THE LUMIÈRE FILM FESTIVAL, OCTOBER 13-19, 2014
LYON, FRANCE
by MOEN MOHAMED
Created just a few years ago,
the cinephile's heaven that is the Lumière Grand Lyon Film Festival
is poised, in my opinion, to become the biggest classic cinema event in the
years to come. The adoration of the classics by the French is manifest in
the overwhelming local support. Almost every screening is sold-out with lengthy
rush lines. In terms of radius, the festival spreads over the entire
length and breadth of the city and its immense suburbs with no less than 40
screening venues. Armed with a good knowledge of how to traverse the city
with subway tickets, it is easy to reap the benefits of the remarkably rich
programming. Each screening began with the Lumière 2014 intro set to the
lilting tune of a Spanish guitar, honouring this
year's Prix Lumière honoree, Pedro Almodóvar. The
intro ends with a quote from Almodóvar, so befitting a classic film festival,
attended by hordes of film enthusiasts: "Our lives would be nothing
without the cinema."
Organized and
directed by Thierry Frémaux, who
is also the director of the Cannes Film Festival, Lumière is to the
classics as
what Cannes is to contemporary world cinema. This very young festival,
just based on the logistics, is a well-oiled machine and
expertly organized. With courteous staff and volunteers, interesting
special guests, historians and critics introducing films, and
Bertrand Tavernier everywhere, it would be impossible not to have a
great festival. However, becoming the biggest festival of this kind
requires a very important ingredient for international guests, and that
is
English subtitles. All films not in French are subtitled only in
French. However, there are many films in English, so one can have a
good
time with just these films. I managed quite well with the French films
considering I don't practise the language often. Reading French
subtitles
was much easier than I expected.
However, if the festival would like to be more attractive to an
international
audience, it may be a wise thing to look into. But judging from the
presence of the French press, French media centre, the very
busy Marché du
film, the long line-ups and jam-packed houses, I doubt whether the lack
of
English subtitles is a major concern for this very successful and much
beloved
festival right now. The invaluable and
gorgeous catalogue, though only in French, is the best film festival
catalogue
I have ever had. It is overflowing with
pertinent information on each film and director and is nearly free of
advertisements, which are in the last few pages. It contains beautiful,
glossy photographs of
the original movie posters and stills.
And then, there is the city of Lyon. I have become
enamoured with this lovely city. A rich, warm, vibrant metropolis,
throbbing with vitality and multiculturalism. The kind and courteous
people of Lyon were an added bonus. Day after day, I met the friendliest
of people and not just at the festival. They are very encouraging when one tries
to speak French, even haltingly. Then, there is the food. There is
something to eat at every corner with great coffee, mouth-watering desserts and
pastries, particularly the apricot tarts. As for the local bakeries, they
are filled with the freshest breads of every sort. Conveniently located,
just outside the Institute Lumière, on Place Ambroise Courtois on
a few days each week, is a grand old French farmers' market. It
is plenished with fresh fruits, baked goods, cheese, and brightly
coloured vegetables. Feeling nostalgic, I bought some Canadian apples
which were imported!
It would be remiss of me not to comment on the very
well-behaved Lyonnaise
Another major highlight was an in depth conversation
with Thierry Frémaux and Isabella Rossellini, who
introduced Cineteca Bologna's beautiful digital restoration of
Roberto Rossellini's La Paura
With three major director's retrospectives (Frank Capra,
Pedro Almodóvar, Claude Sautet), the rest of the programme provided a
dazzling array of a cinematic buffet: Focus on Spanish Cinema,
Ida Lupino, Italian Westerns, Silent Cinema, Master Classes, Cult Cinema
and much more. These are my favourites of the festival, in order of
preference:
THERESE RAQUIN
35mm | Marcel Carné | France | 1953 | 107 min |
Programme: Almodóvar Carte
With just Les enfants
du paradis, the great Marcel Carné was guaranteed to be remembered as a
brilliant director. But along with Le jour se lève, Port of Shadows, Hôtel du
Nord and Thérèse Raquin, his
reputation as one of the greatest of all French directors has forever been
cemented. Marcel Carné's adaptation
of Emile Zola's tale of adultery, set and filmed in Lyon, much to the
audience's delight, has Simone Signoret playing an unhappy wife
(believe me, she has reasons to be unhappy) who falls in love with an Italian
truck driver (Raf Vallone). Daily life is dull and at times
demeaning, especially with her calculating mother-in-law, played to perfection
by single-named actress, Sylvie, whose accusing eyes dominate, pierce and
judge. The mother-in-law seems to be in
love with her own spineless and sickly son.
As marriage wasn’t what she envisioned it to be, she attempts to elope
with the rugged truck driver, who is clearly smitten by her. A trip to Paris by train, a tragedy and a
most pernicious eye-witness played to delicious perfection by a creepy Roland
Lesaffre, all culminate to make Thérèse Raquin a
great film. Lesaffre steals every scene he is in. Released in America under the scandalous but
dismissive title “The Adulteress”, the film’s story may sound familiar but
under the skillful direction of Marcel Carné, the film pulsates with tension,
fear and energy. It is perhaps important
to note that Emile Zola wrote Thérèse
Raquin 67 years before James Cain wrote The Postman Always Rings Twice.
SOLEIL ET OMBRE (SUN AND SHADOW)
35mm | Musidora &
Jaime de Lasuen | France | 1922 | 43 min | Programme:
Henri Langlois - A Memory for the Future
A gorgeous 35mm print from the Cinémathèque Française of Musidora's 1922
classic was an unexpected thrill. One of the only two surviving silent
films directed by Musidora, Soleil et Ombre
POACHERS
35mm | José Luis Borau | Spain | 1975 | 83 min | Programme: Almodóvar Carte Blanche
35mm | José Luis Borau | Spain | 1975 | 83 min | Programme: Almodóvar Carte Blanche
A grim tale of a young poacher who lives in the forest with
his over-protective and staunch Catholic mother. On a trip to the city, he meets a young girl
who has escaped from a juvenile detention facility. She takes one look at
him and realises he will do. She follows him, seduces him, gets him to
buy her a dress so she can discard her uniform and they head back to the
forest. Without an explanation, he tells Mother the girl will now live
with them. Metaphoric and symbolic of the horrific times under Franco,
the film depicts scenes of torture and cruelty to animals (representing humans)
as they are hunted by a group of ignorant city officials and the hypocritical
Governor, who is the poacher's stepbrother. As the tension intensifies
between the mother and the girl, the poacher has to make sure she is hidden
from the officials and her former pimp/boyfriend, who has been scouring the forest
for her. Franco was still alive when this film was made, so how this got
past the Spanish censors is a mystery. He died two months after the
film's release. Allegorical without being overtly political, Poachers is
one of the finest films of the festival.
STRANGE VOYAGE (EL EXTRANO VIAJE)
35mm | Fernando Fernán Gómez | Spain | 1964 | 92
min | Programme: Almodóvar Carte
A deliciously uproarious black comedy set in a small Spanish
town. A tyrannical spinster takes care
of her simple brother and sister, both adults but infantile. These two
become aware of a plot concerning their older sister selling their property,
getting rid of them, before taking off to Paris with her unknown lover and
accomplice. There is also a local shopkeeper who wouldn't rest until she
has found out who has stolen the corset from her shop. There is also the
local band whose lead singer is courting the shopkeeper's assistant. A
wide array of colourful locals, idiosyncratic and hilarious, plus a dead body
dumped in a wine vat (instead of ham), apparitions, and a serious bout of
transvestism, Strange Voyage is not only strange, but highly original. It
is also the first Spanish film to show a man fully dressed as a woman, and not
just for comical reasons. He is on full display for the pleasure of a
voyeur, showcasing evening gowns, casual wear and the frilliest of nightgowns.
PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD
DP | Jerry Schatzberg | USA | 1970 | 105 min |
Programme: Homage to Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway gives a powerful and perhaps her best
performance as a model who tries to balance professional and personal
relationships while dealing with persuasive inner demons. It is an
audacious undertaking, blunt in its execution and filled with complex ideas on
societal relations. There are scenes of such vulnerability and pain as
she is rejected over and over, not as a model, but as a person. Narratively
fragmented and seemingly plotless, the pivotal moments of her life are
accounted for with precise quietude, but the effects are lasting. A film
that deserves to be rediscovered as quickly as it was dismissed by American
critics and forgotten. It was, of
course, embraced and championed by French critics, who most likely understood
what Schatzberg was trying to say, not just about the world a model inhabits,
but the fragility of a mentally unstable human being. It has one of the best titles ever, which is quite
apt. The film itself is a puzzle in the
way it unfolds as we never get a complete grasp on her character; she is still
a child in many ways and her downfall started long before she even became a
woman, when she was but a young girl. I
struggle to comprehend why this film was dismissed. Puzzle
of a Downfall Child is a gem from 1970s American cinema.
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
35mm | Albert Lewin | USA | 1945 | 110 min |
Programme: Film Historian Patrick Brion Carte Blanche
Oscar Wilde's novel of the permanently youthful Dorian Gray
is brought to life with intelligence and panache. The young Dorian Gray whilst
posing for his portrait, makes a wish and asks for the reverse of order - that
the painting should age instead of him. Basically, he has bargained his
soul to be granted this wish. As he is
always reminded how innocent and good he looks, an inner Mr. Hyde surges from
within and Dorian Gray commits many an evil act, causing suffering and losing
all his friends. He remains unmoved and cold about the plight of
others. But in spite of this and as he
continues to age, he remains forever youthful and beautiful. However, his deeds are accumulated and are on
display elsewhere. The painting serves
as a reminder of his bargain, but it not only ages as a man would in terms of
the passage of years. It shows the
ugliness of Dorian’s now corrupt soul.
Each cruel act he has committed is depicted in the most horrific
distortion of his face and body in the portrait. The film has some of Oscar Wilde’s best and
wittiest quotes, sarcastically delivered by a cynically superior George
Sanders, who gives the film’s best performance and steals every scene he is
in. He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying
his role, which is not that different from the other witty cynic he plays five
years later, Addison DeWitt, in All
About Eve.
CLASSE TOUS RISQUES
DP | Claude Sautet | France | 1960 | 109 min |
Programme: The Films of Claude Sautet
The debut film by Sautet all but fizzled upon its
release and was forgotten by all and sundry until its auspicious re-release in
1971, when it was championed by the directors of the French New
Wave. Originally released just two weeks after Jean-Luc Godard's blockbuster,
Breathless, which also stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, Classe
MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
DP | Frank Capra | USA | 1936 | 116 min | Programme: The
Films of Frank Capra
Frank Capra's delightful film is the first one of
the festival that brought a tear to my eye. Written and directed with
skill and confidence, it has the ability to make the heart soar and bleed for
the earnest Mr. Deeds. Gary Cooper is perfectly cast as a small town man
who is given the news that he has inherited $20 million. He moves to New York
City to handle the affairs of his inheritance and soon becomes the target of
scandal mongers and the gossip columns as he is mocked because of his naïveté
and simplicity. Enthusiastically introduced by actor Vincent Perez, who
is an intense Capra fan, he was shocked to see that there were still a few in
the audience who have never seen It's a Wonderful Life, after he
asked the question. I was among the few raised hands and realise that I
need to rectify this very soon.
L'ENTRAINEUSE
35mm | Albert Valentin | France | 1939 | 97 min | Programme:
Focus on French Cinema
Michèle Morgan glows and glides across the screen in Albert
Valentin's tale of a nightclub hostess who works at the Dame de Coeur.
After a few consecutive stressful episodes, she decides to go for a vacation on
the Côte d'Azur. There, she meets a vacationing family with
three young and energetic men who all pursue her. Michèle Morgan does not
play her character as a victim or ashamed of her life. She is gracious
and offers no information about her private life. She runs into clients
on holiday at the hotel, but these scenes are cliché-free without the typical
melodrama of fear of exposure. As things progress with one of the young
men, she has to decide whether to take the route back to Paris as it beckons
her and if the nightclub is in her future.
AMERICAN MADNESS
35mm | Frank Capra | USA | 1932 | 77 min | Programme: The
Films of Frank Capra
Set in the world of finance, mergers and avaricious bankers
just 3 years after the Wall Street crash, this gem from Frank Capra is of such
relevance today, for obvious reasons. Walter Huston plays the President
of a large and successful bank. He thrives on honest
business practice and his kindness to his loyal clients causes much
grief to the very conservative board of directors. After a robbery, a
rumour spreads that the bank is now bankrupt and is closing. Still in the
throes of the Depression, an understandably terrified public rush to withdraw
all of their money. Hence, a sort of American madness ensues. With
naturalistic acting, sparse music and a compelling lead performance by
Huston, American Madness is timely and important 82 years
later. Not to mention, it is a fine film.
WAKE IN FRIGHT
DP | Ted Kotcheff | Australia | 1971 | 108 min
| Programme: Homage to Ted Kotcheff
When introducing the film, Ted Kotcheff said that
at an Australian screening where the film was first released and then quickly
closed, a man shouted from the audience, "This is not us!" A
response echoed, "Shut up! This IS us!" A tight
screenplay interweaves frighteningly real and shocking moments of manly
behaviour gone awry. It is a mystery how and why this film took decades
to be rediscovered or even remembered, because I think it’s unforgettable. It is thanks primarily to the personal
finance and hard work by the film’s editor, who spent years tracking down a
copy of the print. He found one in a warehouse in Pittsburgh in a box
that was marked for destruction the following day. The film depicts how easy it is for the evolved
and civilized man to retrogress as he is tempted and influenced by primal
instincts. A film of discomfort and the complicated notions of manhood,
it is a classic of Australian cinema. Well, at least it should be.
LE VIEUX FUSIL (THE OLD GUN)
DP | Robert Enrico | France | 1975 | 102 min |
Programme: Restorations
What starts as an idyllic family film set during the final
days of the Nazi occupation of France, quickly turns into a bitter saga of
vengeance and death. Philip Noiret is terrific as a doctor
whose wife and daughter are savagely murdered by the Nazis as the family spends
a few days in their old country chateau. The Nazis have now taken over
the chateau. Noiret's transformation from the good doctor and
adoring husband to a vengeful and determined killer is quite striking.
What makes it even more special is the tense and tight proximity director
Robert Enrico takes us through the second half of the film. The old
chateau is the doctor's childhood home so he is familiar with every nook and
cranny, each hidden room and passageway. A physical endurance indeed
as Noiret leads, chases and taunts the Nazis throughout the chateau,
as he coldly exacts his vengeance. Beautifully restored, Le vieux fusil won
the César for Best Film and Best Actor at the 1976 César Awards.
Other
great screenings:
Overlord (Stuart Cooper, 1975)
Opening Night (John Cassavetes,
1977)
They Drive by Night (Raoul Walsh, 1940)
My Love Will Never Die (Mario Caserini,
1913)
The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino,
1953)
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis
Bunuel, 1955)
The Exile (Michael Curtiz, 1914)
Au grand balcon (Henri Decoin, 1949)
Embrujo (Carlos
Serrano de Osma, 1948)
MOEN MOHAMED
October 2014
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