Jury president Ruben Östlund struck a defiant note of optimism on the opening day of the 76th Cannes film festival, positioning the event as a stronghold of community in an increasingly atomised world. Cinema, he said, was more relevant and valuable than ever. The challenge is to connect it with a younger, post-pandemic audience that prefers to gorge its entertainment online.
“If you look at today’s world, you see that cinema is unique for the simple reason that it offers a room where we can all watch films together,” he said. “All the other content, we’re accessing it on our devices, in our little bubbles, consuming culture like zombies and not reflecting what we’re looking at. So going to the cinema is almost a political stance. We come together and have a conversation about the world. We find out who we are and where we’re going. That is cinema’s strongest selling point. I think people want that collective experience.”
Östlund’s view was supported by Iris Knobloch, who is in her inaugural year as the festival’s overall president. Knobloch, the first woman to ever take the role, argued that the traditional model of theatrical distribution remains in good shape, pointing to figures that suggest audience numbers are now creeping back towards pre-pandemic levels. “Films are back in theatres,” she said. “And the public is returning, too. Even the streaming platforms have realised that nothing can replace the experience of releasing a film in the cinema. Streaming is a good addition to the ecosystem, but cinema itself is eternal.”
Assuming visitors are able to obtain a ticket, this year’s event provides an analogue feast of feature productions and red-carpet premieres. Potential highlights from the schedule include Martin Scorsese’s 1920s-set epic Killers of the Flower Moon along with Harrison Ford’s swansong appearance as Indiana Jones. Östlund’s focus, however, is on the 21 films selected to compete for the crowning Palme d’Or award. These run the gamut from Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City through to The Zone of Interest, a Holocaust drama from the British director Jonathan Glazer.
Östlund arrives in Cannes as a two-time winner, having been awarded the Palme d’Or for both 2017’s The Square and last year’s Triangle of Sadness. Nonetheless he regards himself as a relative newcomer, providing a bridge between the old and new guard of Cannes. The Swedish director began his career shooting skiing videos before branching into film-making with his satires about modern art and the super-rich. Cannes, he admitted, depends on fresh voices like his in order to evolve and survive.
“My goal is to represent a new style of European cinema – to create wild, entertaining movies that at the same time are thought-provoking. I think the fact that I’m part of that new conversation is one of the reasons I was offered the position [of jury president]. So I’m pleased to represent the younger players.”
Initial evidence appears to bear out his assertion. The average age of the directors in competition this year is 62, with the lineup headed by 83-year-old Marco Bellocchio and 86-year-old Ken Loach. But the average age of the nine-member jury – which includes the Hollywood actors Paul Dano and Brie Larson – is a comparatively youthful 44.
Östlund hopes the freshness of his panel will ensure a lively, democratic atmosphere. The aim, he said, was for loud, fun deliberations with plenty of room for dissent. “It’s very important that we fight against the idea of consensus. Consensus is the most boring thing. If a jury is looking for the common denominator, there’s a risk that the best film is going to fall through the cracks. So I’m going to encourage people to fight for the films they really believe in. They should trust in their instincts and not be scared of saying something stupid.”
Joining him on the panel is Rungano Nyoni, the Zambian-born, Welsh-raised director of the Bafta-winning I Am Not a Witch, who was happy to admit her lack of festival jury expertise. “I have no strategy,” Nyoni said. “I’m not an intellectual. I’ll try to convince the others about a film that I like. But if they’re not interested, that’s OK, I’ll just go and bitch about it at home.”
Outside the Palais, it was business as usual on the festival’s first day as the guests gathered for the world premiere of Jeanne du Barry, a lavish period drama which has already sparked controversy for its casting of Johnny Depp in the role of King Louis XV. Largely filmed in the palace of Versailles, Jeanne du Barry spotlights an elitist 18th-century world of court intrigue and royal romance and celebrates the aristocracy’s last gasp, just before the French nobles lost their heads. After all the talk of democracy and fresh blood, Cannes’ choice of opening film struck some onlookers as telling. The presence of Östlund and his team may signal a gentle changing of the guard. But the old order dies hard.
