Maybe greater than some other French director, Jean-Jacques Annaud has all the time felt at dwelling making movies in Hollywood, with the American film capital’s aptitude for the epic and the spectacular.
Now, the 78-year-old Oscar-winner behind “The Identify of the Rose,” “Seven Years in Tibet” and “Enemy on the Gates” is returning to Tinseltown together with his newest movie, “Notre-Dame On Fireplace” (“Notre-Dame Brule”) — a thriller concerning the real-life blaze on the beloved cathedral in Paris.
Annaud spoke to AFP by way of cellphone from France’s capital as organizers of subsequent month’s The American French Movie Competition (TAFFF) introduced Tuesday that his film will likely be their opening night time Los Angeles gala premiere.
“I’m near Notre-Dame now and much away from Los Angeles. However a part of my coronary heart stays in Los Angeles,” mentioned Annaud.
The story of the inferno that engulfed Paris’ Twelfth-century Gothic landmark in 2019 was “a terrific drama that solely a loopy Hollywood screenplay author might think about,” he mentioned.
“Notre-Dame on Fireplace” dramatizes the story of firefighters who risked their lives to extinguish flames earlier than the whole cathedral was destroyed — and the errors and misfortunes that delayed the preliminary response.
The film merges actual archive footage of the hearth with scenes shot by Annaud recreating the catastrophe.
It follows a safety guard who unintentionally checked the improper cathedral attic for flames when the primary alarm sounded, the hearth engines caught in Paris visitors and the supervisor who couldn’t get his self-service “Velib” bicycle to work as he rushed to the scene.
“I had the sensation once I was writing the screenplay that I had a goldmine… it was so weird, so unimaginable,” mentioned Annaud.
Launched in Europe earlier this yr, the movie exhibits how tens of millions world wide watched in horror because the cathedral’s well-known spire collapsed and far of its historic roof was destroyed.
Notre-Dame cathedral usually welcomed almost 12 million international guests a yr and People have been prolific contributors to a world fundraising drive to rebuild the landmark.
“In all places world wide, this cathedral was excess of an emblem of Paris, or France, and even Catholicism or Christianity,” mentioned Annaud.
“It was far above that. It was, in a means, kind of the concern, the metaphor of the collapse of Western tradition… it was an emblem of permanence.”
– ‘Spectacular’ –
Subsequent month’s competition look continues Annaud’s love affair with Hollywood, which he mentioned usually diverges from French movie traditions in scale and funds.
“In America, I noticed that the funding is to attempt to make one of the best factor you possibly can and essentially the most spectacular, the extra interesting, the extra enticing,” he mentioned.
Not like the French New Wave motion, which emerged within the Fifties from theater and novels and emphasised dialogue, American filmmaking focuses extra on motion and the visible, mentioned Annaud.
“The artwork of cinema is to inform thrilling tales visually. If not, it’s a televised radio present, it’s one other recreation, it’s one thing else,” he mentioned.
“If we have now the privilege to be seen on the large display screen, it’s to replenish this massive display screen and to not have solely individuals who speak like on the tv exhibits,” he added.
“I’d not have achieved the flicks that I’ve achieved with out the total help and friendship of American manufacturing firms and main studios.”
– ‘Last Reduce’ –
Amongst different movies taking part in this yr at TAFFF, which runs October 10-16, will likely be “Last Reduce” (“Coupez!”) from Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning director of “The Artist.”
Additionally on present will likely be two movies not too long ago named on a shortlist of French films for submission to subsequent yr’s Oscars — “The Worst Ones” (“Les Pires”) and “Full Time” (“A Plein Temps”).
Amazon Prime’s “Hawa” from Maimouna Doucoure, whose earlier film “Cuties” was launched by Netflix and stirred worldwide controversy over allegations of hypersexualizing younger women, can even function.
The competition closes with Dominik Moll’s “The Evening of the Twelfth” (“La Nuit du 12”) and a theatrical screening of HBO French-American miniseries “Irma Vep,” created by Olivier Assayas and primarily based on his 1996 movie of the identical title.
