Apple’s CEO Tim Cook tweeted that legendary filmmaker Claude Lelouch says he has “never been happier” than when filming with an iPhone.

Bonjour Paris! 🇫🇷 Honored to meet legendary director Claude Lelouch and hear about his upcoming film, which will be #shotoniphone. In 50 years of filmmaking, he says he’s “never been happier“ than when shooting with iPhone! pic.twitter.com/t5q8J8jOW6 — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) October 22, 2018

French film director, writer, cinematographer, actor and producer, Claude Lelouch has been making films for 50 years.

Lelouch started his career with Reportage, one of the first to film daily life in the Soviet Union, with the camera hidden under his coat as he made his personal journey. He is also known for filming sporting events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Tour de France.

Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman won the Palme d’Or at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, as well as two Oscars including Best Foreign Language Film.

His 1967 film, Vivre pour vivre, was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In 1971, he won the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Directing for Le Voyou.

You can see Lelouch wielding his hefty looking gimbal + iPhone set up, with FiLMiC Pro on the iPhone screen. Not sure what gimbal he’s using, but looks like a sturdy one.

What’s this iPhone film about?

The film is called Les plus belles années (The most beautiful years) and is reported to be the epilogue to his 1966 masterpiece A Man and A Woman, starring the same leading cast, Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant. The film is scheduled for release in May 2019 (with a possible preview screening at Cannes). Both films are also set in the French city of Deauville.

In 1966, Lelouch shot handheld due to budget constraints. In 2018, he’s shooting on a smartphone for the same reason.

Lelouch was once considered a pioneer after mixing different film stocks: black-and-white with colour, and 35mm with 16mm and super 8. For years critics debated the meaning behind this approach. Later, Lelouch admitted he was that he was running out of money, and black and white stock was cheaper.

However, we at MoMo salute this resourcefulness. This is totally in keeping with our belief that the story is what counts when filmmaking against the odds. To think he then went on to win Oscars and a Palme d’Or when others might have quit because this was “unprofessional”.

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