Breaking the Rules with Michel Franco
Breaking the Rules with Michel Franco
- Date
- Feb 18th 2025
- With
- Michel Franco moderated by Fernando Eimbcke
The cinema of Michel Franco often feels like content under pressure. Whether he’s charting a society’s collapse or a family’s disintegration, his films always crackle with pent-up energies ready to detonate. Following the success of 2023’s “Memory", the Mexican filmmaker teams up again with Jessica Chastain for his Competition entry “Dreams”. In this career-spanning chat, Franco opens up about his singular working method, why he insists on shooting chronologically, and the importance of listening to your cast and crew. For while filmmaking remains a dictatorship, he recently told Variety, “that doesn’t mean you don’t collaborate.”
Michel Franco
Born in Mexico City in 1979, his films have helped bring international attention to Mexican cinema. His film "Memory" premiered in Competition at the 2023 in Venice, a festival which had previously presented his films "Sundown" and "New Order", with the latter winning the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize. "April’s Daughter" screened in Un Certain Regard at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize while" After Lucia" won the Un Certain Regard Prix in 2012. He also works as a producer and has produced films including the Golden Lion-winning "Desde Allá" directed by Lorenzo Vigas.
© Teorema
Fernando Eimbcke
Born in Mexico City. The director’s debut film, Temporada de patos, screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004 and won several awards. His next, Lake Tahoe, premiered in the Competition at the 2008 Berlinale where it won the Alfred Bauer Prize and the FIPRESCI Award. His third, Club Sandwich, premiered at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival and won the Golden Shell at San Sebastián. In all three features, he provides brief glimpses into the lives of characters going through the formative period of adolescence. He was a member of the Best First Feature Award Jury at the 2015 Berlinale.