Chicago International Film Festival - News & Events - “VIVE LE CINEMA!” CLAUDE LELOUCH CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF FILMMAKING IN CHICAGO

“VIVE LE CINEMA!” CLAUDE LELOUCH CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF FILMMAKING IN CHICAGO

Chicago, IL-- The 47^th Chicago International Film Festival welcomes back French film director/producer Claude Lelouch to celebrate his rich fifty year history as a filmmaker. The Festival will present Lelouch with a Silver Hugo award at the Saturday October 8^th 7:30 p.m. screening of What Love May Bring, Lelouch’s 43^rd film, at the AMC River East 21. A second Lelouch film, From One Film to Another, will be screened as part of the Festival’s DOCUFEST showcase. Mr. Lelouch will also attend the October 7^th, 6 p.m. screening of From One Film to Another.

Claude Lelouch was the subject of a retrospective during the 22^nd Chicago International Film Festival in 1986, when he received a Career Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to the international film industry.

“I remember telling the legendary Hollywood director and producer King Vidor after I saw Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, ‘You’ve got to see this man’s film. I have never seen anything like this before.’ And ever since then, Lelouch has never ceased to amaze me. I’m a romantic and I love Lelouch’s movies, particularly his latest feature film What Love May Bring, which is one of his most delightful yet,” said Michael Kutza, Founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago International Film Festival.

“The opening shot of From One Film to Another is a testament to Lelouch’s genius and his love for the liberating potential of film,” said Lee Ferdinand, Programmer for the 47^th Chicago International Film Festival. “Lelouch launches us from a ‘canon’ into his own filmography by strapping a camera into a car and speeding through the streets of Paris in the first hours of the morning. That sequence alone expresses the exhilaration Lelouch feels every time he is behind a camera.”

Born in Paris on October 30, 1937, Lelouch inherited his passion for filmmaking from his father, who was an avid home-movie maker. Lelouch bought his first 8mm camera when he was 13 and the next year won first prize in an amateur film festival for his first documentary. He came to the United States in the mid-fifties, where he shot two short documentaries. Following that, he shot another short film in the Soviet Union using a concealed camera.

In 1960, Lelouch founded his own production company, Les Films 13. For the next two years, he produced Scopitones, two and three minute film clips to accompany recordings played on juke boxes with tiny movie screens, which were the forerunners to music videos.

After being discouraged by lack of financial success and critical recognition, Lelouch took a vacation to a French coastal resort town in 1965 and came up with the story for A Man and a Woman, which won 2 Academy Awards® (Best Foreign Film and Best Screenplay) and a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The film’s critical and commercial success granted Lelouch the artistic and financial freedom to make the films he wanted to make. In 1970, Lelouch won the David di Donatello Award (Best Director of a Foreign Film) for The Crook, starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and in 1975, his film, And Now My Love was named Best Foreign Language Film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Lelouch revisited the characters and story of A Man and a Woman twenty years later in the appropriately titled A Man and a Woman Twenty Years Later, which Chicago-premiered as part of the Festival’s Lelouch Retrospective. His 1996 adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel Les Misérables won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and actress Annie Girardot received the César for Best Supporting Actress. In 1998, the Chicago International Film Festival awarded the Silver Hugo (Best Actress) to Alessandra Martines for her starring role in Lelouch’s Chances or Coincidences.

Lelouch has been an advocate for young unknown directors. Since the establishment of Les Films 13, he has produced or co-produced more than 20 features by first time filmmakers.

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TICKET INFO

All events, except Opening Night, are at the AMC River East 21, 322 E. Illinois Street. Tickets for the 47th Chicago International Film Festival are on sale now. Opening Night tickets and festival passes may be purchased on the Festival website. All individual tickets must be purchased by phone 312-332-FILM (3456), in person by visiting the Festival box office at AMC River East 21, or through Ticketmaster.

FESTIVAL SPONSORS
Led by Presenting Partner, Columbia College Chicago, the 47th Chicago International Film Festival’s sponsors include: Premiere Partners-- American Airlines, Lincoln; Producing Partners-- AMC Theaters, DePaul University's School of Cinema and Interactive Media, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Major Partners-- Allstate, Intersites; Supporting Partners-- Applitite, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, Brugal Rum, Kodak, Second City Computers, WBBM, and the Festival's Headquarters Hotel, JW Marriott Chicago.

ABOUT CINEMA/CHICAGO

Cinema/Chicago is a not-for-profit cultural and educational organization dedicated to encouraging better understanding between cultures and to making a positive contribution to the art form of the moving image. The Chicago International Film Festival is part of the year-round programs presented by Cinema/Chicago, which also include the International Screenings Program (May-September), the Hugo Television Awards (April), CineYouth Festival (May), Intercom Competition (October) and year-round Education Outreach and Member Screenings Program.

For images and press materials go to http://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/press/;

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