THEhe Cannes Film Festival celebrates its 75th anniversary in the historical moment – unfortunately – less suitable for grandeur … But on the Croisette he doesn’t give up: a memorable one is in preparation montée des marches (what is the red carpet called only here, the treadmill) before the screening of The innocent by Louis Garrel. The choice is not accidental, and not only because the director-protagonist is French: it is an “inclusive” film consistent with the “political DNA” of the event, which has been underlined since the opening night.
Louis Garrel during the red carpet for “Les Amandiers” (Getty Images)
The answer in Venice
The idea of organizing an international film festival in Cannes came from Jean Zay, French Minister of Education and Fine Arts, as a response to the interference of the fascist and Nazi dictatorships in the selection of films for the Venice Film Festival. It was 1939, but everything started only after the war, in 1946. «The Festival is an apolitical no man’s land, a microcosm of what the world would be like if men could establish direct contact and speak the same language» explained Jean Cocteau, always present since the first edition.
The innocent it is therefore perfect in its mix of story and “message”: Garrel (also present in Cannes with Les Amandiers And The Envol) is Abel and, when she finds out that her mother (Anouk Grinberg) is about to marry a man in prison, she panics and does everything to prevent it, backed up by her best friend (Noémie Merlant). But … all prejudice falters when he meets his stepfather (nice force, it’s the sublime Roschdy Zem).
Pierfrancesco Favino and Francesco Di Leva in “Nostalgia” (photo Mario Spada).
Favino tries again
In the race there is Nostalgia, directed by Mario Martone and written by him with his wife, Ippolita di Majo. With many arrows in his bow, starting with the protagonists: Pierfrancesco Favino (in 2019, with the role of Buscetta in Il traitor, he saw the award for best male interpretation by Antonio Banderas for a short time), Francesco Di Leva And Tommaso Ragno. The plot? No spoilers, it is known (the film is based on the novel of the same name published by Ermanno Rea in 2016): Felice Lasco returns to Naples, in the Sanità district, after forty-five years spent between the Middle East and Africa because his mother is dying. But then, instead of returning to his partner in Cairo, he obeys an ineluctable call and remains, waiting for a meeting… Well, let’s stop, the wait is short: it comes out in Italian cinemas on 25 May.
The two regulars
In a particularly busy year they could not miss two regulars like the brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne who, always bringing films of great social sensitivity (two for all: Rosette And Two days, one night) have been attending the Festival since 1987. This time, with Tori et Lokita under their lens a story set in their Belgium which involves a child, Tori (Pablo Schils) and a teenager, Lokita (Joely Mbundu), who – both alone – made the journey together from Africa (Cameroon and Benin, for the accuracy) to Europe. “They don’t just help each other to regularize their situation, find work on the black market, send money to families: they are not really capable of living without each other as brother and sister so as not to remain alone in the darkness of their nightmares Explain the two directors.
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