‘I’d be nowhere without this country’: 30 years after career start, James Gray thanks France at Deauville festival

Two years after the preliminary presentation of Armageddon Time, James Gray is one of the guests of honor at the Deauville American Film Festival. The 50th edition of this festival is an opportunity to celebrate the American screenwriter and director, known for his films “The Night Belongs to Us”, “Two Lovers” and “The Lost City of Z”.

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James Gray celebrates the Deauville Festival

James Gray, who also co-wrote and produced Guillaume Canet’s first Hollywood feature, Blood Ties. Actors and filmmakers in front of him.

James Gray’s arrival at the Deauville American Film Festival is also an opportunity to present a master class to review his career, which began thirty years ago.

A period during which the filmmaker released 8 films – The Night Belongs to Us, Little Odessa, Time of Armageddon, The Immigrant, The Yards, The Lost City of Z, Two Lovers and Advertising Astra – which Deauville Festival attendees can rediscover in its 50th year. Edition thanks to special testimonials.

But James Gray was also in Deauville to accept an honorary award presented to screenwriter and director Alice Winocour (Proxima, Revoir Paris), after giving a speech – in English – expressing his admiration for the American filmmaker’s work.

His great love story with France for 30 years

A tribute to his versatile but demanding talent, which places him on the border between independent cinema and blockbusters, the Deauville festival reflects his career with a great emotional moment, which began in these very places 30 years ago, when his first film. The film Little Odessa received the international critics’ prize.

James Gray has not forgotten this. “I would be nowhere without this country.”He explained on his way out of the reception, “I’ve had a love affair with this country for a long time and I never expected this.”

He wanted to recall his bad experience at the Venice Festival, where he presented his first work for the first time in 1994, at the age of 24. And things started to go wrong as soon as it was ready for the official display:

“I asked the Italian distributor how to dress and he said jeans and a T-shirt were enough. I always thought I was more fashionable than everyone else, so I wore a tuxedo. I was the only one and all. I thought I was a waiter and they started ordering me drinks.”

And we cannot say that the reception of little Odessa was warm. Even the film’s actor, Maximilian Schell, told her that he didn’t like the feature film, and her producer told her that it wouldn’t win any awards.

Except that James Gray went to the Deauville Festival a few days later and the magic of Little Odessa worked with the French public. “I couldn’t believe it”remembered “People really liked my work. And I wondered what was wrong with Deauville? What was wrong with the French?”

Thirty years have passed since then, and James Gray was very excited about the tribute to Deauville, given the special history of this festival, where many film lovers have already seen that the filmmaker had what it takes to be one of the biggest names in the 7th art. Atlantic.

“Now there are more days behind me than in front of me. Your life seems very different when you realize that. But it’s good because you realize that this sense of loss is part of what makes art.

All I can say is that you’re giving me this price, which makes me feel a little short, but that’s okay, because I hope to reach a place where I find meaning and beauty, not only in cinema, but in every frame. , in every gesture, in every piece of music. It’s very emotional for me to be here and thank you very much.”

It’s far from over for the American director as he works on his next film, Mayday, a biopic about John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, alongside Bill Skarsgård.

The 50th edition of the Deauville American Film Festival will be held from September 6 to 15, 2024.