True to his habit and at the Cannes Film Festival, Patrick Mottard will share his perspective on the 2016 edition, which has just kicked off the festivities with the first day, the traditional opening ceremony, and the first screening…
The first day of the Cannes Film Festival always has the somewhat studious atmosphere of a school year beginning. Indeed, it’s necessary to collect the precious accreditation, the “backpack” traditionally offered by the organization, the first invitations…
It’s also the day when we get acquainted with the poster of the year that will stay with us for the next ten days. In 2016, it’s a mysterious all-yellow photo (Golden Palm?) from the legendary Godard film, Le mépris.
We also take a quick tour of the Film Market to gauge the vitality of Guatemalan or Estonian cinema; we cross paths with the first regulars with whom, year after year, we’ve woven a few threads of cinephilic complicity.
For my part, this first overview allows me to identify which of my students have managed to land a small job within the organization.
But it is also, of course, the day of the opening film. And when, like this year, it’s Woody Allen who opens the ball, it’s definitely a celebration!
Cafe Society, Woody Allen, USA (Out of competition)
In the 1930s, Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg), a young New York Jew, tries his luck in Hollywood with his uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a powerful star agent. He falls in love with the beautiful Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), but since she is not available, he returns dejected to New York, where he opens the “Cafe Society” with his gangster older brother (Corey Stoll).
Several decades after Annie Hall, Woody Allen offers us once again a film on the East Coast/West Coast, New York/Los Angeles opposition. Not without insincerity when he suggests that, all things considered, the cruelty of New York mobsters is less serious than the vulgarity of Californian cinema circles.
But it doesn’t matter because this opposition is ultimately just the backdrop for a beautiful, moving, and complex love story. With, as always with Woody, a sprinkle of Jewish humor (a Jewish mother learns simultaneously that her son is a murderer sentenced to the electric chair and has converted to Christianity: she wonders which of these news is worse!), an impeccable jazz soundtrack, and a little romantic stroll in Central Park.
Woody, once again, tells us that the bittersweet reality should not stop us from dreaming. At the beginning of the Festival, let him be thanked for that.
by Patrick Mottard
