A circle of red light and Chiara Mastroianni who sings, in her deep and velvety voice, an Italian song by Luigi Tenco, who was one of Dalida's lovers... The first seconds of the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, this Tuesday evening, gave goosebumps. While the face of his mother, Catherine Deneuve, radiates the poster of this 76th edition, Christophe Honoré's favorite actress presented this opening ceremony, with a masterful relaxation and elegance.
The actress first recalled that the event was born in 1939 of an "anger": "The raison d'être of this festival was, remains, the exaltation of our freedom (...). Cinema has never let us down, it's up to us to take care of it during these ten days. Before concluding this introduction by launching: "May cinema take us away with its beauty, its strength and its joy! »
✨ Opening Ceremony of the 76th Festival de Cannes
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Starring/With Michael Douglas, Honorary Palme d'Or, Catherine Deneuve & Uma Thurman. #Cannes76 pic.twitter.com/2023lAgr7XyrT
— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) May 16, 2023
As with all ceremonies, the show was also played in the hall. And the cameras did not miss the gesture of Johnny Depp: sitting next to Maïwenn, who directed him in "Jeanne du Barry", the actor grabbed the hand of the director when Chiara Mastroianni pronounced her name on stage.
After the entrance of the jury, chaired by the Swedish Ruben Östlund, the mistress of ceremonies then called the actress Uma Thurman to present a Palme d'honneur to Michael Douglas. Very moved, the 78-year-old actor and producer listed the reasons for his longevity, talking about his acting classes, his work with his "mentor" Karl Malden for the series "The Streets of San Francisco" and the model that was his father, Kirk. With tears in his eyes, he praised the latter's "incredible endurance", "strength" and "admirable hard work": "For the audience, he was an icon, a Superman, but for me, he was my father."
Words for Ukraine
With humour, Chiara Mastroianni then welcomed another "icon" on stage. "If there's one word she hates, it's this one and I know her well," she said before announcing Catherine Deneuve's name. In a blue dress enhanced with jewels, the actress read the words of a Ukrainian poet: "I no longer have happiness or freedom, only one hope has remained to me, to return one day to Ukraine, live or die does not matter to me ... »
His daughter took the microphone to invite him, with Michael Douglas, to declare open the 76th Cannes Film Festival. And closed this ceremony with a quote from George Cukor: "Cinema is like love: when it's good it's great, when it's not good, it's not bad anyway."