To read: “There are no controversies” at the Cannes Film Festival, assures its general delegate Thierry Frémaux
Links with Lausanne
Thierry Frémaux builds on his excellent relationship with the Swiss Cinematheque, with its historical director Freddy Buache and today Frédéric Maire. “If the Lumière Institute is not strictly speaking a film library, we have close links with those of Lausanne and Toulouse.” He then mentions the Letter to Freddy Buacheshort film directed in 1982 by Jean-Luc Godard. For the film buff that he is, Switzerland is necessarily linked to “JLG”, which won a special Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018 for The Picture Book.
At the invitation of Editions Stock, their director Manuel Carcassonne and Alina Gurdiel, director of the “My night at the museum” collection, both present that day in Lyon, Thierry Frémaux agreed to spend a night at the Light Institute. The book he drew from this experience is unsurprisingly titled Rue du Premier-Filmand it is a magnificent ode to the inventors of cinema, as well as an introspection and celebration of cinema and its past and future history.
The Lyonnais, we had confirmation of this by reading his fascinating Official selection (Grasset, 2017) – immersion for a year behind the scenes of the Cannes Festival and his daily life as a selector – has something hyperactive about it. He speaks with a Jim Carrey-like delivery and seems to fear silence, he the specialist in silent cinema of the Lumières. After a coffee and croissant in the vast Hangar du Premier-Film, where the family factory was located, he invites us to take a seat in a vast room with 270 seats, which runs until October 20, like other cinemas Lyonnais at the time of the Lumière Festival, an event dedicated to heritage cinema.
And also: “Light! The adventure begins: a film to introduce you to the beginnings of cinema
A warehouse overflowing with archives
Seven years later Light! The adventure beginswhich he also came to present at the Swiss Cinematheque, Thierry Frémaux dedicated a new film to the Lumière brothers, made up of views restored and commented on by him. He shows us some extracts, a beautiful tracking shot in a Parisian street in 1900, a view of Montreux or even a number with the clowns Foottit and Chocolat. He emphasizes the anthropological dimension of Lumière films – which very quickly sent operators to film the world – and the modernity of certain framings. It is then opposite, near the famous blue dot, that he shows us in a basement the warehouses of the Institut Lumière, a maze of rooms where we find pell-mell reels, posters and documents, historical cameras.
We see the costumes worn by Philippe Torreton in Captain Conan (1996) and the bicycle used by Jacques Gamblin in Passes (2002), two films by Bertrand Tavernier, who was the first president of the Lumière Institute – the Franco-Swiss actress Irène Jacob took over after his death in 2021. “The whale ingests everything it finds”, laughs Thierry Frémaux, who regrets that there is a lack of time and means to inventory all the archives and objects owned by the Institut Lumière. “Even Quentin Tarantino gives us things sometimes.”
The night during which he imagined what would become Rue du Premier-Filmthe movie buff with an insatiable appetite wandered through the various public and private spaces of the places he manages. He remembered stages of his career, he reflected on the history of cinema and the city of Lyon, he watched films. The book is full of anecdotes and confessions. He cites in particular an article from Geneva Journalwho, under the pen of Ludovic Halévy, compared the cinema towards the end of the 19th century to “those vague inventions which, in any case, disappear after a few months”.
After a hearty meal (“we’re still in Lyon!”) at the Café Lumière, whose menu only offers wines from vineyards belonging to cinema figures, we cross the Lumière Museum which, in the villa where they grew up Auguste et Louis, recently redesigned its scenography. It is there, under the roof, that Thierry Frémaux’s office is located. And that’s where he takes the time to answer a few questions one-on-one. Time passes quickly, and that same evening he has a meeting in Paris with Sean Penn.
Heritage: The future of cinema also depends on its past
“Passiveist, presentist and futurist”
Since the time he has been around the ghosts of the Lumière brothers, what would he like to ask them if they suddenly appeared? Faced with the modernity of the small films made by Louis, which sometimes evoke famous paintings, he would like to know their relationship with the art of their time, painting, photography and literature. Did they read a lot, did they go to see exhibitions? “As a film historian, I can only speculate.”
He dedicated Rue du Premier-Film “to those who come after us”. By paying tribute to the mentors and friends who were Bernard Chardère (founder of the journal Positive) and Bertrand Tavernier, Thierry Frémaux is aware of being only passing through. “We live in an era where we are quickly considered outdated, even out of date, if we love the past. However, I am convinced that the past can only enrich us. We teach those who come after us as we learned from those who were there before.”
The film buff insists: he is “past-the-century, present-day and futurist”. He is not nostalgic, but finds it important to “say that it was better before when it was better before, and to say it is better now if it is better now”. He also admits to being a man of habits so that he can better get rid of them. “I’m a Gemini ascendant, which explains all these dichotomies,” he smiles.
Encounter: Frédéric Maire: “In a film library, we think in years rather than months”
Thierry Frémaux, “Rue du Premier-Film”, Ed. Stock, coll. My night at the museum, 252 pages.
Lumière Festival, Lyon, from October 12 to 20.
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