(Cannes) The echoes of the war in Ukraine are heard all the way to Cannes, where the 75and International Film Festival. And they announce a festival of contrasts.
Posted at 5:24 p.m.
The striking contrast between a deadly invasion that takes place barely three hours by plane from the Côte d’Azur, and the palpable excitement of several of the 35,000 festival-goers expected on the Croisette over the next few days, happy to find under a radiant sun a semblance of normality, after two years of gloom.
The contrast, too, between the solemnity of the speeches at the opening ceremony – that, in particular, of a surprise guest: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – and the nature of the opening film, a fake comedy zombie film signed Michel Hazanavicius.
PHOTO CHRISTOPHE SIMON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses guests at the opening ceremony of the 75th Cannes Film Festival.
“Will the cinema shut up, or will it talk about it? If there is a dictator, if there is a war for freedom, again, everything depends on our unity. So, can the cinema remain outside of this unity? Ukrainian President and former comedian Volodymyr Zelensky asked spectators gathered at the Grand Théâtre Lumière in a video message. “We need a new Chaplin who will prove that, nowadays, cinema is not silent”, he added, referring to Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece, The dictator.
The mistress of ceremonies, the Belgian actress Virginie Efira, had just recalled that in 1958, the Palme d’or had been awarded to When the storks pass by Mikhail Kalatozov. “A Russian film which denounced the injustices, the atrocities of the war” and whose humanism had been hailed by the jury.
The president of this year’s jury, Vincent Lindon, also evoked the war in Ukraine in a vibrant speech committed to the virtues of the seventh art. “It is this inflexible, artistic and civic line that makes necessary what would otherwise be obscene: to project radiant images, superimposed on abominable scenes that reach us from a heroic and martyred Ukraine. Or else bury under the Sound of Music the silent massacres that are falling on Yemen or Darfur. To conclude, a question: can we do anything other than use the cinema, this weapon of massive emotion, to awaken consciences and shake up indifference? I can’t imagine it. »
fake zombie movie
The competition of the most important film festival in the world begins this Wednesday with the most recent film of the Russian dissident Kirill Serebrennikov, Tchaikovsky’s wife. But the Cannes Film Festival opened on a lighter note on Tuesday, thanks to the presentation of the quirky comedy Cut!a new tribute to cinema from the director of The ArtistMichel Hazanavicius, this time under the bloody features of a zombie film.
The master of pastiche had fun with this rather ingenious and very comical mise-en-abîme of a B-movie, starring Romain Duris and Bérénice Béjo in the role of a couple made up of a director and a an actress (what Hazanavicius and Béjo are to the city).
In a festival that has decompartmentalized genres for a few years (the recent Palme d’or at Parasite and Titanium are proof of this), an opening film like this is no longer amazing, but still refreshing. Especially when compared to other academic and boring opening films of the past. I have several examples in mind.
In an abandoned building, reminiscent Dawn of the Dead of George Romero, the shooting of a film turns into a disaster. A tyrannical director has pushed his team to its limits. Exasperated, those who shoot the zombie film become zombies themselves, actors in an involuntarily (or voluntarily) comic 32-minute sequence shot.
Hemoglobin in profusion, dismembered bodies, accents of Kill Bill in a very amateur style: the total, as we say in Antibes. We guess that the film in the film is only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, the main part of Cut! is a making ofa foray behind the camera into the world of artisanal cinema made with bits of string.
“A movie set is like a condensed micro-society,” says Michel Hazanavicius, Oscar winner for Best Picture and Best Director for The Artistlaunched in competition at Cannes in 2011. His new film, conceived during the pandemic, is a remake of a 2017 Japanese student film titled One Cut of the Dead. And the result, which does not take itself seriously, at times hilarious, gives full meaning to a word that has been overused: “crazy”.
“It’s a tribute to cinema, to the very making of the object that is a film,” said Romain Duris on the red carpet on Tuesday, who plays a disillusioned director whose motto is “fast, cheap, and in the average “. To the chagrin of his daughter, who dreams of directing (and who is interpreted by Michel Hazanavicius’ own daughter, Simone).
Behind the schoolboy humor and the jets of blood, there is in Cut! a critical look, bordering on cynicism, on the codes of cinema and the pretensions of actors – those who absolutely insist on bringing a meaningful social message to the screen at all times. But above all, an amusing ode to cinema, quite appropriate to forget the dramas of the time.
A political jury?
It’s a tradition. We go to the jury press conference on the first day of the Cannes Film Festival, to take the pulse of those who will decide the winners and award the prizes of the competition. In order to speculate, with a hint of five-cent psychology and a high opinion of his insight, on group dynamics: those who present themselves as strong heads, those who will follow the parade, the style imposed by the president, etc.
“What kind of president will you be? Authoritarian? I asked Vincent Lindon, half fig, half grape, Monday in an interview. He answered me with a firm no, but we clearly felt, at the press conference on Tuesday, that he wanted the jurors not to allow themselves to be influenced by “external events”, namely the war in Ukraine, at the time of judging the films and establishing the prize list.
“Hopefully it won’t change the way we watch movies,” he said. It was more than a wish. Almost a deposit.
PHOTO VALERY HACHE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Vincent Lindon, president of the jury of 75and Cannes film festival
We cannot totally ignore what we are going through. Of course, unconsciously, this may play a little on the way we watch these films. Some will be very close to these issues and others more distant. We will strive to be careful to remain dignified, respectful, for those who have more difficult days than ours.
Vincent Lindon
One of Lindon’s jury members, Asghar Farhadi, took advantage of the platform offered by the Festival to send a message to Iranian leaders. He who has always succeeded in thwarting censorship by various subtleties and subterfuges – I had noticed, when interviewing him for A separationwhich he used to speak in parables – spoke frankly about the situation in Iran.
“It’s the third time I’ve received an invitation to be a juror at Cannes and I’m happy that the third time is the right one,” he said. But this joy that I feel is not as deep as I would like given what is happening in my country. With economic and political pressures, the outlook is bleak for the Iranian people. It is such a rich culture and civilization. Now, I have to admit that seeing people at their wit’s end spoils my pleasure of being here a little. »
It will be a festival of contrasts, I was saying…