On April 5, 2023, French President Emmanuel Macron attended the opening ceremony of the 17th edition of Festival Croisements in Beijing. He recommended the film Notre-Dame on Fire directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, which was premiered on the Chinese mainland on April 7.

As the winner of the 49th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Annaud is one of the most popular international directors among Chinese audiences. His film The Lover cast China's Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka-fai as the protagonist, and he also directed the Chinese film Wolf Totem, which grossed US$122,745,328 worldwide.

Jean-Jacques Annaud films Wolf Totem. (Photo: Nanfang Plus)

"The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is a window and occasion for me to understand and fall in love with China," Annaud said on April 6. Before filming The Lover, he had already visited Shenzhen in 1982. Meanwhile, Annaud has many good friends in Hong Kong, and he knows that many filmmakers who are prominent in Asia live there. Associating with people from the GBA attracted Annaud to China, and this is where the story between him and the country began.

"I could give you a long list of restaurants in Hong Kong! There's so much cuisine. I love foods, the people, people's warmth and laughter in the city," Annaud added.

He also shared an episode that in 1998 he bought a silk pajama suit with green, yellow, and red colors in a shop in Guangzhou, and he particularly preferred to wear it when making films at that time. "Because it was silk and made by excellent craftsmen, and I still keep it now!"

(Photo: Nanfang Plus/Duan Jianghan)

This year, Annaud came to China again with his latest film Notre-Dame on Fire, based on the Notre-Dame de Paris fire that occurred on April 15, 2019. At its premiere in China, he mentioned that he wanted to express an optimistic spirit through this movie, and that's the similarities between the French and the Chinese in his opinion.

Reporter | Nanfang Daily Liu Changxin

Author | GDToday Holly

Editor | Wing, Steven, Monica, Jerry