French director is barely the second girl to scoop the highest prize in Cannes Movie Competition’s 74-year historical past.
“Titane”, a wildly imaginative movie a couple of serial killer who has intercourse with a automobile, has received the Palme d’Or prize on the Cannes Movie Competition.
The win on Saturday makes French director Julie Ducournau solely the second feminine filmmaker to scoop the highest honour within the competition’s 74-year historical past.
Her violent movie cut up critics, with some praising its originality however others delay by its frantic and messy strategy. Described as a “physique horror” film and based mostly round a personality with a titanium plate in her head, the movie impressed with its vitality.
“Ducournau’s stunning, darkish, twisted fantasy is a nightmarish but mischievously comedian barrage of intercourse, violence, lurid lighting and pounding music,” critics on the BBC broadcaster mentioned.
“It’s additionally unattainable to foretell the place it’s going to go subsequent.”
The win for Titane was mistakenly introduced by jury president Spike Lee on the high of the closing ceremony, unleashing a number of moments of confusion. Ducournau didn’t come to the stage to just accept the award till the formal announcement on the finish of the ceremony.
However the early trace didn’t diminish from her emotional response.
“I’m sorry, I maintain shaking my head,” mentioned Ducournau, catching her breath. “Is that this actual?”
She thanked the jury for “letting the monsters in” and afterwards, acknowledged to reporters her place in historical past. However she additionally mentioned her win “can’t be boiled down to only being a lady”.
Extra girls will come after her, Ducournau mentioned. “There shall be a 3rd, there shall be a fourth, there shall be a fifth.”
The one earlier feminine filmmaker to win Cannes’ high honour — among the many most prestigious awards in cinema — was Jane Campion for “The Piano” in 1993.
Lately, frustration at Cannes’ gender parity has grown, together with in 2018, when 82 girls — together with Agnes Varda, Cate Blanchett and Salma Hayek — protested gender inequality on the Cannes crimson carpet. Their quantity signified the full variety of motion pictures by feminine administrators chosen to compete for the Palme d’Or — 82 in comparison with 1,645 movies directed by males.
This 12 months, 4 out of 24 movies up for the Palme have been directed by girls.
The Cannes competition is the world’s largest and returned to the French Riviera this 12 months after a 2020 hiatus as a result of coronavirus pandemic. The occasion drew stars equivalent to Matt Damon and Sharon Stone to the crimson carpet, with moviemakers and actors delighted to be again although attendance was down on earlier years.
As soon as the awards have been formally introduced on Saturday, different massive winners included Leos Carax, who was picked as greatest director for “Annette”, a musical about two artists caught in a twisted love affair.
The second-prize Grand Prix was shared between “Compartment no6” by Juho Kuosmanen, a couple of girl who embarks on a prepare journey throughout Russia, and “A Hero” by Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, which includes a prisoner confronted with an ethical quandary.
Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Takamusa Oe of Japan received greatest screenplay for his or her story of heartbreak and loss “Drive My Automotive”.
It was an enormous night time, too, for the beforehand unknown Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve, who was rocketed to stardom by her position in “Worst Particular person within the World”. The movie by Joachim Trier is a modern-day romantic comedy that was a giant hit with critics.
Caleb Landry Jones, who starred in Australian movie “Nitram”, received greatest actor.
The Jury Prize, one other runner-up award for greatest film, went to 2 movies: “Forward’s Knee” by Israel’s Nadav Lapid and “Memoria” by Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul.