Javier Bardem pays tribute to the Oscar-winning filmmakers with stories from 'No Country for Old Men,' while musical performances and onstage banter mark the Lyon celebration To the sound of the Gipsy Kings’ Spanish-language rendition of “Hotel California,” Joel and Ethan Coen took the stage at Lyon’s Lumière Film Festival on Friday evening to receive the Lumière Award, celebrating four decades of filmmaking with a characteristically irreverent tribute to the inventors of cinema. The musical choice itself was a nod to the Coens’ cult comedy “The Big Lebowski,” featuring John Turturro’s flamboyant bowler Jesus Quintana. The star-studded gathering included Javier Bardem, Frances McDormand, former Lumière prize winner Wim Wenders, Robert Eggers, Michel Hazanavicius and Bérénice Bejo, Benoît Magimel, Antoine de Caunes and Caleb Deschanel, in town for a masterclass and the premiere of Laika’s upcoming stop-motion animated feature “Wildwood.” Accepting the award, Joel reflected on four decades of filmmaking with his brother.
What the hell am I doing here?’” Bardem recalled. They were just laughing,” he said. So yes, let’s fucking do it.’” Bardem also joked about his character’s infamous haircut, which the Coens had spotted in a photograph from the 1960s.
The actor had decided his character needed to be pale, he recalled, so during the largely outdoor shoot, a young production assistant would accompany him to the set holding a light blue parasol over his head. The actor’s tribute took a more heartfelt turn as he reflected on what working with the brothers had meant to him. Ten years after me saying that would never happen, it happened.
And it was even better than I would have ever imagined.” The evening also featured musical tributes, with French singer-songwriter Bénabar performing Charles Aznavour’s “Parce que tu crois,” chosen by Joel Coen as his favorite song. Five-time Grammy winner Angélique Kidjo delivered a rendition of Jacques Brel’s “Ne me quitte pas,” one of Bardem’s favorites. Festival director Thierry Frémaux drew laughs by projecting photographs of the Lumière and Coen brothers striking remarkably similar poses, before reminding the filmmakers that, in keeping with festival tradition, they would have to shoot their own version of the Lumières’ first film, “Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory,” on Saturday.
After screening one of the original versions, he gave them until the next day to come up with their own take. The tribute also struck a timely note with the screening of Ettore Scola’s 1997 short “1943-1997,” which follows a young Jewish boy fleeing a Nazi roundup in wartime Rome who finds refuge in a movie theater. As five decades of Italian cinema unfold on screen, the boy grows old.
The film ends in 1997 with a young African boy fleeing persecution into the same theater, drawing a parallel between past and present. Bardem picked up on the film’s message, stressing its relevance today. Joel also paid tribute to Lyon’s community of film lovers and the festival’s commitment to the shared experience of cinema, praising audiences who still relish “gathering in a dark room with lots of other people and seeing it on a big screen.” Since making their feature debut with the neo-noir thriller “Blood Simple” in 1984, Joel and Ethan Coen have built one of American cinema’s most distinctive filmographies, spanning the crime comedy “Raising Arizona,” cult favorite “The Big Lebowski,” Depression-era musical odyssey “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and Western anthology “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” Their 2007 thriller “No Country for Old Men” won four Oscars, including best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Bardem, while “Fargo” earned the brothers their first Oscar for original screenplay in 1997.
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