MARC CEMIN, Directeur de création, canal+
"I can live remembering films. But I need to read books again and again so that I can discover them again, make them mine. I read Lolita by Nabokov three times. Last time I it made me laugh so much!"
If you were to define your work in one verb...
It may not be the most positive term, but a verb that defines well my work would be: associating. Advertisement sponsorship is communication by association. In this sense, it is not the same as advertisement. A good sponsored film has to have a balance: 50% must come from the channel and 50% from the brand. When I'm imagining a film for Canal I want it to have a colour. There has to be some kind of balance.
A film that brings back memories...
Spontaneously I would mention Welles, Lang, Einsenstein, Buñuel or Scorsese... But I would still mention Orson Welles. I've always been fascinated by him. It started when I was a child (I've been going to the cinema with my parents since I was 5). I teach film in Penninghen and I use Citizen Kane all year round (Orson Welles, 1941).
What do you like doing apart from working?
I like reading, even better than watching films! Reading everything. I devour books. I love this relationship between the book and its reader. You don't get the same thing with films. A book is something that is so liberating. Do you want an example? Well, take Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne (1760). After reading what other writers wrote about this book (Nabokov, Borgès, etc...) I became interested in reading in. And it was an amazing experience. Laurence Sterne treats his reader in a very modern way. He keeps digressing all the time. This guy from the 18th Century has a sense of humour I totally understand! Obviously I also read lots of books on cinema.
