Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Palme d’Or for “Shoplifters”
Cate Blanchett’s jury made a flawless decision, even though the high quality of the selection probably made their task easier.
– The Palme d’Or for “Shoplifters” by Kore-Eda Hirokazu is all the more deserved as this funny and subtle film that gently disrupts the family institution might be the first major Japanese public success in France.
- The Grand Prix of the Jury, which is somewhat like the silver medal, goes to the returnee Spike Lee for the militant and funny “BlacKkKlansman”—a choice that might not please Trump but could also become a public success.
-
The Best Director Award goes to “Cold War” by the Polish Antonioni, Pawel Pawlikowski. A magnificent film about the difficulties of love, it might be less accessible than the first two, if only because of its use of black and white.
-
The Jury Prize, essentially the fourth place in the competition, to “Capernaum” by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki pleases everyone. A reward all the more deserved as it allowed the director to give the most beautiful speech during the closing ceremony.
-
The acting awards for the moving Russian Samal Yesyamova in “Ayka” and the pathetic Italian Marcello Fonte in “Dogman” are fitting.
-
We might regret the absence of the Russian “Leto” and the beautiful Chinese film “Ash is Purest White” (and its actress Zhao Tao).
As promised in my last post, here are the reviews of the last three films.
KNIFE + HEART, Yann Gonzalez (France)
Paris, late 1970s. Anne, a producer of gay porn films, is an alcoholic and possessively in love. Her partner, who is also one of her technicians, leaves her. To impress her, Anne decides to shoot an ambitious film. Unfortunately, a mysterious killer is set on eliminating all the protagonists of this project.
Under the guise of parody and vintage style, it’s all over the place! Very unconvincing as a low-end producer (“Living off semen and fresh water”… so classy!) scrambling through a serial killer plot nobody cares about, one might wonder what Vanessa Paradis is doing in this mess. In fact, we get a bit of an answer in her latest interview: she is offered very few roles in cinema! It might not have been necessary to twist the knife with this “Knife + Heart.”
CAPERNAUM, Nadine Labaki (Lebanon)
Zein, a 12-year-old boy from an irresponsible family in the slums of Beirut, avenges his sister, who was sold into a forced marriage at 11, and ends up in prison. From there, he decides to sue his terrible parents for having given him life.
A wonderful last-minute addition to the selection, this film is a kind of street movie. Zein, the determined and clever little Lebanese boy, is a young humanist who never gives up in the face of adversity and injustice. Capable of stabbing the person responsible for his sister’s death while also saving the baby of the illegal immigrant who gave him shelter (in a corrugated iron shack).
The film, devoid of pathos or miserabilism, juxtaposes an impressive dive into the misery of Lebanese slums with a focus on the situation of migrants (the baby’s mother is an Ethiopian illegal immigrant). The verdict is harsh, but at the same time, one thinks that as long as there are children like Zein, hope is not lost.
AYKA, Sergey Dvortsevoy (Russia)
A young Kyrgyz immigrant in Moscow, Ayka has just given birth. Without money or housing, pursued by gangsters, she abandons the child. She will wander the big city looking for a way to pay off her debts.
The darkest film of the selection. Again, it deals with migrants. Following Ayka is like witnessing a descent into hell: dreams of success crushed by reality, brutal exploitation, assaults of all kinds, contempt at every level, shame towards the family left behind, loneliness…
Even if the final scene could be interpreted as a faint glimmer of hope, warming the cold waters of this chilling account of darkness, one is left stunned after the screening by so much moral and physical misery. The actress herself (the moving Samal Yesyamova) seems not to have recovered from the role. It took a five-minute-long standing ovation after the screening for her to begin to muster the hint of a smile.
