The palm d’or that tonight has won Justine Triet thanks to ‘Anatomy of a fall’, the third obtained by a woman filmmaker in the entire history of the Cannes Festival -‘The piano’ (2001), by Jane Campion, and ‘Titane’ (2021), by Julia Ducorneau, were its predecessors-, has an added merit. She should be worth two. Because, on the one hand, it serves to reward a magnificent film. And because, on the other hand, the fourth feature film by the French woman has emerged as the winner despite fierce competition, which has turned this new edition of the French competition into one of the films with the highest artistic quality in the last 20 years. , if not the most.
Several of the films that have ended up entering the list of winners in other categories were listed as favorites to top it in many pools, and they would have done so deservedly as well. And among all these magnificent works, in any case, the jury has chosen an impeccable film, an absorbing and highly intelligent mixture of criminal intrigue, judicial drama and, above all, a relentless dissection of the murky dynamics that govern life as a couple.
Recognition to Glazer
Among the favorites mentioned in the previous paragraph, without a doubt, the new work by the British Jonathan Glazer, ‘The Zone of Interest’, which has ended up winning the Special Grand Prix of the Jury and, therefore, occupying the second most important place in the list of winners. It’s a Holocaust movie unlike any other, and possibly the scariest. In it, Glazer manages to convey to us the unimaginable horror that was experienced in Auschwitz without having to show it on screen and, in return, appealing to a horrifying sound design and the vast cinematographic legacy that the atrocities perpetrated by Nazi Germany have inspired. ‘The zone of interest’ speaks of the banality of evil, the convenience of evil, the tolerability of evil and the business of evil. And the originality, sophistication and rigor that it demonstrates in doing so make it the best of the films presented this year at Cannes, and a stunning masterpiece.
best actors
None of the other decisions announced by the jury tonight are unchallenged – no decision by any jury is, in fact – but they are all worthy of celebration. The Jury Prize awarded to ‘La passion de Dodin Bouffant’, by Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung, is a fair reward for a film that manages to be both a captivating love story and a seductive tribute to both the art of good food and the art of good cooking; ‘Fallen Leaves’, which has brought Finnish maestro Aki Kaurimäki the Best Director statuette, is a hilarious and incredibly tender demonstration that even in a world as hostile as this it is possible to find a soul mate; and we wish good luck to whoever wants to contest both the Best Actress award received by Merve Dizdar thanks to her extraordinary work in the new film by the Turkish Nuri Bilge Ceylan, ‘About Dry Grasses’, and the moving performance that the Japanese Koji Yakusho offers in ‘Perfect Days’, the new from Wim Wenders.
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In any case, the best thing about the list of winners announced tonight, we say, is that it could have been completely different and in any case just as plausible; that’s how good the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has been. There is only one year left for the 77th.