As head of the competition jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, director Ruben Ostlund had one important piece of wisdom to share with the rest of the jury.
“Don’t be afraid to say stupid things,” he told them at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
In his films The Square and The Triangle of Sorrow, Ostlund has criticized groupthink and pseudo-intellectual stances so thoroughly that jurors should look at themselves rather than trying to impress. It meant that we should trust our first instincts. “If the jury atmosphere is that everyone on the jury is trying to outdo each other and be smarter than each other, you’re missing something,” he says.
However, his remarks drew more than a few laughs from the assembled journalists. Because at Cannes, where filmmakers, actors and festival organizers congregate in a glamorous environment to promote their work and make a lot of noise, there is always the fear of saying something stupid. is. Controversy along the way.
This year’s Cannes feels packed with scandals, especially considering it was chosen for opening night.Jeanne du Barryis a costume drama starring Johnny Depp as King Louis XV of France. It will be Depp’s first high-profile role since he sued his ex-wife Amber Heard for defamation, alleging he was sexually and physically assaulted by the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor during their marriage. becomes. He denied her charges and said she was the attacker, a claim the jury largely agreed with. Although he was once one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors, Depp, 59, hasn’t appeared in a major studio movie since 2018’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Festival director Thierry Frémaux was dismissive when asked about the decision to release his starring film at the Cannes Film Festival. “I don’t know about Johnny Depp’s image in America,” he said at a news conference Monday. “The truth is, he has only one rule in my life: freedom of thought.”
With Depp’s acting so understated and the French-language costume drama still seeking American distribution, “Jeanne du Barry” is unlikely to become a big hit in the United States. But its presence at Cannes still poses a dilemma for jury member Brie Larson, who once told Time’s Up when a Variety reporter asked if she would mind watching a film starring Depp. Named in consideration of being a member of the Advisory Board. , a group formed in response to the #MeToo movement.
“You are asking myself Is it? “I’m sorry, but I don’t know the correlation,” Larson replied. “I think you can see it. And if that happens, I don’t know how I’ll feel.”
Later, at a sumptuous dinner held at the Carlton Hotel, I spoke with Larson’s colleague, juror Paul Dano, who confirmed that after the jury had attended the festival’s opening ceremonies, “Jeanne du I admit I’ve seen Barry. Dano said, “Today is the first night. It should be done with respect.”
“Jeanne du Barry” was screened as a film out of competition for the Palme d’Or, so it’s not part of the jury’s mandate, but Dano was asked at the Cannes Film Festival for her opinion on the film, I’m going to say almost nothing. “We won’t decide on prizes for two weeks, but we can’t talk about the film with other people,” he said. “We all end up sharing a secret for two weeks.”
During that time, Dano was eager to bond with the other judges and see Cannes in a different light. After showing his directorial debut, Wild Life, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, he was eager to return as a jury member, and the pressure was much less.
“Usually when I’m preparing for a premiere, I feel nervous or out of my mind,” he said. “But it’s a lot of fun to be here, not in a movie I’m in or a movie I directed.”
