The Press in Cannes | Ruben Östlund at the webbed doubles club

(Cannes) The Swede Ruben Östlund entered the club – less and less select – of the webbed doubles of the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday. The director of Triangle of SadnessPalme d’or in 2017 for The Squarewon the highest honors awarded by the jury chaired by Vincent Lindon, thanks to a scathing social satire of which he has the secret.

After Titanium by the Frenchwoman Julia Ducournau, it’s another kind of punk, much less bloody but just as hair-raising and willingly scatto, which won the most prestigious prize in world cinema.

Östlund, 48, has not calmed down, five years later The Square, on the world of contemporary art, and which was in the same vein. This time in the film, he denounces, through caricature and excess, the excesses of the society of appearances and capitalism. And joins the club of webbed doubles, alongside the Dardenne brothers, Ken Loach or Michael Haneke.

Triangle of Sadnesscrossing of titanic and Feastburst into laughter on the Croisette, with a crazy story of a luxury cruise with a drunken and Marxist captain, who runs aground on an island with his passengers, joined by a couple of young influencers.

“We had only one goal: to make a film that interests the public and makes them think by provoking”, declared Ruben Östlund when receiving his award. “The whole jury was extremely shocked by this film”, recognized the president of the jury, Vincent Lindon.

The spectators are not ready to forget the scene of generalized seasickness, with deluges of vomit and excrement, during dinner on the sinking boat or the battle of citations between the captain, a communist, and a Russian oligarch.

Wash away the “humiliations”

Beyond the Palme d’Or, the jury on which Rebecca Hall sat (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), the Indian Deepika Padukone, and the directors Asghar Farhadi and Ladj Ly, gave its second most prestigious distinction (Grand Prix) ex aequo to the Frenchwoman Claire Denis, 76, (Stars at Noon) but especially to a young talent to follow, Lukas Dhont, 31 years old.

With Closehis second film, the Belgian tackles questions of identity and the weight of masculinity with sensitivity, and reveals an actor, Eden Dambrine, 15, on stage alongside him.

The latter saw the interpretation prize escape him, in favor of the South Korean star Song Kang-ho, the father of Parasitethis time rewarded for broker from the Japanese Kore-eda.

On the female side, the jury singled out a courageous journey marked by “humiliation”, that of Iranian Zar Amir Ebrahimi, for her role as a journalist investigating the murders of prostitutes committed in the name of God, in the thriller holy spider.

Marc Cassivi
The Press

“We were extremely shocked by this film,” said Vincent Lindon when presenting his award to Ruben Östlund, 48, who had been revealed at Cannes in 2014 thanks to force majeure. “When we started making this film, we had only one goal: to try to make a work that interests the public and makes them think by provoking them”, declared Östlund picking up his Palme.

Thought-provoking is a character trait of the Swede’s films, which once again deals with ethical dilemmas with irresistible black humor and a scene of scatological anthology during a buffet on a cruise ship. Triangle of Sadness (Without filter) is the Swede’s first English language feature, a tragicomedy in the tone of The Squarewith an extra dose of cynicism about the human condition.

Nobody stages the “beautiful discomforts” like Ruben Östlund. His brilliant, acute look at class dynamics, privileges, abuse of power, the vulgarity of the new rich and the excesses of capitalism pleased the jury, despite the undue length of the film (2 h 30 min). Triangle of Sadness will be distributed by Entract Films in Quebec, probably next fall, I was told.

My favorite of the competition, Close of Belgian Lukas Dhont, 31, won the Grand Jury Prize – the silver medal, in a way – tied with veteran Claire Denis for Stars at Noon. We could hear a few whistles in the Debussy room, where the journalists were massed during the announcement of the winners. This sensual but wonky film by the French filmmaker particularly displeased the American press.

Lukas Dhont, Golden Camera in 2018 for Girl, thanked his brother, with whom he has been making films since he was 12, he said. “We see more images in the cinema of men fighting than of men supporting each other. Being vulnerable is not a weakness,” he recalled, in tears (and in French). Closeby far the most moving of the 21 films in the competition, is a gem of an initiatory, autobiographical, fine, subtle and magnificent story.

“All the decisions were made with a good majority,” said Vincent Lindon, who was one of the Palme d’Or 2021 actors, from the start. Titanium by Julia Ducournau. Also, there are no great forgotten in this generous prize list (10 feature films were rewarded) which will not mark history, like this selection.

The charming EO by Polish veteran Jerzy Skolimowski, 84, tied for the Jury Prize. This hallucinatory tribute to Random balthazar by Robert Bresson, poetic and melancholy, features a donkey, which is interpreted by six beasts. Skolimowski thanked them all by name, smirking. “Thank you, my darlings. Hi Han ! »

The mountain otto (The Eight Mountains) by Belgian couple Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix Van Groeningen also won a Jury Prize. This other story of friendship, since childhood, between two men who lose sight of each other in adolescence also drags on.

“We wanted to make a film that talks about life, in all its fragility, but also all its strength. The four seasons of life”, said Charlotte Vandermeersch before declaring her love to her companion and kissing him on stage.

The Best Actor Award was given to the great Korean actor Song Kang-ho (the father of ParasitePalme d’or in 2019), for her role in The lucky stars by Japanese Hirokazu Kore-eda. While the Best Actress Award went to Zar Amir Ebrahimi, for his role as a journalist investigating a serial killer in holy spider of Ali Abbasi.

The actress was a star in Iran before being forced into exile in France in 2008 because of a scandal of sextape. “I feel like I had a difficult journey,” she said in a long speech, in Farsi, English and French. I experienced humiliation, loneliness, darkness. But the cinema was there to enlighten me. He practically saved my life. It will save lives in Iran, Afghanistan, Mali and the suburbs of Paris. This film is about women, about their bodies. It’s a film filled with hate, hands, feet, breasts, sex. Everything that cannot be shown in Iran. »

A special price for 75^e anniversary was awarded to the brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, double webbed like Ruben Östlund, who marked the Cannes Film Festival so much. Tori and Lokita, which focuses on the plight of refugees, was their ninth film (out of twelve) to be presented in competition at Cannes. “When we started this shoot, a baker from Besançon went on a hunger strike for 12 days to protest against the expulsion of his African apprentice. We dedicate this film to him. »

“It’s fucking cool! exclaimed Park Chan-wook as he received the Best Director Award for Decision to Leave, a detective thriller. It was his third prize at Cannes after Third and old boyGrand Jury Prize in 2004.

” Oh my God ! “, as for him launched the filmmaker of Boy from Heaven, the Swede of Egyptian origin Tarik Saleh, going to pick up his Screenplay Prize. The former journalist is now banned from staying in Egypt, for this intelligent film which denounces machismo, politico-religious corruption and dubious police practices in Egyptian society.

“I was asked if this film was worth it. Of course not. Egypt is the place I love the most in the world. I dedicate this award to young filmmakers in Egypt to raise their voices and tell their stories. »

The Camera d’or, which rewards the best first feature film of all sections of the Cannes Film Festival, was not awarded to Quebecer Charlotte Le Bon for Falcon Lakebut at war ponyco-directed by Elvis Presley’s granddaughter, actress and filmmaker Riley Keough.