Filmmaker Tsui Hark keeps cinema forever young in Lyon

Adolescence, he suggested, represents a particularly romantic and imaginative stage of life, a feeling cinema should preserve, allowing audiences to envision the futures they long for and pursue the emotions they hold dear.

At the festival's opening ceremony on Oct 10, Tsui received a standing ovation and was invited to deliver the opening declaration in French. Joking that he had not spoken the language for years, he recalled receiving a last-minute invitation from festival director Thierry Frémaux. With little time to prepare, he had to rely on his memory to read a dozen or so words from a cue card.

The following day, Frémaux accompanied Tsui to the Institut Lumière, the historic site associated with the Lumière brothers, pioneers of cinema. There, in 1895, they filmed Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, one of the landmark early films in cinema history. For Tsui, visiting the site was a dreamlike experience, a chance to stand where the story of cinema began.