At 44, Justine Triet becomes the third director to win the Palme d’Or after Jane Campion with ‘The Piano’ in 1993 and Julia Ducournau with ‘Titane’ in 2021. ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, a legal thriller that dissects a couple after the death of her husband, was among the favorites to win the 76th edition of the most important film festival in the world, although the jury chaired by the Swede Ruben Östlund (with Ducournau among its members) could expect any surprise.
‘Anatomy of a Fall’, which is already distributed in Spain, addresses aspects such as the misogyny of the judicial system and its two and a half hours rest on the shoulders of its excellent protagonist, Sandra Hüller. A notable exercise in suspense in which a court becomes, according to the director, “the place where society is reflected, its deepest thought, the way in which we can see men and women and reduce them to an image ».
Quentin Tarantino introduced the legendary Roger Corman, received with the entire Palais des festivals standing up. The discoverer and patron of some of the fundamental directors of modern American cinema, the king of low-budget cinema, served to present the Grand Jury Prize, which corresponded to the favorite for the Palme d’Or, ‘The zone of interest’, by British Jonathan Glazer. The author of ‘Under the Skin’ adapts the homonymous novel by Martin Amis, who died the day after the film was released. The daily life of the commander of the Auschwitz extermination camp and his family is an original way of approaching the Holocaust without showing explicit images of the extermination, we only hear the atrocious sound of the Nazi machinery massacring the Jewish population.
The best director was the Vietnamese filmmaker living in France Tran Anh Hùng for ‘The pot au feu’, with Juliette Binoche and Benoi Magimel in the shoes of two lovers of cooking. A culinary and gastronomic feast full of eroticism, which returns to the front row the director who triumphed in the 90s with ‘The smell of green papaya’.
chaplinian breath
The Jury Prize went to ‘Fallen leaves’, by Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, a film that captivated critics and has to settle for this award. The author of ‘The Man Without a Past’ remains faithful to his Chaplinian-inspired poetics of losers, with the story of two drifting beings who find mutual comfort. In the background, Kaurismaki reminds us that he is following the war in Ukraine.
In Cannes, the acting award still distinguishes the genre, unlike other festivals. The Japanese Koji Yakusho, a renowned performer who has appeared in ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ and ‘Babel’, was the best actor for Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’, in which he gives life to a mysterious public toilet cleaner, a man clinging to a routine who enjoys small pleasures. ‘Perfect Days’, with its minimalist tone, has been hailed as Wenders’ best film in many years.
The best actress was Merve Dizdar for ‘The dry herbs’, by the Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Three and a half hours of footage to narrate the effects of a love letter that a student has written to a teacher, who is accused by the school authorities of fostering too close treatment with the students, as well as the relationship that the protagonist maintains with another teacher from a neighboring town, victim of a terrorist attack.
The best moment of the award ceremony was starred by actor John C. Reilly, appearing on stage and remaining silent for a few moments: a reminder of the importance of screenwriters, these days on strike in the United States. By the way, the award for best script went to Yuji Sakamoto for ‘Monster’, by the Japanese Hirokazukore-eda, an ambitious fresco that addresses issues such as bullying, alcoholism or the spread of hoaxes on social networks.
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