Doria Tillier, Jodie Foster, Pedro Almodóvar et Bong Joon Ho - Opening Ceremony © Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images
The 74th Festival de Cannes is open!
Four voices and four languages marked the start of the screenings and festivities at Cannes this evening. To mark the great return of cinema to our lives, the Americans Jodie Foster and Spike Lee, the Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar and the Korean Bong Joon Ho, the last director to receive the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2019, declared the 74th Festival de Cannes open.
"It's great to see such a packed cinema!". The French actress and scriptwriter Dora Tillier evoked a sense of magic at the opening: "To be a good spectator, you have to let yourself go, and that's what we're going to do here. For 11 days, we won't be able to help ourselves. We’ll laugh, share and maybe even leave as different people because cinema offers us a vision – one of sweet, violent, and impossible things… Maybe that's what we mean when we talk of the magic of cinema."
An emotionally charged Grand Théâtre Lumière was the place to be for the reunion of the Festival de Cannes with its audience, after its cancellation last year due to the global pandemic.
Jodie Foster, guest of honour at the Festival, joined her on stage: It's good to be out and about, isn't it?" she quipped in front of an admiring audience. After Manoel de Oliveira in 2008, Agnès Varda in 2015 and Alain Delon in 2019, the American actress and director received an honorary Palme d'Or from Pedro Almodóvar. She said: "Over 45 years ago, Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or and launched my career. I am grateful for that. She added:
“I will never lose my sense of wonder and gratitude for the cinema.”
Jodie Foster - Honorary Palme d'or - Opening Ceremony © Valery Hache / AFP
The Feature Film Jury, composed of Mati Diop, Mylène Farmer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hausner, Mélanie Laurent, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Tahar Rahim and Song Kang-ho, was invited to join the stage in turn, before the screening of a montage tracing the filmography of its President: Spike Lee, who met with a standing ovation.
The teams of the 2020 Selection films in the room were applauded in turn before the montage of the 2021 Official Selection films was screened.
The first film in the Competition to compete for the Palme d'Or, Leos Carax's Annette, was screened at the end of the Ceremony in the presence of its director and its main actors, Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver. But before that, and in keeping with a newfound tradition, the Festival was declared open by four voices, those of Bong Joon-ho, Pedro Almodóvar, Jodie Foster and Spike Lee.
The Ceremony was broadcast on Canal +, as well as in all partner cinemas in France.
Annette can be seen today in French cinemas.
