'It's the source of cinema': German filmmaker Wim Wenders honoured at Lyon's Festival Lumière

euronews (in English)

Euronews spoke with decorated German filmmaker Wim Wenders, who received the 15th Prix Lumière at this year's Festival Lumière in Lyon.

Transcript

00:00 Decorated German filmmaker Wim Wenders has been awarded the 15th Prix Lumiere in Lyon

00:07 in south-east France. This unique prize pays tribute to the greatest names in cinema.

00:14 Following in the footsteps of Clint Eastwood, Ken Loach, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese,

00:21 Jane Fonda and Tim Burton among others, the director of Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas

00:27 and Buena Vista Social Club was honoured for his contribution to cinema.

00:34 His wealth of work includes fiction and documentaries. The filmmaker, who is also a photographer,

00:42 has always reflected on the meaning of images. For him, winning the Prix Lumiere is an apotheosis.

00:50 In the word, "lumiere" is the source of cinema. Lumiere is so much the essence of life that

00:57 this prize is highly symbolic and it's much more of a joy than any other prize I've ever

01:18 received.

01:21 After Piener, his documentary on the great German dancer Piener Bausch, he pays tribute

01:27 to Anselm Kiefer, one of Germany's greatest living artists, in the documentary Anselm,

01:33 which hit cinemas this autumn.

01:40 Wenders is a filmmaker without artistic boundaries.

01:47 For me, cinema has never been a national story. I discovered it in Paris. I wanted to be a

02:03 painter and I discovered cinema and it changed my life.

02:10 I'm a convinced European. It was the greatest emotion of my life to have this idea of a

02:21 Europe where there will always be peace and never war again, where we leave nationalism

02:31 behind us and we've seen what that leads to. So it's a great catastrophe, this loss of

02:37 memory.

02:39 Wim Wenders is also a filmmaker without borders. He shot his latest film, Perfect Days, in

02:46 Japan, which won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival and will be on European screens by

02:53 the end of the year.

02:55 The Lumiere Festival offers a host of retrospectives and tributes, with a number of guests of honour

03:00 this year, including Wes Anderson, Marisa Paradis and Terry Gilliam, the former member

03:05 of the Monty Python comedy troupe and director of Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. The latter was

03:10 restored in 4K and presented at the Festival Lumiere.

03:15 I'm sitting on the beginning of cinema. That's what's so exciting being here. We haven't

03:21 improved it much better than they did. They were, right from the start, brilliant. I want

03:28 all my films restored. And they've been recently doing quite a bit. And this new version is

03:34 coming out in France. So I just thought it would be very nice to be involved in drawing

03:39 attention to it because it's a film I'm very proud of.

03:42 What year do you think it is?

03:44 1996.

03:44 Oh, 1996 is the future.

03:47 Twelve Monkeys was restored and screened during the festival, a way of revisiting cult films

03:53 on the big screen rather than on a smartphone or tablet.

03:58 It's a great idea. I want the future to be unknown. I want to stay here with you.

04:05 You want me to, don't you?

04:06 Get you out.

04:07 I know some things that you don't know.

04:08 My dream just now.

04:09 You can't trick us, you know.

04:10 The Lyon Lumiere Festival has established itself as one of Europe's must-see festivals,

04:21 an atypical and popular festival that brings together all the history of cinema and its

04:26 great classics, with a film market and the greatest professionals in restoration and

04:31 heritage. Not forgetting the great contemporary films and a host of avant-premieres from the

04:39 top festivals such as Cannes and Venice. All of this, of course, on the big screen in the

04:45 city's cultural venues, often in the presence of prestigious guests.

04:54 [music]

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