Lumière Open Air Film Festival 2025

In 1983, legendary art rockers Talking Heads set out to make a concert film like no other. Independent of their record company, they hired Jonathan Demme, a then-relatively unknown filmmaker, to direct. Working closely with Byrne and the band, Demme counteracted the MTV style of the era, avoiding quick cuts or cutaways to the crowd in the certain knowledge that the more we see of what’s happening on stage, the more immersed and mesmerised we will be. 

The dazzling set list aside, it’s their film’s formal inventiveness that is amazing, beginning with the conceptual crescendo of the concert’s construction. It starts with genius frontman David Byrne performing Psycho Killer alone on stage with beat box and guitar, then adds instruments, stage machinery and musicians with each successive number. That’s to say nothing of Byrne’s expanding white suit. 

Stop Making Sense was once dubbed ‘the Citizen Kane of concert movies’ and it’s easy to see why: this is a perfect concert movie, a pop cultural dispatch from 1983 that stays forever thrilling.

The ultimate festival vibe: no deckchairs, just dancing
Let’s face it – no one wants to watch a gig sitting down. So we’re clearing out the chairs and making space to move. Stop Making Sense is best experienced up on your feet, right in front of the big screen, volume up, energy high.

Schedule:
19:00 – Doors open & DJ set by Don Londi
21:15 – Film starts
22:43 – DJ set by Don Londi
23:30 – End

Elizabeth Bennet isn’t one to be told what to do. Not by polite society, not by her matchmaking mother, and definitely not by the brooding, hard-to-read Mr Darcy. What starts as mutual annoyance gradually shifts into something far more complicated – and far more interesting.

Pride & Prejudice remains one of the most beloved love stories in both literary and film history. Jane Austen pairs longing and wit with sharp social commentary, exposing the pressures of class, status and expectation under all that empire-waist elegance.

Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation brought Austen’s world to the big screen with dreamlike cinematography, lush costumes, and one of cinema’s most charged hand touches. Two decades later, the film has since become the defining example of the modern period drama, thanks in no small part to Knightley’s fierce Elizabeth and Macfadyen’s awkwardly magnetic Darcy.

Set in the Los Angeles of the slight future, Her follows Theodore Twombly, a complex, soulful man who makes his living writing touching, personal letters for other people. Heartbroken after the end of a long relationship, he becomes intrigued with a new, advanced operating system, which promises to be an intuitive entity in its own right, individual to each user. Upon initiating it, he is delighted to meet ‘Samantha’, a bright, female voice, who is insightful, sensitive and surprisingly funny. As her needs and desires grow, in tandem with his own, their friendship deepens into an eventual love for each other.

Four estranged cousins unexpectedly inherit a house in Normandy. The house is almost like a time machine; untouched since the 1940s. The cousins uncover the life story of one of their ancestors, Adèle Meunier, who lived in the house in 1895.

Director Cédric Klapisch – known for popular arthouse hits such as L’Auberge Espagnole, Paris, and Chacun Cherche Son Chat – alternates the story of the four cousins with that of Adèle, who moves from Normandy to Paris at the end of the nineteenth century in search of her missing mother. She befriends a young photographer and a young painter, taking up residence in their Montmartre apartment.

The Paris of the Belle Époque is beautifully brought to life in La Venue De L’Avenir. Today we often view that era through a romantic, nostalgic lens, but Klapisch convincingly shows that for Parisians at the time, it was a turbulent and unsettling period of radical change. (mv)

When Sailor is released from prison, he immediately goes to see his beloved Lula. In a T-bird convertible they head to California. Lula’s hysterical mother goes crazy at the thought of Lula with Sailor, and hires both a private detective and a contract killer to hunt them down. On their wild journey, Lula and Sailor meet a wide variety of weirdos, including an unforgettable Willem Dafoe as the hideous Bobby ‘just like the country’ Peru. The film contains tons of pop-cultural references, with constant allusions in the film pertaining to The Wizard Of Oz.

Wild At Heart is one of the most accessible and entertaining films from David Lynch: a wickedly funny and rivetingly erotic road movie, featuring Nicolas Cage as an Elvis-acolyte in a snakeskin jacket.

Which film do you think is an absolute must for a night of cinema under the stars? Choose from Aftersun, Love Lies Bleeding, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Cast your vote here. You can cast your vote until 30 June. On 1 July we'll announce the winner.

Aftersun
Charlotte Wells, UK, USA, 2022, 102 min., English spoken, Dutch subtitles. Cast: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Sally Messham, Ayse Parlak.

Acclaimed, tender portrait of a father-daughter relationship with a terrific lead role by Paul Mescal (Normal People, The Lost Daughter) as the young father.

Love Lies Bleeding
Rose Glass, UK, USA, 2024, 104 min., English spoken, Dutch subtitles. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Katy O'Brian, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Jena Malone.

Pulpy neo-noir thriller in which female gym manager Lou falls head over heels in love with bodybuilder Jackie. Their love affair is put to the test by a series of violent events. With Kristen Stewart and Ed Harris.

Portrait De La Jeune Fille En Feu (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) (with English subtitles)
Céline Sciamma, France, 2019, 119 min., French, Italian spoken, Dutch subtitles. Cast: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino, Christel Baras.

Winner of the Queer Palm and Best Screenplay award at the Festival de Cannes, this acclaimed feature from Céline Sciamma (Girlhood) is an intimate and deeply moving period drama.

Driver (Ryan Gosling, in an iconic scorpion bomber jacket) falls in love with his neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan), a young mother who is dragged into the underworld exploits of her husband, ex-convict Standard. When a job goes horribly wrong, Driver has to do what he does best to save Irene and her infant son: drive like a maniac.

With Drive, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn delivers a brilliantly stylised pulp film, with a heavy dose of violence, suspense, the searing neon lights of Los Angeles and, of course, the delicious sound of engine roars and screeching car tyres. Ryan Gosling portrays a classic, stoic Hollywood hero in the tradition of Clint Eastwood. The film is supported by an atmospheric score featuring minimalist electronic music by Cliff Martinez and ethereal synthesiser music by Chromatics.

On the hottest day of the summer, pizza-delivery guy Mookie makes his rounds while navigating the racially charged tensions that inform every daily interaction in the neighbourhood. When local firebrand Buggin’ Out starts an argument with Mookie’s Italian employer Sal, the community’s delicate balance threatens to tip over into chaos.

Released at the end of a decade that had seen ever-deepening divisions between races and cultures, writer-director-star Lee’s angry and artful cinematic rallying cry is as potent, relevant, and important now as it was in 1989. It also bequeathed the world perhaps the greatest rap song in history, Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, commissioned by Lee specifically for the film. (source: www.tiff.net)

After graduation, Benjamin Braddock finds himself lost and uncertain about his future. At a party celebrating his achievement, he is seduced by the enigmatic and significantly older Mrs. Robinson.

What begins as a secret affair quickly unravels when Benjamin falls in love with her daughter Elaine. Thus he becomes entangled in a web of lies and desires, unfolding against the backdrop of the rapidly changing social landscape of 1960s America.

The Graduate is a timeless classic that blends tragedy and comedy to explore themes of insecurity, rebellion and alienation in a new generation. The film marked Dustin Hoffman's breakthrough role and emerged at a pivotal moment in Hollywood history. Alongside influential films such as Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, and Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate marks the transition to the New Hollywood era – a period defined by greater artistic freedom for filmmakers. The film received seven Oscar nominations and won the Academy Award for Best Director.

Animation is often associated with children's and family films, but movies like Waltz With Bashir (about the Lebanese Civil War) and Persepolis (about a young girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran) demonstrate that animated films can also tackle complex themes for adult audiences. One of the best examples is the Japanese animation film Grave Of The Fireflies, a war drama whose impact has been compared to Schindler's List by some film critics. The film depicts the devastating effects of war on innocent children. Grave Of The Fireflies is set against the backdrop of the bombing of Kobe in March 1945. Fourteen-year-old Seito and his four-year-old sister Setsuko lost their mother in the bombing; their father was killed while serving in the Japanese navy. The children are therefore left to fend for themselves in famine-stricken Japan.