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76th Cannes Film Festival: The Palm of suspicion and guilt!

76th Cannes Film Festival: The Palm of suspicion and guilt!

At the end of a selection marked by a majority of films dealing with the duality of suspicion / guilt, the Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival went to ‘‘Anatomy of a Fall’’, a French family drama which dissects the mechanisms of suspicion (and the resulting guilt) weighing on a wife after the (accidental?) defenestration of her husband.

Thus, the director Justine Triet enters the annals of the Croisette for having won the tenth French Palme d’Or and the third for women, 30 years after ‘‘The piano’’ by New Zealander Jane Campion, and two years after ‘‘Titane’’ by his compatriot Julia Ducournau, member of the Jury this year.

 

“The zone of interest” by Jonathan Glazer: The “banality of evil” transposed to Auschwitz!

“The zone of interest” by Jonathan Glazer: The “banality of evil” transposed to Auschwitz!

Many films dedicated to Nazi horror and the Holocaust have been welcomed, celebrated and rewarded by the Cannes Film Festival. There was, in particular, the tragicomic ‘‘Life is Beautiful’’ by Roberto Benigni (Grand Prix – 1997), the moving and masterful ‘‘The Pianist’’ by Roman Polanski (Palme d’Or – 2002 ), the dark and poignant ‘‘White Ribbon’’ by Michael Haneke (Palme d’Or – 2009) and the atypical and dazzling ‘‘The son of Saul’’ by Laszlo Nemes (Grand Prix – 2015).

These major and necessary movies have all faced the same and thorny problem: how to evoke Holocaust without showing its unbearable horror? And of all the approaches adopted or considered, that of ‘‘The Zone of Interest’’ by Jonathan Glazer – which has just won the Grand Prix at the 76th Cannes Film Festival – is by far the most trying: the British filmmaker has the singular and confusing choice to film Auschwitz from the adjacent house of Nazi commander Rudolf Höss, who ran the terrible camp from May 1940 to December 1943, and again from May to September 1944.

 

“Four Daughters” by Kaouther Ben Hania: How does Islamist brainwashing work?

“Four Daughters” by Kaouther Ben Hania: How does Islamist brainwashing work?

Inspired by the true story of a family drama that shook Tunisia in 2014: that of Olfa Hamrouni and her 4 daughters, two of whom were indoctrinated by ISIS, director Kaouther Ben Hania dazzled the Croisette with her film ‘‘Olfa and her daughters’’ which brilliantly dissects the process of indoctrination through which the Islamists operate their brainwashing on socially and psychologically fragile people.

Thanks to a thrilling narration, halfway between documentary and fiction, this film, which is competing for the Palme d’Or, has managed the feat of establishing a captivating game of mirrors between the real people of Olfa and his girls and their fictional screen doubles.

 

Exclusive video – Nanni Moretti: pessimism of reason, optimism of will!

Exclusive video – Nanni Moretti: pessimism of reason, optimism of will!

Greatly forgotten on the prize list of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, Nanni Moretti has once again conquered the Croisette, with a poignant work tinged with humor and melancholy through which he casts a worried and sarcastic look at today’s cinema.

 

‘‘Fallen Leaves’’ by Aki Kaurismäki: burlesque and melancholy masterpiece

‘‘Fallen Leaves’’ by Aki Kaurismäki: burlesque and melancholy masterpiece

After 6 years of absence and 17 years of sobriety, the Finnish master Aki Kauriosmaki retraces the steps of his famous ‘‘trilogy of the losers’’ (‘‘Drifting Clouds’’ – 1996 , ‘‘The Man Without a Past’’ – 2002 , ‘‘Lights in the Dusk’’ – 2006). He is competing for the Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival with ‘‘Fallen Leaves’’, a poignant and melancholic masterpiece about the shattered destiny of two marginalized people who are desperately trying to sketch out a love story in which the burlesque desputes it to the tragic.

 

Maïwenn crashes the opening of the Cannes Film Festival

Maïwenn crashes the opening of the Cannes Film Festival

What is the most inelegant and unforgivable thing Maïwenn has done? Pulling Edwy Plenel’s hair out or plunging the opening of the 76th Cannes Film Festival with her insipid and very disappointing “Jeanne du Barry”?

This biopic inspired by the life of Louis XV’s last favourite, whose flatness contrasts with the pomp and flamboyance of the Versailles setting, unfortunately failed to embody the complex personality of Jeanne du Barry, who was both light-hearted and non-conformist, audacious and clumsy.

 

War crimes in Nagorno-Karabakh: the testimony of the former director of Humanity & Inclusion

War crimes in Nagorno-Karabakh: the testimony of the former director of Humanity & Inclusion

Georges Dallemagne, former director of Humanity & Inclusion, now Belgian federal deputy, has just returned from Nagorno-Karabakh where he carried out an observation mission in the heart of the conflict between the Armenian minority and Azerbaijan.
He claims to have observed “war crimes” and confirms the presence of “jihadist mercenaries” dispatched to the scene by Turkey.

 

Exclusive interview with President François Hollande

Exclusive interview with President François Hollande

Five years have passed since the terrorist attacks in Paris, on November 13, 2015. At the time when France commemorates the event and round tribute to the victims of these attacks, President François Hollande, who was in office during these tragic events, granted an exclusive interview to Global Watch Analysis.

The former President evokes the memory of the attacks, the pain of the victims and their families and his concern not to fall into the trap set by the terrorists: to divide the French and to pit them against each other.

Commenting on the recent polemics, which have inflamed certain Muslim countries, on the subject of the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, François Hollande addresses the Muslim populations “who may have been struck by these cartoons”. While reassuring them that French secularism does not mean “the crushing of religions”, but their recognition as elements of freedom, he reminds them that “freedom is a rule in France” where law authorizes caricature and derision, but not hatred. And that no one in France has the right to attack people because of their religious affiliation.