delusions of Grandeur
1971 · Sound
Struggle in Italy
1971 · Sound
Vladimir and Rosa
1971 · Sound
Love Is Gay, Love Is Sad
1971 · Sound Mixer
The House of the Bories
1970 · Sound Mixer
Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther
1970 · Sound
Amougies (Music Power - European Music Revolution)
1970 · Sound Mixer
La Fin des Pyrénées
1970 · Music
The People and Their Guns
1970 · Self, Sound
Les Ajoncs
1970 · Sound
Three
1969 · Sound
Mr. Freedom
1969 · Sound
The Pan-African Festival in Algiers
1969 · Sound, Assistant Director
Rocky Road to Dublin
1968 · Sound Engineer
One Night... a Train
1968 · Sound
La Charnière
1968 · Director
Je T'Aime, Je T'Aime
1968 · Sound
Be Seeing You
1968 · Sound, Production Assistant
A Question of Rape
1967 · Sound Mixer
Far from Vietnam
1967 · Sound
The Killing Game
1967 · Sound
Law of Survival
1967 · Sound
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
1967 · Sound
Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!
1966 · Sound
Naked Hearts
1966 · Sound
If I Had Four Dromedaries
1966 · Sound
Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?
1966 · Sound Recordist
The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short
1966 · Sound
The War Is Over
1966 · Sound
Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes
1966 · Sound Mixer
Up to His Ears
1965 · Sound Engineer
Pierrot le Fou
1965 · Sound
The Sucker
1965 · Sound Engineer
Happiness
1965 · Sound Assistant
The Married Woman
1964 · Sound
The Unvanquished
1964 · Sound
Band of Outsiders
1964 · Sound
Joy House
1964 · Sound Designer
Le temps d'Emma
1964 · Sound
Muriel, or the Time of Return
1963 · Sound
Method 1
1963 · Sound Engineer
The Lovely Month of May
1963 · Sound
Bay of Angels
1963 · Sound
Bon pour le service
1963
Bird of Paradise
1962 · Sound Recordist
Magritte or the Object Lesson
1960 · Sound Engineer
