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.
“Thank you to the Lumières for inventing the movie camera, or we’d have been fucked,” joked Ethan, drawing laughs from the audience.
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. “We did it because we love cinema and we love storytelling,” he said. “We’ve had, pretty much with certain exceptions, nothing but fun making these films over the decades.”
Bardem, who won an Oscar for his chilling portrayal of Anton Chigurh in “No Country for Old Men,” delivered one of the evening’s most colorful tributes, recalling how he initially tried to turn down the role despite being a longtime admirer of the Coens.
“I sat down with them in New York in their office and I was like, ‘Listen, I admire you, I worship you, you are amazing, but I hate violence, I don’t drive, and I can barely speak English. What the hell am I doing here?’” Bardem recalled.
“They gave me no reason whatsoever to do the movie. They were just laughing,” he said. “I thought, ‘I don’t know what this experience is going to be like, but I know it’s not going to be stressful. 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. “I was single at the time – this is 2006 – and I said, ‘I’m gonna be single until the day I wrap.’”
Ethan had another story about Bardem’s commitment to the role. 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. “And he wonders why we laughed at him,” Ethan joked.
The actor’s tribute took a more heartfelt turn as he reflected on what working with the brothers had meant to him. “What they gave me was one masterpiece and the gift of a lifetime, personally and professionally,” Bardem said. “They made a dream come true. 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. “Never again is never again for everybody, from Congo to Sudan to Palestine,” he said.
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.
At Cannes, their remarkable run began in 1991 when “Barton Fink” swept the Palme d’Or, best director and best actor prize for John Turturro. They went on to win best director for “Fargo” in 1996 and “The Man Who Wasn’t There” in 2001, while “Inside Llewyn Davis” took the Grand Prix in 2013. In 2015, they returned to the Croisette as presidents of the festival’s jury.
Friday’s honor makes Joel and Ethan the second filmmaking duo to receive the Lumière Award, following Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne in 2020. Previous recipients include Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Martin Scorsese, Catherine Deneuve, Wong Kar-wai, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola, Jane Campion, Tim Burton, Wim Wenders, Isabelle Huppert and Michael Mann.
The Lumière Film Festival wraps Sunday, Oct. 18.