Jean-Jacques Annaud reveals the secrets of his films at the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation
“Everything I do is in the service of history and feeling.”
The Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation is paying tribute until October 31 to the career of a filmmaker who built and thought of his work like an edifice.
In the 13th arrondissement of Paris, an exhibition dedicated to Jean-Jacques Annaud, awarded the Oscar for best foreign film for his very first film, Victory singingis open to the public.
A few steps in the hall are enough to immerse yourself in the world of the most international French director. As soon as we enter the Foundation, we understand what we have come to find there… It is indeed the architecture of his filmography that is exposed. Models of sets stand here and there in the space, but this is not where the exhibition begins…
On the first floor, the director’s voice echoes. He has a meeting with the journalists, who have come one by one to interview him. It lends itself easily to the question/answer game. This is where the immersion begins. Everyone wanders through the unique room which brings together a life’s work.
It could be an exhibition on traditional Cambodian outfits, that of an author or a cameraman. In reality, it’s all of these at once… The invisible construction site reveals the behind-the-scenes production of Annaud’s cinema. Between these few walls, the exhibition highlights the massive preparation behind each image…
From its literary inspirations, to the Angkor statues sculpted especially for Two Brothersthrough Jane March’s video essays for The Loveror the immense Imax camera, everything is there… It’s the behind the scenes of the filmmaker’s profession that he wants to show: “This is not at all a retrospective exhibition on my work. I try to make people understand what the job of a director is.”declares Annaud. Face to face with the journalist, the 82-year-old director tries to transmit, to make people understand, the workings of his profession, of a passion. “Before the film, I have a year of work, meeting specialists, reading books on the subject”, he continues.
Two of his most recognized works, The Name of the Rose And The Loverare adaptations. The first earned him the César for best foreign film and the second attracted the wrath of writer Marguerite Duras. This is where the exhibition begins, literature. Shelves dotted with books, between the few lines of text which narrate the beginning of his career: first as an advertising executive then as a director.
Each feature film is designed as a technical challenge. Jean-Jacques Annaud appears as a maker, a mechanic, constructing his film step by step, leaving nothing to chance, no matter the scale of the challenge. For The Bearhe trained a real animal for months, even if it meant risking his life. On Notre Dame is burningit caused 75m2 of flaming materials to collapse. For Stalingrad he installed explosives that risked blinding the extras… “When I get attacked by my friend the Bear, (…), I tell myself I took a risk, I might die, but it’s my fault”Annaud balances.
From making costumes to making music, in his eyes “what’s exciting is precisely having all these jobs to do.”
But what is all this for? Certainly not to look pretty insists the filmmaker: “Everything I do is in the service of history, in the service of feeling ”, replies Annaud.
Finally, for the filmmaker, “Filming is the funniest time”.
From March 20 to October 31, 2026, the exhibition The invisible construction site – Behind the scenes of Jean-Jacques Annaud’s filmsis open to the public at the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation.
Watch our interview with Jean-Jacques Annaud in video:
