Events - Your Highness : David Gordon Green revisits his most misunderstood passion project during an intimate Paris masterclass

By Mulder, Paris, Cinémathèque, 10 january 2026

On this day, our media outlet was present at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris to attend the masterclass given by director, screenwriter, and producer David Gordon Green, a highly anticipated event for the cinephile audience, preceded by a screening of Your Highness, a work the filmmaker himself described as one of the most personal and important of his career. From the very beginning of the session, the choice of this film set a distinctive tone for the afternoon, establishing an atmosphere of sincerity and reflection around a feature often reduced to its critical and commercial failure, yet one that David Gordon Green fully embraces as a passion project, revealing both his artistic freedom and his deeply instinctive relationship with cinema.

Throughout the discussion, David Gordon Green spoke in detail about the genesis of Your Highness, recalling that it was a project developed over a long period of time, conceived as a sincere immersion into the fantasy imagination rather than a simple parody. He emphasized that the film was never intended to mock the genre, but instead to infuse it with a singular sensibility shaped by his collaboration with Danny McBride, with whom he shares a very personal approach to humor, storytelling, and flawed characters. The filmmaker insisted on the misunderstanding that accompanied the film’s release, particularly through its marketing, which contributed to obscuring his intentions, even though he viewed Your Highness as an extremely written and structured work, driven by a genuine ambition in its staging despite significant budgetary constraints.

The masterclass also made it possible to place Your Highness within a filmography marked by constant back-and-forth movement between independent cinema and studio productions. David Gordon Green evoked his acclaimed beginnings with George Washington, followed by the artistic continuity represented by All the Real Girls and Snow Angels, before his shift toward more mainstream comedy with Pineapple Express. Far from seeing these transitions as ruptures, the director explained that they stemmed from the same exploratory impulse, fueled by his desire never to repeat himself, even at the risk of surprising, unsettling, or dividing audiences, fully embracing the idea that each film responds to a different creative impulse while remaining part of the same internal dialogue with cinema. This eclectic path naturally led the conversation toward more recent works, notably his trilogy consisting of Halloween, Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends, co-written with Danny McBride, which David Gordon Green discussed by explaining his intention to situate the saga within a broader reflection on time, memory, and lingering trauma.

The sustained attention of the Parisian audience throughout the masterclass testified to the strong interest in this reappraisal of a film often misunderstood. By restoring context to Your Highness, David Gordon Green reminded attendees that cinema is also built within its areas of friction, through works that resist easy classification and continue to exist over time, regardless of initial judgments. Far from being an anomaly within his filmography, the film now appears as a revealing milestone in the career of a filmmaker who refuses to be confined to a single register, and who views each project—whether celebrated or rejected—as a necessary step in an ongoing dialogue with genres, audience expectations, and his own artistic evolution.

You can discover our photos in our Flickr page

Synopsis Your Highness : 
Prince Thadeous has always lived his life in the shadow of his brother, the heir apparent, Prince Fabious. Tired of always being passed over, Thadeous is now content to slack off, drink mead and enjoy the company of a maiden or two, while Fabious has fabulous adventures. But when an evil wizard kidnaps Fabious' fiancée, Thadeous has no choice but to find his inner hero and join his brother's quest to save her.

Your Highness
Directed by David Gordon Green
Written by Danny McBride, Ben Best
Produced by Scott Stuber
Starring  Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Theroux, Toby Jones, Damian Lewis
Cinematography : Tim Orr
Edited by Craig Alpert
Music by Steve Jablonsky
Production companies : Stuber Pictures, Universal Pictures
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date :  April 8, 2011 (United States), September 11, 2011 (France)
Running time : 102 minutes

Photos and video : Boris Colletier / Mulderville