We honour the 130-year anniversary of film not only by documenting its origins through the Lumière brothers, but also by covering the journey of this fascinating discovery through time. Our previous festival guests Arnaud Desplechin (2019) and Mathieu Amalric (2022) have produced a very personal and autobiographical love letter to the achievements of this revolutionary invention, Desplechin as writer-director and Amalric as narrator-actor, performing as Desplechin’s familiar alter ego Paul Dédalus.
Every movie fanatic has their list of memorable scenes from beloved films, and Filmlovers! showcases several of the duo’s favourites, naturally weighted towards French cinema but commendably taking the rest of the world into account as well, all the while emphasising that the cinema is the quintessential way to experience the magic of the seventh art in its entirety.
Although Desplechin treats the subject with a certain playfulness, he doesn’t shy away from theoretical methods either, as Amalric voices his combination of fiction, interviews, essays and documentary. Coppola, Scorsese, The 400 Blows, Cries and Whispers, King Kong, Shoah…they have such sights to show us. We’re also acquainted with André Bazin’s approaches to cinema and the philosophy of Stanley Cavell. Even Finland’s own Renny Harlin finally gets his Midnight Sun premiere snippet from one of his films…but which one?
Timo Malmi