«Is Cannes political? It is the authors who are citizens and who read our time as artists. We are not the ones who make politics, we select the best films, we judge the quality of the work": thus Thierry Fremaux , general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, which opens the 77th edition this evening.
Godmother of the event Camille Cottin , president of the jury the author of the "Barbie" phenomenon Greta Gerwig , Pierfrancesco Favino Italian juror, honorary Palme d'Or to Meryl Streep .
The curtain rises with the grotesque comedy " Le Deuxieme Act " by the mad genius Quentin Dupieux with French superstars such as Lea Seydoux, Vincent Cassel and Louis Garrel. A film that indicates, between irony and extraordinary acting performances, that the future of cinema is now 'Artificial Intelligence and its algorithms .
For the Palme d'Or , which will be awarded on May 25 , Italy is focusing on "Parthenope" by Paolo Sorrentino whose marvelous poster, with the young muse Celeste Della Porta swimming in the waters of the Gulf of Naples with Vesuvius in the backdrop, towers over the Croisette.
And among the “promises of this festival is the fact that there will be no shortage of strong themes. Starting from Metoo, a very hot front starting with the participatory short film " Moi Aussi " by the French activist Judith Godrèche who denounced the sexual violence of Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon when she was only 15 years old. Godrèche, inserted at the last moment in the festival when rumors of abuse scandals that will come out in the next few days were already going crazy, yesterday morning he was in Paris with a hundred activists asking for the resignation of Dominique Boutunnat who will be tried in June for sexual assaults, but in the meantime he is in his place as president of the Cnc, the national cinema centre.
On wars there is the militant film "The Invasion" (a title that already explains everything) by the Ukrainian Sergei Loznitsa which describes the life of the civilian population throughout Ukraine, showing the resilience of its people in the face of the invasion Russian, and the politically incorrect “La belle de Gaza” by Yolande Zauberman, an LGBT story between Tel Aviv and Gaza.
And regarding the fact that there are no films from Israel in competition, Fremaux specifies: «We have chosen the best films, the answer is this, no political choice».
(Unioneonline/vl)