NEWS:  SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER
               2015

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During the Lumiere Film Festival, as is the tradition,  this year's honoree, Martin Scorcese, re-enacted the directing of  "Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory in Lyon", the first movie ever made in 1895 at the exact same place on October 17, 2015. You can watch a brief video clip at this link. Note that Vincent and Karine follow behind Scorcese in the first seconds of the video. Love the hat!

From the archives of RTS (Radio Television Suisse) comes a rare video of a young Vincent Perez. As a teenager, he participated in a theater camp where the children built castles out of cardboard and orchestrated a play. Some of this footage, complete with sound, can be seen at this RTS web site link. Enjoy!

Last night Martin Scorsese was celebrated at the Lumiere Film Festival by an impressive delegation of French and international film figures in Lyon, where he received the Lumiere tribute. Thierry Fremaux announced, "This festival was created to celebrate the history of cinema, as well as passion and knowledge and Martin Scorsese embodies all these things in an absolute way." Previous tributes have gone to Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodovar, Clint Eastwood and Gerard Depardieu. In attendance was Vincent with his wife.

I've posted a gallery of photos from the Merignac Photographic Festival. Vincent was interviewed by Fisheye magazine on his short film "Odyssée", which debuted at the festival on October 10th. The film was made in 2014 with ballet stars Nicolas Le Riche and his wife Clairemarie Osta. Both were present at the screening and took questions from a packed audience. His portraits at the City Hotel Park will remain through December 20th.

Vincent spoke to Fisheye about his use of a square format for "Odyssée" though he acknowledged that the trend is in Cinemascope, which doesn't work with capturing the body and feet of the dancers. He felt his images conveyed a lot of emotion, choreographed with the music of Arvo Pärt. Vincent said his new next photography project would be an exhibition in 2017 at the MEP (Maison européenne de la photographie) in Paris with the cooperation of its director, Jean-Luc Monterosso. Apparently, he invited Vincent to the Merignac Photographic Festival and the two have developed a special relationship.

While shooting "Alone in Berlin", he became an admirer of the work of August Sander, described as "the most important German portrait photographer of the early twentieth century." Vincent reported, "I would like to honor him through portraits of German heirs of that time. Maybe I would do a book. I don't know yet."

I finally came across a photo of Vincent's 12-year-old daughter Tess on the runway at the Bonpoint Fashion Show earlier this month as well as another one of Iman with her mother and then a family shot.

On October 13, Karine attended the ceremony in which American actor Harvey Keitel received the Medal of Commander of Arts and Letters at the Ministry of Culture. The woman in the first photo is Mélita Toscan du Plantier. I don't know the connection to Keitel but I remember he attended the Perez wedding.

Italy is hosting a rather unique film festival called the Milano Design Film Festival from October 15-18. It attempts to showcase the best in recent films on design. THE PRICE OF DESIRE apparently fits the bill and will be screened. Here's a new photo of Vincent in his role as Le Corbusier.

On October 1, the ARC Foundation gathered a slew of prestigious guests for a gala dinner to benefit the research against breast cancer at the Peninsula, a new luxury hotel located near the Place de l'Etoile. The guest list included Vincent and wife Karine as well as Kristin Scott Thomas, Vincent Cassell and Virginie Ledoyen.

Every year for the past 25 years, St. Petersburg has played host to a Russian film festival called Message to Man, which features an international competition among documentaries, shorts and animated films. This year it was held from September 25 to October 3 and at its closing, Vincent was in attendance for its award ceremony. He was given a golden statuette of a centaur for "his contribution to cinema." Lithuanian actress Ingeborg Dapkunayte enthusiastically announced the award saying, "I met this man in the city of Vladivostok, who I really like. He is an actor, director and photographer! His name is Vincent Perez!"

Vincent then flew back to Paris but because his plane was delayed, he missed the Bonpoint Fashion Show where his youngest daughter, 12-year-old Tess, was making her first appearance on the runway with her mother and older sister Iman looking on. Apparently Vincent finally arrived with his suitcase in hand and joined his wife and daughters in the park for champagne for the adults and fruit juice for the children. Clearly disappointed that he had missed his daughter's debut, he said, "I've got quite a lot going on at the moment." This was the only family photo I could locate from the event but it didn't include Tess.

Later that evening, he attended the 95th Anniversary Vogue party with Karine and Iman in conjunction with Paris Fashion Week.

The Merignac Photographic Festival will be held in France from October 8-11. On Saturday evening, October 10 at 7 pm, Vincent will present his 15-minute documentary on ballet called "Odyssée" at the Merignac Ciné.  The 2014 film features a pas de deux by Nicolas Le Riche and his wife Clairemarie Osta. It was choreographed by Le Riche and represents the crossing of time depicting the various obstacles of life.  Music is by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Vincent says, "The goal for me is to film dance, an exercise often overlooked and which rarely lives up to the feeling that the dancers offer on stage." Following the screening, there will be a discussion between Vincent and producer Emile Abimal. Admission is free with a reservation. Along with this screening, there will be an exposition of Vincent's photographs at Parc de l’Hôtel de Ville from October 8 to December 20, 2015. These images, half of which are devoted to dance, reveal to the public a special passion for an artistic discipline that is also the central theme of "Odyssée".

Here is a theatre announcement for Vincent's upcoming stage appearance in "Les  Liaisons Dangereuses", which will also star Dominique Blanc.

On September 3 Vincent participated in a press conference announcing the opening of a new independent British international day and boarding school in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. The woman in these photos is Laura Chaplin, granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin.

Here is a precious photo of Vincent with his daughter Iman. I would guess the photo was taken in 2000.

I've added some modeling agency photos of Iman. Apparently the 16-year-old  desires to follow in her mother's footsteps. I don't believe the serious poses do her any justice because her face illuminates beauty when it's framed with her curly hair and sensuous smile.  While visiting her Besson cousins this summer, she attended the 2015 Teen Choice Awards, held on August 16th at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. Check out her page. During her stay, she paid a visit to the Trinity Boxing Club and I suspect perhaps that's where older stepsister Roxane Depardieu is training as a boxer. Yes, her father is Gerard Depardieu.

It appears that Vincent has made an appearance outside the editing room in London. On Thursday he was in Lens, Switzerland at the Fondation Pierre Arnaud, a charitable organization which promotes the fine arts, specifically highlighting Swiss painting. In the first two photos, Vincent poses with Karim Sghair, President of the Regent Crans-Montana College and Christophe Flubacher, the Fondation's Scientific Director.