The annual glitter and star high mass is officially open. “I declare the 76th Cannes Film Festival open,” declared Catherine Deneuve during a ceremony presented by her daughter, actress Chiara Mastroianni. The legend of French cinema was on stage alongside American actor Michael Douglas, who said the same sentence in English, a few minutes after receiving an honorary Palme d’or.
A word for Ukraine
Catherine Deneuve, whose portrait serves as a poster for the Festival this year, had previously said that she “thinks a lot about Ukraine” and recited a poem by the Ukrainian poet Lessia Oukraïnka. Last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had, to everyone’s surprise, spoken at the opening ceremony of the Festival, a few weeks after the start of the Russian invasion of his country.
Jeanne du Barry by French director Maïwenn, with Johnny Depp playing King Louis XV, was then to be screened as the opening film. The competition starts on Wednesday with two feature films, Monster by the Japanese Hirokazu Kore-Eda and The return by the Frenchwoman Catherine Corsini.
Applause for Michael Douglas
“I wondered how I could last so long”: American star Michael Douglas received a standing ovation before receiving the Palme d’or d’honneur to crown his 55-year career. “What a hug! “, he exclaimed in front of the room which warmly applauded him and where his wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, and his daughter Carys were present.
“It means a lot to me because there are hundreds of film festivals in the world but there is only one Cannes. (…) It’s an incredible honor,” he said. “I’m getting a little older,” joked the 78-year-old American actor. “Looking at my 55 years (of career), I wondered how I could last so long”, he commented, while adding: “we work as hard for our failures as for our hit “.
“Iconic Star”
This festival “reminds us (…) that cinema transcends limits and unites borders”, he further underlined. “In Cannes and all of France, I would like to kiss with all my heart,” he said in French, before American actress Uma Thurman presented him with the prize. She called Douglas “an iconic movie star” and a “luminous entertainer.”
A short film was shown shortly before he appeared on stage, showing short clips from his most iconic films, such as Fatal Link (1987), Basic Instinct (1992) or My life with Liberace (2013). Last year, Forest Whitaker and Tom Cruise received the Palme d’or d’honneur.