Actors Javier Bardem and Monica Bellucci were among the stars on hand at the opening ceremony of the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon.
ADVERTISEMENTIn the 10 years since it began, the Lumiere Film Festival has become one of the biggest classic movie events in the world, mixing restored masterpieces, world premieres and big name movies. This year they include a long lost Orson Welles film, Alfonso Cuaron's Roma and Asghar Farhadi's Everybody Knows, starring Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
He tells us why he wanted to be part of that project: "Asghar Farhadi, the cast, my wife is in the movie so that makes things way easier becausde we can move with the family, it was like 20 mins from my home, but especially Asghar Farhadi - of course!"
Italian actress Monica Bellucci was also on the red carpet. She's a fan of the festival and the way organisers select which films will be screened: "It's a very important festival because it allows us to see films which are part of our memories, and the French tradition, and thanks to this festival many of these films may also find their way in Europe and internationally."
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro tells us what he's looking forward to this year: "The restoration of Detour, the Edgar Ulmer film that is one of the key noirs, and its never been seen in a proper way before because it was public domain so no one restored it."
'It's a festival with no judge and no jury.'
French actor Christophe Lambert was also in town for the screening of Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. He explains why the Lumiere is a different to the majority of festivals: "It's a festival with no judge, no jury, for the public and for me, there's nothing better."
This year 187 films will be screened in some 40 venues across the French city of Lyon.
Queuing outside the venue, hundreds of people told us why they'd made the trip for the festival.
One man said: "It's a passion, it's great, we see actors discussing with people, we see friends, we've been coming for 10 years, we see beautiful films, it's an exceptional week."
'We can see films that are 50, 60 years old, restored.'
A friend of his added: "We've had Quentin Tarantino who is passionate about French cinema who could speak to us about French cinema in the 1950s and how he started making films, we discovered some real masterpieces."
While another man added: "It allows us to see films which are 50, 60 years old, restored and everything and it's really cool to share that and the atmosphere is excellent."
Euronews reporter Andrea Bolitho was at the opening ceremony:
"The Lumiere film festival sees its fair share of Hollywood A listers but this isn'´t primarily a festival for industry professionals, rather it´'s for the public, for people who love cinema.
Last year more than 170,000 people came and this year ticket sales look to be even higher, a clear sign this celebration of the silver screen has found its niche."