In the official competition, we will find for the 7th time (8th participation in all), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne with The Unknown Girl. The opportunity for a new coronation ? We cross our fingers…
In 1999, Rosetta received the Palme d’Or and an acting award for Émilie Dequenne on the Croisette. A triumph followed by an acting award for Olivier Gourmet in The Son, a second Palme for the sublime The Child, a screenplay award for The Silence of Lorna, the grand prize for The Kid with the Bike. Only Two Days, One Night, although it received a standing ovation, left the Croisette empty-handed.
With two supreme awards at Cannes, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are among the elite of world cinema, since there are only six to have achieved this feat (seven if you count the brothers for two): Emir Kusturica (1985 and 1995), the Dardenne brothers (1999, 2005), Michael Hannecke (2009 and 2012), Francis Ford Coppola (1974, 1979), Bille August (1988, 1992) and Shohei Imamura (1983, 1997). Impressive, no?
In La Fille Inconnue, produced of course by Les Films du Fleuve, Adèle Haenel plays Jenny, a young general practitioner, who feels guilty for not having opened the door of her office to a young girl found dead shortly afterwards. Learning from the police that the girl’s identity is unknown, she sets out to find her name…
At his side, we point the Belgian actors Jérémie Renier, Olivier Gourmet, Christelle Cornil and Thomas Doret. The family!
If the selection of the brothers was hoped for and expected, that of The Red Turtle is a delightful surprise. This second feature film, co-financed by Wallimage, is also selected in the official selection, in the section Un certain regard. It tells the touching story of a man stranded on a deserted tropical island who forges an ambivalent relationship with a giant turtle that tries to prevent him from leaving his vegetal prison.
The story, although using the classic theme of the castaway, is a pretext to address the essential stages of a human being’s life: falling in love, starting a family, seeing one’s child grow up and then leave, growing old, dying. Emotion guaranteed.
This silent animated work is the work of a Dutch director who is making his first feature film. At 63 years old. This does not mean that Michaël Dudok de Wit is an unknown. Far from it…
As an animator, he worked on Transit, The Child with the Bell, Fantasia 2000 and The Frog Prophecy . As a director, he has already signed a few short films, including Father and Daughter, which won the Oscar for best animated short in 2000. Excuse the little…
Considered a visionary by many leading figures in animation, Michaël Dudok de Wit has been endorsed by the mythical Studio Ghibli dear to the now retired Hayao Miyazaki. They offered to produce his first feature film.
At the beginning, Michaël Dudok de Wit had no precise idea, but it was in Japan that he wrote the confusing script of Red Turtle and then worked under the supervision of Isao Takahata (the other creator of Ghibli) who was the artistic director of the project.
Co-produced in France by Wild Bunch and in Belgium by Belvision, The Red Turtle arrived at the Dreamwall studios in Marcinelle where a team worked for 460 days under the maniacal supervision of the director. The film was also made in Avignon and Paris, because it was important that the people who work there have a European ” paw” .
If we believe the excellent rumors, the result should charm the eyes and disturb the aesthetes…
Two other very ambitious feature films, also co-financed by Wallimage, are also selected in Cannes in the other major sections of the event.
Grave, the first feature film by young French director Julia Ducournau, co-produced in Belgium by Frakas Productions, will be on the Critics’ Week schedule. It was entirely shot in Liege.
On the edge of genre film and psychological thriller, Grave tells the story of 16-year-old Justine. In his family, everyone is a veterinarian, and a vegetarian. From her first day at veterinary school, Justine radically deviates from her family’s principles and eats meat. The consequences do not delay and Justine reveals her true nature. A nature, how to say ? Voracious !
Here is : voracious !
Many Belgian technicians and actors were involved in this project such as Bouli Lanners, the director of photography Ruben Impens, the assistant director Dimitri Linder, the set designer Laurie Colson and the costume designer Élise Ancion. It promises to be widely commented on during its screening on the Croisette.
Last major section announced this year, the Directors’ Fortnight will welcome Joachim Lafosse. He will participate in the event with The Economy of the Couple, which depicts a tense divorce, consumed by economic issues.
After ten years of living together, Marie and Thierry separate. She is the one who bought the apartment in which they live with their two children, but he is the one who completely renovated it. Thierry not having the means of rehousing, they are obliged to cohabit. At the time of reckoning, each of them tries to keep what they feel they have contributed to the couple. The marital war is declared.
Fanny Burdino, Mazarine Pingeot, Joachim Lafosse and Thomas Van Zuylen co-wrote this scenario that pits Bérénice Béjo and Cédric Kahn against each other, supported by Marthe Keller, Philippe Jeusette, Catherine Salée and the young twins Jade and Margaux Soentjens.
Co-produced by Versus Production and Les films du Worso, L’économie du couple will be released in theaters on June 8.
Once again, the springtime in Cannes will be particularly joyful for the Wallimage team who will make sure to defend their four babies on the spot. This is further proof that if cinema is also an industry, it remains an art and that the two axes are not antagonistic. On the contrary, they are totally complementary. Indissociable.
