2023-04-25 15:00:00
The selection in competition, of the film “The Return”, severely questioned in view of its shooting conditions, arouses a controversy of which the festival has the secret.
Par Jean-Luc Wachthausen
© CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP
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Pace of the Cannes Film Festival without controversy or quarrel, or even – new fact – denunciation by one or more crows. The edition of 76e Festival which opens on May 16 is no exception to the rule with the selection in competition of the new film by Catherine Corsini, The return. The film, singled out for its shooting conditions, was the subject of a report last November to the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office for sexualized scenes featuring adolescents. However, no complaint has been filed.
Announced for the first time in selection at the Cannes Film Festival, on April 13, the film had been withdrawn by decision of the board of directors. The latter had been informed that the National Cinema Center (CNC) was withdrawing a subsidy of 680,000 euros from the production. In question: a sex scene involving a minor actress under the age of 16, who had not been declared to the commission responsible for studying filming requests.
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But on April 24, the team of general delegate Thierry Frémaux finally decided, in agreement with the president of the Festival, Iris Knobloch, to reinstate him, after ten days of investigation and in the absence of proof on reprehensible facts. This did not prevent producer Marc Missonnier from signing angry tweets in which he denounced the blindness of the largest film festival in the world and called for its boycott via the hashtag #BoycottCannes.
The film tells the story of Kheididja, a 40-year-old woman, returning to Corsica for a summer to take care of the children of a wealthy couple (Virginie Ledoyen and Denis Podalydès). On the spot, she finds herself with two teenagers who will do the 400 blows and know their first love experiences. In the casting, we find Aïssatou Diallo Sagna, noticed in the previous film by Corsini, The divide.
The producer of Feedback, Elisabeth Perez, hastened to defend the film in the American magazine Variety, citing “unwelcome accusations”, while pleading “an administrative error”. At Parisian, she also clarified that the actors involved, aged 15 and 17 “played in a totally consented and totally simulated way”.
On the side of the Society of Film Directors (SRF), its co-president, screenwriter and director Thomas Bidegain, pleads with the Point, the appeasement after some heated debates within the association of which Catherine Corsini has just slammed the door. He is pleased that “in this specific case, the rights of directors are respected and that the decision to select or not The return, belongs to its general delegate, Thierry Frémaux, and no one else. In other words, the SRF is not a court to judge the selection of this or that film at the Cannes Film Festival.
READ ALSOBut what’s going on at the Society of Film Directors? He took the opportunity to scratch Marc Missonnier. “As in football or in politics, everyone has an opinion. Luckily, it’s not Marc Missonnier or anyone else who selects the films at Cannes, but rather Thierry Frémaux, and that’s good! Personally, what I find wonderful in France is that cinema, unlike series, is always the center of debate and controversy. See you in three weeks to see how Catherine Corsini’s twelfth film, and the third selected at Cannes, will be received by festival-goers.
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