Perhaps we should take this list of awards as a sign of the times, a sign of the loss of meaning of festivals and juries built around the name that attracts the most attention. Show off Mohammad Rasoulof with a “special prize” diploma (with the audience not stopping applauding), call Coppola to reward Lucas and forget about his film (which alone is worth a thousand times more than Gerwig’s entire filmography), put in front of the willing Indian film All We Imagine as Light to the much more complex and multifaceted one Emilia Pérez and having your heart “broken” for a pleasantly superficial comedy like Sean Baker’s means having completely lost the compass of cinematic values. It’s true that this year the Cannes selection was conspicuously lame, with too many films that left you wondering what they were doing in competition (for names you’re spoiled for choice: Motel Destino, L’Amour ouf, The Girl With the Needle…) but having forgotten Megalopolis and Caught by the Tides (by Jia Zhangke) is a shame that the nine jurors will carry with them forever.
Although Lanthimos’ film seemed to me (and I’m not the only one) of embarrassing ugliness it is true that Jesse Plemons is an actor of merit, just as there is nothing to say about the award to the female cast of Emilia Pérez (Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz), the only film awarded twice, also with the jury prize. But the major awards wanted to magnify the merits of those “indy” productions so dear to the president but not very resistant to critical analysis. Just as it should be added that Miguel Gomes won the jury prize for the least interesting film by him (but I imagine that none of the jurors had ever seen Tabu or The Arabian Nights). And in the end all that remains to be said is that once again the most important festival in the world (ipse dixit) has missed a golden opportunity to defend truly valuable cinema. Just as happened in the last editions…
