(Paris) The Cannes Film Festival will celebrate its 75and edition with the return of the shock cinema of David Cronenberg, a new place in competition for the Russian Kirill Serebrennikov, breaking with the line of the Putin regime, and only three directors in the running for the Palme.
Updated yesterday at 9:59 am
Among the expected cult filmmakers: David Cronenberg (Crash), which promises once again to shake the public. The crimes of the future brings together Viggo Mortensen, who rubs shoulders with Kristen Stewart and Léa Seydoux.
Autre gros calibre sur le tapis rouge : James Gray (Ad Astra) présentera Armageddon Time, avec Anne Hathaway et Oscar Isaac, dans le New York des années 80, en pleine ascension de la famille Trump.
Dix-huit films briguent à ce jour la Palme d’Or, parmi les 2200 soumis aux sélectionneurs, venus de 155 pays.
Cinq cinéastes déjà couronnés seront en lice pour une nouvelle Palme : les Belges Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne (Rosetta) avec Tori et Lokita, le plus grinçant des cinéastes suédois, Ruben Östlund (The Square), avec Triangle of Sadness, le Japonais Hirokazu Kore-eda (Une Affaire de famille), qui a cette fois tourné Broker avec la vedette sud-coréenne de Parasite, Song Kang-ho, et le Roumain Cristian Mungiu (4 mois, 3 semaines, 2 jours), avec son dernier film, RMN.
Seules trois réalisatrices sont sur les rangs pour succéder à la Française Julia Ducournau, Palme d’Or 2021 pour Titane. Sa compatriote Audrey Diwan l’a ensuite emporté à Venise, avant l’Espagnole Carla Simon à Berlin, mais cette série exceptionnelle ne masque pas le déséquilibre qui demeure entre hommes et femmes dans la production mondiale, et la distribution des prix.
Russe et Ukrainiens
À Cannes, la Française Claire Denis présentera Stars at noon, un « film d’attente, d’ambiance, à la lisière du polar diplomatique » dixit Thierry Frémaux, tourné en Amérique centrale, et sa compatriote Valéria Bruni Tedeschi Les Amandiers, sur le théâtre et la figure de Patrice Chéreau. Prisée de la critique, l’Américaine Kelly Reichardt sera en lice avec Showing Up.
La présence dans cette liste de l’enfant terrible du cinéma russe Kirill Serebrennikov avec un film sur la femme de Tchaïkovski est tout un symbole, en pleine guerre en Ukraine.
Le Festival, qui a très vite annoncé qu’il n’inviterait pas de « délégation officielle » russe, a fait le choix de ce réalisateur empêché de défendre en personne ses deux précédents opus en compétition, Leto et La fièvre de Petrov, car il n’était pas autorisé à quitter son pays.
Il a enfin pu partir légalement pour rejoindre l’Europe, après l’invasion, et sa voix portera également au Festival d’Avignon, en juillet, dont il assurera l’ouverture.
Deux cinéastes ukrainiens sont aussi sélectionnés, hors compétition : un grand nom, Sergei Loznitsa, pour The Natural History of Destruction, en séance spéciale, et un nouveau venu, Maksim Nakonechnyi, qui réalise son premier film, Bachennya Metelyka, retenu à Un Certain Regard.
Quel président du jury ?
« Par des temps de tristesse et de guerre en Europe et un peu partout dans le monde […] celebrating an anniversary will not necessarily mean celebrating the past”, underlined the General Delegate when presenting this 75and edition, the last of the president, Pierre Lescure.
The Festival does not forget the party and the glitter: Tom Cruise must present in person the new Top Gun, 36 years later. Also out of competition, the music of Elvis (biopic by Baz Luhrmann), Jerry Lee Lewis (with Ethan Coen), David Bowie in a documentary will resonate. Australian George Miller promises an “anti Mad Max” with a film bringing together Idriss Elba and Tilda Swinton.
After testosterone North ferrythe Frenchman Cédric Jimenez will return to the attacks of November 13, with Jean Dujardin.
The Festival does not have many days left to find who will succeed Spike Lee as president of the jury. A puzzle this year: with the restart of post-pandemic cinema and the rise of series, “all the artists are working”, underlined Mr. Frémaux.
The opening film, on the other hand, is already known: it will be the comedy gore Z (like Z) by Michel Hazanavicius, the author of The Artist.
The 18 films in competition
The crimes of the future by David Cronenberg
The director of Crash (1996) is not in the habit of sparing its audience: at 79, the Canadian should prove it once again, with this science fiction film about transhumanism and the removal of organs with Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart.
holy spider by Ali Abbasi
Awarded at Un Certain Regard in 2018 with Borderthe Dane of Iranian origin tackles the theme of the religious quest in a thriller set in Iran.
Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Ostlund
The grittiest of Swedish directors is seeking a second Palme d’Or, after The Square (2017), with this satirical comedy where he follows the passengers of a luxury cruise, stranded on a desert island and led by a Marxist ship captain.
broker by Hirokazu Kore-eda
After his Palme d’or for A family matter (2018), the great regular on the Croisette took a step aside towards South Korea, embarking the star of ParasiteSong Kang-ho, for a new story of families, which is about baby boxes.
Decision to leave by Park Chan-Wook
He marked the Croisette with the ultra-violent old boy (Grand Prize 2004); the Korean Park Chan-Wook should again intrigue with an investigator to elucidate the murder of a man found in the mountains, with the main suspect: the wife of the victim.
Showing-up by Kelly Reichardt
A great figure in independent cinema, the American in minimalist cinema (First Cow) finds one of his favorite actresses, Michelle Williams, for a film about the daily life of an artist and the way she draws inspiration from her life.
Boy from Heaven by Tarik Saleh
After the success of Cairo confidential (2017), a sticky thriller on corruption, the Swede of Egyptian origin Tarik Saleh reconnects with his favorite actor, Fares Fares, for a new dive into contemporary Egypt.
Tchaikovsky’s wife by Kirill Serebrennikov
The terrible child of the Russian scene, settled in Berlin after leaving Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, is in competition for the third time, with a historical film around the composer Tchaikovsky. He could for the first time climb the stairs.
The Almond Trees by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
The Franco-Italian actress who went on to successfully direct is one of the three women vying for the Palme d’Or this year. His film on the Amandiers theater school, founded by the French director Patrice Chéreau in the Paris region, has the raging AIDS as its backdrop.
Tori and Lokita by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
The Dardenne brothers, the most famous representatives of social cinema, already twice webbed in Cannes, this time content the friendship of two African teenagers exiled in Belgium and living in precarious conditions.
Armageddon Time by James Gray
After Ad Astraa space camera carried by Brad Pitt, the American director returned to Earth with a chronicle of adolescence carried by Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins and located in the heart of New York in the 1980s, in a school governed by Donald’s father Trump.
Nostalgia by Mario Martone
For his first steps in competition, the Neapolitan Mario Martone pays homage to his city through a dramatic adaptation of the novel Nostalgia by the Italian writer and journalist Ermanno Rea.
Stars at noon by Claire Denis
Awarded in February for With love and determination at the Berlinale, the French director Claire Denis returns with a “film of expectation, of atmosphere, on the edge of the diplomatic thriller” according to the general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival Thierry Frémaux, shot in Central America.
Close by Lukas Dhont
His first movie Girl on transidentity won him the Camera d’or in 2018. With Closethe Belgian Lukas Dhont deals with friendship through two teenagers separated by tragedy.
Brother and sister by Arnaud Desplechin
In the continuity of his Christmas tale (2008), French director Arnaud Desplechin films a family drama with two long-time conflicted siblings reunited by the deaths of their parents. With Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud.
NMRby Cristian Mungiu
Golden Palm for 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 daysa drama on abortion and corruption, Cristian Mungiu continues to examine the ills of Romania with a film, shot in a village in Transylvania, evoking the effect of European policies, relations between communities and the destiny of a country.
Leila’s Brothers by Saeed Roustaee
Iranian Saeed Roustaee has already impressed with his punchy thriller, Tehran law, on drug trafficking. The 30-year-old arrives in Cannes with Leila’s Brothersdirectly selected in competition, on which nothing has filtered so far.
Hi Hanby Jerzy Skolimowski
At 83, this great name in Polish cinema, pillar of the new wave in this country in the 1960s, returned to Poland after living in California, tells the story of a donkey in this film about which little information has filtered.