カンヌ映画祭開幕、Ｍ・ストリープに名誉賞 コッポラ作品も話題

【カンヌＡＦＰ＝時事】第７７回カンヌ国際映画祭が１４日、フランス・カンヌで開幕した。オープニングでは、米国人俳優のメリル・ストリープに名誉パルムドールが授与された。（写真は、第７７回カンヌ国際映画祭で、名誉パルムドールを授与されたメリル・ストリープ〈右〉と、受賞をたたえるジュリエット・ビノシュ）
　ストリープのカンヌ映画祭への出席は、１９８９年に『Ａ Ｃｒｙ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ Ｄａｒｋ（原題）』で主演女優賞を受賞して以来３５年ぶり。
　「あなたは女性に対する見方を変えた」と、涙ぐみながらたたえるフランス人俳優ジュリエット・ビノシュから賞を受け取ったストリープは、「（前回カンヌ映画祭を訪れた）当時は既に３児の母だった。４０歳目前で自分のキャリアは終わったと思っていた。あの時（の受賞）は思ってもみなかった」と振り返った。
　日本のアニメーション制作会社スタジオジブリも名誉パルムドールを授与されることになっている。団体への授与は今回が初めてとなる。
　最高賞「パルムドール」を競うコンペティション部門には、２２作品が出品されている。
　最も注目されているのは、フランシス・フォード・コッポラ監督が数十年かけて制作した『Ｍｅｇａｌｏｐｏｌｉｓ（原題）』だ。
　審査員長を務める『バービー』のグレタ・ガーウィグ監督は、自らの役割について「光栄だ」と語り、「映画は神聖なもの。この恐れ多い場所でこれから１０日間を過ごせるなんて信じられない」と感極まった様子で語った。
　コンペティション部門以外では、ジョージ・ミラー監督の『マッドマックス：フュリオサ』がワールドプレミア上映される。
　閉幕は２５日。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/05/15-19:10）

Meryl Streep was guest of honour at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, unfolding this year against the background of a director's daring escape from Iran and mounting #MeToo pressure on the French industry.
Streep is among a host of Hollywood A-listers flocking to the Cote d'Azur for the festival that runs to May 25, including legendary directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.
I'm just so grateful that you haven't gotten sick of my face, Streep, 74, joked to the audience as she received her honorary Palme d'Or from French actor Juliette Binoche.
Coppola's decades-in-the-making epic Megalopolis, an Ancient Rome-inspired saga set in a corrupt modern-day city, is the most anticipated of 22 entries for the top prize Palme d'Or, facing a jury led by Barbie director Greta Gerwig.
This is holy to me. Films are sacred and I cannot believe that I'm getting the opportunity to spend the next 10 days in this house of worship, an emotional Gerwig told the audience.
Other entries include recent Oscar-winner Emma Stone reuniting with Yorgos Lanthimos for Kinds of Kindness, Demi Moore trying her hand at horror in The Substance, and Richard Gere in Paul Schrader's Oh Canada.
Outside the race for the Palme d'Or, George Miller's latest Mad Max instalment, Furiosa, will get its world premiere on Wednesday, while Kevin Costner returns to the Western genre with Horizon, an American Saga.
- 'Systemic' sexism -
Binoche presented the award to Streep with a tearful speech, telling her she had changed the way we look at women.
Streep has only been to Cannes once before in 1989, when she won best actress for A Cry in the Dark.
Thirty-five years ago when I was here last time, I was already a mother of three, I was about to turn 40 and I thought that my career was over. And that was not an unrealistic expectation for actresses at that time, she said.
With France's film industry in the midst of a renewed #MeToo reckoning, Binoche was among 100 stars calling for a comprehensive new law to crack down on systemic sexism and gender-based violence in an open letter Tuesday.
The host of the opening ceremony, Camille Cottin, star of hit series Call My Agent! and an outspoken feminist, also took digs at the biggest bad guy of all time: the patriarchy.
The late-night work meetings in hotel rooms of all-powerful gentlemen are no longer part of the Cannes vortex, she said.
Gerwig earlier told reporters she was optimistic about the progress made by women in cinema.
It's not a destination we all reach together, it's something we will keep discussing and figuring out how we want our industry and cinema to be, she said.
- Escape from Iran -
As the festival opened, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof announced he had escaped in secret from his country, just days after being sentenced to eight years in prison on security offences.
Rasoulof had been under pressure from Iranian authorities to withdraw his film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, from the Cannes competition.
He urged the world film community to support his colleagues back home.
My thoughts go to every single one of them and I fear for their safety and well-being, Rasoulof said in a statement to AFP.
Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the festival was working with the French foreign ministry in the hope that Rasoulof can attend his premiere next week.
- Trump, Coppola, Cronenberg -
Other entries for the Palme d'Or include Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, and Emilia Perez, an unlikely-sounding musical about a Mexican cartel boss having a sex change from previous Cannes winner Jacques Audiard.
Film fans are also hungry to see new works from body-horror maestro David Cronenberg (The Shrouds) and Italy's Paolo Sorrentino (Parthenope).
But the hot ticket is undoubtedly Coppola's Megalopolis, starring Adam Driver, on Thursday.
There is a growing anticipation over whether the veteran director -- who self-funded the lavish epic -- can match his masterpieces of the 1970s, when he twice won the Palme d'Or for Apocalypse Now and The Conversation.
Playing out of competition is She's Got No Name, one of China's biggest-ever productions, which features megastar Ziyi Zhang tackling the sensitive topic of women's rights.
Legendary Japanese animators Studio Ghibli -- makers of Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro -- will receive an honorary Palme d'Or, the first offered to a group rather than an individual.
The festival will round off on May 25 with a final honorary award for Star Wars creator Lucas.