Martin Scorsese, Frances McDormand, Donald Sutherland Join Lineup of France’s Lumiere Festival
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Martin Scorsese’s eagerly awaited Netflix movie “The Irishman” wasn’t completed on time to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival, but Thierry Fremaux, Cannes’s topper, managed to pin down the high-profile movie and Scorsese himself for the upcoming Lumiere festival in Lyon next month. Dedicated to heritage movies, the Lumiere festival was created 10 years ago by Fremaux and French helmer Bertrand Tavernier.
Following its world premiere at the New York Film Festival and its international premiere at the BFI fest in London, “The Irishman” will screen at the Lumiere fest. Scorsese previously received a sprawling career tribute at this French festival in 2015 and was celebrated by an impressive delegation, including the late Abbas Kiarostami, Matteo Garrone, Elia Suleiman, Pablo Trapero Gaspard Noe and Alice Rohrwacher.
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The French premiere of “The Irishman” will take place on Oct.15; it will mark one of rare opportunities to see “The Irishman” on a silver screen in France, where the window release schedule precludes Netflix from giving the movie a theatrical release — unless it holds back the film from its service in France for a duration of 36 months. Netflix will launch the film on its streaming service on Nov. 27. The crime drama stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino. It tells the story of a mob hit man (De Niro) whose life becomes entwined with the rise and fall of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino).
As it celebrates its 10th anniversary, the Lumiere festival will be boasting a particularly exciting lineup for film lovers. Besides the showing of “The Irishman,” the highlights include a grand tribute to iconic filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola who will receive the Lumière Award. As part of the tribute, a selection of Coppola’s movies will be shown at the festival, including the 4k restoration of “Apocalypse Now” which will screen on closing night of the fest, and “The Godfather” trilogy, set to screen back-to-back as an all-nighter. Coppola will also take part in masterclass.
Another anticipated tribute will be hosted for Frances McDormand, who makes very rare public appearances. The actress will discuss her carrer during a masterclass and will present several films she chose, notably “Fargo,” “Mississippi Burning,” “Almost Famous,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” which got her an Oscar for best actress, and “Olive Kitteridge” which she starred in and produced.
Bong Joon-ho, the South Korean director who just won the Palme d’Or in Cannes with “Parasite,” will also be feted in Lyon and will present his film there, as well as give a masterclass. “Parasite” sold over 1.6 million tickets in France, becoming the highest-grossing Palme d’Or-winning film in France to date.
Set to take place Oct. 12-20, the Lumiere fest will also honour Donald Sutherland, Marco Bellocchio, Gael García Bernal, Marina Vlady and Daniel Auteuil; and will host a film retrospective for André Cayatte, a lawyer-turned-filmmaker who made several politically-engaged movies which became highly popular, including “Le Passage du Rhin” with Charles Aznavour in 1960, and “Les Risques du Métier” with Jacques Brel in 1967.
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