D.had to be a memorable edition, that of 2022: the Cannes Film Festival celebrates its 75th anniversary and we know how much the French care about grandeur… It didn’t go exactly like this, with a competition that was a bit “guaranteed second-hand”: big names but no real surprises, no love at first sight. But there is something to remember. And something not to forget aussi.
Things to remember
The Sissi by Vicky Krieps
Vicky Krieps as Sissi in “Corsage”.
Vicky Krieps, Palme d’Or of (our) heart. Yes, because the prize for best actress of the competition could not have won it, since her two films have passed in the side section A certain regard (who, in fact, rightly crowned her). Collocation that shows some myopia, on the part of the breeders: Corsagein particular, it has been defined by the essential Variety “The hot title” of the Festival. The Luxembourgian actress, became internationally famous in 2018 thanks to The hidden thread with Daniel Day-Lewisdoes not just impersonate Elizabeth of Austria alias Sissi, but is the “mind” of the project, to which the director – the Austrian Marie Kreutzer – added a sprinkling of Lady Diana and Meghan Markle. For its second interpretation see the next entry, “Gaspard Ulliel“.
The final farewell to Gaspard Ulliel
Plus que jamais, presented in the Debussy room without the director, Emily Atef, spending a single word in memory of her before the screening, is the last film shot by Gaspard Ulliel, who died at the age of 37 in January of a skiing accident. An already funerary film, unfortunately: he plays the husband of Vicky Krieps, who has been diagnosed with an incurable degenerative disease.
Gaspard Ulliel (photo Ansa).
We had met him right here in Cannes in 2019, and he had impressed us. No, not for the beauty: for the severe tearing of her clothes. “They say that he always has a haughty, unpleasant way, that he is judgmental and critical in his comments … he hurts me a lot: I tend to be genuine and sincere”.
Songs made in Italy
Surprisingly, songs from our pop repertoire break into many films: Males by Gianna Nannini closes The innocent by Louis Garrel; Look at the moonbrought to success by Fred Buscaglione, accompanies one of the most significant scenes of Les Amandiers by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. At the East Fair by Angelo Branduardi it was by the Dardenne brothers for Tori et Lokita And Hello beautiful by Cristian Mungiu for RMN. And in Masquerade she also felt But how cold it isactually already used by Julia Ducournau (Palme d’Or 2021 with Titane) for his debut film, horror Raw (Serious). By now intolerable instead the karaoke scenes, a narrative expedient in vogue for more than thirty years: yet two authors such as the aforementioned Garrel and Léa Mysius in Les cinq diables she didn’t miss me …
The dark future of cinema for James Gray
James Graydirector of Armageddon Time, films in competition, among the most beautiful ever. Gray comes to the interview with an ffp2 mask and asks everyone to wear it. He claims to have made 4 vaccine boosters. He is overly cautious because his wife is not well, he tells us. We can’t help but ask him what he thinks they will be the long-term consequences of the pandemic on cinema. His heartbreaking response: “If he had asked me a year ago I would have shown more optimism because the last thing we wanted to do, or at least I thought it was, was still on the sofa. But now I begin to be afraid that the habit of going to the cinema, because this is a habit, has been lost. I don’t know if we’ll win those people back. When this pandemic is finally over, the big studios should decide for 4.5 years to spend money on making films that bring that audience back to the cinema. And maybe get lost. It would be their duty. Because the great thing about movies is that you never know if they make money or not. The auteur cinema can also bring profits, but if it does not make those films they must be shot anyway and the authors put in a position to do so. Because for me it is clear that when this cinema is gone and all that will remain is the public agreeing to be fed junk food and only one type of junk food, a monster that was created by the Studios, this will lead to the disappearance of cinema in favor of streaming and videogames ». And here comes the fun. Gray imitates Marlon Brando in the Godfather and utters the line: “He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.” Then he adds: «We all remember this one. Now you can quote me a joke from Aquaman? No, he cannot ».
James Gray.
The exciting projections
And in this regard, the projection of the Godfather on the beachsitting on the sand is one of the most poignant memories we will take home. Why is the Godfatherand why we fell out of love with the Cannes cinemas a little (see chapter Versailles).
EO by Jerzy Skolimovski. The legendary Polish director brought an unpredictable film into competition (at Cannes 2022, the TikTok and metaverse festival): a tribute to Au hazard Balthazar by Robert Bresson, starring a donkey that goes from adventure to misadventure experience the love of men and their cruelty. A film that is only apparently simple (the title is none other than the transliteration of the donkey braying): the creatures of the world are watching us. And their gaze is innocent. Are our actions up to it?
3000 Years of LongingGeorge Miller’s film with Tilda Swinton and Iris Elba, the history of the world and a love story. An eccentric film and for this very reason precious. When a 77-year-old man, in the breach for 50, who has experienced life and cinema with the saga of Mad Max and with Babe goes to townspeaks of desires and desires must be listened to.
Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. © 2022 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved
The author series
Night exterior by Marco Bellocchio e Irma Vep by Olivier Assayas. Because they say a lot about their authors and the places they come from, our country, its history, politics for Marco Bellocchio, the cinema that Assays has lived in since he started writing for Cahiers du Cinéma in the 1980s and, even earlier, to collaborate on his father’s screenplays.
Isabelle Adjani in “Masquerade”.
Things to forget
The last minute package of Isabelle Adjani. It sounded too good to be true: Isabelle Adjani – unforgettable Adele H.unforgettable Camille Claudel, a star expert in the art of appearing and disappearing (she practically does so from the beginning of her career) – had decided to indulge in journalists. He looked too good to be true especially after seeing Masquerade by Nicolas Bedos and after appreciating his incredible self-irony, which we had already had a little taste of in the series Call my agent!: Play as a now forgotten diva on the sunset boulevard with all the features imaginable from the days of Gloria Swanson of Sunset avenue. Did he seem too handsome? In fact: three hours after the interview, the message from the production company arrives, “sorry to report that Isabelle Adjani is not feeling well”.
Versailles
The Cannes Film Festival makes no effort to be a democratic demonstration. Intended for insiders only (the public will have screenings of some classics on the beach), over the course of time it has developed complex accreditation and access hierarchies. Which, with the need to reserve their seat on a platform due to the pandemic, have jumped. Good news? Unfortunately not. The platform works terrible, promotes bulimia (you can get tickets for films that run simultaneously) and frees all the films of the day at the same time: a clogged highway, at 7 am when the fingers of all the festival-goers click hopelessly Elvis Elvis Elvis….
The rhetoric that kills (also) the cinema
The Patrouille de France that passes over the inhabited center in low flight to say goodbye to Tom Cruise it was at the same time a risky and hyper-rhetorical choice. Difficult to do worse.
Ah no, if you think about it, there was something worse. The rhetoric on the defense of democracy, human rights, art and the cynicism with which, faced with the possibility of profitable agreements, one blatantly forgets all principles. Reports Libération: “Cannes offered this year a formidable showcase to a country that cannot be said to embrace the ideals and struggles carried out by many films in its selection (against political oppression, patriarchy …) but which, since 2017 when has reopened the doors of the cinemas, shows a great desire for cinema ». This is of course theSaudi Arabia, regularly blacklisted by human rights activists, notably for the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Without forgetting that on March 13, 81 people accused of “terrorism” were executed in the Kingdom. Yet at the Saudi pavilion, visited among others by director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men) «Was announced the construction of a film studio in Al-Ula, the great archaeological center – a tourist project piloted by France in the north-west of the country. Discounts of up to 40% of production costs will be ensured for films shot there. The only condition: to recruit Saudi teams and talent and represent the culture, history and people of Saudi Arabia, as well as a variety of landscapes. We can’t wait to see the biopic dedicated to Khashoggi ».
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