Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) today announced one of the Festival’s Retrospective subjects for 2013, Jean Grémillon, along with the return of the popular Audience Award, which was last awarded in 2010.
In partnership with the BFI, EIFF 2013 will celebrate the work of French director Jean Grémillon. Known for some of the most highly regarded French films of the German Occupation, Jean Grémillon is still to receive his due as one of the creative geniuses of French cinema. His work, which bridges the avant-garde and poetic realism, is full of resonances with several of the major artistic movements of the 20th Century. From his cinematic debut in the 1920s, one of the most fertile periods of French filmmaking, his work is imbued with the values of French impressionist cinema. Grémillon made the transition from silent to sound cinema, and his early sound films are notable for their innovative and imaginative use of music and sound effects. His late documentary shorts reflect his continuing experimentation with the medium of film and his strong links to the avant-garde and the other arts. The 2013 EIFF retrospective will highlight these links and Grémillon's use of sound and music, while also positioning these elements in relation to his better-known work.
The Retrospective will include Grémillon's most famous films, including the Occupation-era classics REMORQUES (Stormy Waters; 1940), LUMIÈRE D'ÉTÉ (Summer Light; 1942), and LE CIEL EST À VOUS (The Sky Is Yours; 1944), together with key examples of his imaginative silent work such as MALDONE (1928) and GARDIENS DE PHARE (The Lighthouse Keepers; 1929). The legendary French actor Jean Gabin, who stars in REMORQUES, also appears in another rarely screened Grémillon film that will be part of the Retrospective, GUEULE D'AMOUR (Lady Killer; 1937). Titles will screen at EIFF in June 2013, and then throughout July at BFI Southbank, London.
EIFF Artistic Director Chris Fujiwara said: "Retrospectives can change people's understanding of film history by shining the spotlight on artists who, for whatever reason, have been neglected and undervalued. Jean Grémillon is such a director. The contemporary of Jean Renoir and Marcel Carné, he is also their artistic peer, a brilliant and original filmmaker whose works hold up today as stunningly modern. He can even be called a director who is still waiting to be discovered. I'm excited to be working with the BFI to bring these incredible films to British audiences."
The revival of EIFF’s Audience Award, returning after a 2-year absence, was also announced today. A popular award with the public, filmmakers and distributors alike, the EIFF Audience Award also offers a unique sponsorship opportunity at this year’s Festival. Last awarded in 2010 to Aaron Schneider’s GET LOW, other past winners include THE SECRET OF KELLS (2009); MAN ON WIRE (2008); TSOTSI (2005) and AMELIE (2001).
Embracing the Festival’s ongoing commitment to engage audiences in discussion of the art and the future of cinema, the Audience Award programme will solicit and publish audience commentary via online forums. Selected audience participants will also be invited to the Festival’s Awards Ceremony. Voted for by cinema-goers attending public screenings, films will be eligible from across the Festival at the discretion of the Artistic Director.