Rant: blue, red, but not green
Here, the sky and the sea are blue, the carpets red, but the project to become (since 2021) a green rendezvous is not progressing without difficulty in Cannes. The luxury yachts, the private planes of the ultra-rich and the excessive consumption of 80,000 festival-goers harm the environment. The management may recycle its red carpets, stop producing printed documents, eliminate water bottles and favor electric cars, its carbon footprint would exceed 25,000 tonnes of CO2. Demonstrations by environmental activists come up against the pollution of stars who should be invited to tighten their belts, but who are all trying to attract them. Is the myth of Cannes soluble in the moderation of mores in our times of climatic disaster? Maybe not.
Favorite: the vigor of veterans
Seeing young filmmakers live their first Cannes is heartwarming. But should we therefore bury the veterans with the values of a world on the verge of engulfment? In any case, this year, finding directors like Wim Wenders, Ken Loach, Nanni Moretti, Catherine Breillat, Martin Scorsese, Aki Kaurismäki and other tenors accompanying works of lucidity or hope, sometimes endowed with superior poetry, proves that sweeping up yesterday’s wood does not always help clear the way. The memory of the cinema carries a bright light, which illuminates in the distance. So much the better if this festival does not let it die out.
Odile Tremblay is the guest of the Cannes Film Festival.
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