To Each His Own Cinema is a 2007 French comedy-dramaanthology film commissioned for the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. The film is a collection of 34 short films, each 3 minutes in length, by 36 acclaimed directors. Representing five continents and 25 countries, the filmmakers were invited to express "their state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theatre". The film's subtitle reads "a declaration of love to the big screen". Many of the shorts share similar subjects, including homage to classic European art cinema, the death of the filmgoing experience, memories of childhood wonder, the transporting power of cinema, and activities performed during a movie screening, including talking, stealing, crying, and having sex.
Distribution
Premiere
To Each His Own Cinema premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival on 20 May and was televised on the same night in France on Canal+. David Lynch's contribution, Absurda, was not ready in time and was instead shown before Wong Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights on the festival's opening night.
DVD release
Two DVD versions of the film are available, both Region 2: one released by StudioCanal on 25 May 2007, the other released by Pyramide Distribution on 31 October 2007. World Cinema by Joel and Ethan Coen is not included on the StudioCanal DVD nor listed on the Pyramide DVD. David Lynch's Absurda is also not present on the StudioCanal DVD.
Short films
Raymond Depardon – Cinéma d'été : A small crowd attends a makeshift movie theatre.
Takeshi Kitano – One Fine Day: An older gentleman deals with an incompetent projectionist.
Theo Angelopoulos – Trois minutes : A woman confesses her love to a fellow filmgoer who doesn’t reciprocate.
Andrei Konchalovsky – Dans le noir : An aged cinema owner attempts to watch 8½, while sex-crazed youths make out behind her.
Nanni Moretti – Diario di uno spettatore : Moretti himself recounts treasured movie memories.
Hou Hsiao-hsien – The Electric Princess Picture House: A family in 1940s Taiwan goes to see a film in a suddenly abandoned or decrepit theatre.
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne – Dans l'obscurité : A pickpocket in a screening of Au hasard Balthazar accidentally connects with an audience member.
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Anna: A blind woman is profoundly moved listening to her boyfriend interpret the end of Contempt.
Zhang Yimou – En regardant le film : A young boy is enchanted by the arrival of a travelling movie show in his village.
Amos Gitai – Le Dibbouk de Haifa : Movie houses in 1930s Poland and present-day Israel are attacked.
Jane Campion – The Lady Bug: A theatre janitor fights a playful, dancing human sized insect.
Atom Egoyan – Artaud Double Bill: Vapid young people are more concerned with texting each other than the films they are nominally watching, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vivre Sa Vie, and a porno.
Olivier Assayas – Recrudescence : A thief with an ambiguous relationship to a young woman steals her purse during a screening.
Youssef Chahine – 47 ans après : A young Chahine and his lead actress commiserate over the critical failure of their movie at Cannes.
Tsai Ming-liang – It's a Dream: A man remembers bonding with his family and the small audience at a theatre in Kuala Lumpur.
Lars von Trier – Occupations: Von Trier plays himself, violently assaulting a loudmouthed businessman at the premiere of Manderlay.
Raoul Ruiz – Le Don : A blind man tells his niece about the time he screened Casablanca to a rural village.
Claude Lelouch – Cinéma de boulevard : A memoir of how the movie Top Hat impacted the director’s family throughout the years.
Gus Van Sant – First Kiss: A young projectionist falls in love with a girl in a film.
Roman Polanski – Cinéma érotique: A middle aged couple watching Emmanuelle are annoyed by an apparent masturbator.
Michael Cimino – No Translation Needed: An obnoxious theatre owner and amateur filmmaker makes a music video for a Cuban band.
David Cronenberg – At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World: In a dystopian future, the horrific act of the title character and its societal implications are the subject of bland media obsession.
Wong Kar-wai – I Travelled 9000 km To Give It To You: A young man eating fruit thinks of his lover.
Bille August – The Last Dating Show: A man translating a Danish movie for his non-fluent date runs afoul of aggressive audience members.
Elia Suleiman – Irtebak : A Palestinian director is uncomfortable at a film festival.
Manoel de Oliveira – Rencontre unique : A silent film depicting a meeting between Nikita Khrushchev and Pope John XXIII is screened.
Walter Salles – À 8 944 km de Cannes : In front of a marquee for The 400 Blows, two Brazillian singers trade songs about visiting the Cannes Film Festival.
Wim Wenders – War in Peace: The inhabitants of a Congo village watch and discuss Black Hawk Down.
Chen Kaige – Zhanxiou Village: Small children rig up a projector to watch a Charlie Chaplin film, only to be scared off by a nosy adult.
Ken Loach – Happy Ending: A father and son argue about the screenings at a multiplex, ultimately deciding to go watch football instead.
David Lynch – Absurda: A sinister projectionist shows a group of teens a nightmarish vision of a murder. As he rolls the film, the teens appear to be compelled to commit it.
