Sunday afternoon the crew of Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute) led by director Justine Triet arrived by foot at the Grand théâtre Lumière for the première of their movie. Who knew that the people making this daring move will end up winning the Palm d’Or? But this is precisely what Anatomy of a Fall has now achieved.
If you don’t think this was a revolutionary act, you should consider that every day the whole waterfront of Cannes is blocked. Cars escorting stars to the red carpet create traffic jams, while white metal fences do not allow pedestrians to cross freely from one side to the other of the Croisette. As Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki put it “It was different in Cannes in ’86… less BMW and Audis! But I love Cannes now – if you understand irony.”. For the festival attendants stuck on the wrong side, these difficult logistics always create suspense. Sometimes people must run to catch the next movie. Journalists, producers, and cinephiles go up and down the Croisette several times a day: from one screening to the other, from an interview to a meeting, and then to a pavilion or the press room. They say you can recognize who works, and not only poses, by looking at their shoes. It’s definitely not high heels!
Luckily, many buses around the city link the Palais with all the dislocated venues around town. They can be overfilled and the air stuffy, but it can also be a lot of fun! There you meet the Cannois e Cannoise, the natives of the French Riviera. And guess what: most of them are hardcore cinephiles! Many signs up for accreditation early during the year and follow the festival up close. Exchange reviews, opinions, and tips from one end of the bus to the other, and if you don’t watch out, they might test your cinema knowledge. This morning a young guy announced he waited in line for 16 hours to realize his dream: go to the premiere of Scorsese’s Killing of the Flower Moon.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell if the movies at the festival are hyped for art or glam; if people come for the movies or the stars. In the case of Scorsese’s movie, with superstars like Leonardo Di Caprio and Robert De Niro, it was for both. While Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet lehdet) by Aki Kaurismäki intentionally criticized all that. Fallen Leaves’s première felt like going to an afternoon screening at the neighbourhood cinema. Without a catwalk, posing, and influencers on the red carpet. Prominent guests like Jim Jarmusch (a scene of his movie Dead Don’t Die is shown in Fallen Leaves) just went in without much fuzz. Kaurismäki himself was very defiant and fleeting. When obliged by the security to pose in front of them, he challenged the photographers by going too close to the lenses and then running away. What a breath of fresh air! It feels almost as relieving as Natalie Portman’s statement during the press conference of May December by Todd Haynes. The starring actress addressed how constrictive the Cannes festival, and its unwritten rules can be. Especially for women, regardless if they decide to revolt or conform to the absurd standards of beauty and femininity. Both May December and Anatomy of a Fall precisely discuss the issue of women transgressing and rejecting social norms.
Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet
Two women having a conversation over a glass of wine. Can this become proof of murder? And an instrumental cover of 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. played in a loop? It may sound ridiculous, but the persecutor (incredible Antoine Reinartz) accusing Sandra (Hüller, the character is called like the actress’s real name) thinks so. Sandra is a German writer leaving in the French Alps with her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) and their visually 11-year-old impaired son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner). When Samuel is found dead in front of the house door by Daniel, he becomes the only testimony and Sandra the first and only suspect. What follows, is the dissection of a woman. Her personality, sexuality, work, morals, language, motherhood, femininity, relationships, art, and much else are scrutinized and judged. Three men orchestrate this deceiving trial: the persecutor, Sandra’s Lawyer (Swann Arlaud), and Daniel. And the spectators cannot help but follow them. They shift their opinion along with the new element brought to the table. Who is Sandra? At some point getting a grasp of that matters more than finding out if she is the actual killer. As argued by director Triet, on the set it really felt like Sandra’s body didn’t belong to her. During the filming, it was always a bit different and somehow set the daily tone. This is no wonder since the script was written for her and on her, as admitted by Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari. Anatomy of a Fall was only the second movie by Triet to compete for the Palm d’Or, after 2019’s Sybil — and it has now won the big award making Triet only the third women in history to boast the coveted palm.
May December by Todd Haynes
When asked about the meaning of the title May December, American director Todd Haynes sarcastically translate it into French with “Une Macron”, meaning a relation between a younger and an older person. The movie May December is in fact based on a tabloid scandal from the ‘90s. A schoolteacher started a relationship with a 13-year-old boy, with whom she got married after being convicted of raping him and having spent several years in prison where she gave birth to their first children. But going back to “une Macron”, as punctuated by leading actress Julienne Moore, there is a substantial difference between an age gap among adults and the relationship between a child and an adult. The mental development of the two radically differ, as does the agency they can exert. And this is the core of May December: the asymmetry of power between Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton). However, this disturbing hierarchy somehow changes during the movie, with the arrival of Elizabeth (Natalie Portman). Elizabeth is an actress researching to create an independent movie telling the “true” story of the couple. What starts as a portrait of Gracie, becomes a double and then triple, where each character understands reality differently. This is achieved also visually thanks to a ping-pong of close-ups. As Hynes explained, for the actors the challenge during the dialogues was to speak directly into the camera, rather than to each other. In this very manipulative play, not only the question of transgressing social boundaries becomes central, but also “the disparities between desires and culture”. The last is a recurring theme in Haynes work, also seen in Carol. Shot in only twenty-three days in Savannah, May December sure earned the six-minute standing ovation it received at its Cannes première.
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