Cannes was Sandra Hüller's festival. The German actress played the leading role in two of the twenty-one films in the competition – and both, namely the French film "Anatomy of a Fall" and the British drama "The Zone of Interest", won the first prizes of the festival, which are handed over to the directors, but always also honour the film as a total work of art. So it was only logical that the French director Justine Triet also brought her leading actress on stage when she accepted the Palme d'Or.
Maria Wiesner
Coordinator "Style".
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Triet is the third woman to be awarded the main prize since the film festival was founded in 1946. Before her, New Zealander Jane Campion (1993 for "The Piano") and France's Julia Ducournau (2021 for "Titane") won the Palme d'Or. In her speech, American actress Jane Fonda, who presented Triet with the award at the closing ceremony in Cannes, drew attention to the festival's change in gender parity. When she first came to the Croisette in 1963, only films by men were shown there, "that was a matter of course at the time". A lot has changed. A glance at the competition films showed just how much: one in three had been shot by a female director this year.
However, according to its own statements, the jury's decision is not based on such parities. From a very strong cinema year, she selected the film that was "a violent experience – the way cinema should be," said jury chairman Ruben Östlund. Not only the jury had apparently discussed a lot about "Anatomy of a Fall"; already during the premiere strong reactions could be observed in the hall.
"Anatomy of a Fall" is a courtroom thriller about a successful writer accused of murdering her husband. Sandra Hüller plays this woman (she speaks only English and French in the role) whose marriage does not conform to the norms and who demanded more for herself and her art than her husband wanted to concede to her. Hüller's play oscillates between vulnerability and self-confidence, raising questions of guilt and remorse, leaving the audience in the dark for a long time whose statements they should believe. As in Justine Triet's other films, however, it is also about the question of where art begins and reality ends. The writer, the prosecutor points out, has always been inspired by life for her books. So what does it say about her if she has ever put murderous thoughts in a character's mouth?
Triet then tested how far artists are allowed to go in her acceptance speech. Cannes had banned all political demonstrations within the city centre for the duration of the film festival – a small group of the hospitality industry had nevertheless met in front of its doors during the second week of the festival with special permission from a luxury hotel, whose cries of protest against the French pension reform could be heard as far as the Festival Palace. Triet now brought politics to the main stage of the festival. She strongly criticized the domestic policy decisions of Emmanuel Macron's government, describing them as "neoliberal", denouncing the "shocking treatment" of the protest movement and speaking of a "sell-out of French culture". France's Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak reacted immediately on Twitter, first congratulating Triet and then expressing shock at her speech: "This film could not have been made without the French film financing model, which allows us a diversity that does not exist anywhere else in the world."
Second place, the Grand Jury Prize, went to a no less political work: Jonathan Glazer's "The Zone of Interest", based on novels by the recently deceased Martin Amis. In it, Glazer shows the everyday family life of the camp commandant of Auschwitz. You can't see the horrors. Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller play the leading roles of Rudolf and Hedwig Höß. If you put Hüller's interpretation of the ardent National Socialist with her stiff shoulders and rough gait next to the successful writer on trial in Triet's drama, you get an idea of the range of this actress. The fact that the jury did not award her the Actress Prize on top of that may also have been due to the strong competition.
At the same time, the 76th edition of the film festival felt like a small farewell to old legends. Hollywood stars Michael Douglas and Harrison Ford were awarded palms of honor for their life's work. And many a film in the competition belongs to a late work. Eighty-six-year-old Ken Loach had to put up with the question of whether this would be his last film ("I don't know") for "The Old Oak", a drama about Syrian refugees and the inhabitants of a small town in northern England. Seventy-seven-year-old Wim Wenders presented two films in Cannes, and his competition entry "Perfect Days" received the prize for Best Actor. And with "A Brighter Tomorrow", Nanni Moretti made an entire film about an aging film alter-ego. How many more films of these old heroes will there be in Cannes?
The festival needs young talent. With decisions such as the one to show the young Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy in the competition, a first step has been taken to give the next generation a chance to show new, different perspectives in the future. One would like to see more of this in the coming years.