This is the moment that moved the audience at the closing ceremony of the 75th Cannes Film Festival: Lukas Dhont, holding back tears after receiving the Grand Prix for
Close
, his second film, tied with Claire Denis (for
Stars At noon
).
On stage, accompanied by his young actor, Eden Dambrine, the 31-year-old Belgian director first thanked his mother, present in the room: “I am here thanks to you.
Thank you for showing me the incredible impact cinema can have.
You helped me find my voice to connect with others through movies and history."
He also greeted his brother, seated not far from her, also moved to tears.
Then came back to this second feature film which tells of a friendship between two young boys, which a tragedy comes to break.
“I wanted to make a film about tenderness.
Being vulnerable is not a weakness.
(…) I dedicate this prize to tenderness and to those who choose love over fear.”
To discover
"06400 Cannes", the postcard from the Festival, episode 3: Leïla Bekhti's room service, Tahar Rahim's challenges and the laughter of Alain Chabat and Laurent Lafitte
"06400 Cannes": the postcard from the Cannes Film Festival 2022, episode 4
A broken friendship
During the screening of
Close
on May 26, a great silence fell in the hall of the Palais des festivals where it was screened, that neither the coughing fits of exhausted festival-goers nor the hubbub of the nightclub of next, could not disturb.
A silence that occurs when in the film a tragedy of infinite sadness occurs, which shatters into a thousand pieces the last fragments of a dream childhood: that of Léo and Rémi, 13 years old, friends since always, sharing their games, their secrets, their family meals and their beds.
After
Girl
, Camera d'Or in 2018, which recounted the fight of a transsexual ballerina, supported by her father, Lukas Dhont tackles, like many others this year in Cannes (
Armageddon Time,
), to what tears us apart and what we abandon on leaving childhood.
Some have criticized him for neglecting one of the film's burning subjects, homophobia, to leave too much space for melodrama and tears.
"06400 Cannes": the postcard from the Cannes Film Festival 2022, episode 4
Parents, and children
But many images of
Close
remain in mind, long after the screening: two boys running in an explosion of colors and flowers.
The huge eyes of Eden Dambrine, 15 today, filling the screen or masked by a hockey helmet.
Those of Léa Drucker and Émilie Dequenne, dignified, benevolent, or broken mothers.
Looks that send the spectator back to his own adolescence or to parenthood, to what we think we know about men, children, playgrounds.
Shadows over which
Close
lifts a veil, with great modesty and beauty.