The twisted psychology and skewed world view of the serial killer is central to two of the top award winners at the 2021 Festival de Cannes. Julia Ducornau’s Titane, a nightmarish study of a killer impregnated by a car, won the coveted Palme d’Or, with Caleb Landry’s portrayal of Australia’s worst mass murderer in Justin Kurzel’s Nitram earning the Best Actor trophy.
Photo credit: Valerie Hache / AFP
"There is so much beauty and emotion to be found in what cannot be pigeonholed,” said Ducornau, who exploded onto the horror scene in 2016 with her cannibal thriller, Raw. Her latest exploration of body-horror themes and aesthetics has stunned critics on the Croisette. “Thank you to the Jury for calling for more diversity in our film experiences and in our lives,” the French director said, upon receiving her award from actress Sharon Stone, “And thank you to the Jury for letting the monsters in.”
Caleb Landry was not quite so outspoken in accepting his award, presented to him by French actress Adèle Exarchopoulos. Citing nerves and a genuine fear he would have thrown-up if he had tried to speak, he gave no podium speech. (Pictured, right; credit - Christophe Simon / AFP)
Other major winners were Best Director Leos Carax, for the rock-opera romance Annette; Best Actress Renate Reinsve, for Joachim Trier’s stirring drama The Worst Person in the World; and, Best Screenplay recipient Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, for Drive My Car.
It would appear that Jury members steadfastly refused to compromise their opinions with two tied awards announced - the Grand Prix was shared between Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero and Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6, while Nadav Lapid Ahed’s Knee and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria tag-teamed the Jury Prize. (Pictured, left; Julia Ducorna and Sharon Stone; credit - Andreas Rentz / Getty Images)
Wrapping up a vibrant 12-day event that succeeded in recapturing the starpower and spontaneity of great festivals of the past, competition jury head Spike Lee fluffed his duties but couldn’t spoil last night’s award ceremony. Lee inadvertently read out the Palme d’Or winner at the start of the evening and not the end, meaning Ducornau sat wriggling with glee in her seat for the duration of the event, waiting to collect her award.
Best Actress winner Renate Reinsvem, with Lee-Byung-Hun (credit - Andreas Rentz / Getty Images)
The full list of 2021 Festival de Cannes winners:
COMPETITION Palme d’Or: TITANE Grand Prix — TIE: Asghar Farhadi, A HERO AND Juho Kuosmanen’s COMPARTMENT No. 6 Director: Leos Carax, ANNETTE Actor: Caleb Landry Jones, NITRAM Actress: Renate Reinsve, THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Jury Prize — TIE: Nadav Lapid AHED'S KNEE and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s MEMORIA Screenplay: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, DRIVE MY CAR
OTHER PRIZES Camera d’Or: MURINA, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović Short Films Palme d’Or: ALL THE CROWS IN THE WORLD, Tang Yi Short Films Special Mention: AUGUST SKY, Jasmin Tenucci Golden Eye Documentary Prize: A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING, Payal Kapadia Ecumenical Jury Prize: DRIVE MY CAR, Ryusuke Hamaguchi Queer Palm: THE DIVIDE, Catherine Corsini
UN CERTAIN REGARD Un Certain Regard Award: UNCLENCHING THE FIST, Kira Kovalenko Jury Prize: GREAT FREEDOM, Sebastian Meise Prize for Ensemble Performance: BONNE MERE, Hafsia Herzi Prize for Courage: LA CIVIL, Teodora Ana Mihai Prize for Originality: LAMB, Valdimar Johannsson Special Mention: PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN, Tatiana Huezo
DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT Europa Cinemas Label: A CHIARA, Jonas Carpignano Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: MAGNETIC BEATS, Vincent Maël Cardona
CRITICS’ WEEK Nespresso Grand Prize: FEATHERS, Omar El Zohairy Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: Elie Grappe and Raphaëlle Desplechin, OLGA GAN Foundation Award for Distribution: Elie Grappe and Raphaëlle Desplechin, ZERO FUCKS GIVEN Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: Sandra Melissa Torres, AMPARO
CINÉFONDATION First Prize: THE SALAMANDER CHILD, Theo Degen Second Prize: SALAMANDER, Yoon Daewoon Third Prize — TIE:LOVE STORIES ON THE MOVE, Carina-Gabriela Dasoveanu and CANTAREIRA, Rodrigo Ribeyro
PARIS: Artistic director Thierry Fremaux and president Pierre Lescure shared the stage at the UGC Normandie Theatre to announce the line-up of the 73rd Festival de Cannes overnight. In a year when tradition has made way for the practicalities of pandemic living, the pair favoured a television interview format over the usual press conference to reveal the 56 films to earn the ‘Cannes 2020’ Official Selection label.
"This selection was built with the prospect of seeing the Cannes Film Festival assume more than ever its primary mission: to promote films, artists and professionals by showing their work, to be the bridge between the screen and the public," said Frémaux, via a prepared statement. "Cinema makes a difference thanks to those who make it, those who give it life and those who receive it and make it glorious."
With the cancellation of the physical event, the iconic In Competition, Un Certain Regard and Out of Competition strands have made way for a new set of categorizations. ‘The Faithful’ is a collection of 14 films from directors who have been to the Croisette at least once before; ‘The Newcomers’ are 14 festival debutants; and, ‘The First Features’ includes 15 films from first-time directors. Also In the mix are ‘Five Comedy Films’, ‘Four Animated Features’, ‘Three Documentary Films’ and a single ‘Omnibus Film’. (Pictured, right; a scene from director Maïwenn’s French/Algerian co-production, DNA, chosen in 'The Faithful' lineup)
Other notable statistics that indicate the festival is still the premiere international film event, even in the face of unprecedented disruption to the global festival circuit, include a submission record of 2067 films; an increase to 16 in the number of women filmmakers in the lie-up; and, the feature film first-time directors representing 28% of the selection roster.
The Short Film competition, Cinéfondation competition selections and Cannes Classics program will be revealed in the days ahead. Already announced is a 4K-remastered edition of Wong Kar-Wai’s masterpiece In the Mood for Love, which will be released in French theaters next December.
The 2020 Festival de Cannes line-up is:
THE FAITHFUL: THE FRENCH DISPATCH by Wes Anderson (USA; trailer, below) SUMMER 85 by François Ozon (France) ASA GA KURU (True Mothers) by Naomi Kawase (Japan) LOVERS ROCK by Steve McQueen (England) MANGROVE by Steve McQueen (England) DRUK (Another Round) by Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark) Maïwenn’s DNA (DNA) (Algeria / France) LAST WORDS by Jonathan Nossiter (USA) HEAVEN: TO THE LAND OF HAPPINESS by IM Sang-Soo (Korea) EL OLVIDO QUE SEREMOS (Forgotten we’ll be) by Fernando Trueba (Spain) PENINSULA by YEON Sang-Ho (Korea) IN THE DUSK (At dusk) by Sharunas BARTAS (Lithuania) DES HOMMES (Home Front) by Lucas BELVAUX (Belgium) THE REAL THING by Kôji Fukada (Japan)
THE NEWCOMERS: PASSION SIMPLE by Danielle Arbid – (Lebanon) A GOOD MAN by Marie Castille Mention-Schaar (France) THE THINGS YOU SAY, THE THINGS YOU DO by Emmanuel Mouret (France) SOUAD by Ayten Amin (Egypt) LIMBO by Ben Sharrock (England) ROUGE (Red Soil) by Farid Bentoumi (France) SWEAT by Magnus Von Horn (Sweden) TEDDY by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma (France) FEBRUARY (February) by Kamen Kalev (Bulgaria) AMMONITE by Francis Lee (England) A NIGHT DOCTOR by Elie Wajeman (France) ENFANT TERRIBLE by Oskar Roehler (Germany) NADIA, BUTTERFLY by Pascal Plante (Canada; trailer, below) HERE WE ARE by Nir Bergman (Israel)
THE FIRST FEATURES: FALLING by Viggo Mortensen (USA) PLEASURE by Ninja Thyberg (Sweden) SLALOM by Charlène Favier (France) CASA DE ANTIGUIDADES (Memory House) by Joao Paulo Miranda Maria (Brazil) BROKEN KEYS (False note) by Jimmy Keyrouz (Lebanon) IBRAHIM by Samir Guesmi (France) BEGINNING (In the beginning) by Déa Kulumbegashvili (Georgia) GAGARINE by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh (France) 16 SPRING by Suzanne Lindon (France) VAURIEN by Peter Dourountzis (France) GARÇON CHIFFON by Nicolas Maury (France) SI LE VENT TOMBE ( Should the Wind Fall ) by Nora Martirosyan (Armenia) JOHN AND THE HOLE by Pascual Sisto (USA) INTO THE WIND ( Running with the Wind ) by Shujun WEI (China) THE DEATH OF CINEMA AND MY FATHER TOO ( The film Death and my father too ) by Dani Rosenberg (Israel)
FOUR ANIMATED FEATURES: AYA TO MAJO (Earwig and the Witch) by Gorô Miyazaki (Japan) FLEE by Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Denmark) JOSEP by Aurel (France) SOUL by Pete Docter (USA; trailer, above)
FIVE COMEDY FILMS: ANTOINETTE IN THE CÉVÈNNES by Caroline Vignal (France) LES DEUX ALFRED by Bruno Podalydès (France) UN TRIOMPHE ( The big hit ) by Emmanuel Courcol (France) THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD by Laurent Lafitte ( France) THE SPEECH by Laurent Tirard (France)
THREE DOCUMENTARY FILMS: THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw (USA) 9 DAYS AT RAQQA by Xavier de Lauzanne (France) ON THE ROUTE FOR THE BILLION ( The Billion Road ) by Dieudo Hamadi (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
OMNIBUS FILM: SEPTET: THE STORY OF HONG KONG by Ann Hui, Johnnie To, Tsui Hark, Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-Ping and Patrick Tam (Hong Kong)
*APART FROM BEING THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN DIRECTOR IN THE HISTORY OF THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL TO HAVE A FILM SELECTED IN COMPETITION FOR THE PALME D’OR.
The announcement this week that Atlantique, the feature film directorial debut of 36 year-old Mati Diop, will play In Competition at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival poses the question - who is this Paris-born Senegalese filmmaker and how has she arrived at the centre of this landmark moment in film history…?
SHE IS THE NIECE OF THE LEGENDARY SENEGALESE FILMMAKER DJIBRIL DIOP MAMBETY: Alongside contemporaries Ousmane Sembene and Malian filmmaker Soulemayne Cisse, Djibril Diop Mambéty (pictured, right) was a pioneer of early African cinema, daring to challenge the impact of colonialism and the social struggles of his people in films that are now seen as artistically and narratively groundbreaking. He directed five shorts (including his final film, 1999’s global festival hit The Little Girl Who Sold The Sun) and only two features, but they remain films that define Senagelese cinema on the world stage – Touki Bouki (1973), a fateful, funny, endearing teenage love story; and, Hyenas (1992), a biting satire of wealth and status that earned Mambéty a Palme d’Or nomination. In 2013, Mati Diop directed the documentary short A Thousand Suns, which examines the impact her uncle’s landmark film Touki Bouki had on Senegalese culture. The family is rich in talent – her father is renowned jazz musician Wasis Diop.
SHE IS ONE OF HER NATION’S MOST RECOGNISABLE ACTRESSES: Mati Diop began directing short films at the age of 22, supplementing those early years with acting work. She was directed in her first feature by no less than the legendary Claire Denis, who cast the then 25 year-old actress as ‘Josephine’ in her 2008 drama, 35 Shots of Rum. She would do much of her on-screen work in Europe, working for such directors as Sébastien Betbeder (Yoshido, 2010); Thierry de Peretti (Sleepwalkers, 2011); Antonio Campos (Sundance Grand Jury PrIze nominee, Simon Killer, 2012, which she co-wrote); avant garde visionary Benjamin Crotty (Fort Buchanan, 2014); and, Argentinian Matías Piñeiro (the US-shot Hermia & Helena, 2016).
SHE ADAPTED HER 2009 DOCUMENTARY SHORT ‘ATLANTIQUES’ INTO HER FIRST FEATURE FILM: At a point in Senegal’s history when the poor and exploited were taking to the sea in crowded, poorly-maintained boats, Diop embedded herself with a group of young refugees (including her own cousin, Alpha) as they prepared for the perilous journey (pictured, right). The group were among the tens-of-thousands ofSenegalese who fled for Spain in the mid-2000s; in 2006, it was reported 15,000 Senegalese were apprehended by Spanish authorities, while as many as 1000 died at sea. The short, the first of five she has directed, became a film festival favourite, winning prestige honours at Cinema du Reel and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. The plight of Senegal’s displaced was also addressed in La Pirogue (2012) by a fellow first-time feature director, Moussa Toure.
HER FILM IS IN WOLOF, HER NATION'S MAIN DIALECT: Her feature retelling, co-written with Olivier Demangel (Moussem les morts, 2010; Rattrapage, 2017), was shot in Wolof, the predominant language of the Senegalese people. A co-production between funding bodies from Senegal, France and Belgium, Diop undertook a seven-week shoot with DOP Claire Mathon (Stranger by The Lake, 2013) on the Atlantic coast of the capital, Dakar. Website Cineuropa provides the following plot summary: “(The landscape is) dominated by a futuristic-looking tower that is about to be officially opened. The construction workers have not been paid for months, so they leave the country via the ocean, in search of a brighter future. Among them is Souleiman, the lover of Ada, who is betrothed to another. Several days later, a blaze ruins the young woman’s wedding and mysterious fevers start to take hold of the local inhabitants. Little does Ada know that Souleiman has returned…”
HER EARLY WORK WAS FEATURED IN THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE’S EXPERIMENTA STRAND IN 2016: Alongside Atlantiques, the BFI programmed Diop’s early shorts Big in Vietnam (2011) and Snow Canon (2011) in their renowned festival’s Experimenta line-up, featuring works that challenge conventional narrative and aesthetic filmmaking; the BFI website described her films as “a revelation”. When asked about her interpretation of the refugee experience in Atlantiques, she said, “I chose not to treat immigration as a subject but as an individual and sensitive experience, as a kind of time travel.” Her delicate drama Snow Canon (featured, above), an examination of an innocent liaison between a teenage girl and her babysitter, evoked her response, “I just hope people leave the film with a special feeling or mood, one that you remember like a melody for days, weeks or forever, rather than just remembering the story itself.” In January 2018, the London Institute of Contemporary Arts screened four of her shorts (including 2015s Liberian Boy; pictured, right), describing the collection as "...phantasms of the mind...nakedly human, peopled by characters who are fearful yet resolute, consumed by desire."
READ the Screen-Space WORLD CINEMA/SENEGAL Feature here.
It was the film that became the cause célèbre at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, driven by a wave of glowing trade reviews and the passionate response from audience members, as they emerged ashen-faced from crowded screenings. Raw tells a contemporary tale of sibling rivalry and familial tradition, of a young woman (Garance Marillier) struggling to embrace a destiny forged in blood…literally. For writer/director Julia Ducournau, whose coming-of-age horror/drama earned her the Festival’s FIPRESCI 'Parallel Sections' Prize, it was a challenge to humanize her characters, even as they performed the most inhuman of acts. “Cannibals are usually the bad guys,” the French auteur told SCREEN-SPACE during her visit to Melbourne in November, where Raw earned Best Film honours at MonsterFest 2016…
SCREEN-SPACE: One of the great joys of my 2016 Cannes experience was watching Raw with a receptive, energised audience. There was a point – let’s call it the ‘finger scene’ – when we all realised the nature of the journey we’d undertaken…
JULIA: That is so good to hear, because that is so much about what I am aiming at in my film. You would know that, since you started watching horror movies behind your parents back, you do it with your friends or your sister or your cousin. You do it under a blanket or behind cushions on the couch, bonding with that other person over whatever is happening on the screen. It is a scary but also a joyous aspect of watching horror and I love working within a genre that inspires that sense of community, of complicity.
SCREEN-SPACE: What conventions of the cannibal genre did you want to embrace and explore and what tropes were you determined to avoid?
JULIA: I researched a lot of books, but I did not go back to the movies I had seen about cannibalism. I wanted to keep focussed on the ideas that had inspired my story and not over analyse the movies that had come before, so I was not thinking in terms of conventions. I love horror because it has its codes and it is interesting to subvert them, especially with body horror. The one thing I really wanted to adhere was a super realism. My main fear was that people would compare it to vampire or werewolf movies. I wanted people to really identify with this girl, and her needs and desires. I did not want to make it easy for the audience by putting a fantastic veil on it, by giving them some fantasy element that keeps them distant. I didn’t want anyone thinking, “Well, I can’t really identify with these girls because they don’t exist, so I am safe.” I want the audience to be vulnerable to Justine’s developing humanity and to draw comparisons to their own. If you find yourself identifying with a cannibal, you start questioning yourself as a person. The cannibals of such films as Cannibal Holocaust or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre exist in some perverted version of the world. In Raw, I wanted it to be the opposite. (Pictured, above; Garance Marillier as Justine, in Raw)
SCREEN-SPACE: The film is unique in its depiction of sisterhood, both within the narrative and with reference to the often-constrictive boundaries the horror genre can place upon female characters.
JULIA: I wanted to talk about the love they share. It was important that, at the end of their story, there is heartbreak. They have to be separated, not because they want to but because it is deemed that they have to. Their paths are forever intertwined yet completely irreconcilable. This dynamic of love/hate, of rivalry, without ever being able to explain why they change moods from one scene to another is the (essence of) sisterhood, of a bond that every girl understands. I didn’t want any of those boring scenes where sisters spell out their issues to each other. I was trying to create a relationship where you didn’t have to have these explanatory scenes, but instead just go straight to the core of the bond they share.
SCREEN-SPACE: The themes also embrace that dark heart at the core of even the most seemingly pleasant family environment.
JULIA: That’s right, especially in the light of how family politics have been portrayed since the dawn of humanity in all the myths we have created. Back to the days of the pharaohs, through Shakespeare and right up until today, the dark side of the family unit is portrayed as incestuous, cannibalistic, as a rivalry exposed. It is always portrayed in very violent ways. So we are prepared for the family horrors in my film, because we have read Greek tragedy and we have read the Bible. It works in all languages, especially cinematically. (Pictured, left; Marillier and Ella Rumpf, as Alexia, in Raw)
SCREEN-SPACE: In terms of your national cinema, your strong female leads fit well with the great films of the French Extreme movement, like Martyrs and Haute Tension.
JULIA: There is no French Extreme movement. What are we talking about exactly? There are, maybe, seven films that have been made over the course of 20 years. Do you call that a ‘New Wave’, a ‘Movement’?
SCREEN-SPACE: Those films, and films like Inside and Frontieres, reflect a very specific point in French genre cinema when your peers explored undeniably extreme depictions of horror…
JULIA: Those films are totally unrelated works, made by directors who barely know each, over the course of 20 years. For me, a ‘New Wave’ is when a small group of directors talk between themselves, establish a dogma that dictates the direction their collective works will take, like we had in France in the 60s. I am kind of sick of talking about this French Extreme movement that does not exist. I have talked about it with Alexandre Aja, who totally agrees with me. His movie that you mentioned, Haute tension, came out in the 90s! It is so old (Ed: Haute tension was released in France in June, 2003). How can you relate a movie that is 25 years old to what I am doing today? So much has changed. The context in which they are made has changed. I am sick of being put in the same bag just because we are French and we make genre movies.
SCREEN-SPACE: I wasn’t trying to imply that, but I would say that a direct line could be drawn between those films and the portrayal of violence that your film employs. There is a lineage, don’t you agree…?
JULIA: No, I don’t, not at all. And it is not that I don’t like these movies, some of them I like very much. But I am waiting for the writer or the journalist who writes the powerful essay that convinces me that any of what you say is true. You should do it!
(Pictured, above: l-r, Rabah Nait Oufella, Ella Rumpf, Ducournau, Marillier and Joana Preiss, Cannes 2016)
SCREEN-SPACE: Maybe. Let’s talk specifically about your attitude to and use of gore.
JULIA: Well, I hate gratuitous violence. I always feel used, then I feel annoyed, then I am bored (laughs). If a movie starts with extreme violence, and ends exactly the same way, there has been no evolution. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has very intense action but very little blood, at least before you meet the family. That film achieves a remarkable sense of balance, which is important for me. Any violence that I portray is really the violence that is internal for my characters. Let me say that my problem is not that we are desensitized to violence, but more that violence is completely taken for granted. That is a terrible shame. One of the main reasons we make horror movies is so that we can explore and express our relationship with violence in the most channelled, precise and intelligent way we can. The opportunity to express one’s sense of violence in this way is not given to everyone, so it is more often repressed. Horror movies exist to help those people, and if you use them for no reason at all you are denying the viewer this act of catharsis. Horror movies have always been the true underground cinema, because we talk about what is repressed.
SCREEN-SPACE: You show an unflinching dedication to that principle in Raw…
JULIA: In my own small way, I was determined to show things that must be shown. And when I show it, it will be revealed in the most confrontational, full-frontal way possible, in a manner that stops you from looking away. Just like Cronenberg does in The Fly; very little camera movements, still shots, frontal, centre-of-frame, so that you cannot avert your gaze. This kind of cinema demands that you confront your own mortality. Then your film starts to work in the crevices between scenes, where the moments you don’t show add to the impact of what you eventually do show.
Reworking Milena Agus’ novel Mal di pietre for the big screen was always going to be a daunting task. The setting of 1950s rural France demanded all the period trappings; the narrative unfolds as an extended flashback; the troubled heroine, Gabrielle, spends much of the film in a mental health sanatorium, where her free will and passion faces prejudice and ignorance. Yet in the hands of director Nicole Garcia and her leading lady, Marion Cotillard, the adaptation Mal de Pierres (From the Land of the Moon) becomes a soaring, moving melodrama; the film screened in Official Selection at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where Screen International lauded it as “an old-fashioned romantic weepie given class and conviction.”
Nicole Garcia is one of the grand doyennes of European cinema. A beloved actress (she has 13 César nominations to her name), Garcia turned to directing with the acclaimed 1986 short, 15 août, a personal slice-of-life drama that featured her husband Jean-Louis Tritignant. It has led to collaborations with Nathalie Baye (Un week-end sur deux, 1990), Jean-Marc Barr (Le fils préféré, 1994), Catherine Deneuve (Place Vendôme, 1998), Daniel Auteuil (The Adversary, 2002), Jean Dujardin (Un balcon sur lamer, 2010) and her son, Pierre Rochfort (Un beau dimanche, 2013). Following the Cannes Premiere of From the Land of the Moon at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, Garcia (pictured, above) sat with SCREEN-SPACE in the Alliance Française tents to talk about her latest film….
SCREEN-SPACE: How did you become aware of the novel? What aspects of Gabrielle most enthused you?
NICOLE GARCIA: A friend of mine told me, “You have to read this book.” So I read most of it travelling between Paris and Marseilles, and when I arrived I rang my producer and told him, “You have to find out if the rights are available.” Maybe I was waiting for this sort of character. Maybe she represents a part of me, or a maybe because she represents a fascinating part of all women. Maybe because the character foreshadows what is happening with the women of today. What I like is that she dared to express the desire that she has. It is not a dark desire; she is not a nymphomaniac or a sex addict, but it is live, real sexual drive. It is also something that is very mystical. But hers is a life in two parts and she doesn’t want to give up on either part. It is her dream to have both elements. (Pictured, above: Marion Cotillard and co-star Alex Brendemuhl).
SCREEN-SPACE: The setting provides an historical framework, but it is in many regards a very contemporary work…
NICOLE GARCIA: (Cannes artistic director) Thierry Frémaux believes that if you set a film in the past, you are foreshadowing what contemporary women will become. Gabrielle is in this very restrictive 1950s society, yet she has this wilful yearning for freedom, which was scandalous at the time. She was accused of being mad. But she represents movement towards the freedom and independence that women have today, sort of the ‘first step on the ladder,’ if you will. But above and beyond the modern interpretation of the text, is that there is something universal in the story, in Gabrielle, and that is the universal strength of feminine desire, which can be frightening. It is something that can overflow, can take over, that can wash away the very person from whom it generates. To this day, it is still viewed as very suspicious.
SCREEN-SPACE: I sensed that the soulfulness of her character comes from a yearning for a truthful connection, whether that is physically or intellectually…
NICOLE GARCIA: Gabrielle says something that is very important. At one point, she says, “I want somebody to talk to me, I want somebody to talk to.” She wants somebody that she can express herself to in meaningful words, which is what she most often wanted to do with this very taciturn, rough Spanish builder. The modern woman has so many outlets, so many opportunities to express and validate and explore her many desires. But Gabrielle does not.
SCREEN-SPACE: Did you immediately share an understanding and common goal with Marion about how Gabrielle should be played?
NICOLE GARCIA: During the shoot, there was very little need to explain things. She saw things in the script and in my discussions about the character and just pulled them out, when required. It was two communicating vessels. We didn’t rehearse; the only things we did before hand were costume and hair. So when we got to the set, I’d show her the scene and she’d say, “Ok, got it.” It was just she and I and, with very little need to speak, we formed this character. For me, Marion creates a Gabrielle who is the geography of the film. She is the lavender fields, the Mediterranean, the Alps. In my vision, she emerges from the backdrop of the film. I wrote the role, so it was always within me. She was always the first choice for the role. She is the best actress in Europe at the moment. (Pictured, above; l-r, Louis Garrel, Cotillard and Garcia at the Cannes press conference).
SCREEN-SPACE: The sex between Marion and Louis Garrel, as Andre, is physically raw but also one of the most deeply emotional depictions of lovemaking I can recall…
NICOLE GARCIA: Thank you, yes. I was very worried about this scene. We shot it just before we left The Swiss Alps, so I had to count on the actors just letting themselves go. In the script, it’s very easy; the actors lay down together and their bodies…engage (laughs). Marion knew (the passion) had to shown, had to be externalised. Personally, I find sex scenes in films rather boring, so I watched sex scenes in films from directors I admire, like Ang Lee. Then it dawned on me that the way into this scene is through her eyes. When you realise that she is seeing what she has always been looking for, and that she’s achieved it, is deeply moving. And when you realise it is a dream…well, the force, the power of the imagination is beautiful.
From the Land of the Moon will be screening at the 28th annual Alliance Française French Film Festival. Session and ticket information can be found at the official event website.
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 12:14PM 
Photo credit: Valerie Hache / AFP
Caleb Landry was not quite so outspoken in accepting his award, presented to him by French actress Adèle Exarchopoulos. Citing nerves and a genuine fear he would have thrown-up if he had tried to speak, he gave no podium speech. (Pictured, right; credit - Christophe Simon / AFP)
It would appear that Jury members steadfastly refused to compromise their opinions with two tied awards announced - the Grand Prix was shared between Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero and Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment No. 6, while Nadav Lapid Ahed’s Knee and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria tag-teamed the Jury Prize. (Pictured, left; Julia Ducorna and Sharon Stone; credit - Andreas Rentz / Getty Images) 
Best Actress winner Renate Reinsvem, with Lee-Byung-Hun (credit - Andreas Rentz / Getty Images) 
