Thierry Frémaux (Tullins-Fures, France) has been the General Manager of the Cannes Festival since 2001. He is Director of the Lyon Lumière Institute, a French academic institution dedicated to promoting and disseminating French cinematography and to honouring the contribution made to cinema by the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière. He also directs the Lumière Festival. Furthermore, in his biographical notes he stresses the fact that he is a judo teacher with a black belt 4th Dan, a specialist in Bruce Springsteen and a member of the Olympique Lyonnais fan club. He lives in Lyon and Paris, but notes that in Paris he lives in the 'Rue de Lyon'.
Lumière! L’aventure commence (2016) is a collection of restored Lumière brother copies, of which Frémaux is the director, the editor together with Thomas Valette, the producer accompanied by Bertrand Tavernier, and the voice of a film in which, as well as the siblings Auguste and Louis, we can see Martin Scorsese. The movie was screened at the Cannes Classics and at the Official Selection in Toronto.
On the 23rd he will introduce and comment on the film in the Tabakalera cinema as part of the San Sebastian Festival framework. “I am extremely happy and proud to show my film, Lumière, at the San Sebastian Festival, which is one of my favourite film festivals in the world, and not only because it is, with Lyon, the best place to eat on the planet”, he says.
“As an ambassador of the Lumière brothers, I will follow the path of Alexandre Promio, the Lumière brother’s famous cinematographer who came to Spain for the first time in 1896. With me, I have a feature film by the Lumières, a programme I have composed to show how rich, fascinating and powerful that cinema was. Louis Lumière was not only a creator, he was a true artist, the last inventor and the first director. At the age of thirty, he was young and full of joy, exactly what this 90 minute programme reveals. The world shown by the Lumières was fashioned from generosity, sensitivity and artistic quality. I will be on stage to explain that and it will be a marvellous journey for all of us”, Frémaux ends.
Tickets for this special showing will go on sale with the other screenings on the San Sebastian Festival programme, on Sunday September 17 at 9 am, and through the usual channels.
Caramel Films will shortly release the film in Spanish cinemas.
A journey into the universe of the founders of cinema, narrated by Frémaux with passion and humour, Lumière! delivers unforgettable images and a unique view of France and the world at the dawn of the modern era; truly essential films that illuminate the world of contemporary filmmaking.