Poetry & confetti!

POSTED ON OCTOBER 13, 2019

Like every year, opening night of the festival got underway with a sold-out crowd packing La Halle, while the guests of honor took to the stage under bursts of applause. We laughed at the Lumière vue of the acrobatic family “Kremos,” cheered Frances McDormand and Donald Sutherland and got a taste of the poetic humor of Daniel Auteuil. Here we go for Lumière 2019!

Copyright Institut Lumière / Jean-Luc Mège

Five thousand cinephiles were in attendance Saturday night for the video presentation of the Lumière festival 2019 at the Halle Tony Garnier, a sampler plate of 179 delectable films set to animate the big screens of movie theaters in and around Lyon. We heard about this year’s tribute to Serge Reggiani and the 7+ hour film-concert marathon of The Wheel by Abel Gance, accompanied by the National Orchestra of Lyon. We also watched, twice, the short video jingle of the festival, to be shown at each screening, to the tune of the enchanting melancholy of “Piensa en mi” by Luz Casal from Almodóvar’s High Heels (allowing us to recognize the presence of Marisa Paredes, one of the leading ladies of the film). Each of these presentations were chances to shine the spotlight on the prestigious guests of this 10^th anniversary.

Celebrated for their fabulous careers, Canadian chameleon Donald Sutherland and committed actress Frances Mc Dormand received acclamations of admiration. The latter, the star of Fargo, then declared open, with panache, the 2019 edition of the festival, under an explosion of white streamers and red & silver confetti, surrounded on the stage by guests and friends of Lumière: Xavier Dolan, Philip Le Guay, Vincent Elbaz, Tonie Marshall, Emmanuelle Devos, Luc Dardenne, Danièle Thompson and Barbet Schroeder, to name but a few.

Premiering the festival’s opening film, La Belle Époque by Nicolas Bedos, accompanied by actress Doria Tillier, Daniel Auteuil won over the crowd with his well-chosen words of humility: "The only advantage of age is to imagine that we are part of this family, to take pride in having shared all this with these great actors." Auteuil will present a musical performance at the Institut Lumière on Monday, based on the poetry of Paul-Jean Toulet. "One day, rediscovering these Romance poems by Paul-Jean Toulet, I began putting music to the words. I find that music goes well with poetry.”

Filmmaker Nicolas Bedos concluded with a play on words, "I have the impression that Daniel Auteuil gave me the ‘quintes-sence’ of his life.” One thing is certain, this 10^th anniversary got off to an auspicious start under a poetic sky.

Charlotte Pavard