Filmlovers!

Filmlovers!
Filmlovers!
	Theatrical release poster
French	Spectateurs !
Directed by	Arnaud Desplechin
Written by	Arnaud Desplechin
Produced by	Charles Gillibert
Narrated by	Arnaud Desplechin; Mathieu Amalric;
Cinematography	Noé Bach
Edited by	Laurence Briaud
Music by	Grégoire Hetzel
Production; companies	CG Cinéma; Scala Films; Arte France Cinéma; Hill Valley;
Distributed by	Les Films du Losange
Release dates	22 May 2024 (Cannes); 15 January 2025 (France);
Running time	88 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Filmlovers! (French: Spectateurs !) is a 2024 docufiction drama film written and directed by Arnaud Desplechin.^[2] It stars Milo Machado-Graner, Mathieu Amalric and Françoise Lebrun. It features the character of Paul Dédalus, who appeared in Desplechin's earlier films My Sex Life... or How I Got into an Argument (1996) and My Golden Days (2015). Acoording to Desplechin the film is meant to "celebrate movie theaters and their manifold magic".^[3]

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It had its world premiere in the Special Screenings section at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on 22 May 2024, where competed for the L'Œil d'or.

Plot

A film lover celebrates the magic of cinema. Memories, fiction and discoveries intertwine in a rapid flow of cinematic images.

Cast

Louis Birman as 6-year-old Paul
Dominique Païni as The painter
Clément Hervieu-Léger as Barthes reader
Françoise Lebrun The grandmother
Sandra Laugier as The philosopher
Olga Milshtein as Philosophy student
Milo Machado-Graner as 14-year-old Paul
Margaux Mussano
Sam Chemoul as 22-year-old Paul
Marilou Poujardieu as Valérie
Salomé Rose Stein as Sylvia
Micha Lescot as Professor Censier
Soshana Felman as The philosopher
Kent Jones as The American friend
Salif Cissé as 30-year-old
Mathieu Amalric as The filmmaker

Production

Filmlovers! is Arnaud Desplechin's fifteenth feature film and is an essay film in homage to cinema. It features the character of Paul Dédalus, who is considered Desplechin's alter-ego and who first appeared in his film My Sex Life... or How I Got into an Argument (1996) and its prequel My Golden Days (2015). In Filmlovers!, he returns to the character's childhood, and tells the story of how he got introduced to cinema: first as a spectator, then as a cinephile, and finally a filmmaker. The film is a hybrid of documentary and fiction that incorporates archival footage of film clips and stills as well as interviews with those who accompanied Desplechin in his experiences as a spectator. Ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to Italian neorealism, from the silent era to the cutting edge of contemporary cinema, the film is a journey through the images that shaped the filmmaking eye of Arnaud Desplechin.^[4] Desplechin wrote the film's screenplay, in collaboration with Fanny Burdino.^[1] He also cited Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans (2022) as a source of inspiration.^[5] The film was produced by Charles Gillibert at CG Cinéma.^[2] It is co-produced by Scala Films, Arte France Cinéma and Hill Valley, with the participation of French fashion house Chanel.^[4]

Principal photography began on 17 July 2023 in Avion, Pas-de-Calais, where shooting took place for two days at the cinema Le Familia, which was transformed to resemble the 1960s and 1970s. Filming continued that same week in Roubaix and Tourcoing. Desplechin planned to shoot sequences in his former high school, in which a multimedia room bears his name. Filming then moved to Paris.^[6]

Release

The film was selected to be screened in the Special Screenings section at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 22 May 2024.^[7]

International sales are handled by Les Films du Losange,^[4] who is also set to distribute the film in France on 15 January 2025.^[1]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 8 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7/10.^[8] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[9]