at Lumière

PostED ON 19.10.2023

Helen Mirren introducing White Nights (in French s’il vous plaît!)

« This film was made in a completely different era to the one we're living in now. It allowed me to gain two great things: a career in the United States and a husband. So I've been very lucky! What also convinced me to be in the film was that Taylor Hackford arranged for me to go to the USSR to do some reconnaissance and immerse myself in my character. So I went to St Petersburg, which was still called Leningrad at the time. Times were very hard there during that period, but also very interesting to analyse. It's a bit like living in a John Le Carré book, if you know what I mean. To shoot the location for the film, it wasn't possible to go to the USSR because it was forbidden to make a film there. Taylor contacted a team specialising in documentaries and asked them to go to Leningrad in an old Russian car, a Chaika, to shoot a documentary, but mostly to bring back information and maps. So they went there to take photos and shoot the film’s locations at the time of day when the scenes were taking place. The Russians validated the documentary and Taylor was able to benefit from images of the real Leningrad! He cheated incredibly well, but it's not unusual to have to cheat in the film industry to get what you really want!  »

© Jean-Luc Mège

Kleber Mendonça Filho, introducing his new documentary Pictures of Ghosts, about the city of Recife

« Many old cinemas have closed in Recife, and two of them have even become churches. It saddens me because I used to love these places. That said, Recife is still pretty well equipped when it comes to old cinemas. It's one of the few Brazilian cities where two great cinemas from the past - one of which opened in 1919 - are still standing after being saved by complete renovations. By way of comparison, a city like New York has an old palatial cinema recently renovated by Netflix, but not much else, which is rather paradoxical given the money and population density in Manhattan. It took me seven years to make this film. It all started when I decided to take a look at my old VHS tapes and photos. I said to myself that perhaps there was something to be gained from it even today. I had shot all these images over thirty years ago. After viewing them, I went to the Brazilian Film Library and searched through the television archives. Using this old material had become essential for me. »

© Jean-Luc Mège