Armenia’s Golden Apricot is celebrating its 20th anniversary – it’s also celebrating British producer Jeremy Thomas, named this year’s guest of honour. An Oscar winner for The Last Emperor, Thomas introduced the likes of Crash and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence at the festival, and encouraged fellow filmmakers to always rely on their taste.

Cineuropa: You presented The Storms of Jeremy Thomas [+lire aussi :
critique
interview : Jeremy Thomas
interview : Mark Cousins
fiche film] at the festival. The first time I saw this documentary, I thought it was quite rare for a producer to receive this kind of tribute.
Jeremy Thomas: People were interested in what I was doing before, but I never wanted to make one of those hagiographic documentaries about someone’s career. And then along came Mark Cousins, who was behind all these films I liked enormously, suggesting a road movie. It meant we could just talk about movies – now that I can do. He came to my house in the country and we left for Cannes. There was no plan apart from to eventually get there.

You know, I have never seen myself on film. Yes, there was a little cameo here and there, but not like that – that’s not what normal producers do. But it’s really for the people who love cinema, who share a similar passion and understand this obsession.

That makes sense because now, when people celebrate you at these events, they also celebrate your films.
I keep doing it, and will keep doing it until I die. It’s better than having to work [laughs]. It gives me everything I like about life, literature, design, culture and a bit of business. I’ve been all over the world as a traveller, not as a tourist. Every day is a workday and every day is a holiday. I am happy. I am lucky. Also, most of it happened during an era that’s gone. When I talk about the films I have done, it doesn’t even make sense. Making them now would be impossible. There were many people like me around when I started, and they are not around any more.

Things change. And yet some of your collaborations keep on going and continue to be successful. Wim Wenders’ doc Anselm [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film], which you executive-produced, was well received in Cannes.
Yes, but it has become more rarefied, more specialised and less popular. Unless Wim suddenly starts to make films in “multiverse” terms, it’s hard. Something has shifted in culture, and I can see it quite clearly. It’s a challenge to make a regular film about people, emotions, life, sex, violence or politics. It’s more difficult to convince people to pay for it. The films they are showing here, in Armenia? I could never make them today. Crash? No way. Mr. Lawrence, which I haven’t seen on the big screen for 30 years? I couldn’t get away with it. They are magnificent and they stand the test of time, I think, but I have to make different films on a different scale now. You have to make the ideas big, rather than the film itself.

Do you think that up-and-coming producers are jealous of that? Of what you got to play with?
I wouldn’t say jealous, although success makes everybody jealous. Including me! That’s just a fact of life. But this is not what I feel from others; I feel a lot of warmth.

You mentioned that you are never going to stop, and you have upcoming projects with Viggo Mortensen, Stephen Frears and Rupert Everett. How do you decide these days? Does it mostly have to do with the people you are working with?
I just rely on my taste. I rely on the people who work with me, too; I don’t do it alone, but I have been taste-driven from the very beginning. It’s not the “normal” way, I realise that, but taste comes first and business comes later. I don’t know any other way. I have tried a couple of times and failed, and when you go down with something you don’t really believe in, that’s not a good thing to do. Also, if I really believe in a project, I can persuade others to join me. That’s the producer’s job.