(Paris) Film buffs dreamed of it: Francis Ford Coppola returns to competition at the Cannes Film Festival with Megalopolis45 years after his second Palme d’Or for Apocalypse Now (1979), according to the official selection revealed Thursday.
“We are delighted that he is doing us the honor of coming to present this film,” Thierry Frémaux, general delegate of the festival, commented to the press.
The 85-year-old cinema giant won his first Palme d’Or with Secret Conversation in 1974.
There is a lack of epithets to qualify Megalopolis, an extraordinary film with a budget of 100 million dollars. The wildest rumors are circulating about a cast led by Adam Driver, with Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman.
The subject of the film remains vague for the moment, around the destruction of a megalopolis which resembles New York and a reconstruction which takes place between an architect and the mayor of the city.
The American press evokes a testamentary film and already compares it to Citizen Kane by Orson Welles (1941), considered one of the greatest films in the history of cinema.
Trump, Limonov, Marcello…
The 2024 vintage is more than awaited after the great story of the Palme d’Or 2023, Anatomy of a fall by Justine Triet, crowned in March at the Oscars (best screenplay). “The 2024 edition will be up to the task,” assured Festival president Iris Knobloch at a press conference.
Thierry Frémaux has only revealed 19 films in competition out of the twenty usually expected. Feature films will undoubtedly be announced at a later date.
Francis Ford Coppola is not the only Palme d’Or winner to return to competition. Jacques Audiard (Palme d’Or 2015) returns to La Croisette with Emilia Pereza cross between the thriller and the musical against the backdrop of drug trafficking in Mexico, with stars Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña.
PHOTO VIANNEY LE CAER, INVISION ARCHIVES, PROVIDED BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zoe Saldana
On the heavyweight side, David Cronenberg also enters the competition with The Shrouds, a mourning film by Diane Kruger and Vincent Cassel. Paul Schrader reunites with his actor Richard Gere (as for American Gigolo) For Oh Canada. The Apprenticewhich talks about Donald Trump, is salivating with Ali Abbasi behind the camera (Border).
Exiled Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, another Cannes regular, will present his Limonov taken from the book by Frenchman Emmanuel Carrère.
Having just won a second Oscar, Emma Stone will compete in Kinds of Kindness by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Marcello Mio by Christophe Honoré, will evoke Marcello Mastroianni (who died in 1996, whose 100th anniversary is celebratede anniversary of his birth this year) through his daughter Chiara, in a film alongside his mother Catherine Deneuve.
The Beauty of Gaza
Among the notable absentees from the competition, we must mention Emmanuelle, new adaptation by Audrey Diwan of this erotic classic, with Noémie Merlant. But maybe the film will be picked up later. Speaking of female directors, there are only four in competition, far from the record of seven in 2023.
For the political angles, you have to take a look at the special sessions, out of competition, with The Beauty of Gazaby documentary filmmaker Yolande Zauberman, who follows the trajectory of Palestinian transsexuals in Tel Aviv, and The invasion by Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa.
Other headliners were already known before this Thursday. As a reminder, Greta Gerwig, director of barbie, will thus chair the jury. And George Lucas, 79 years old, father of the saga Star Warswill receive an honorary Palme d’Or during the closing ceremony.
PHOTO MICHAEL TRAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Greta Gerwig
Kevin Costner, back to the western with Horizon, An American Saga, won his ticket, out of competition. Still out of competition, Furiosanew episode of Mad Max by George Miller, will take the steps with its stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.
The opening, also out of competition, will go to Quentin Dupieux, master of the shift, with The second actwith Léa Seydoux.
And Camille Cottin, revealed by the series Ten percent and seen from Ridley Scott’s house, will be the mistress of the opening and closing ceremonies.