Fred Zinnemann Lumière Retrospective: Hollywood Embraces the French Classic Film Fest as a Gateway for Heritage Cinema
Hollywood’s major studios have stepped up by providing fresh digital restorations for a major retrospective of Fred Zinnemann’s work at the Lumière Film Festival in France’s Lyon.
Every year, the leading classic film event shines the light on one of Hollywood’s legendary filmmakers. This year, a total of twelve Zinnemann titles spanning the director’s half century career, will hit big screens in and around Lyon, including Academy Award winners “A Man for All Seasons” and “From Here to Eternity,” which lends its name to the retrospective.
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According to Maelle Arnaud, head of programming at Lumière, now in its 16th year, the festival has established itself as a key platform for showcasing classic films, attracting major studios.
Warner Bros., for instance, provided two Zinnemann titles in DCP format with French subtitles, post-war classic “Act of Violence” (1948) and “The Nun’s Story” (1959), starring Audrey Hepburn.
“It’s a way for us to support the festival and we benefit from it, too,” explains Olivier Snanoudj, senior VP theatrical at Warner Bros. Discovery France & Benelux. “If these films get exposure at the festival, it will encourage exhibitors: it gives a new value to these titles.”
After its run at the Lumière Festival, a curated selection of seven films from the retrospective will tour throughout France and other French-speaking territories, supported by Lumière’s long-time partner, Park Circus, a leading distributor of classic cinema, in collaboration with the French Agency for the Regional Development of Cinema (ADRC).
“Lumière is a great platform to make films available not only at festivals but also internationally,” says Jack Bell, director of sales and marketing at Park Circus. The company repackaged seven of the films with French subtitles, including new restorations of “Behold a Pale Horse,” “From Here to Eternity,” “High Noon” and Paramount’s “The Men,” which marked Marlon Brando’s screen debut.
“That’s quite a notable investment on our part, one that will support screenings across [other territories].
“We have been working with Lumière for years, we have an ongoing dialogue with them,” he explains, citing as an example the 2022 Sydney Lumet retrospective at Lumière which his company also contributed to. “Our unique position working across all major U.S. studios means we’ll speak with them and find out what titles are newly available with French subtitles. Then we’ll try and get as many available as we can, help with marketing and communication, and use that as a platform to promote local exhibition.”
Paramount Pictures senior VP of archives Andrea Kalas hails Lumière both as a rendez-vous for cinephiles and a marketplace.
“For repertory it’s amazing, and France is a shining golden ticket because they do so much for cinema: that showcase is incredibly helpful for anybody trying to make sure there’s a market for older films, it’s wonderful,” she tells Variety.
Echoing Bell, she says the conversation with Lumière and other partners in the archive community is an ongoing dialogue that works both ways. At times, she will pitch films to Lumière that might align with the festival’s programming.
“It’s more and more important that these conversations continue, as the whole landscape of media is changing constantly. I think the community has to get together, and louder, to make sure that those films that sit in my shelves and my vaults continue to have people advocate for them.”
A major draw for theatergoers is the added value of curated experiences, a hallmark of the Lumière Festival. Many of the more than 400 screenings are enriched with presentations that offer deeper context, often delivered by prominent festival guests.
“Audiences really enjoy it when experts come and talk to them about a film during a festival. They love to get more perspective, historical context, anecdotes, it gives the film renewed interest,” says Snanoudj.
This effort will be replicated by the ADRC when the retrospective takes off on its tour of France.
“[This kind of support] is essential,” says Rodolphe Lerambert, head of the heritage department at the ADRC. “In the case of Zinnemann, we offer cinemas a handout, curated events and meetings: audiences expect added value from their cinema experience.”
One of the ADRC’s standout events will see French sound artist and electronic music expert Jean-Yves Leloup providing a live score for the 1930 silent film “People on Sunday,” directed by Robert Siodmak and Edgar Ulmer. The film marks Zinnemann’s first credit, where he worked as an assistant camera operator alongside a young Billy Wilder.
Entitled From Here to Eternity, the Fred Zinnemann retrospective will be running at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon over Oct. 12-Oct. 20, before heading through France and other territories.
The Lumière retrospective includes the following titles, all screened with French subtitles except “Five Says One Summer:
“Redes” by Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gómez Muriel (1936)
“Act of Violence” by Fred Zinnemann (1948)
“The Men” by Fred Zinnemann (1950)
“High Noon” by Fred Zinnemann (1952)
“The Member of the Wedding” de Fred Zinnemann (1952)
“From Here to Eternity” by Fred Zinnemann (1953)
“The Nun’s Story” by Fred Zinnemann (1959)
“Behold a Pale Horse” de Fred Zinnemann (1964)
“A Man for All Seasons” by Fred Zinnemann (1966)
“The Day of the Jackal” by Fred Zinnemann (1973)
“Julia” by Fred Zinnemann (1977)
“Five Days One Summer,” by Fred Zinnemann (1982) in original version
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