Simple dystopia or irony of history, the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival opened in 2019 with a legion of zombies awakened from their sleep by polar fracturing to announce, with humor, an imminent apocalypse.
The reality that was to follow was much less distracting.
At the end of 2019, all of humanity was struck - not by the invasion of lovable zombies straight out of Jim Jarmusch's fertile imagination - but by a deadly virus, killing around four million people in its wake, causing faltering the global economy and depriving everyone of social and cultural life.
A unique edition
However, "the cinema is not dead", hammered Thierry Frémaux, artistic director of the festival, to those who doubted it by unveiling last month an exceptional program, rich in confirmed authors, in exciting young talents and Hollywood stars.
But this new edition, which opens after a sabbatical year, will be unlike any other. Regarding its organization first. Rigid health protocols, and in particular the vast test center deployed on the Croisette, are a constant reminder of the persistent threat of Covid-19 hanging over the festival. For its programming as well. The pandemic has raised questions about the vulnerability of humanity and the decline in biodiversity. This is why the 2021 vintage is marked by a large number of films on the theme of the environment. Finally, the health crisis has shown the fragility of the industry and in particular of cinemas, condemned to close by the health protocol, leaving ground for streaming platforms. Cannes officials therefore hear this year, more than any other,to pose as guardian of dark rooms, which explains, once again, the absence of Netflix.
To read: From Tahar Rahim to Mylène Farmer, the Cannes Film Festival unveils the jury that will award the Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or race
As a direct consequence of the cancellation of the 2020 edition, this new festival offers an unprecedented profusion of films. Several great authors have indeed waited a whole year to be presented in preview at the largest film festival in the world. Among them, Leos Carax and his "Annette", presented in opening with Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver, Paul Verhoeven ("Benedetta") or Wes Anderson with ("The French Dispatch"), which alone brings together a myriad of actors like Bill Murray, - the director's favorite actor -, Tilda Swinton, Timothée Chalamet, Adrien Brody, and on the French side, Léa Seydoux and Mathieu Amalric, all eagerly awaited on the red carpet. Provided they are authorized to travel.
Another joy, the selection of 24 films in the running for the Palme d'Or covers a particularly wide spectrum of world cinema, with Iranian Asghar Farhadi ("A hero"), Chadian Mahamat-Saleh Haroun ("Lingui"), the Thai Apichatpong Weerasethakul ("Memoria"), the Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi ("Drive My Car"), the Russian Kirill Serebrennikov ("Petrov's Fever") or the Australian Justin Kurzel ("Nitram").
Abundant selections
Festival regulars will also find other more familiar names, such as the Italian Nanni Moretti ("Tre Piani"), winner of the 2001 Palme d'Or, Jacques Audiard ("Paris, 13th arrondissement"), François Ozon (" Everything went well ") and Sean Penn (" Flag Day "), who returns to the Croisette five years after his previous feature film" The Last Face "which went down in flames by critics. These big names will rub shoulders with a host of new directors, such as the Israeli Nadav Lapid ("Ahed's Knee"), the Franco-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch ("Casablanca Beats"), the Belgian Joachim Lafosse ("The Restless") or the 'American Sean Baker ("Red Rocket").
A promising selection that seems to have forgotten the gender balance. Only four directors complete this very masculine selection. Catherine Corsini ("The Divide"), Julia Ducournau ("Titanium"), Mia Hansen-Løve ("Bergman Island") and the Hungarian Ildiko Enyedi ("The Story of My Wife") will thus be able to testify to the efforts he remains to be done in this area.
In their defense, the festival organizers prefer to highlight the near parity of the "Un certain regard" competition, designed to present young talents, where women outnumber men.
One thing is certain, a director is at least guaranteed to win the Palme d'Or of honor: Jodie Foster must indeed be awarded the prize during the opening night, 45 years after her first appearance in Cannes, at the age of 13, for his role in the film "Taxi Driver" by Martin Scorsese.
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Green the red carpet
Note the creation this year of a new selection entitled "Cannes Premieres". This competition allows experienced filmmakers to present their latest work. A great occasion for the pillars of the festival such as the prolific director Hong Sang-soo ("In front of your face"), Arnaud Desplechin ("Tromperie"), Mathieu Amalric ("Serre-moi fort") or Eva Husson "Mothering Sunday" to promote their work. Among this new category, we also find the documentaries of Oliver Stone on "JFK", of Todd Haynes on "The Velvet Underground" and the tribute of Charlotte Gainsbourg to her mother, Jane Birkin.
We can also discover the biopic "Aline" on Celine Dion, by Valérie Lemercier, long delayed due to the lack of a festival presented out of competition or even the eagerly awaited "Suprêmes" by Audrey Estrougo, on NTM, the godfathers of French rap, presented in the part of the "Midnight Sessions".
In total, the "Official Selection" will include 61 films and will be chaired by American director Spike Lee, the first black to chair the famous Cannes jury.
Green watching
Another novelty this year: the creation of an ephemeral section "Cinema for the climate", devoted to environmental issues. There are six documentaries including Louis Garel's film "La Croisade", featuring the French actor and his partner, Laëtitia Casta. The feature film "Above Water" by Aïssa Maïga, on the impact of global warming in Niger, or even "Invisible Demons" by Rahul Jain, which tackles air pollution in New Delhi. "There are documentaries that describe how we are destroying our planet, documentaries about its beauty, and others that show how 'boomers' must engage with the younger generations," Thierry Frémaux told France 24 a few days before the festival.
Walking the talk, the organizers also announced a series of measures to reduce the environmental impact of festival-goers. Long associated with extravagant parties and abuse of all kinds, the Cannes Film Festival has carried a heavy carbon footprint for years. Lagging behind its competitors like the Berlinale, which recently adopted red carpets made from recycled fishing nets, Cannes also intends to "green" its red carpet. Exit the usual carmine PVC coating: the traditional red carpet will be halved and made this year from recycled materials. Plastic bottles will be banned from the festival,the guests will travel by electric car and each festival-goer will have to pay a contribution of 20 euros to offset part of their carbon footprint.
The pandemic and the restrictions it entails are also expected to help limit international travel.
French visitors may well outnumber foreigners.
Good news for ecology, but another setback for tourism professionals who know that foreign customers spend much more.
The hotels are, moreover, far from being fully booked.
Where are the parties?
Health restrictions oblige, the rules of social distancing will not allow the famous expensive festivals of Cannes either. "There will not be many parties and large gatherings that could have disastrous consequences," warned the president of the Cannes Film Festival, Pierre Lescure, before the event. "It is our responsibility to everyone - the festival, the city, the participants - that this post-pandemic event runs smoothly."
The Chopard jewelers, who present the annual Palme d'Or trophy, have already canceled their big evening - a prized moment in the festival's nightlife for the benefit of a few handpicked appointments. A bad for a good, according to some. "A new era is dawning. The Cannes evenings often saw a lot of people who had nothing to do there", assured AFP Albane Cleret, host of evenings, who will occupy the roof of the chic Marriott hotel. "Now we can have dinners where we really talk about business."
Under the summer mildness of an unusual July, the celebrations on the roofs of luxury hotels could also be overshadowed by the sessions by the sea. No doubt that festival-goers will compete this year for the deckchairs to admire the fires. July 14 fireworks at the same time as the no less explosive "Fast & Furious 9", the latest opus of the successful Hollywood blockbuster.
Adaptation of the original text in English by Benjamin Dodman by Aude Mazoué.
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