“I talk to you about solidarity with students and workers and you talk to me about tracking shots and close-ups.
You are jerks!
»
Jean-Luc Godard, May 1968
May 17, 1968, the student revolt rumbles and gains ground.
General de Gaulle shortens his official visit to Romania.
In Paris there are two million strikers.
Parisian chaos reaches Cannes where the festival has just opened.
Gathered in the small Jean Cocteau room of the Palais des Festivals, the Cinémathèque's defense committee organized a press conference to join in the general strike.
Driven by fiery filmmakers such as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Claude Berri, and Roman Polanski, the meeting takes on the air of a Hernani battle.
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In the projection room, those who want the festival to be interrupted in support of the students and strikers and those who want it to be maintained clash.
The verbal jousts fuse, on both sides we are indignant, we scream, we lose patience.
Godard, weary of the cacophony that reigns in the room, his hand stretched out towards the festival-goers shouts this sentence which will go down in posterity:
“I am talking to you about solidarity with the students and the workers, and you are talking to me about tracking shots and close-up shots!
You are jerks!”
The members of the jury resign in stride and the festival is canceled.
“Without television, cinema will die”
Roberto Rossellini, 1977
In 1977, Roberto Rossellini, president of the jury, demanded that the palme d'or go to the Taviani brothers' film for
Padre Padrone
, shot in 16mm for television.
The film tells the true story of an illiterate Sardinian shepherd at the age of twenty, who became a linguist at the age of thirty.
Simultaneously, Robert Favre Le Bert, then president of the festival, lobbied for the Palme d'Or to go to Ettore Scola for his film
A Special Day
.
The disagreement between the two men is total.
Determined to make his opinion heard, Rossellini buys an overpriced jewel from a member of the jury to convince her to give her voice to
Padre Padrone.
Provocative, he invoices it in the name of Robert Favre Le Bert!
Out of him the president of the festival declares that he will appeal
to "more true professionals and less amateurs"
in the future.
When presenting the prize to the two winners, Roberto Rossellini declared while looking at Favre Le Bert:
“Without television, cinema will die
”.
The Italian genius died of a heart attack three days later.
Roberto Rossellini accompanied by the jury of the 1977 Cannes Film Festival. AFP
“Know that if you don't love me, I don't love you either!
»
Maurice Pialat, 1987
The 1987 Palme d'Or is by far one of the most controversial in the history of the Cannes Film Festival.
Awarded to Maurice Pialat for his film
Sous le soleil de Satan,
the palm received a lapidary critical reception.
He nevertheless obtained seven César nominations, including that of best film.
Adapted from the novel by Georges Bernanos, the film tells the story of a young abbot, played by Gérard Depardieu, plagued by doubts, who tries to save the soul of the young Mouchette, played by Sandrine Bonnaire.
What should have been a dream evening for French cinema, which had not won the Palme d'Or for twenty-one years, turns into a nightmare.
The film was deemed
"talkative"
and
"boring"
by critics.
She prefers
The Wings of Desire
by Wim Wenders.
From the announcement of the winner by the president of the jury, Yves Montand, Pialat will seek from the hands of Catherine Deneuve the precious reward under a concert of boos and whistles.
Imperturbable, palm in one hand, fist raised in the other, he warns: "
Well if you don't love me, I can tell you that I don't love you either
."
Later, the producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, producer of the film, finished driving the point home by declaring "
Whistles are characteristic of important works
”.
“Are you asking me how Bush will react when he learns that I have the Palme d'Or?
But he doesn't even know what it is."
Michael Moore, 2004
In 2004, rebellious documentary filmmaker Michael Moore received the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival.
His vehement anti-Bush criticism, is described by the director himself as a political act, parodying the title of Ray Bradbury's novel.
Fahrenheit 9-11 is nothing but a scathing satire of the US invasion of Iraq and the tenure of George W. Bush.
This is not Moore's first attack on the American president. During the Oscars ceremony a year earlier, he shocked the audience by chanting
"shame on you, Mr. Bush"
.
He ended his trial in Cannes during an interview, exclaiming
“Are you asking me how Bush will react when he learns that I have the Palme d'Or?
But he doesn't even know what it is!
".
This time, his remark is met with peals of laughter, so much so that the director continues,
"I hope he doesn't find out while he's eating a pretzel."
"In recent years, you (Woody Allen) have toured a lot in Europe, while you are not even convicted of rape in the United States"
Laurent Lafitte, 2016
Chilling welcome from Laurent Lafitte, master of ceremonies at Cannes 2016 for Woody Allen, then on tour in Europe,
"
In recent years, you have toured a lot in Europe, while you are not even convicted of rape in the United States
" .
Hostilities are open: the reference to Roman Polanski, prosecuted for rape in the United States, refers the director of
Manhattan
to numerous accusations made about him by his adopted daughter.
A favorite of the European public, Woody Allen had not seen the MeToo wave arriving on the beach at Cannes.
An embarrassment settles in the room and the interested party remains impassive.
The same evening, Emmanuelle Seigner, the wife of Roman Polanski expresses her fury on social networks.
For her, the comedian is none other than a
“big badger”
.
A few days later Woody Allen reassures;
"I'm all for comedians doing whatever jokes they want […] I'm a comedian myself and I think they should be free"
.
No hard feelings, then.
“Macron, I would like to go to his house through the toilets and through the pipes and kick his ass, that obviously, a bit like everyone else, in absolute terms”
Pio Marmaï, 2021
During a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, Pio Marmaï slips
.
La fracture
, by Catherine Corsini stages him in the role of a truck driver, yellow vest.
In the film, a line of the character expresses his desire to meet the President of the Republic.
Through the pipes.
When a journalist stands up to ask:
“In the film, Pio, you have a lot to say to Emmanuel Macron […] if he invited you to see the film at the Élysée, what would you have want to tell him?”
the actor launches this murderous phrase, which will be controversial:
"
Once again Macron, I would like to go to his house through the toilets and through the pipes and kick his ass, that obviously, a bit like everyone else, in absolute terms
.
Faux pas, call for violence or remarks taken out of context?
Be that as it may, criticism is coming from all sides among Internet users.
On Twitter, the former Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner is quick to condemn the actor's response:
"You win the prize for the most vulgar remark".
The actor, apparently not quite out of his role, wanted to show
“how we tell this revolt, whether it goes through language or through the act of violence
”.
We can only hope that he is not offered the role of a psychopathic killer...
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