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In the shadow of the 7th art

Isabelle Giordano

A festival with a difference The world’s largest film festival? Cannes, of course! Yet one of the most beautiful festivals takes place in the small Mexican city of Morelia.

The Morelia International Film Festival arouses the curiosity of film buffs, partly because of its unusual setting, but also because it’s a paparazzi-free zone. Alfonso Cuarón, Stephen Frears, Terry Gilliam, Jennifer Lawrence, Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert have all attended and come back with glowing reviews. Tarantino and Iñárritu have even become regulars. Everything here is geared to directors and actors: they know that they’ll be able to devour several dozen films in a few days, projected in ultra-modern the- aters. They relish the quality of the interaction and the discussions that spring up spontaneously over a good meal. Olivier Assayas may have found the inspiration for his new American film here. I was lucky enough to accompany Juliette Binoche and I saw for myself just how much Mexican viewers still love French film, expressing their enthusiasm with a multitude of questions. Formerly called Valladolid, the city, a baroque showcase founded in 1541, was renamed Morelia in honor of a hero of Mexican- independence. Nicknamed “the city of pink stone,” it has con- served its 16th-century heritage and its imposing cathedral. Each small street could have come straight out of a Buñuel film. Sometimes called the Sundance of the South, the festival has a growing reputation for nurturing talent, while paying tribute to great film- making of the past. I remember the friendly faces of the students who came to see Assayas’s Summer Hours, the magnificent portraits of actress María Félix displayed on the cathedral square and the sweet snacks spicing up our conversations with Amos Gitai and young Mexican filmmakers. Discover Morelia, a paradise for film aficionados, in the heart of Michoacán.