(Paris) French filmmaker Laurent Cantet, who received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his film Between the wallsdied Thursday, his agent announced to AFP.
“He died this morning in Paris of illness,” said Isabelle de la Patellière, confirming information from the daily Release.
The 63-year-old director, author of nine feature films, was working on a film project entitled The apprentice which was due to be released in 2025.
A discreet director with an assumed social fiber, Laurent Cantet entered the Cannes legend in 2008, receiving the Palme d’Or for Between the wallsawarded by a jury chaired by Sean Penn.
Half-documentary, half-fiction, this film with a budget of 2.4 million euros features a French teacher, François Bégaudeau (author of the eponymous novel on which it is inspired), and students aged 13 to 15 years old, with multiple geographical and social origins, in a Parisian college.
The Cannes Film Festival immediately reacted on Thursday, saluting the memory of a “fierce humanist, who sought the light despite social violence, who found hope despite the harshness of reality”.
A filmmaker and screenwriter “whose coherent and humanist work creates a sensitive cinema, on the surface of the skin and on the surface of society”, adds the festival. And for Between the wallsa film “with disconcerting naturalism”.
He returned to Cannes in 2017 with The workshopin which a group of young people in integration carry out a writing internship.
“The film reveals a world that is perhaps even harsher than the one described Between the walls. But at the same time, I hope that the film also demonstrates that speech is important. And that young people master it rather well,” said Laurent Cantet.
His latest film, Arthur Rambo, released in 2021, looked at the destruction of a reputation on social media. It was inspired by the true story of Mehdi Meklat, a young author who had gained notoriety by chronicling disadvantaged neighborhoods, before stopping everything when faced with the discovery in 2017 of anti-Semitic, homophobic, racist and sexist tweets.
“A fine filmmaker, discreet and full of humanity, in no way dazzled by his Palme d’Or, Laurent Cantet succeeded with precision and a sense of rhythm in what is most difficult in cinema: filming conversations, that is “say life”, reacted to AFP the former president of the Cannes Film Festival, Gilles Jacob.
In 2015, he co-founded La Cinetek, a film VOD platform edited by filmmakers.