Julien Planté
Guest Writer
Personal Brief
He has been living in London since 2001. He started as a film programmer at the Ciné Lumière in South Kensington, one of the best art house cinema in London. Aged 21 he welcomed Manoel de Oliveira and Michel Piccoli. At 23 he asked three British directors, Ken Loach, Stephen Frears and Mike Leigh, to introduce their favourite film by François Truffaut. When he was 24 Jude Law introduced Melville’s Le Samourai for his audience who then discovered Alain Delon. He welcomed Abbas Kiarostami, Francesco Rosi, Tony Gatlif and many others.
In 2008, Julien then launched Cinémoi the first TV channel entirely dedicated to French cinema, first on Sky and then on Virgin. He ran the channel and programmed over 3,000 films, documentaries, shorts and produced more than 30hrs of original programming content, including the coverage of the Festival de Cannes and interviews with Juliette Binoche, Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Paul Gaultier and many more.
He then worked for various organisations and produced, managed and curated important events in London, such as the first series of Letters Live events at Freemasons’ Hall in 2015, with five nights headed by Benedict Cumberbatch, with also Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen, Tom Hiddleston and Kylie Minogue among the guests speakers. In 2017 Julien produced and co-curated Power of Film and Moving Image in February, a day-seminar at the Royal Institution, with Will Self, Christiane Amanpour and John Simpson among the speakers. When he left Finch & Partners he programmed and co-curated the event he is the most proud of: The Convention on Brexit & the Political Crash with The Observer and Open Democracy as media partners. Among 100 speakers over a two-day event at Central Hall, Westminster, they had Ian McEwan, Jarvis Cocker, Nick Clegg, Alastair Campbell and Gina Miller.
With his partner’s production company, Minky Productions, Julien also produces (and sometimes presents) films, TV shows, videos and podcast episodes. Last year, he produced the first 12 episodes a food podcast for Dean & DeLuca; in 2017 he also went to Cannes and Venice to produce 45min shows for American television, TV coverages of the 70th Festival de Cannes and the 74th Venice Film Festival.
@julienplante
Artists on your radar, shout them out!
I have to start with filmmakers, as I consider them as artists too: Claire Denis, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach, Guillermo del Toro, Wes Anderson, Jacques Audiard… and many many others, from all around the world.
Otherwise, in contemporary art: Anish Kapoor, Gavin Turk, David Hockney, Anselm Kiefer… Can’t say they are on my radar as they’re no longer with us, but enjoy going to great shows in London, like the Basquiat exhibition at the Barbican at the moment...
Which is your number one location - and what's it best for?
KOKO in Camden Town. It’s a premier Live Music venue. Always had an amazing time in there. Every concert is special.
'Getting creative', what's it all about?
Imagination and dare to be original, to do something that has never been done before. Taking some risk.
Your Life, Right Now - what's the soundtrack?
Let England Shake by PJ Harvey
What is your idea of a jolly good time?
A great dinner with my family and friends and a couple of good bottles of wine.
What happened the last time you were a complete disgrace?
I forgot all about it!
