If the Cannes Film Festival was told to me.
Since its inception, the Côte d'Azur fortnight has lived off its emotions and its scandals.
From
La dolce vita
by Federico Fellini, who was booed on the Croisette, to the heroes of
Ndigènes
who resumed the military march
The Song of the Africans
, through the middle finger of Quentin Tarantino and the resumption of the
Tourbillon de la vie
by Vanessa as a tribute to Jeanne Moreau,
Le Figaro looks
back in pictures on the historical epilogues of the most prestigious festival in the world.
Read also: Cannes Film Festival 2021, the story of a 74th edition which almost never took place
2006:
Indigenous
actors
sing
Le Chant des Africains
"
It is we Africans who come from afar, we come from the colonies to save the homeland ...
".
They are the heroes
of Rachid Bouchareb
's
Indigènes
.
They embodied the Algerian and Moroccan soldiers who, from the Sahara to Germany via the terrible battle of Monte Cassino in Italy, fought ardently for the French and Allied forces against the German army.
On the closing day Bernard Blancan, Jamel Debbouze, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila and Samy Naceri in turn enter into the history of the Festival and of France by singing the words of a military march written in 1915 for a Moroccan division.
1999: Sophie Marceau seized with an uncontrollable emotion
La Croisette seems to have a terrible effect on Sophie Marceau.
Before showing off, in spite of herself, her charms at the turn of a gust of wind that will reveal a breast (in 2005), the French actress will have had to face the difficult exercise of handing over the Palme d'Or.
Hesitant, searching for words, she will leave the eclectic audience of the Palais des Festivals stunned.
Kristin Scott Thomas is forced to cut him off.
And despite this pitiful performance, which she still tries to explain today, the Dardenne brothers will still be very happy to receive the Palme d'Or for
Rosetta
that year.
1998: the ecstatic joy of Roberto Benigni
This May 24
Life is good
for Roberto Benigni.
The jury, chaired by Martin Scorsese, comes from him the Grand Jury Prize.
The Italian filmmaker, who also plays the role of this father who sacrifices himself to save his son in the film, is thrilled to discover that he has won this precious trophy.
His happiness becomes communicative.
He kisses Isabelle Huppert with all his strength.
He prostrates himself before Martin Scorsese, then thanks each in turn all the jurors.
That day, Roberto Benigni, in the eyes of all, won the golden palm of joy.
1995: the whirlwind tribute of Vanessa Paradis to Jeanne Moreau
"
We got to know each other, we recognized each other, we lost sight of each other, we lost sight of each other ...
" That year, Jeanne Moreau was president of the jury.
No one has forgotten the Catherine of
Jules and Jim
who loved two men.
Vanessa Paradis decides to pay homage to him by singing The
Whirlwind of Life
.
Moved, the great actress will also resume a few lines of the ritornello.
1994:
Pulp Fiction
and the middle finger of Quentin Tarantino
Always excessive like his cinema, this Quentin Tarantino!
The director, on this beautiful day at the end of May, has just received the supreme award: the palm of gold.
After some well-deserved applause, a spectator in the room exclaims: “
What a crap!
".
Comment that this festival-goer embellishes with another insulting exclamation.
At these words Tarantino's blood swirls and his middle finger rises.
This will be the filmmaker's answer ... definitive.
1993: Jane Campion, the first female Palme d'Or
It was not less than forty-six festivals before a woman could be crowned with a gold palm.
In 1993, Jane Campion, who directed
The Piano Lesson,
finally received the supreme trophy.
Sorrowful spirits will nevertheless note that she had to share this honor with the Chinese director Chen Kaige, the project manager of
Adieu ma concubine
.
1987: Maurice Pialat as Devil of the Croisette
In the spring of 1987, the jury chaired by Yves Montand unanimously decided to award the Palme d'Or to Maurice Pialat for the production of
Sous le soleil de Satan
, a film inspired by the novel by Georges Bernanos.
The audience reacts by whistling.
Faithful to his nonconformism, the filmmaker replies with this unforgettable sentence for the famous big family of cinema: “
If you don't love me, I can tell you that I don't love you either.
"
1973:
La Grande Bouffe
... until indigestion
Marco Ferreri has brought together a host of great actors. Marcello Mastroianni, Philippe Noiret, Michel Piccoli and Ugo Tognazzi will, for him and the needs of the script, eat up to death. In
La Grande Bouffe
, the Italian director describes, to vomit, the decadence of the bourgeoisie. The scandal lasts the whole fortnight. When the film received the FIPRESCI (International Critics' Prize) prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, tied with
La Maman et la Putain
, the public belched. Philippe Noiret, still a philosopher but without denying himself, declares: “
We held out a mirror to people and they did not like to see themselves in it. It is indicative of a great bullshit.
"
1966:
These ladies and gentlemen
, "
a monument of vulgarity
"?
Like Janus, the Festival often presents two faces.
In 1966, the jury consecrated ex aequo
Un homme et une femme
by Claude Lelouch and
Ces Messieurs Dame
by Pietro Germi.
The first is a beautiful love story, the second is an unqualified satire of the Italian bourgeoisie.
Critics and the public will cry scandal: why not only rewarded the French filmmaker?
With this injustice, Cannes continues to write its history made of sulfur and grandeur.
1960:
La dolce vita
, a masterpiece that disturbed
The thing today seems inconceivable.
La dolce vita
was not unanimous when it was presented on the Croisette in 1960. The idleness and debauchery masterfully staged by Federico Fellini cause whistles when the jury decides to award the palme d'or to the Roman Maestro. The history of the seventh art and of Cannes is thus made. It will take time to do its work for the duo Marcello Mastroianni-Anita Ekberg to forever immortalize, like the Colosseum, the genius of Rome.
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