The Cannes Film Festival rarely passes without cacophony but this year's edition may be more raucous and uneasy than any edition in recent memory.
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When the red carpet is rolled out from the Palais des Festivals on Tuesday, the 77th Cannes will unfurl against a backdrop of war, protest, potential strikes and quickening #MeToo upheaval in France.
Festival workers are threatening to strike. The Israel-Hamas war, acutely felt in France, home to Europe's largest Jewish and Arab communities, is sure to spark protests. Russia's war in Ukraine remains on the minds of many. Add in the ever-uncertain future of cinema, the rise of artificial intelligence and this year's festival shouldn't lack for drama.
Being prepared for anything has long been a useful attitude in Cannes. Befitting such tumultuous times, the film line-up is full of intrigue, curiosity and question marks.
The Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, just days before his latest film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, is to debut in competition in Cannes, was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court. The film remains on Cannes' schedule.
Arguably the most feverishly awaited entry is Francis Ford Coppola's self-financed opus Megalopolis. Coppola, is himself no stranger to high-drama at Cannes. An unfinished cut of Apocalypse Now won him (in a tie) his second Palme d'Or more than four decades ago.
Even the upcoming US presidential election won't be far off. Premiering in competition is Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump. There will also be new films from Kevin Costner, Paolo Sorrentino, Sean Baker, Yorgos Lanthimos and Andrea Arnold.
And for a potentially powder keg Cannes there's also the firebomb of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The film, a rolling apocalyptic dystopia, returns Australian director George Miller to the festival he first became hooked on as a juror.
"I got addicted it to simply because it's like film camp," says Miller. "It's kind of optimal cinema, really. The moment that they said, 'OK, we're happy to show this film here,' I jumped at it."
Cannes' official opener on Tuesday is The Second Act, a French comedy by Quentin Dupieux, starring Lea Seydoux, Louis Garrel and Vincent Lindon. During the opening ceremony, Meryl Streep will be awarded an honorary Palme d'Or and at the closing ceremony, George Lucas will get one too.
But the spotlight at the start may fall on Judith Godreche. The French director and actor earlier this year said the filmmakers Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager, allegations that rocked French cinema. Jacquot and Doillon have denied the allegations.
Though much of the French film industry has previously been reluctant to embrace the #MeToo movement, Godreche has stoked a wider response. She's spoken passionately about the need for changes at the Cesars, France's equivalent of the Oscars, and before a French Senate commission.
In that same period, Godreche also made the short film Moi Aussi during a Paris gathering of hundreds who wrote her with their own stories of sexual abuse. On Wednesday, it opens Cannes' Un Certain Regard section.
"I hope that I'm heard in the sense that I'm not interested in being some sort of representation of someone who just wants to go after everyone in this industry," Godreche said.
"I'm just fighting for some sort of change. It is called a revolution."
The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 14-25.
Australian Associated Press
