The Ciné Citizen festival opens its doors
Yesterday was launched the first edition of this festival which wants to “bring together, move and make people think”. On the program, 13 days 13 nights at the opening.
Philippe, the taxi that takes us from the city center to the hotel seems to discover. “Ah but that’s it then? I saw little guys who crisscrossed the city by speaking of Vincent Lindon and Chabrol! I understand better! It’s great as an initiative”. He laughs, takes the roundabout, exceeds the four ways, thinks … “But what is a civic film?”
It is therefore thanks to Gold VTC that we were faced with the question that kills. To tell the truth, we did not even ask ourselves … So let’s take the question of Philippe: what is a “citizen” film? A committed film? A militant film? A social film? Or a film where the subject takes precedence over the form? Hmmmm … We would have liked to answer him, but the three hours of train, the heat and the situation in the Middle East had used everything that remained of our gang-passing … No matter, people thought about it. Director Frédéric Tellier and journalist Philippe Lemoine, in particular who launched the first edition of this festival sponsored by Ouest-France and who promises to be another genre.
We had an appointment at the Lann Park for the opening ceremony. Outside, the heat wave is approaching and the city suffocates under a blazing sun. Fortunately, the rooms offer a welcome freshness and the atmosphere is party. “It is not frequent a festival which launches smiles Nicole in her car – Nicole was kind enough to take us to the cinema. It takes a hell of a courage to embark on such a adventure …” That is precisely what everyone told on stage …
It all starts with the meeting between Tellier and Lemoine. The director of The SK1 affair,, Save or perish And Goliath – Films that question all, in their own way, the dysfunctions of our society – had long brought the desire for a festival that highlights committed cinema. Not necessarily militant (it is he who specifies), but thoughtful. A cinema that asks questions rather than sitting answers. In front of the top hall, on stage, Tellier’s emotion and Lemoine is palpable. For the filmmaker, the stake is clear: these few days must be an opportunity to offer “films and sessions to say to themselves ‘I will not be alone, I will no longer be alone'” and show “a cinema that could change our gaze on the world or even make us want to act”.
For Tellier, the image can indeed modify the world, at least a piece of the world. She enlightens him a little, she gives him a semblance of order while chaos threatens. During the evening, he will repeat this sentence several times heard in the mouth of a little girl during a show and who resonates like a real manifesto: “Believe that I can change the world makes me want to be part of it.” If that’s the mission of cinema citizen, then we immediately sign.
Philippe Lemoine goes to him to the point. He has the art of synthesis and summarizes the objective in three words: “Gather, move and make people think”. But without taking the lead.
Moments of emotion
Not to take the lead was a bit what we said when you saw the guests scrolling. The godmother of the festival, Emmanuelle Bercot,, for example, delivered an improvised but very moving speech. The director of Head high was visibly touched by the presence in Irène Frachon’s room, the pulmonologist who had revealed the Mediator scandal. The real life was therefore circulating well in the Cinoche room: the real people were within reach of the stars, the anonymous heroes celebrated by the icons. Lemoine and Tellier then paid tribute to two figures from the recently missing cinema: Laurent Cantet and Yves Boisset. A great scene ofBetween the walls recalled the talent of the first, while the rebellious, rebellious and uncompromising power of Patrick Dewaere in Judge Fayard illustrated the inheritance of the second.
An exemplary opening film
It was then the turn of 13 days 13 nights to take light. The choice of this film by Martin Bourboulon with Roschdy Zem and Lyna Khoudri to inaugurate the festival is not trivial. Behind the show and action adventures, behind the pyrotechnics, the account of this emergency exfiltration organized by Commander Mohamed Bida in Kabul in August 2021 wonders about the uprooting, the commitment, and even the role of the media via the character of the journalist embodied by Sidse Babett Knudsen.
In a way, the film could answer the Gold question. A “citizen cinema” is perhaps it: a work that is not afraid to embrace a burning subject, but which reflects on the distance it must take in relation to it. A film that knows how to be spectacular when it is necessary, without ever being voyeuristic, indecent. Who hops the spectator without just shaking him, who seeks to make him live emotions to be born a reflection. Which reveals virtuous stories too. Exactly what Lyna Khoudri said on stage during an interview with the public at the end of the projection: “Some stories absolutely deserve to be told explained the actress. They remind us of the moments of heroism whose humanity is capable, this courage, this lucidity, this empathy of which we are cruelly lacking in what we receive on a daily basis.”
The opening evening continued late, in the same mode: it was discussing, it opened up to others, it wanted to redo the world like cinema.
The competition started this morning with the film Tkt On the theme of school harassment.
We have four days and a few works in competition to try to know what a citizen film is. We already have an element of response, but today it was Vincent Lindon day. He has the right to a masterclass and we project War. He will not do in the compromise. Citizen and worship, does it rhyme?
