Lumière 2016 closing ceremony
Melancholy rushes in

PostED ON SUNDAY; OCTOBER 16, 2016

© Institut Lumière / Photo Léa Rener

"Melancholy is the happiness of being sad." Throughout her stay in Lyon, Catherine Deneuve has given meaning to the adage by Victor Hugo, evoking the mixture of gratitude and undeservedness at receiving the Lumière Award, at every turn.  Her ambivalence has not prevented her from declaring that the distinction was "the most beautiful she ever received," at the conclusion of a closing ceremony brimming with emotion.

A ceremony, by definition, is an event that unfolds meticulously. The closing ceremony of the Lumière festival was no exception to the rule: from the screening of the clip that summed up the extensive career of the Lumière Award laureate to calling on stage the volunteers and festival Lumière teams that make the event possible… Well-worn festival fans know this ritual, orchestrated by Thierry Frémaux, by heart. However, the beauty of honorific celebrations lies in the emotions they bring out, so fine in texture among the sweet riffraff.

Cases in point: The admiring applause of 5,000 festivalgoers at the Halle Tony Garnier, standing like a single solidary figure at the arrival of the guest of honor this year. The filming anecdotes related by the director Régis Wargnier (with other fun stories, like the parties he recalls Catherine Deneuve liked to throw for the crew), told with the ease borne of a long-standing friendship. The tears of the Franco-Vietnamese Linh Dan Pham, the young actress discovered in Indochine, who made the trip to pay tribute to her "mom of the cinema." The jade tree presented to Deneuve by Gérard Collomb, a sly wink to her horticulture passion confessed on many occasions.

And finally, once again, the modest emotion of Catherine Deneuve, the queen with no official crown, the first woman to receive the Lumière Award (also first person since Louis Lumière to direct her first movie on Rue du Premier film, a remake of the "Leaving the Lumière Factory"), who has left an impression on the festival history, like we let ourselves fall into the snow: with restraint, playfulness and confidence. We can't to see what next year brings.

Benjamin Mialot