An appointment that Alésiens film lovers cannot miss. The Alès Cinema Festival “Itinérances” returns in a 41st edition built around the career of Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius, who was present for carte blanche and master classes. Nearly 200 feature and short films will be on the program for this event, including many previews.
To thunderous applause, Michel Hazanavicius runs down the stairs of the Crater, the national stage of the city of Alès. He is the guest of honor at this 41st edition of the Festival Cinéma d’Alès – Itineraries, one of the main cinematographic events in the region. The director of The Artist, film with 160 awards including 5 Oscars, will be present until March 28 to talk about his rich work and which plays with the codes of the 7th art. “It’s very nice to come to festivals without any promotion. You come into a super quiet relationship with people. I have nothing to sell to them, they’re not there to buy stuff. In fact, I, a long time ago I decided to tell a story, today they come to listen to it”says Michel Hazanavicius.
With more than 200 films, the programming of‘Itineraries shows films from very different horizons and styles. “There are a lot of previews, it’s interesting to be able to see the future of cinema in Alès”, explains a young spectator. Another adds: “It’s an exceptional opening that we find in other festivals but to have that, in Alès, in the Gard, a small town, I find it remarkable”.
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Another guest of the festival, Massoumeh Lahidji, the performer “who whispered in the ear of the directors” as she was nicknamed The world in 2019. Massoumeh Lahidji adapts scripts, translates on set or for subtitles and officiates at the Cannes Film Festival, the Lumière Festival in Lyon, and other national and international events. “There is a massive domination of American cinema, of the English language, of a certain way of telling stories, of editing images. When you can take a step aside, I find it interesting”, emphasizes Massoumeh Lahidji.
For the Alès Cinema Festival – Itinerariesshe presents Case n°1, case n°2, film by the great Iranian director with whom she collaborated for nine years, Abbas Kiarostami. An artist who shares a strong link with the Alesian event, since it is since his arrival in 1993 as guest of honor that the festival has presented various thematic retrospectives.
This year, the festival prize is awarded to French director and actor Pierre Salvadori. His film The little band is on the program of the festival.
“Festival Cinéma d’Alès – Itinérances”, Cultural and Scientific Pole. 155, faubourg de Rochebelle, 30100 Alès, until April 2.