Cannes Classics: “You Must Remember This” by Richard Schickel

At 7pm in Salle Buñuel, Cannes Classics continued its celebration of Warner Brothers studios’ 85th birthday (also playing at Cinéma de la Plage) by screening a new documentary by film historian, critic, and director Richard Schickel, You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story. The feature-length documentary, narrated by Clint Eastwood, tells the tale of the four brothers whose vision, determination, and acumen for the company they founded made the Hollywood studios a movie-industry legend. The film includes many clips from great Warner Brothers classics, as well as archival footage and interviews with actors and directors.

At the screening of You Must Remember This, attended by Clint Eastwood and American filmmaker James Toback, Richard Schickel had this to say: "I’d like to thank Clint Eastwood for having been the narrator of my film. What you’re going to see tonight is two hours of a film which is actually five hours long. It’s not only a historical film, but also an epic containing hundreds of clips and hundreds of interviews. It has been an extremely rewarding experience for me, to pay an homage to this studio. The film starts with the formation of the studio and ends when America was perhaps in the last days of its happiness. It enables you to see how much Warner Brothers and the films produced there are witnesses to American history. My only regret is that we had to stop the story when Daffy Duck appeared. (laughter) I hope you’re going to enjoy watching this film as much as we enjoyed making it. In fact, we’re still finalizing it, and we hope it will be ready to be aired on television by September."