The new season of ESRA Thursdays kicked off last night with the participation of director Jean-Jacques ZILBERMANN.
After the screening of his film A La Vie at the Amphithéâtre Jean Renoir, the director, screenwriter and stage director held a lengthy discussion with the students. As a reminder, " A La Vie"released in cinemas on November 26, 2014, traces the reunion in Berck-Plage of three women, fifteen years after their deportation to Auschwitz, and was presented at the Locarno Film Festival last year.
Although he's not a technician, as he admits and regrets, he's certainly a lover of the cinema. Starting out as a projectionist and cinema manager (L'Escurial, the Max Linder), he made a few short films before getting the chance to sign his first feature, " Not everyone was lucky enough to have Communist parents", a bitter-sweet comedy. a bittersweet comedy with a strong autobiographical element, which proved a great success with the public. This enabled him to make four other films at his own pace, all of which were, if not directly autobiographical, at least personal. He manages to tackle serious subjects in a comedic tone (he had written a stage adaptation of Shop Around the Corner, popularized by Lubitsch), and he knows how to let us hear his own personal music.
The film, shown at the start of the Master Class, " A la vieis undoubtedly his most serious, if not his most painful. As one of the characters is none other than the director's mother, he spoke at length about the mother figure, and how impossible it would have been for him to make this film while his mother was still alive. Naturally, he answered all questions, particularly about the difficulties of shooting in a non-contemporary setting or imposing his authority on a set.
