THIS IS A JUBILATORY FILM! WHAT IS A JUBILATORY FILM? IT'S.......

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I like cinema. Of a great, of a very great love. I also love Cannes, with all my heart. I have been there as a journalist, editor, distributor, producer, buyer, seller, communicator.

What I like most of all about Cannes is to walk into a room to discover a film about which I know nothing, apart from the title of course, and to come out with a beating heart, the spirit on fire, eyes in tears and a smile on his face. Yes yes, all of this at the same time.

It is, at that moment, the happiness of having experienced "something" very intense, very precious, and which we know will mark you for the rest of your life. In good ! That he will make you stronger and more generous.

The problem is that in writing these lines, I tend to think instead. "That was it. Cannes for me". Since 5 years ? 7 years ? (10 maybe already.), It seemed to me that the films presented had become more and more dark, more and more serious, austere, violent. Reflections of our time? This is what I have often read on the right and on the left. and that I can't believe.

"SENTIMENTAL CROWD, YOU HAVE SEEN AS WE ARE TALKED ..."

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I believe that this "sentimental crowd" sung by Souchon, of which I consider myself to be an intimate part, has a vital need for human warmth and joy on the part of its artists and creators. Not always. Not blissfully. Not stupidly. But still a little more often.

I said to myself for a while that maybe it came from me this discomfort. That I was no longer "in the mood". But obviously: I was not the only one. The passionate discussions that we had the pleasure of having, between friends or with unknown spectators, at the end of the screenings, have been gradually replaced in recent years by dismayed faces, eyes raised to the sky and one or two hasty sentences.

So I wanted to "decondition myself" and create a festival of "films that do good"! To breathe ! To make a counterpart to the austerity and gravity that are currently rife.

Because in festivals in general, alongside the works presented, certainly of high quality but most often of a black pessimism, each year are born around the world small jubilant pearls which, for their part, testify to the liveliness, the humor, courage and joie de vivre of the inhabitants of this planet - even in difficult conditions - I would say almost especially in difficult conditions ...

And these works there, which are of vital importance for our morale and therefore our health, today I want to glorify them in the same way as the other masterpieces of cinema so that the authors, directors and producers understand that there is nobility in inventing this kind of films for us!

Films that know how to mix laughter with fantasy, emotion with action, rhythm with humanity! Films that know how to find and show generosity in the midst of unbridled action, humanism in the heart of unbridled globalization, zany and emotion in the face of terrifying absurdity and make a cinematographic spectacle a huge nod to life.

Films that are not afraid to laugh in the face of the anxieties of the world. Films that assume their lightness and their joie de vivre!

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THOSE SAME AS I CALL: THE HAPPINESS MOVIES.

Jean-Claude Guerrero

jcguerrero@filmsbonheur.com