Thierry Frémaux on ‘Lumière! The Adventure Continues!’ and Finding Inspiration From Cinema’s Founding Fathers
Cannes festival boss Thierry Frémaux will be presenting some of the world’s oldest moving images at the Red Sea International Film Festival when he premieres his latest documentary, Lumière! The Adventure Continues, a deep dive into the origins of cinema.
The doc, a sequel to Frémaux’s Lumière! The Adventure Begins (2016) will be screened as part of the festival’s International Spectacular sidebar. It features some 100 immaculately restored short films sourced from the Lumière Institute (where Frémaux is the director), shot by cinema pioneers Louis and Auguste Lumière.
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The Lumière’s technical prowess, as inventors of the cinematograph, the groundbreaking photographic camera and projection technology that made films possible, is well-known. But in his new film, which he also narrates, Frémaux examines the Lumière’s artistic vision as they pioneered the “grammar of cinema” from scratch.
“Louis Lumière is the last of the inventors but the first of filmmakers,” says Frémaux, noting how, with those early shorts, the Lumières created the foundational elements of cinematic expression, understanding framing, light, and the power of a single shot. Their focus on simplicity and direct observation are qualities that many contemporary filmmakers could learn from, says Frémaux, noting that when Wes Anderson visited the institute in Lyon and watched the first Lumière shorts “he said ‘this is cinema for the future!’ And he’s right.”
The following interview, translated from the original French, was edited for content and comprehension.
What new aspects of cinema’s origins did you feel compelled to explore in this sequel that wasn’t covered in Lumière, The Adventure Begins?
The Lumière filmography is very important: there are 1,500 official views and 500 extra-catalogue views. In Lumière, the Adventure Begins, there were around a hundred [short] films, and in the new documentary Lumière, the Adventure Begins, there are also around a hundred films. That’s only 200! There is still so much to explore. Many of the Lumière shorts in this one are unreleased, very rare, and very beautiful!
In researching the film, what did you discover that surprised (or delighted) you?
The Lumière films are a marvel for me, even when they are in poor condition. At the Lumière Institute, with the help of [French national center of cinema] the CNC, we undertook the restoration of 500 Lumière films: I could thus make my choice. And it was often difficult as they are so beautiful. I should note that in 2025, we will celebrate the 130-year annivsersary of the birth of the Lumière Cinematograph. Cinema is more alive than ever, and its history is useful to us in the present.
As both the Cannes Film Festival director and head of the Lumière Institute, how do you see the connection between cinema’s earliest days and contemporary filmmaking?
Lumière, the Adventures Continues contains a more philosophical aspect than the first, perhaps more “existential”. We are in 2024, cinema is no longer a young art. Yet, there is much to learn from early cinema. In particular, one thing that remains very important: simplicity. Picasso said: “All my life, I tried to paint like a child”. In the film, I quote Godard: “If we want to reinvent grammar, we must go see the illiterate.” Lumière was the first of the illiterate, inventing his own language. What he teaches us is precious. In Lyon, I often show Lumière films to filmmakers, and they are impressed.
Are there elements from the Lumières’ pioneering works that you still see influencing directors today?
It’s not an influence because Lumière films are still too little known, but it’s obviously the same inspiration. It’s a trace, a heritage. Lumière was also a pioneer in this. In the history of cinema, the films of [Carl Theodor] Dreyer, [Jean] Renoir, [Robert] Bresson, [Abbas] Kiarostami, [Chantal] Akerman, [Maurice] Pialat, [Jean] Eustache remind one of Lumière cinema. They have the modernity of the New Wave or New Hollywood. Today, someone like Aki Kaurismaki, Alexander Payne, or Andrea Arnold — filmmakers who have a [similar] love of framing and attention to the shot — are the heirs of Lumière.
What aspect of modern-day filmmaking, do you think, would the Lumières find most baffling or astounding?
Lumière invented cinema in 1895 and died in 1948. He had time to see cinema evolve. He was very surprised, saying he would never have imagined that cinema would become the 7th Art. But this is what I love about him: He made his films between 1895 and 1900 and then stopped. He bequeathed cinema to others. He said: “We leave artists to continue the path.” I think he was himself an artist.
You’re presenting this film at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, a relatively young festival in a region with its own emerging film culture. What parallels do you see between the early days of cinema and the current development of film culture in new territories?
At Cannes 2024, in Certain Regard, we selected Norah by Tawfik Alzaidi. I felt something very beautiful in the strength and simplicity of this Saudi film. Something we found at the beginning in Iranian cinema, in Chinese cinema, in American auteur cinema. Here, again, being a pioneer gives you complete freedom.
What do we miss if we view the Lumières primarily through the lens of their pioneering invention and not their artistic vision?
Louis Lumière is the last of the inventors but the first of filmmakers, and this film intends to say that. If we forget this, we lose the trace of a true filmmaker. The film also says that the way he makes cinema is essential, it already contains the language of a large part of cinema. Just after him, Georges Méliès arrives and all of cinema is already there.
These original short films, in their restored versions, look spectacular. What was the original quality of the films, and were there particular new technical innovations that made this restoration possible?
From a very young age, Lumière was already an inventor, an inventor in the field of photography. He knew the technique, he knew the purity of black and white, of light, of framing. That’s why the films are so beautiful and so spectacular. But also, Lumière watched over his own heritage, he kept all his films close to him. Then the family handed them over to the Lumière Institute, the French Cinematheque, to the French State. Thanks to this, we were able to find the best materials and thus make these beautiful restorations. This restoration has only just begun, we will seek funding to restore EVERYTHING. Imagine: the first world cinema heritage is intact. We must take care of it.
What have we lost sight of in modern cinema that the Lumières can serve to remind us of?
Wes Anderson came to visit the Lumière Museum in Lyon. Seeing the Lumière films, he said: “This is cinema for the future!” He’s right. Silent cinema is simple and striking: you just have to look carefully. No sound to disturb the power of an image, of a shot. With Lumière cinema, we rediscover a spontaneity that sometimes gets lost in contemporary cinema. Pierre-William Glenn, the cinematographer of Truffaut and Tavernier, once told me after seeing a Lumière film: “If I were to tackle this subject, I would do exactly the same thing. But would I have the ability to be this simple?” Like John Ford, Lumière always knew where to place the camera. Sometimes, contemporary cinema loses this spontaneity, forgets its ability to trust the viewer. Revisiting Lumière films today gives faith in the future of cinema.
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