The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival opens this Tuesday, May 14 in the evening. Faced with a world in disorder and a cultural universe also shaken up by digital growth and artificial intelligence, the largest and most important cinematographic event seeks to remain the absolute benchmark of the Seventh Art. 35,000 professionals are expected until May 25, the day of the awards for the 22 films in the running for the Palme d’Or which will be awarded this year by Greta Gerwig, director of barbie and president of the jury.
Everything could have started so peacefully, joyfully and harmoniously. For the glamor and glitter side, the director of the Cannes Festival, Thierry Frémaux, had selected for the competition among others the film Megalopolis by the legendary American director and double Palme d’Or Francis Ford Coppola, 45 years later Apocalypse Now. To further gild the red carpet, he will award Hollywood stars Meryl Streep and George Luccas, creator of Star Warsan honorary Palme d’Or.
For the opening film of the cinematic fireworks that the whole world envies in France, Frémaux is banking this evening on the black humor of comedy The second act by French DJ and director Quentin Dupieux, with Léa Seydoux and Louis Garrel. Very far from the highly contested launch of last year when the parade of Maïwenn and Johnny Depp with their respective affairs on the red carpet had caused a big stir.
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But in recent days, the news has been blowing hot and cold on the Croisette, well before the highly anticipated official opening this evening. A few days ago, a court in Tehran sentenced Mohammad Rasoulof to eight years in prison and flogging for publicly denouncing corruption in his country. Film buffs from all over the world, horrified by the barbaric condemnation, showed solidarity with Rasoulof, but at the same time resigned to the fact that the Iranian artist, in the running for the Palme d’Or, would not come and that the only thing all they can do is try to obtain one of the 2,000 coveted seats at the Grand Théâtre Lumière to decipher the message and admire the artistic power of the filmmaker’s new creation. And then, suddenly, Mohammad Rasoulof announced yesterday on his Instagram account the news that he managed to flee his countrythanks to the people who helped me, sometimes at the risk of their lives, to cross the border and get to safety “. “ With a heavy heart, I chose exile. » So, the Iranian director, who has won multiple awards for his films against the corruption of minds and souls, will perhaps finally be able to present The Seed of the Sacred Fig at Cannes.
A second #MeToo wave at the Cannes Film Festival?
While here, good news has replaced bad, it could be the opposite with the second wave of #MeToo which is approaching ever closer to the Festival, once one of the favorite places of a certain Harvey Weinstein to sexually assault actresses… Unlike last year, Thierry Frémaux and his president Iris Knobloch took care this time to actively address the theme of sexual harassment. This does not necessarily translate into the selection of the 22 films in competition (including only 4 made by women). On the other hand, for the opening ceremony of the Un certain regard section, on May 15, the festival invited the short film by Judith Godrèche, new French muse in the fight against sexual violence in cinema. The actress and director who publicly accused Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon of rape, big regulars at the Cannes Film Festival, will resonate with Me too the testimonies of other women from the film industry. “ A film shot in a single day », affirmed Thierry Frémaux during a press conference on May 13, “ with a thousand people who are among the thousands of testimonies she has received following her own commitment to the issue of violence against women. » A committed film which will also be screened on the Croisette beach to reach the general public as much as possible.
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But, while waiting for the trial in October against the national icon Gérard Depardieu (from the film by Michel Hazanavicus, The most valuable commodity, in the running for the Palme d’Or, following accusations concerning sexual assaults committed on film sets), an anonymous voice decided to hover a sword of Damocles over the heads of other executioners, threatening on the networks social organizations to make public a list of ten men involved in sexual violence and present in Cannes. A rumor without any proof, but to which President Knobloch visibly felt obliged to respond in Paris Match: “ If the case of an accused person arises, we will ensure that we make the right decision on a case-by-case basis. » And the magazine Elle published on Monday May 13 an investigation in which nine women testified against Alain Sarde, famous French film producer and regular at the Cannes Festival. The accusations are serious: harassment, sexual assault, rape…
The place of African cinema at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival
Beyond the controversies to come, Cannes remains above all the world meeting place for cinema. But, unlike the strong presence of American and Chinese films (“ Chinese cinema is back “) in the official selection, directors from the African continent find themselves rather poorly regarded this year. Compared to the previous edition, with two films in the running for the Palme d’Or and a total of six films in the official selection of 2023, this year promises to be rather lean, with the absence of African films in competition and two films in the parallel section Un certain regard . First of all The Village next to paradise of Mo Harowe, Somali director who pursues his career in Austria. Then On Becoming a Guinea Fowl of the courageous Rungano Nyoni whose enthusiasm for his zombie film at the opening of reservations already suggests a crazy interest in this work from Zambia…
You have to search in Cannes Premières, a very nebulous section, created in 2021, to find another film from the African continent, in this case that of the great Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch. Egypt is present both at the Critics’ Week with the documentary Girls of the Nile by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir, but also at the Filmmakers’ Fortnight with East of Noon by Hala Elkoussy. In the meantime, for those who are concerned about the absence of other films from sub-Saharan Africa, the World Cinemas pavilion will raise festival-goers’ awareness of the issues to come with a symposium ” Africa(s): changing ecosystems and new stories “.
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Did France’s difficult diplomatic situation regarding countries like Russia, Israel, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have an impact on the selection of films? Asked about the choice criteria, Thierry Frémaux tirelessly answers the same thing: “ Technically and philosophically, the Festival does not choose films to echo this or that situation. But artists do it and their works can reflect this or that situation. »
“In Cannes, politics is on the screen”
It is clear that the Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsawho already warned about the threat from Russia ten years ago, is indeed present this year in a special session with The Invasion. And Kirill Serebrennikovan exiled Russian filmmaker and very critical of Putin, presents Limonov, the ballad. At the same time, the CNC, the National Center for French Cinema, evokes in its own way the fight between the soft power of Russia and Ukraine by organizing a round table around the theme “ Improve the circulation of Ukrainian works internationally “.
The beauty of Gazaby Frenchwoman Yolande Zauberman, presented in a special screening, also seems to follow this logic, despite the fact that Frémaux claims to have selected this story about a Palestinian transsexual already a year ago, “ so well before what is happening in the Middle East » since October 7, 2023.
In any case, the words “boycott” or “ban” are never mentioned in Cannes. And if there are no Israeli films at Cannes, it’s because “ the Cannes selection is a selection made from films that we see. The selection is made independently of any consideration other than that of cinema. »
First competition for immersive cinema
The big novelty of this edition will be a new competition for immersive cinema, with eight films announced. The Cannes Film Festival explains its new offensive in the virtual domain with the desire to “ explore the new potentialities of the image (…) breaking with the two-dimensional framework of the cinematographic screen “. Seven years after the pilot project Carne y Arena (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible)by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, “ first immersive work ever presented in the official selection of a major festival », Cannes even agrees to waive the sacrosanct criterion of world premiere in Cannes. Because Black, by Tania de Montaigne, Stéphane Foenkinos and Pierre-Alain Giraud, had already been presented at the Center Pompidou and Fipadoc. And In loveby Adrien Mondot and Claire Bardainne, an immersive installation where “ the body of the public is invited to form a temporary, free and organic human choreography », has been scheduled since February at the Philharmonie de Paris. How does Thierry Frémaux defend this break with the requirement of a world premiere in competition at Cannes? “ In fact, these works are not all world premieres, because when we decided to do this immersive competition, it was in January, and the unpublished works were not that numerous… »
On the other hand, the Cannes Film Festival will host a preview of the Olympic flame! The latter will be worn by Arnaud Assoumani, Paralympic long jump world champion at the 2008 Olympics, and will make an appearance on May 21 on the red carpet for the documentary Olympics! The France of the Gamesby Mickaël Gamrasni.
The threat of self-censorship
But what questions the director of the Cannes Film Festival perhaps most of all is the threat of future self-censorship. “ The real question is: isn’t there self-censorship coming on the part of artists? Will what is happening today, in the apprehension of the world, of new social relationships, of the new relationship between women and men, not create stories, arouse the imagination? »
To follow and experience on the big screen at Cannes film festivaluntil May 25.