“A good homogeneous vintage but no emotional slap yet.” This is the refrain that runs on a glamorous but bloodless Croisette after twelve days of festival. Cannes will have rolled out the red carpet for a number of veteran and regular filmmakers, as it should be. But the festival was strangely void of controversy and provocation on the big screen, in press conferences and even a sartorial revolution on the red carpet. A height.
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A few hours before the verdict of the jury chaired by Vincent Lindon, the games remain very open. Eo, Decision To Leave and Close have received critical acclaim, but it must be remembered that it is in the last hours that the competition has been shaken up in recent years, as had been done by Titanium by Julia Ducournau or Parasite by Bong Joon- hey.
Note, on Friday, two of the five directors in the race for the Palme d’Or were still in the starting blocks. Figure of independent cinema, the American Kelly Reichardt, whose pastry and bovine western First Cow had enchanted the Deauville 2020 festival, presented Showing Up. Portrait of an artist and the way she draws on her life to create. With in the credits, one of his favorite actresses, Michelle Williams.
The Florida-native filmmaker shared the steps with a newcomer to the competition, Frenchwoman Léonor Séraille. Golden Camera at Cannes in 2017 for her first film Young Woman, she tries her luck by telling in A Little Brother the story of a family from immigration, from the end of the 1980s to the present day in the Parisian suburbs. .
Will any of these films be the successor to Julia Ducournau’s Titane, last year’s gore gold with punk energy? Difficult to make confident predictions: no film in competition has been unanimously accepted by festival-goers, who are also very spoiled in the parallel sections. And regaled by resounding previews such as Novembre by Cédric Jimenez or Elvis by Baz Luhrmann (palm of the most crazy party with its drones drawing the silhouette of the musician in the night sky of Cannes).
On the side of the international press, the opinions are disparate. The grid of reviews compiled by the professional magazine Screendaily praises South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, 58, (Old Boy). His virtuoso-directed thriller Decision To Leave invites, according to some, Basic Instinct comparisons. Less sex! This investigation led by a police inspector, who falls in love with the main suspect of a crime, is however served by a hazy plot. The film is magnified by the interpretation of its two main characters, two newcomers to the cinema of Park Chan-wook: in the role of the inspector, actor Park Hae-il, who had worked with Bong Joon-ho (Memories of a Murder, The Host); in that of the widow, the Chinese actress Tang Wei, revealed by Ang Lee (Lust, surety).
Read the fileCannes – All the films in competition
If a film as anticipated as David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future wowed journalists stunned by its sluggishness, another big name, James Gray, rather charmed critics with Armageddon Time. For his fifth time in competition, the author of Ad Astra and The Night Belongs to Us delivers a touching and largely autobiographical chronicle of a boy’s childhood in 1980s New York, and the discovery of his artistic vocation.
The UFO EO, whose main character is a donkey in the face of the cruelty of the world and the whims of men, by the dean of the competition, Jerzy Skolimowski, 84, won the votes of their colleagues from the ICS (the international society of cinephilia) who give it their best rating are more lenient with David Cronenberg who is on the heels of James Gray and the rural drama R.M.N by Romanian Cristian Mungiu, already winner of a Palme d’Or thirteen years ago. The story of childhood and friendship of Luka Dhont Close also made a fairly high entry in their ranking. His young revelations Eden Dabrine and Gustav De Waele could hope for an interpretation prize. The incandescent face of Nadia Tereszkiewicz in the autobiographical film Les Amandiers by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi about her years of training with Patrice Chéreau also made an impression. Just like the cursed clan of Iranian interpreters of Leila and her brothers.
On the other hand, the last melody imbued with social realism from the Dardenne brothers, Tori and Lokita, which could earn them a third historic gold medal after Rosetta and L’Enfant splits. Acclaimed by Screendaily respondents, it is much lower at the ICS. But its committed tone could make Vincent Lindon vibrate.
At the bottom of both Screendaily and ICS charts, Arnaud Desplechin’s Brother and Sister and Claire Denis’ sultry spy tale Stars At Noon are universal dunce caps.
After completing its seventh art cure, the jury retires to a villa to deliberate on Saturday, cut off from the world. Their prize list will be unveiled on France Télévisions at the start of the evening. To decide between the 21 films in the running, Vincent Lindon is supported by the Anglo-American actress and director Rebecca Hall (Clair-Obscur), the Swedish Noomi Rapace, (Millenium) or the directors Asghar Farhadi (Grand Prize in 2021 with A hero ), Ladj Ly (Les Misérables, 2019 jury prize) and Joachim Trier (Julie in 12 chapters, best actress prize). The adage has it that a jury chaired by an actor leans towards poignant works and that that chaired by a filmmaker dubs more technical and intransigent visions. With a majority of directors alongside the French actor, anything is possible.
