• The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival was officially declared open Tuesday evening by Catherine Deneuve.
  • A total of 21 filmmakers are in the running for the Palme d'Or, including seven women, a record level for the world's largest film festival. They will be decided on Saturday 27 May by a nine-member jury chaired by Ruben Östlund, winner of his second Palme in 2022 for Sans filtre.
  • Shock phrase, essential photos, indiscretions, glitter, etc. Every evening, around 18:30 pm, 20 Minutes gives you its recap of the Cannes day, from the red carpet to the backstage of the Croisette.

Two films in competition last night (Monster and The Return), two new ones today (Youth and Black Flies) and stars who fall like so many shooting stars on the Croisette. It's only Thursday and the Cannes Film Festival has already taken its cruising pace.

Today's Event: Harrison Ford's Last

The fifth installment of Indiana Jones, the first which is not directed by Steven Spielberg but by James Mangold, and the last shot by Harrison Ford, promised, sworn. And to say that Indiana Jones might not have been him. Steven Spielberg wanted it, but George Lucas was not hot: at the time, in 1980, he feared confusion with Han Solo, his Star Wars character. For this new project imagined together, the two men approached Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Bill Murray, before choosing Tom Selleck, still little known. But the latter withdrew at the last moment to assume the role of Magnum. Spielberg then returned to the charge and finally managed to convince Lucas that Harrison Ford was their man.

Today's controversy: A not-so-turbulent "Return"

Abuse? Problematic sex scenes? Catherine Corsini's return to Cannes with Le Retour, two years after La Fracture, promised to be complicated. Mea culpa of the director who estimated in a press conference that she would be "more careful with her actors in the future". The actors of the film highlighted the "benevolence" of the director and the team towards them. The day before, the producer Elisabeth Perez, his partner, had taken care to defuse the controversy so that the party is as little spoiled as possible. "Catherine is extremely anxious. At times it is eruptive, she acknowledged, but it is not evil, there is no perversity." "The people who have experienced the filming badly, Catherine has never raised her voice against them," she said, reporting only "a few arguments with her first assistant about work". But Elisabeth Perez assures not to explain the "relentlessness" as soon as the announcement of the possible selection of the film at Cannes: "we are women, there is a team 70% female. The most virulent people are boys. It questions, it questions. "We can also say that we have been harassed, under pressure. We were hurt, we hope that cinema will take precedence. The film is a thousand miles away from all the disgusting things we've heard about us. This did not affect the selection of the film in competition, but still prompted the CNC to withdraw its financial support, creating a hole of about 400,000 euros in the budget of the film.

Photo of the day: They love each other against all odds


The indiscretion of the day: Michael Douglas in privacy

When it comes to sex scenes, Michael Douglas is on the lookout. At a masterclass held in his honor, the 78-year-old actor joked that he had become "an expert in the field." His secret? "Rehearsals," he said. It's like when you rehearse a fight scene, you have to fine-tune the choreography. You start very slowly and then you get on a faster pace. Don't talk to him about the "intimacy coordinators" who have popped up in recent years to reassure actors during intimate scenes. The actor has a method of his own to put his partner in confidence. "When you're playing a love scene, it's important that the actress doesn't believe you're taking advantage of the situation. You tell him beforehand: I'm going to put my hand here, you put your hand there and then we kiss," added the actor. "If you succeed, it's going to seem spontaneous, while everything is very well choreographed," said Michael Douglas, whose addiction to sex, at the time of Basic Instinct in 1992, earned him treatment.

Today's number: 212 (minutes)

This is not the duration of the longest kiss, but the longest film of the competition. Jeunesse, a documentary by Chinese director Wang Bing, accustomed to river films about those left behind by his country, depicts in 3h32 the life of textile workers in a city 150 kilometers from Shanghai. After Laura Poitras (All Beauty and Bloodshed) in Venice and Nicolas Philibert (Sur l'Adamant) in Berlin, a documentary could win the prize for what would then appear to be the grand slam of cinema for a genre that arouses a clear revival of interest.

Today's quote: "Who is the monster?"

Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda had the honor of being the first to present his film in competition: Monster, a drama about bullying in schools. The film is first told from the teacher's point of view and then from that of his student. "I wanted the viewer to be able to search, in the same way that the characters do in the film, who is the monster? It turns out that it is a primary school but when an institution puts at the top of its priorities the fact of protecting itself, what really happened does not matter, "said the director, Palme d'Or at Cannes for A Family Affair, thus taking up one of the lines of the director of the school.

To be continued tomorrow: "Vincent must die"... Oh, really?

A black comedy mixed with fantasy, Vincent doit mourir by Stephan Castaing arrives in Cannes preceded by an excellent reputation. The film, starring Karim Leklou and Vimala Pons, is to be discovered tomorrow at Critics' Week. 20 Minutes will be there!

  • Cannes Film Festival
  • Entertainment
  • Cinema
  • Culture
  • Indiana Jones
  • Michael Douglas
  • Catherine Corsini
  • Harrison Ford