Mihai Malaimare Jr. burst onto the international cinematography scene in 2005 with Youth Without Youth, which he shot for Francis Ford Coppola. Malaimare caught Coppola’s eye while shooting screen tests in the cameraman’s native Romania. They went on to make two more features together, 2008’s Tetro, a noirish black and white, and 2010’s Twixt Now and Sunrise. Malaimare latest collaboration The Master, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson is now hitting cinema screens in 70mm glory.

The Master has some parallels in real life, but Anderson uses the story of a charismatic healer (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his damaged acolyte (Joaquin Phoenix) to delve into the human condition rather than to chronicle historical events. The story begins in the period following World War II. Locations included the San Francisco Bay area as well as a few locales in Hawaii and in southern California. Amy Adams and Laura Dern also star.

Currently thrilling Indian audiences with its blend of high-octane energy, action sequences and exotic locations is the newly-released blockbuster, Ek Tha Tiger. The Tiger of the title is a rugged, handsome and mysterious bachelor, played by Salman Khan, who is India’s top spy. He is sent on a supposedly easy and safe mission to Dublin, Ireland to observe a scientist of Indian origin suspected of sharing his research findings with the Pakistan defense establishment. Tiger attempts to befriend the scientist’s caretaker Zoya (Katrina Kaif). Together the two embark on a roller-coaster journey battling the dark worlds of intelligence and espionage.

Director Kabir Khan and DP Aseem Mishra go back a long way. Both went to the same college at the University of Delhi and after graduating they both worked together on documentaries and commercials. They decided to use their documentary background as a means of filming Ek Tha Tiger. DP Mishra explains, “The director and I wanted the film to look as real as possible. The idea was to capture events without interfering too much with the set-up and artificially stylize it. There is a lot of docu-style camera movement, always edgy, yet fluid. The choice of film as the shooting medium was not really a conscious one; we just both decided that a film of this scale should be shot on film to achieve the kind of depth that we required. Film provides a certain look, a certain depth that is imprinted on our subconsciousness.”

Sophie Marceau and Gad Elmaleh in a scene from Un bonheur n’arrive jamais seul. Photo: Christine Tamallet

United for the third time on a movie set, director James Huth and director of photography Stéphane Le Parc continue their exploration of genre films with a romantic comedy entitled Un bonheur n’arrive jamais seul starring Sophie Marceau and Gad Elmaleh.

Compare and contrast; on the one hand, you have Sacha, a jazz pianist and confirmed bachelor who only goes out with girls under 21; on the other, Charlotte who works for a modern art foundation and has two ex-husbands, three children and a Philippine nanny. Sacha lives in an attic in Montmartre, Paris; Charlotte lives in a 300 square meter apartment in Paris most expensive neighborhood.