Cannes – The 2023 Palme d’Or is female (the third time in the history of the Cannes festival, 76 years), “a change celebrated by seven female directors in competition”, as remarked by Jane Fonda who this evening gave it to Justine Triet, the director of Anatomie d’une chute, just 44 years old and already on the roof of the cinema world. The first prize goes back to France in a truly global edition and a palmares, decided by the jury led by the Swede Ruben Ostlund, who also looked a lot to the Orient.
Italy remained out, earning the visibility of three films in competition – Rapito by Marco Bellocchio, out now in theaters, Il sol dell’avvenire by Nanni Moretti also awarded by the box office and La Chimera by Alice Rohrwacher which will be released in the autumn. The competition of the 21 was of the highest level and there is no air of controversy. Justine Triet, who received a very long applause from the audience and called her actors on stage (including the magnificent Sandra Huller) immediately afterwards to recover from the emotion, made a firm protest against the pension reform and against the French government ” who has denied and repressed it in a sensational way”.
Not only that, Triet – who conquered La Palma two years after Julia Ducorneau of Titane who now sat on the jury – spoke of the “commodification of culture defended by the neoliberal government, about to break the French cultural exception. This same cultural exception that raised and formed me and without which I wouldn’t be here today, in front of you”. The theme of women was fundamental throughout the entire edition of the festival, an unconventional observation of the complexity of women, a gaze on the feminine without stereotypes as has finally been expected for some time, proposed both by the many female directors in competition but also by the directors. And the palmares and the evening testified to this. Triet’s Anatomie d’une chute itself (it will be released in Italy with Teodora) is a taut judicial thriller all played out on a woman who must prove her innocence.A long wave, one would like to underline, started from Venice which awarded the Golden Lion to another judicial film, also French, Saint Omer by Alice Diop .
“I would like to dedicate this award to all the women who are struggling to overcome the difficulties of existing in this world,” she said. Turkish actress Merve Dizdar awarded for Les herbes sèches by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. The second most important recognition, the Grand Prix, went to the Englishman Jonathan Glazer and his dramatic The Zone of Interest on the banality of evil of a Nazi family living next to the Auschwitz wall, based on the novel of the same name by the late Martin Amis right in the days of Cannes.
“Thank you for amplifying cinema as only Cannes can do,” said the director. In an evening spun away between the emotions of the winners and some small stumbling blocks (Ostlund blocked by Ducournau was announcing one prize instead of another, the godmother Chiara Mastroianni who at the time of the Grand Prix spoke of the Palme d’Or), most shaken of all was the great German, Wim Wenders back with Perfect Days all shot in Tokyo (the globality that was said at the beginning): best actor, the Japanese star Koji Yakusho but he was the one crying in the audience.
Did age have something to do with it? Wenders is 77 years old and was part of a silver fox movement that stood out in Cannes for its longevity and exceptional estate. After all, he went on stage this evening the king of horror Roger Corman who is 97 years old. But the list was long: the Silver Croisette featured Michael Douglas (78), Harrison Ford (80), Martin Scorsese (80), Robert De Niro (79), Ken Loach (86), Marco Bellocchio (83 ) Wim Wenders (77), Jane Fonda (85), Catherine Breillat (74). Among this year’s graduates the Vietnamese director with French nationality Tran Anh Hung for La passion de Dodin Bouffant (director award), the Finnish Les Feuilles Mortes by Aki Kaurismaki (jury award), the Japanese Sakamoto for Monster by Kore-Eda Hirokazu (film script).
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