who are the members of the very select “Club des 9”, holders of two Palmes d’or?

2023-05-16 16:00:14

Nine directors can boast of having already been honored twice with the supreme award at Cannes. Only one of them can win a third in this 76 edition…

If British filmmaker Ken Loach wins the Palme d’or at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, he will go down in the history of the Cannes Film Festival by becoming the sole holder of three supreme awards. For the time being, with the Swede Ruben Östlund who will chair the jury, they belong to the “Club of 9” decreed by the Cannes Film Festival itself. “If it’s the best movie”promised Ruben Östlund, referring to Ken Loach’s latest feature film in an interview with AFP, “I will certainly work very hard to exceed my own selfish goals of being the first director to have three Palmes d’Or”.

Ken Loach

“Ma source d’inspiration, these are the stories of ordinary life (…) people’s struggles”confided Ken Loach to France 3. The social cinema of the British director has twice conquered the Croisette from where he left with the supreme award for The wind picks up in 2006 and, ten years later, for Moi, Daniel Blake. For the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival where he presents The Old Oak in competition, Ken Loach is interested in the fate of Syrian refugees whose arrival is a source of tension in a small town in the north of England. They are particularly welcomed at Old Oak, a pub that opens its doors to idle people. Will his analysis of the migration issue in Europe earn him a third Palme d’or? Verdict on May 27.

Ken Loach and his Palme d’or for “I, Daniel Blake”, May 22, 2016 during the 69 edition of the Cannes Film Festival. (LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

Michael Haneke

In 2017, Michael Haneke found himself in the same position as Ken Loach: “Haneke is one of the active filmmakers who can run for a third Palme d’Or, which has never happened”, affirmed Thierry Frémaux, the general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival while his film, Happy End, was in competition for the Palme d’Or. In fact, the Austrian filmmaker had already wonthem Palmes d’Or in the space of three years, in 2009 and 2012 respectively for The White Ribbon et Amour.

Austrian director Michael Haneke, surrounded by French actors Emmanuelle Riva (left) and Jean-Louis Trintignant (right) pose during a photocall after receiving the Palme d’Or for the film “Amour” at the 65th Festival de Cannes on May 27, 2012 in Cannes. (ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP)

Ruben Östlund

Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who chairs the jury for the 2023 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, achieves a performance similar to that of Austrian Michael Haneke. Five years separate the Palme d’or obtained for The Square (2017) et Without filter (2022), both satires – on the vacuity that can sometimes reign in the world of contemporary art for the first, on influencers and the construction of power relations in a world where capitalism is king, for the second. The Swedish filmmaker is the last to have joined the famous “Club des 9”.

Swedish director Ruben Östlund expresses his joy after winning the Palme d’Or award for the film The Square during the 70th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 28, 2017. (PHILIP ROCK / ANADOLU AGENCY)

Francis Ford Coppola

The first member of this prestigious club is none other than the American Francis Ford Coppola. When, in 1979, Apocalypse Now et The drum by Volker Schlöndorff won the Palme d’or, the filmmaker “become at 40, the first director to receive the Festival’s highest distinction for the second time”, we recall on the site of the event. Francis Ford Coppola had already won the Grand Prix, the ancestor of the Palme d’Or, in 1974 for Secret Conversation.

American director Francis Ford Coppola, right, receives the Grand Prix (predecessor of the Palme d’Or) for his film “The Secret Conversation” from American actor Tony Curtis on May 25, 1974 at the Cannes Film Festival. (AFP)

Emir Kusturica

Franco-Serbian director Emir Kusturica was just a year older than Coppola when he won his second Palme d’Or for Underground in 1995 (a restored copy of the film can be seen at the Cinéma de la plage during the festival). The moment is memorable : the prize is announced by the French actress Jeanne Moreau, president of the jury for this 48th edition, and Emir Kusturica receives his award from the hands of the American actress Sharon Stone, in the presence of the French actress Carole Bouquet. The gods of cinema gave Emir Kusturica the joy of savoring the moment. Ten years earlier, he himself had not been able to receive the distinction won for Dad is on a business trip . “He never thought he could win this Palme d’Or, tells Thierry Frémaux to Franceinfo in 2017, and above all, we had warned him too late, he had not been able and did not have the means to come back”. For the general delegate of the festival, Kusturica was the voice of a country, Yugoslavia, which no longer exists, a theme at the heart “the cinema (of its) first years”.

Director Emir Kusturica greets the public after receiving the Palme d’Or for his film “Underground”, May 28, 1995, during the 48th Cannes Film Festival. (PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP)

Bill August

“It’s too much. I don’t understand because I already have one at home”, launches Danish filmmaker Bille August when he received his second Palme d’or, in 1992, for Best Intentions. A film whose screenplay is signed by the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman whom the Dane considers to be “the greatest filmmaker in the world” and whom he thanks for the sublime screenplay he wrote and entrusted to him. Bille August’s other Palme d’or was the one won in 1988 for Shovel the conqueror, Oscar for best foreign film the following year.

Danish director Bille August poses with the Palme d’Or he received for his film ‘The Best Intentions’ surrounded by his wife, Swedish actress Pernilla August, and American actor Tom Cruise during the award ceremony closing of the 45th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 18, 1992. (AFP)

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

It is an essential artistic duo that is unanimous on the Croisette for the realism that characterizes its films. Belgian filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne won the 75th Cannes Film Festival Prize in 2022 for Tori et Lokita, another social drama built around the theme of illegal immigration, presented in competition during this anniversary edition. An additional reward to salute the work of a family of filmmakers who have won two Palmes d’Or, for Rosetta in 1999, et The Child in 2005.

Belgian directors Jean-Pierre (left) and Luc Dardenne pose May 22, 2005 with their Palme d’Or for their film ‘L’Enfant’, which won the day before, during the 58th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival, on the Azure Coast. (FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP)

Shohei Imamura

The Palme d’Or at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival goes to Japanese Shohei Imamura for The Ballade de Narayama, film that criticizes the traditional rites surrounding death in Japan. It is “the consecration” pour “the old scratching hair of the studios (Who) henceforth becomes the worthy representative of Japanese cinema in the eyes of the international public”, écrit Clement Rauger, in charge of cinema for the Maison de la culture du Japon in Paris on the site of the Cinémathèque française. His view of Japanese society is “anthropological”, emphasizes Clément Rauger. In 1997, this major figure in the Japanese new wave won her second Palme d’or for Eel, a reward that he shares with the Iranian Abbas Kiarostami for The Taste of Cherry. None of the Palmes won has ever been hand delivered to Shohei Imamura.

Japanese director Shohei Imamura, center, poses for photographers with actor Koji Yakusho, left, and an unidentified producer May 12, 1997 during the presentation of their film ‘L’Eel’ at the Cannes Film Festival. (PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP)

Going back to the first editions of the Cannes Film Festival, the “Club des 9” is transformed into a “Club des 10” with the two Grand Prix (old version of the Palme d’Or) obtained by the Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjöberg for Incitement, in 1946, and Miss Julie in 1951.