our dear German friend
 

Posted on 21.10.2023

On his way from Paris to Texas, German filmmaker Wim Wenders made a stop in Lyon this week to become the 15th honouree of the Lumière Award.

"The people of Lyon are amazing! Thank you for filling the cinemas, even in the morning, you're incredible!” Cheered on to thunderous applause by the audience at the Amphitheatre 3000, Wim Wenders made a triumphant entrance from the first notes of the hit I Don’t Want a Lover by the group Texas. Along with the audience, a host of guests from world cinema had turned up to pay tribute to the winner of the 1984 Palme d'Or for Paris, Texas. "I am very proud to receive this award, which is called Lumière. I've won awards in my life, but this is different, this is the award of Cinema. I'm not saying that a Palme d'Or is nothing. But the Lumière Award is unique and I'm proud of it.” A few minutes before his coronation, Wim Wenders was showered with tributes as Irène Jacob, Alfonso Cuarón, Aurore Clément, Rüdiger Vogler and Peter Handke all took to the stage. "Wim gives us a vision of the present, still able to create in a troubled world. Thank you, friend Wim Wenders", declared the President of the Lumière Institute. His lifelong friend, screenwriter and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Peter Handke, preferred a harmonica to long speeches. Aurore Clément, the unforgettable actress who had starred in Paris, Texas, praised his "tender, contemplative cinema. The world is rumbling: we need poets like you to give us wings. We are your friend, dear Wim!"

© Loïc Benoit

In a nod to his luminous documentary Buena Vista Social Club (1999), the Lyonnais group Colectivo Caliente played Chan Chan, taking the audience on a trip to Cuba. As in Wenders’ entire œuvre, music was omnipresent at this ceremony. On the Steinway of the stage in Lyon, Laurent Petitgand performed Les Lumière de Berlin, before giving way to singer Jeanne Cherhal for a touching cover of Lou Reed's famous Perfect Days. Vincent Lindon also made a point of celebrating the filmmaker with a moving reading of one of his texts, a tribute to Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman. Earlier that evening, Wim Wenders had commented on a series of his own photographs exhibited in Lyon. Among the most iconic images, a black and white showing two of cinema's most celebrated figures: Akira Kurosawa and Francis Ford Coppola.

© Loïc Benoit