From our special envoy in Cannes,
To discover
- Survey - Who is your favorite columnist in "TPMP"?
In Cannes, we don't walk, we run. The fourth floor of the Palais des Festivals is boiling. The makeup artist reviews his brushes, the translators check their English. And Anne-Sophie Lapix, relaxed, repeats the questions she has prepared by watching interviews on a loop, by peeling newspaper articles.
And by exchanging with Morgane, her assistant with whom she has been working for four years. Suddenly, in the team of the TV France news, who came for the day, a small anguished voice cowardly: "He arrives, he arrives".
An actor who knows he is a star
Who? Michael Douglas. 78 years old, a dark blue suit and a midnight blue shirt, the rowdy gait of an actor who knows he is a star, especially here, but does not derive excessive vanity from it. Slight smile, keen eye, the septuagenarian, recovered three years ago from a heavy cancer, distills a charisma without ostentation. Even his bodyguard seems friendly - we'll be careful not to check it. Anne-Sophie Lapix greets him with simplicity. This interview, negotiated for two weeks, validated by the actor's teams last Wednesday, will appear in tonight's television news, which will also give pride of place to the opening ceremony of the festival.
Read alsoChiara Mastroianni, mistress of ceremonies of the Cannes Film Festival: "I'm quite clumsy, like Pierre Richard in The Goat ..."
At the beginning of the interview, Michael Douglas is not asked to demonstrate the rudiments of French that he masters. No, by the way, because his father's second wife, of Belgian origin, spoke it. But because, as a young man, he had gone to live in Switzerland to follow a woman he had fallen in love with. Except that she had failed to tell him that she was not single. Ah, if only he had been Michael Douglas... The actor then confides to have recently spent a few months in France in the skin of Benjamin Franklin, hero of an American series to come.
Palme d'or d'honneur
Anne-Sophie Lapix rewinds her career. From Wall Street – "What a pleasure to play a villain" – to the superhero movie Ant-man – "I accepted this project to be able to play, for the first time, on a green screen". The comedian's phone rings in the middle of an interview. He apologizes - but no one blamed him - "He's my son, he's traveling to Japan". In a few hours, on the beautiful stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière, Thierry Frémaux will present him with the Palme d'Or of Honor of this 76th edition, after Forest Whitaker last year. The general delegate will no doubt recall that in 1992, Basic Instinct where Michael Douglas played opposite Sharon Stone, had set the Croisette ablaze.
Read alsoWithout filter: and sails the last palme d'or on Canal +
The CV of the actor, who was recently expanded with a funny sitcom on Netflix, lacks the role of president of the Cannes jury. Ruben Östlund's role this year. The news presenter asks him about her desire to one day take on this responsibility. Douglas' hesitation, who does not want to embarrass the festival, then smiles: "Yes, why not! Well, that way, Thierry will have heard it, "he laughs. Before Anne-Sophie Lapix reminded him that his father had presided over him in 1980. The great Kirk was then about the same age as he is today. One more argument for Michael Douglas who, septuagenarian, is no longer afraid to say that he is walking in the footsteps of his giant father.
