Cannes Classics: “Israel, Why” by Claude Lanzmann

Today’s Cannes Classics program is a double feature starting with the screening of Julien Duvivier’s 1935 film La Bandera at 5pm, followed at 8pm by Israel, Why,
Claude Lanzmann’s first feature-length film. Fully restored prints of both classics will be shown. Attending the screening of his 1972 debut film, inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s writings on the
Jewish question, Lanzmann began with a joke: “I applaud everyone in the audience tonight, for their heroic resistance to the huge American tidal wave entitled Ocean’s
Thirteen.” He then recalled: “Israel, Why premiered in October 1973 at the New York Film Festival, just as the Yom Kippur War was starting: it was a sheer
coincidence. But that fact was nevertheless crucial to the film’s destiny and career in certain countries. As you’ll see, it hasn’t aged a bit. It cannot age, because it is a work of art, and as
a work of art, it creates its own event every time it is shown.” The Israeli ambassador to France was also in the audience.