We can’t blame the team coach… sorry, the general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, Thierry Frémaux, for having forgotten the directors or for not renewing the herd of contenders for the Palme. Six women in competition and four first entrants, that’s unprecedented.
Discover all the films selected for the Cannes Film Festival 2023
How not to be delighted to see the Englishman Jonathan Glazer, director of “Birth” and “Under the Skin”, a sort of avant-garde heir to Stanley Kubrick, finally land on the Croisette with the adaptation of a novel by Martin Amis, “The Zone of Interest”, love story in Auschwitz?
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How not to watch with curiosity the very first feature film, “on the edge of experimentation” according to Frémaux, of a young Senegalese filmmaker out of nowhere, another love story, she contemporary and in the North of Senegal ( “Banel e Adama” by Ramata-Toulaye Sy).
How can we not congratulate ourselves that the ” delegation “ French is predominantly female with “Anatomie d’une chute” by Justine Triet (four years after “Sybil”) about a woman suspected of murdering her husband and “Last Summer”, with Léa Drucker, which marks the return of Catherine Breillat after a long convalescence.
Another return that we did not expect, that of the Franco-Vietnamese Tran Anh Hung, revealed in 1993 by “The Smell of Green Papaya”, which, in “The Passion of Dodin Bouffant”, stages a romance between two 19th century cooks (Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel). Magimel of which it is the year, the actor, Caesarized last March, appearing in three films of the selection. « …Dodin Bouffant » will also offer chef Pierre Gagnaire his first step up as an actor.
Another Frenchman could be added to the competition soon, knowing that among the favorites for the moment absent, we count “Les Indésirables” by Ladj Ly (“Les Miserables”), “L’Empire” by Bruno Dumont ( “France”), “the Beast” by Bertrand Bonello (“Saint-Laurent”), “The Red Island” by Robin Campillo (“120 Beats per minute), “the Return” by Catherine Corsini (“the Fracture”) , “Love and the Forests” by Valérie Donzelli (“War is declared”) and “Salem” by Jean-Bernard Marlin (“Scheherazade”).
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Return of the veterans
We have said the novelty of the competition, now let’s look at the other trend of this edition: the return of veterans. Englishman Ken Loach, 86 (bipalmated in 2006 and 2016), came out of retirement to deliver “The Old Oak” about the arrival of Syrian refugees in a village in northern England; the German Wim Wenders, 77 (palmed in 1984), with two films, one in competition (“Perfect Days” about a Japanese man in charge of cleaning public toilets!), the other in Special Screening (“Anselm », on the sculptor Anselm Kiefer); the Turk Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 64 years old (palmed in 2014), with “Dried Herbs” and the Finn Aki Kaurismaki, 66 years old, with “Dead Leaves” (note the theme “herbarium”); Nanni Moretti, 69 (palmed in 2001), with the comedy “Towards a radiant future” and Marco Bellocchio, 83, with “The Kidnapping” on the Mortara affair, this Jewish child from Bologna kidnapped by the Church in 18th century to receive a Catholic education. Strong presence from Italy since the transalpine darling of the festival Alice Rohrwacher will also be making the trip with “la Chimera” and its actress Isabelle Rossellini.
Sequins out of competition
Between the young guard and the old subscribers, little room for the middle generation which will be represented by the Austrian Jessica Hausner (“Club Zero” on green youth), the Chinese Wang Bing, whose film “Youth” brings back the documentary in full (the year, coincidentally, when Venice and Berlin crowned the genre with their highest honors) and the American Wes Anderson with his new cast of stars (“Asteroid City”): Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks , Margot Robbie and so on.
Radius American stars, it will be necessary, as usual, to count on the out-of-competition. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro will come to defend “Killers of the Flower Moon”, Martin Scorsese’s comeback in the selection 37 years after “After Hours” – Thierry Frémaux, during the press conference, having put a lot of pressure thinly disguised to the board of directors of the festival by specifying that everyone wanted to see the film compete for the Palme (which the regulations, so far, prohibited him since it was produced by a platform on which it will be available simultaneously with its theatrical release in October). Harrison Ford will be entitled to a tribute in parallel with his arrival for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”, by James Mangold. Johnny Depp, passing through for “Jeanne du Barry” by Maïwenn (opening), where he plays Louis XV, will dodge the guillotine of angry questions around domestic violence.
The Week’nd will ensure the pop dimension of the fortnight by landing for “The Idol”, the very enticing series by Sam “Euphoria” Levinson, of which he shares the star with (well, well, Johnny’s daughter!) Lily-Rose Depp – will he take the opportunity to give a mini-concert? Finally, Asiatophiles will have noted the unexpected return of the Japanese Takeshi Kitano with, according to Frémaux, “a historical samurai comedy” (“Kubi”, Cannes Première section) and the highly anticipated Korean Kim Jee-Woon (“I met the devil”), with “Cobweb”, setting in abyss of a film shoot. And those who know are already doe at the idea of discovering the fourth feature film in 50 years from the director of “l’Esprit de la Ruche”, the Salinger du 7th Art, the Spaniard Victor Erice (“Close your eyes” at Cannes Première).
A few other titles should complete the selection announced this Thursday morning, among which we would not be surprised to find “Elementary”, the latest from the Pixar studio, and “A difficult year”, the new social comedy by Nakache and Toledano, with Jonathan Cohen, Pio Marmaï and Noémie Merlant. Two serious candidates to close the festivities.
