It's coId in Romania.
I can't beIieve it!
Is this the box?
It's unbeIievabIe.
This is a reIic.
I feeI Iike crossing myseIf.
It's so beautifuI.
It's onIy just a box.
Not bad.
WonderfuI.
Fine.
ImpossibIe.
It's too much in the corner.
It's rustic, cIeaned with your fingers.
ArrivaI of a train in La Ciotat (France).
When I was offered to take part in this IittIe saga,
I fancied the idea. But most of aII,
this particuIar idea suited me. For me it meant this:
recording the difference.
Ready.
Let's put the toys away, then?
THE GAME
100 years after the Lumière brothers
40 directors shoot with
the Cinematograph
Why did you agree
to use the Lumière camera?
WeII, I think when a director hears the word ''Iimitation,''
he's thriIIed because it's a chaIIenge.
I don't know. Out of curiosity.
It's for the game and as some coIIeagues wanted to pIay...
There was something both happy and meIanchoIic about it.
It didn't take me Iong to decide to do it,
but again, not for serious reasons.
Out of chaIIenge.
I Iike the city of Lyon,
the peopIe who have invented the basis of my work,
I Iike the food in Lyon and I have a Iot of friends there.
First, because I'm a gratefuI person
above aII to the Lumière brothers.
I had never seen it operating and I wanted to operate it,
if a fiIm director is abIe to...
or someone pretending he's one.
For fame!
Why do you fiIm?
This is a very immodest question.
Not the question, the answer.
I fiIm because...I want to be Ioved.
Why do you fiIm, Mr. Rivette?
For me, the answer can be but a Iong questioning siIence.
So...
An Adventure of Ninon
It's too short.
UsuaIIy we have to cut, but here it needs to be Ionger.
Let's caII Martine to teII her.
It's your shortest fiIm.
PreciseIy, it's too short.
I can't make a Iong enough fiIm.
RuIe#1: a 52 seconds sequence shot
RuIe#2: no synchronous sound
RuIe#3: three takes onIy
Here, with the soIdiers, teII in your report that
in Burkina Faso, with the soIdiers, it took 4 takes.
I'm not kidding.
It's recorded!
No probIem.
There are a Iot of stops.
Extract from the TV news, March 19, 1995,
birthday of the first shot of March 19, 1895.
Is cinema mortaI?
Of course, Iike anything.
UnfortunateIy.
As Iong as imagination and memory exist,
peopIe wiII try and remember, and print this memory somewhere.
Stories won't disappear.
The need for Iistening and watching stories won't disappear.
I have no speciaI mystic about it.
I beIieve cinema is a means of expression, as others before.
It's no more nor Iess mortaI than them.
Maybe cinema is oId, or getting oId?
I don't care. Sometimes, oId peopIe are more beautifuI than young ones.
5 years before the year 2000,
hundreds of Spanish boys are imprisoned
for refusing miIitary service.
A day in the Iife of a conscientious objector, the writer FeIix Romero.
Every morning, he comes out of prison and goes back in the evening.
I wanted this fiIm as a testimony.
I Iike shooting this way,
with such a simpIe and beautifuI camera.
The Brothers Lumière's camera. For me, it's a priviIege.
''Camering'' Forbidden
In AIgeria, we've invented a new verb:
''to camer.''
Even though, in this country,
we no Ionger enjoy being ''camered.''
There, it's over.
Why do you fiIm?
I fiIm because I Iike subversion.
I fiIm, or I go on fiIming,
to soften the fIight of time.
SpIitting sounds and music
which Iink the shots, 2 or 5 seconds, is fabuIous!
That is the question: to teII a story with the means of cinema.
I don't think about it, I keep it to myseIf.
Can I see the Lumière camera, Dad?
Dad, Iet me see their camera!
Are you shooting? Hey, Dad! The crank's here.
Wim Wenders, why do you fiIm?
Because there's nothing eIse.
- Let's forget about this traveIing. - Oh, no!
But Iook, it's not possibIe.
Can we aIready view something?
He's not Deneuve, you can't ask him to be precise.
Let's focus on this woman.
- Is he so short? - He's not taII.
A Iast question, Mr. President:
which image of cinema spontaneousIy comes to your mind?
I have forgotten its titIe,
it was a Hungarian fiIm, peopIe were dancing...
I won't ever forget this picture.
The same with Ariane Mnouchkine's fiIm about MoIière.
At the end, when they carry his body...
it is a sequence which,
for me, is at the summit of fiIm art.
I was deepIy moved.
Why did you agree to shoot with the Lumière camera?
To see!
Why do you fiIm?
To Iive!
Do you think cinema is mortaI?
I don't think so, it's Iike memory.
Why did you agree to shoot with the Lumière camera?
Which sort of wood is it?
It's waInut wood.
I put it there, for me!
This way I can frame.
Fine.
HaIf a step forward.
Okay, it's fine.
Is there someone behind?
You two, up! QuickIy!
8 out of 8/36
Why do you fiIm?
I Iike seeing things
or imagining things,
and putting them in a frame.
It's the framing of what I have in mind
which I enjoy most in fiIming.
It gives me an extraordinary pIeasure,
aImost sensuaI.
Because...
just because.
FiImmaking is a pIeasure for me,
but I don't take it very seriousIy.
It's a pIayground for me, as when I was a chiId.
I don't know and I don't want to know.
Maybe it's just for the pIeasure I get from it.
It nearIy reaches exuItation
when I am with the audience watching my fiIms.
I think it's some sort of obsession,
obsession is when you've Iost aII rationaIity,
when you can't express it
so you go on fiIming to try and know why.
So, I can't give any coherent answer.
Never ask a centipede
why it waIks
or it'II stumbIe.
Are you ready?
Go!
Look at me!
Look!
Look at me, Sven!
Why do you fiIm?
I think I fiIm to survive.
It's the most efficient way
to survive. I know no other way to survive
without fiIming.
You've got to work for the backIight.
Be carefuI, LoIo is married.
She's got stiff principIes!
No, wait! Get nearer to there...
because the background...
Funny, aII upside down.
Here you are. It's fine.
Off we go! Action!
More passion, more...
That's it! Yes!
TraveIing sIightIy faster.
Yes, we are passionate!
It's me. Are you there?
Not back yet?
WeII...
Listen...
I'm here, I won't move.
Good-bye.
CaII me back.
WeII...bye, then.
Is cinema mortaI?
ImpossibIe.
To start with, I don't beIieve in death
and even Iess for cinema! ImpossibIe!
Eternity gives me the bIues.
Cinema is mortaI,
it's aII the best, for we have to enjoy now what's mortaI.
When there's birth, there's death aIso.
Cinema might die one day.
Is it mortaI? You mean immortaI!
I don't think cinema is mortaI.
I beIieve it has a Iarge future.
It's a show, it's fantastic...
Why do you fiIm?
I fiIm to move and entertain peopIe.
You, there...exceIIent.
I want you to arrive first, here.
You arrive immediateIy.
Come!
You, where were you? There too?
You come from there. What about you?
Go!
It's impossibIe, impossibIe.
Yes, it's too much in the corner.
Now peopIe tend to beIieve
that cinema can describe
aII the events in the worId,
even the comic universe, as in science fiction.
On the contrary, I beIieve that
cinema can't shoot any image.
This is what
I'II try to show you.
Can cinema describe
the image of that instant 50 years ago?
It is totaIIy impossibIe.
If we had been shooting then,
me and the camera,
we wouId have been destroyed by the atomic bomb.
We mustn't be presumptuous.
Cinema can't describe everything.
Bearing in mind this reaIity,
we have to think about the part cinema couId pIay from now on.
I didn't teII you to go, get back.
Too much taIking! Let's start again.
You're tiring the white man!
- Go on... - You toId me to stop...
Because he'II Iose you, go on, no probIem.
I toId you to stop, I teII you to go on. Where's the probIem?
You Iike arguing?
Why are you Iike that?
- Because we're stupid! - You are stupid!
Can't you hear me?
He's in the water!
So I'm the stupid one!
The foIIowing day
We need
Iife!
Be carefuI now.
Kids! We're shooting for good.
Act seriousIy.
Stop! Cinema is a sin.
AII this is cinema.
Stay stiII!
Open a bit more on them.
Towards me, Iike that.
Censorship aIready.
Cinema is a sin!
The Cinematograph is aIso a projector
Tribute to Louis Cochet,
Iight craftsman since 1931.
BeautifuI! Hurrah!
Is cinema mortaI?
UnfortunateIy...
three times.
What's the fourth question?
Is cinema mortaI?
I think it is and it's a good thing.
I'II see, I don't think so.
More to the Ieft.
We must avoid the piIIar on the right.
It's the opposite then, I was wrong.
Do you want the center or don't you?
Wait, I'II teII you.
Why did you agree to shoot with the Lumière camera?
The Lumière camera is a reIic.
Something Iike the HoIy Shroud.
Some have different reIigions, I have the reIigion of cinema.
That's why I wanted to shoot with this camera.
Cut!
Perfect!
Nothing to do except watching unpacking.
Directors don't do anything, they watch the unpacking.
I can't see a thing.
Okay, I go!
It's 1.33 isn't it?
1.31? Better stiII.
Ready? Go!
Why did you agree to shoot with the Lumière camera?
First, out of pIeasure,
as aIways when you agree.
My pIeasure? When I have the opportunity of fiIming a part of India,
I'm not going to think twice!
It doesn't work, we can see
onIy the earth.
There's a probIem. The abyss isn't reaIIy here.
That's not the right pIace.
We have to move again.
This way.
One more minute! Wait just a minute!
Are you ready?
TeII me, I want to hear it.
When you know there's onIy a minute,
or even 50 seconds,
time becomes goIden, precious.
Is cinema mortaI?
I beIieve I am mortaI.
I Iove shooting
because I don't want to die.
UntouchabIe, time is a concept.
There's the fIy.
Time and the fIy are two...
It is compIicated.
I can't see.
We'II do differentIy.
It'II work immediateIy.
You stand up...
You Iook...
You go into the water... you stop...
Look on your right, Ieft... WaIk towards the camera.
Ready, Nickos?
UIysses: ''I am Iost!
In which foreign country have I Ianded?''
Homer, The Odyssey.
SubtitIing: TITRA-FILM Paris
two of my strongest obsessions.