As a recognition of his trajectory, the Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro unveiled a commemorative plaque with his name at the “Filmmakers Wall” in the French city of Lyon , where the cinematograph was invented.
“Merci Beaucoup” (Thank you) was all Del Toro said when he unveiled the plaque at a wall where over 170 plates also hang with the name of renowned filmmakers and artists who have made history in cinema.
The Mexican director was joined at the ceremony by the director of the Institut Lumière and delegate of the Cannes Film Festival , Thierry Frémaux, the French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, the Spanish actress Marisa Paredes, the French composer Alexandre Desplat, and others.
“I'm very happy. It's nice to be welcomed by Lyon, the birthplace of cinema. It's like going to Belem, to the birth of something amazing. I feel among friends,” said the filmmaker to RFI (Radio France Internationale).
Del Toro is the first Mexican to have a plaque in the house where the Lumière brothers screened a film for the first time in history, in 1895.
The event took place as part of the ninth edition of the Lumière Film Festival which offered a retrospective of both, the Del Toro's films and his favorite ones, an event in which Alfonso Cuarón also participated.
“The Mexican presence is evidence of the friendship and complicity with Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, and to state the importance of Mexican cinema in the seventh art,” said Thierry Frémauz, founder of the festival.
Del Toro concluded his participation at the French festival with a conference, which was completely sold out.
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