30/09/2024 - Using a blend of essay, documentary and fictionalised autobiography, Arnaud Desplechin goes all out in celebrating his love of cinema and infects the viewer with his enthusiasm

Arnaud Desplechin’s entire body of work is chock full of autobiographical references. We only need think of Paul Dedalus, his alter ego who appears in many of his films, and through whom he offers up intimate and profound self-portraits, or the excellent Oh Mercy! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud Desplechin
film profile], a heartfelt tribute to his much-maligned birthplace, Roubaix. But Filmlovers! [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which has been screened in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section of the 72nd San Sebastián Film Festival after it got an airing as a Cannes Special Screening back in May, is perhaps the work in which the French helmer lays himself bare in the most direct, full-frontal way yet. Indeed, you only need to watch this film for a few minutes to realise that Desplechin is obsessed with film – for him, it’s a source of energy that ends up being almost as indispensable for his survival as oxygen or water. And in this film, he takes viewers by the hand, leads them on a journey with him through his cinematic memories, and gives them a front-row seat as he invites them to join him in attempting to unravel the mystery of this art form that still captivates millions of people around the world.

The movie constitutes a playful collage in which various genres intertwine. There are purely essayistic parts, which offer up interesting reflections on the origin of cinema and its relationship with painting, and in which figures such as the Lumière brothers, Eadweard Muybridge and Thomas Edison are dragged into the present day to help us understand the baby steps of this artistic discipline. There are moments of truly stimulating reflection, such as a conversation between young students and an expert in film theory, during which they talk about how, as well as capturing reality, cinema is able to endow it with new meaning once it is projected in front of the audience, who establish a dialogue between the filmed reality and their own, lending a new dimension to real life.

Other beautiful parts of the film include those in which Desplechin pays tribute to other cinema professionals who have been pivotal in his development as a filmmaker. It’s touching to hear the director describe his relationship with the monumental Shoah by Claude Lanzmann: the shock he experienced when he first discovered it as a young man, how it revealed to him the immense power of cinema to bear testament to the sheer horror without needing to resort to explicit images, and the subsequent link he established with the director, which turned him into a crucial figure in his professional and personal life. It’s also moving to see him pay tribute to late Native American actress Misty Upham, the lead from the tremendous Frozen River, with whom the French helmer worked on Jimmy P.  – Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud Desplechin
film profile]. And that’s not to mention the fictionalised autobiographical parts, in which we once again encounter Paul Dedalus (played at different ages by Louis Birman, Milo Machado-Graner and Sam Chemoul) and which introduce us to fundamental passages of Desplechin’s life where he and cinema share the limelight equally.

In short, Filmlovers! is an emotional tribute to cinema, to its transformative power and to the mysteries that this power can weave. All of this is masterminded by an outstanding filmmaker whose passion for what he does goes way beyond the narrow beam of light that magically transforms into images once it hits the screen.

Filmlovers! is a French production by CG Cinéma, Scala Films and Arte France Cinéma. Les Films du Losange is taking care of its international sales.

(Translated from Spanish)