CANNES 2025 Out of Competition
Cédric Klapisch • Director of Colours of Time
"When we invent a story, we try to go where no one has gone before, which is the opposite of what AI does, which feeds on what has already been done"
- CANNES 2025: The French director talks to us about his generous and accessible film, a family story that questions our relationship with progress and modernity
We had to wait until Cédric Klapisch's fifteenth film to see him take to the steps of the Cannes Film Festival with the entire cast and crew of Colours of Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cédric Klapisch
film profile], a choral family comedy with his secret talent for orchestrating back and forth between the end of the 19th century and the present day, putting into perspective the notion of progress, but also the unflagging energy of youth. He talks to Cineuropa about what inspired him to draw a parallel between these two eras.
Cineuropa: What was the spark that ignited the project?
Cédric Klapisch: When a project is born, it's always a collection of ideas and desires that come together, and that's what makes for complex scenarios. When you invent a story, you try to go where no one has gone before, and that's the opposite of what AI does, which feeds on what's already been done. Here, I wanted to make a historical film, in costume, to reunite with some actors I like and discover others, to talk about family and transmission. The idea of the traces we leave for posterity, the period when Impressionism was born, but also photography.
Where did this desire to make a historical film come from?
I was very influenced by films like Barry Lyndon or Amadeus, and I have the impression that history makes cinema, in a way. You are plunged into another era, you conjure up and imagine an aesthetic that is less familiar to you, you create in a more active way, perhaps. I wanted to try my hand at reconstructing sets and costumes, especially for this period.
There's a constellation of ideas that then have to be embodied, and here again we find many young people, youth is always very vibrant in your films.
Yes, and it interested me that the characters from the past should be young, to break down the image of dusty ancestors. And to remember that our ancestors were also 20 years old once. I really enjoy working with young actors at the start of their career, like Abraham Wapler for example, because they have a particular enthusiasm, the stakes are perhaps a little higher for them, the desire to exist stronger. It's an energy that I appreciate - although of course it's always a pleasure to work with actors who have been with me for a long time, like Zinedine Soualem or Cécile de France.
Why did you choose to go back to the end of the 19th century?
I only realised later how close that era was to our own, in terms of creative effervescence and the acceleration of progress. Between 1880 and 1910, photography and cinema appeared, Paris was filled with cars, electricity spread everywhere, as did the metro and the aeroplane. Today, in just a few years, we've seen the development of the internet, smartphones and AI. It's both exciting and frightening. I liked this sort of mise en abyme, where contemporary characters watch those of the previous century discover a modernity that has become our past.
The film also takes real pleasure in showing a postcard Paris, using clichés of the capital as a popular idiom.
Yes, especially as the word cliché refers to photography. I don't think we can, and shouldn't, take away the postcard image of Paris. Using clichés doesn't mean we can't invent new ways of showing Paris. It's strange, because I have the impression that Asians and Americans are much less cautious with these very tightly framed images, while being very creative.
Your filmography shows a real predilection for the choral form. Why are you so fond of it?
It's funny, because Spike Lee was at Cannes yesterday, and it was when I saw Do the Right Thing here at the festival in 1989 that I remember realising the power of this format. He talks about the tensions between Black people and White people, and instead of having two characters, he has twenty. He shows as many ways of experiencing this confrontation, and avoids any Manicheanism, nuancing the discourse. I like this idea of being able to multiply points of view.
What was the biggest challenge for you with this film?
Patience! The set-up that a historical film requires is really the opposite of what I experienced on Pot Luck or Chacun cherche son chat, where we integrated a documentary element into the fiction in a very spontaneous way. Here, there's a lot of preparation, and you need time during the shoot. If you do a shot with a carriage, it's silly, but you need time to move the carriage and get the horse back. It's a different kind of energy to the ones I've known.
(Translated from French)
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