To Each His Cinema [Chacun son cinéma] (various, 2007)

[John Cope]

I just stumbled across this on the IMDB and was pretty floored by it.

Evidently, it's a "collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about Cinema" as the slightly awkward plot description puts it. Amongst the directors we have represented Cronenberg, Campion, Angelopoulos, Oliveira and Michael Cimino (!). This could be a real treat. I wonder if it's being prepped for one of the fests.

[Antoine Doinel]

I believe this project is being prepped for the Cannes film festival this year.

[Jeff]

Cannes blurb:

Times change. Then they return to their starting point, enriched by their own metamorphoses. When, more than a year go, we asked ourselves how to celebrate the 60th Festival de Cannes, we were sure at least of one thing: no return to the past, deadly commemoration or blissful self-congratulation, nothing which makes the future even more intimidating.

Anniversaries are beneficial in that they allow reflection and a new burst of energy. The energy to revitalise each of our actions, over and beyond even this symbolic year. The dynamism of our artistic choices as incarnated by our future poster. The tightening of our programming to be able to better highlight works of value. The pleasure of a new theatre. Then, an idea very quickly imposed itself: gather together the artists. Those who have the virtue - all the more critical today - of advancing cinema as an art form. Those who had confidence in Cannes and whom Cannes in turn assisted. Those who were free and wished to give news of themselves by via the cinema. In a word, celebrate 60 years of creation by a creation. In so doing, the festival would not salute simply the past six decades but rather the great filmmakers who come together here once a year to this place where the "spirit blows where it wishes", in the words of Robert Bresson, so often evoked in the film under preparation, a hearth where the artistic spark can once again burst aflame when the lights dim and the film begins...

A film therefore, but what film? The idea of the film composed of sketches does not date from only yesterday, and motion-picture history teems with more or less successful vignettes: The Seven Deadly Sins, Les baisers, The World's Greatest Swindles, Six in Paris, without forgetting the quite recent Paris, I Love You.

In this particular case, it was a matter of reuniting a group of creators - all universally famous - who represent both their countries and a proud conception of cinema, for a stroll around a unique theme, springboard for their inspiration. Hailing from 5 continents and 25 different countries, these 33 directors* will reveal, in 3 minutes each, their current state of mind as inspired by the motion-picture theatre - a second restriction but also, of course, a promise of Paradise! A family stroll back through memories, dreams, bursts of laughter, cries of alarm and emotion. The novelty of the form derives from its extreme division and the pleasant sweetness of its lightness. This writing does not depict a series of repetitions in theatres of astonishingly diverse appearance, but rather a series of improbable encounters - Wenders filmed in the Congo, Tsai Ming Liang in Kuala Lumpur and Cronenberg in the... toilets! No director had knowledge of the other fragments, or even synopses from his colleagues. They all accepted to discover them at the same time as the festival-goers themselves, on May 20th, as well as the general public, as it will be replayed the very same evening on television1.

Do they form a school? No, even if they all revisit the heart of things, they are individuals each expressing his aesthetic orientation, poets who capture a parcel of the world and transfigure it, each in their own way. They are highly industrious, they work hard and are not duped, for they take part in an art, the cinema, which under our very eyes creates its own history. The modesty of the budget allocated to each has stimulated them to be not only particularly creative, unexpected, comic, tender, cynical, contemplative, funny, moving or provocative, but accessible and audacious as well. It was when thinking about this melting-pot of cultures, origins and talents that we conferred on this feature film the title of To Each His Cinema. Let us hope that this great adventure, even if short-lived, will give audiences desire to travel in the company of filmmakers who have never ceased to astonish and renew creation. But is this not one of the very functions of art itself?

- Gilles Jacob

* Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August, Jane Campion, Youssef Chahine, Chen Kaige, Michael Cimino, Ethan & Joel Coen, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Manoel De Oliveira, Raymond Depardon, Atom Egoyan, Amos Gitai, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, Aki Kaurismaki, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Andrei Konchalovsky, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Nanni Moretti, Roman Polanski, Raoul Ruiz, Walter Salles, Elia Suleiman, Tsai Ming Liang, Gus Van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Wim Wenders, Wong Kar Wai and Zhang Yimou.

[Greathinker]

Interesting project, it must be difficult to define your inspiration as a filmmaker in a 3 minute short.

[John Cope]

Some interesting responses available here.

[BusterK.]

This movie won't be distributed theatrically, it will be released on dvd immediately after its screening on May 25th, according to Journal France2

[Michael Kerpan]

David Bordwell reviews this (and talks about "portmanteau films" in general):

Short note -- according to DB, there is now a French DVD with English subs -- but it is not complete.... a better version is supposedly coming later this year.

[Lemmy Caution]

The current dvd is missing the Coens entry for whatever reason.

Bordwell's taste differs a lot from mine, as he liked Kiarostami's piece the best, found Sulieman's skit the funniest, and also favors Egoyan's post-modern take.

My three favorites were Konchalavsky's, the Dardennes, and Salles. . But I guess it just shows that there's enough variety and quality in this project for everyone.
----------------------------------------------------
Sidenote: Bordwell slips up a little at the end of his piece:

We're told by Anne Thompson that a more complete DVD edition, including the David Lynch entry, will be available before Christmas.

Pretty sure he means the Coens, as he notes earlier in his piece, not Lynch.

[miless]

Sidenote: Bordwell slips up a little at the end of his piece:

We're told by Anne Thompson that a more complete DVD edition, including the David Lynch entry, will be available before Christmas.

Pretty sure he means the Coens, as he notes earlier in his piece, not Lynch.

although, it would be amazing if Lynch did contribute a film (like his short "Premonitions Following an Evil Deed" that was made for the anniversary of the Lumière's 'invention' of film)

[Sanjuro]

I thought Lynch did submit a film but got it in too late?
Or did I dream it?

[Michael Kerpan]

I thought Lynch did submit a film but got it in too late?
Or did I dream it?

This just in from David Bordwell:

It is indeed supposedly an extra piece by David Lynch that will be included on the new DVD. According to Anne Thompson, Lynch was too late with his entry for it to be added to the finished CHACUN film. It was screened just before MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS. But she makes no mention of the Coens' segment appearing on the later DVD. I linked to her piece in my blog entry.

MEK

[Lemmy Caution]

Well then, my mistake ... and Good News.

Though Bordwell certainly could have made it more clear.

[Stefan Andersson]

The new 2-DVD CHACUN SON CINEMA announced here.

Lynch´s film will be included, plus a longer version of Suleiman´s film. No Coen film.

[dadaistnun]

Some of the films on YT:

Suicide of the Last Jew in the Last Cinema (David Cronenberg)

Recrudescence (Olivier Assayas)

Occupations (Lars Von Trier)

Absurda (David Lynch)

First Kiss (Gus Van Sant)

One Fine Day (Takeshi Kitano)

The Cinema Around the Corner (Claude Lelouch)

Anna (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

There are probably some more there if you search around.