Thierry Fremaux Praises Indian Cinema

Thierry Fremaux Praises Indian Cinema at Cannes film festival.

Thierry Fremaux says "When I arrived, in my second year I picked up Devdas for an out-of-competition screening in the main theatre. It's a wonderful souvenir but it was a time when Cannes didn't really have films like that. It was the first time that Indian cinema came for a big screening and not for Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, all these auteur filmmakers from Indian cinema and it was a big risk for me because I was young, I was arriving I said, no please, it's a good film, and it was and it is.

Some years ago we saw a wonderful film from India but it was already released in some other countries. Our rule is that the film should not be released in any other than its own country if it comes to Cannes. During the sixties and seventies, Asian cinema except for Japan, was not present at all in Cannes. But for the last ten years we had more films coming from new generations of auteurs coming from Asia. As I am talking to you, I know I have to go much more inside. Africa for example. It's my job because Cannes is not a French film festival. It's a worldwide film festival that takes place in France. I want to give countries the possibility to use Cannes as a big platform to become much more known.
It's a tribute not for what India used to be, and it was big inside the history of cinema, but for what India is today in the world of cinema.
Thierry Fremaux Praises Indian directors and says "Satyajit Ray still one of my favourite directors. I grew up with him. So it feels like I grew up with India through his films. It makes us proud to pay tribute to this big country of cinema. I also hope lots of producers and filmmakers will visit from India to watch the films being made in Europe, America and South America. Steven Spielberg said he accepted to be President of the jury this year because he said he wanted to do that journey of world cinema to see how people make films in a different way than his.
We can learn from India what we've lost in France for example. The use of music, the use of actors. Actors are like gods in your country. It's not like that anymore in France and not enough. When Jean Gabin, the great French actor, used to arrive in the room everyone was overwhelmed but now that kind of thing is more banal.

Indian cinema is in good health. I think the brand India is very strong in cinema and specially in Cannes. There is something that shows that the future can be great for Indian cinema."