Thierry Frémaux on Why ‘Today, We Can Never Trust Images We See’ — but We Can Trust the Lumière Brothers and ‘Apocalypse Now’

Thierry Frémaux on Why 'Today, We Can Never Trust Images We See' — but We Can Trust the Lumière Brothers and 'Apocalypse Now'Ahead of Cannes, the festival director and Institut Lumière head unveils his second anthology of restored films by Louis and Auguste Lumière, with his own wry commentary about the brothers who invented the very first movie camera. Has much changed since then?By Ryan LattanzioPlus iconryanRyan LattanzioExecutive Editor ryanlattanzioMore stories by Ryan Say Goodbye to Awards Season with a Rewatch of David Cronenberg's Deeply Bleak 'Maps to the Stars'Read more Where Jessie Buckley, Michael B. Jordan, Amy Madigan, and More Oscar Winners Are Headed NextRead more 'Miroirs No. 3' Review: Christian Petzold's Minor Key Is a Major One for His Beautifully Concussed Protagonist, Played by Paula BeerRead more March 20, 2026 2:30 pmThierry FrémauxGamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesShare Share on Facebook Post google Google Preferred Share on LinkedIn Show more sharing options Share to Flipboard Submit to Reddit Pin it Post to Tumblr Email Print This Page Share on WhatsApp Thierry Frmaux is not just the witty, wry, and sometimes controversial French artistic director of the Cannes Film Festival he's also a film historian, director of the Institut Lumire in Lyon, and a filmmaker himself.

Frmaux just released his second anthology of restored films directed by Louis Lumire with an assist by his brother and cinematographer Auguste; together, they invented the Cinmatographe in 1895, a hand-cranked device that served as camera, developer, and projector. In other words, the apparatus that became the modern movie camera, up until digital technology usurped the role that film cameras played in capturing the first 100 years of filmmaking. Related Stories From Festivals to Streamers, Political Documentaries Are Getting Shut Out Say Goodbye to Awards Season with a Rewatch of David Cronenberg's Deeply Bleak 'Maps to the Stars'

"Lumire, Le Cinma!" features 130 short films made by the sibling inventors, restored by Frmaux and his Institut team, from street scenes, like the factory workers they turned their new invention on, to street scenes and failed experiments. It's playing at the Museum of Modern Art starting March 20, and we spoke ahead of time about not only the documentary, but also Frmaux's thoughts about the current state of cinema, the threats of AI that he's not scared of, why we can "trust" the Lumires' images, and why "Apocalypse Now" was the "last biofilm" (he explains what that means below; Francis Ford Coppola also gets a cameo at the end of the documentary).

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

IndieWire: Some people would argue that the basic apparatus of cinema a camera that then flattens images into two