Falling into Utopia
by Shelly Schoeneshoefer

How often does it happen to you that you have the opportunity to go spontaneously to a film festival while on a vacation? So in August, when I had that chance, I took it. My husband and I were travelling through the French countryside in our teardrop camper when I came across a flyer for the Avignon Film Festival, and off we went. I already knew the Utopia cinema and loved it. Old-town Avignon is like going into a fairytale setting and emerging on the other side where your favorite cinema is beckoning you to come. The cinema itself is a lovely little glass-housed building located just past the gardens of the famous Palace of the Popes site. Last year in July, my husband and I happened to be in Avignon and had the chance to experience their city’s full-in-action Avignon Cultural Festival. The old town was full of international artists, musicians, actors, and writers at every corner, who were ready to put on a show. It is such an easily accessible festival due to its multi-level organization. Depending on how much money you want to spend, you can decide which venue you want to join. You just have to be fast or lucky to get to see those to-die-for plays, circus acts, and concerts. There are plenty of buskers on the street performing magic acts, poetry, or other unusual acts. It was at that time I discovered this enchanted little glass architectural cinema with its strangely funny hunting-style entrance where you are greeted by stuffed heads of deer. It seems that at one time this cinema was the location for a local hunting club.

This year, choosing a film to see was quite easy. The team hosting the film festival was excited to have me as a foreign guest. I explained that I was a film critic from Hamburg, Germany, and before long the film venue was mine for the taking. They said I get to go in first and chose my seat. Such hospitality has never happened to me before, and I was very grateful to the team. While perusing the thin black-and-white newspaper program, I thought at first this must be some alt-film festival but was immediately impressed by the quality of films listed in the schedule, including the collection of films from US director Sean Baker, which included TANGERINE (2015), THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017), and RED ROCKETS (2021); two of which I had seen and loved. Categories included entire collections of retrospective films from directors such as Luchino Visconti and Marcel Pagnol, which clearly helps the local community bone-up on their film history. The schedule included great classics like Wim Wenders’ PARIS, TEXAS (1984), Billy Wilder’s film THE APARTMENT (1960), and Alira Kurosawa’s THE SEVEN SAMURAI (1954). With help from the staff, I chose to see EMILA PEREZ (2024) by director Jacque Audiard and GONDOLA (2023) by director Veit Helmer, although I wish I could have also seen the Cannes Film Festival winner ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (2024) by Payal Kapadia and the animation FLOW (2024) by Gints Zinbalodis, which they were raving about.

As I waited, a huge line of people appeared, and I wondered if this small cinema had enough seating, but it worked out perfectly. At some point before the film began, I had the feeling that everyone in the cinema knew each other. Literally everyone was chatted away to their neighbors, and before long both my neighbors were talking to me like I was their lost best friend. In the past, I could speak French but now it is truly “miserable”; nevertheless, I gave it my best shot. I learned that they all had bought books of tickets and would try to see as many films as possible. They already knew a lot about the film beforehand. They knew the directors, screen writers, actors, editors, and music, etc. I was so impressed. They said that afterwards many of them stay and discuss in depth what they thought about the films and compare them to other films in the program. It’s truly a cultural event and makes for a close-knit community; a community that wants to preserve the arts and culture for the future. It made me appreciate this way of watching films. I certainly haven’t experienced this anywhere else that I have been. I certainly wish we all would work harder to understand, enjoy, and then share what we have experienced or learned.