Lumière et compagnie (1995)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Directors:

Theodoros Angelopoulos
Vicente Aranda

Writer:

Philippe Poulet (original idea)

Release Date:

26 April 1996 (Spain)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers...

Plot Keywords:

Egyptian Pyramid | Nudity | Film Camera | Experimental Film | Question

Cast

Jeffe Alperi	...	Policeman (segment "David Lynch")
Romane Bohringer	...	(segment "Claude Miller")
Michele Carlyle	...	(segment "David Lynch")
Lou Chapiteau	...	(segment "Claude Miller")
Marc Chapiteau	...	(segment "Claude Miller")
Antoine Duléry	...	(segment "Claude Lelouch")
Pascal Duquenne	...	(segment "Jaco Van Dormael")
Bruno Ganz	...	Damiel (segment "Wim Wenders")
Charles Gérard	...	(segment "Claude Lelouch")
Ticky Holgado	...	(segment "Claude Lelouch")
Isabelle Huppert	...	(segment "Abbas Kiarostami") (voice)
Neil Jordan	...	(segment "John Boorman")
Patrice Leconte	...	Himself (segment "Sarah Moon")
Satchel Lee	...	(segment "Spike Lee")
Spike Lee	...	Himself (segment "Sarah Moon")
Claude Lelouch	...	Himself (segment "Sarah Moon")
Stan Lothridge	...	Policeman (segment "David Lynch")
David Lynch	...	Himself
Alessandra Martines	...	(segment "Claude Lelouch")
François Mitterrand	...	Himself (segment "Régis Wargnier")
Liam Neeson	...	(segment "John Boorman")
Sven Nykvist	...	(segment "Liv Ullman")
Lena Olin	...	(segment "Lasse Hallström")
Idrissa Ouedraogo	...	Himself
Géraldine Pailhas	...	(segment "Cédric Klapisch")
Russ Pearlman	...	Child (segment "David Lynch")
Pam Pierrocish	...	Mother (segment "David Lynch")
Aidan Quinn	...	(segment "John Boorman")
Kathleen Raymond	...	(segment "David Lynch")
Stephen Rea	...	(segment "John Boorman")
Nathalie Richard	...	Ninon (segment "Jacques Rivette")
Alan Rickman	...	(segment "John Boorman")
Jacques Rivette	...	Himself (segment "Sarah Moon (I)")
Félix Romeo	...	Himself (segment "Fernando Trueba")
Joan Rudelstein	...	(segment "David Lynch")
Dawn Salcedo	...	(segment "David Lynch")
Otto Sander	...	Cassiel (segment "Wim Wenders")
Clyde Small	...	Father (segment "David Lynch")
Zinedine Soualem	...	(segment "Cédric Klapisch")
Liv Ullmann	...	Herself (segment "Sarah Moon (I)")
Mark Wood	...	Policeman (segment "David Lynch")
Yimou Zhang	...	Himself

Also Known As:

Lumière and Company (International: English title)
Lumiere y compañía (Spain)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

France | Denmark | Spain | Sweden

Language:

French | English | Danish | Norwegian | Swedish | Greek | Japanese | Mandarin

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Spain:T | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Athens, Greece

Company:

Cinétévé

Movie Connections:

References Himmel über Berlin, Der (1987)

Surprising lack of talent and ideas among pretentious twits...

In making this documentary, what its makers wind up unveiling is how many of them have no ideas whatsoever. Almost all the attempts with the Lumiere camera involve just placing a lot of people in front of the camera and have them wave and/or stare, or they involve films about filmmakers. Other attempts are to recreate the banal films which were made in the era of first attempts in the history of cinema. And then you have clips that you can see that the director didn't take the project seriously at all, as in the cases of Spike Lee and John Boorman. Then you get laughably bad films made by pretentious idiots, such as the one by Peter Greenaway (who concludes that film is dying) and the one by the Japanese twit who says that film doesn't capture anything.

On the plus side, you get some interesting films along the way, particularly among the last few, like the one by David Lynch, among others.