Martin Scorsese honoured with the 2015 Lumière Award
- “It is very moving to be here tonight and to receive this tribute in the city where it all began,” said the US director
The tributes flooded in on Friday 16 October at the prize-giving ceremony in Lyon, where the 2015 Lumière Festival Award was handed to Martin Scorsese. Among the people who honoured the US filmmaker were Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, British actress and singer Jane Birkin, and French actor François Cluzet, who teamed up with Scorsese in ‘Round Midnight by director and president of the Lumière Institute Bertrand Tavernier. Despite not being present at the ceremony, the latter made the effort to write a poignant speech for the attention of the director of Taxi Driver, who was handed the 2015 Lumière Award at the end of the evening by Salma Hayek. “I don’t know if I’m going to survive this,” Scorsese exclaimed in the presence of his wife and daughter, during a speech in which he emphasised the importance of film education among the younger generations.
Among the other giants of the seventh art in attendance at this edition of the Lumière Festival were Jean-Paul Belmondo, who was present at the opening ceremony, which featured the screening of The End of the Day by Julien Duvivier, as well as Sophia Loren, who looked back on her acting career during a meeting, ahead of Vittorio de Sica’s Two Women. Also present this week were Geraldine Chaplin, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and that key figure in the world of film scores, French composer Alexandre Desplat. And featuring among the other events that livened up this year’s edition were the retrospectives of Kurosawa, Duvivier and Larissa Cheptiko, Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc accompanied by live music and, of course, the Classic Film Market, boasting a number of restored or re-released works, a field in which the Lumière Festival has now become an expert.
While everyone had been hoping that Leonardo DiCaprio would turn up, the surprise actually came in the form of the honouree’s other favourite actor, Robert De Niro, a video message from whom was shown as the Lumière Award was given out. Earlier in the day, Scorsese let slip the scoop that he is set to film with his old friend once again, in a movie entitled The Irish Man. This gives much cause for excitement, especially as Scorsese and De Niro have not shot a film together since 1995.
(Translated from French)
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