Antoine Bonfanti

Birthday:

10/26/1923

Place of birth:

Ajaccio, Corsica, France:

Biography:

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.



Credits

Un soupçon d'amour (2020)
Sound
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
Matar Saudades (1988)
Sound
Matar Saudades (1988)
Sound Mixer
Repórter X (1987)
Sound Mixer
Silent as a Fish (1987)
Sound Mixer
Yawar fiesta: Fiesta de sangre (1986)
Sound mixer
Rosa la Rose, Public Girl (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
Carnaval de Guinée Bissao (1982)
Sound
Instinct de femme (1981)
Mixing Engineer
Oxalá (1981)
Sound Mixer
C'est la vie ! (1980)
Sound
Simone Barbès or Virtue (1980)
Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Utopia (1979)
Sound
West Indies (1979)
Sound
Le rouge de Chine (1978)
Sound
The Theatre of the Matters (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
Je suis Pierre Rivière (1976)
Sound Engineer
Gloria Mundi (1976)
Sound Editor
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
Daguerréotypes (1975)
Sound Editor
India Song (1975)
Sound Mixer
The Ambassadors (1975)
Sound
Zig Zig (1975)
Sound
Le voyage d'Amélie (1974)
Sound
Sweet Movie (1974)
Sound Mixer
The Madwoman of Toujane (1974)
Sound
The Vertical Smile (1973)
Sound
To Be Twenty in the Aures (1972)
Sound
Tout Va Bien (1972)
Sound
The Inner Scar (1972)
Sound
Les jonquilles (1972)
Sound
Les jonquilles (1972)
Mix Technician
Delusions of Grandeur (1971)
Sound
Love Is Gay, Love Is Sad (1971)
Sound Mixer
The House of the Bories (1970)
Sound Mixer
Amougies (Music Power - European Music Revolution) (1970)
Sound Mixer
La Fin des Pyrénées (1970)
Music
The People and Their Guns (1970)
Sound
Three (1969)
Sound
Mr. Freedom (1969)
Sound
The Panafrican Festival in Algiers (1969)
Sound
The Panafrican Festival in Algiers (1969)
Assistant Director
One Night... a Train (1968)
Sound
Rocky Road to Dublin (1968)
Sound Engineer
La Charnière (1968)
Director
Je T'Aime, Je T'Aime (1968)
Sound
A Question of Rape (1967)
Sound Mixer
The Killing Game (1967)
Sound
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)
Sound
Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (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
Bird of Paradise (1962)
Sound Recordist
La Jetée (1962)
Sound Re-Recording Mixer
La Jetée (1962)
Sound Editor
Magritte or the Object Lesson (1960)
Sound Engineer