2019 edition of the Deauville American Film Festival / AFP / Archives
The Deauville American Film Festival opens Friday evening for ten days with in particular nine private films of presentation in Cannes because of the Covid-19 and the hope of giving the “signal” of a return of the spectators in theaters.
The festival “is full on Saturdays, Fridays and Wednesday evenings, as usual” but with 30% fewer places available due to the Covid, Carine Fouquier told AFP on Thursday, director general of the CID, the center of Congress of Deauville.
“It’s more than hoped for. It makes you optimistic. Honestly I feared much worse. This means that festival-goers are reassured by the health measures in place. It can be a good signal to fill cinemas. The films of the Cannes selection will be released in theaters afterwards. If that can give the impetus, so much the better, ”added Ms. Fouquier.
The festival usually welcomes around 60,000 spectators.
Jonathan Nossiter in 2014 at the Pessac film festival, near Bordeaux / AFP / Archives
The red carpet, in place on Thursday, is not bordered here by high walls like at the Venice Film Festival, which opened on Wednesday, but by the usual barriers, along which the masked public can see the stars. The security guards will be responsible, in addition to searching the bags, to check the wearing of the mask.
Here as in Venice, the Americans will be absent. Or almost.
The American Jonathan Nossiter (“Mondovino”) will come from Italy, where he lives, to present with the British Charlotte Rampling “Last words”, “the astonishing story of the end of the world, lived in a tender and joyful way”, according to the press kit. The film is part of both the Cannes selection presented in Deauville and the Normandy competition.
Vanessa Paradis in May 2018 in Cannes / AFP / Archives
In addition to the president of the jury, Vanessa Paradis, are announced in the rooms of the seaside resort Catherine Frot, Maïwenn, Benoît Poelvoorde, Louis Garrel, Pio Marmaï, Lucas Belvaux, Bruno Podalydès, Vincent Lacoste or Noémie Merlant.
– 70 films on the program –
In total, nine of the 52 films that had been selected for the aborted 2020 edition of the Cannes Film Festival will be screened in Deauville.
Masked spectators will thus be presented successively “A Good Man” by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar with Noémie Merlant, “Les Deux Alfred” by Bruno Podalydès with Sandrine Kiberlain, Denis and Bruno Podalydès, “Des hommes” by Lucas Belvaux with Gérard Depardieu , “DNA” by Maïwen with Louis Garrel and Fanny Ardant, “Rouge” by Farid Bentoumi, the director of “Good luck Algeria” and “Slalom” by Charlène Favier with Noée Abita. Yeon Sang-ho’s “Peninsula” will also be screened but without the film crew.
Along with these previews, 15 American films are in competition, including eight women films and seven first films.
Director Miranda July in January 2020 during Sundance festival in Park city / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP / Archives
Among them, “Last Words” by Jonathan Nossiter and “Kajillionaire” by Miranda July (director and title role of “Me, you and all the others”, Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2005) are the only two at the moment. to have a release date in France (October 21 and September 30, respectively).
Also in competition are Eleanor Coppola, wife of Francis Ford, and the great figure of American independent cinema, Kelly Reichardt.
This selection brings together “many films on female emancipation,” said Bruno Barde, director of the festival, interviewed by AFP during a press point. “There aren’t a lot of movies where we laugh. There are one or two – “Shiva baby” (by Ella Seligman, editor’s note) and Miranda July’s film – where serious things are treated with a slightly light tone, “he added.
The winners are due to be announced on September 12.
A total of nearly 70 films will be screened, including about sixty Americans, said Bruno Barde.
The Angoulême French-speaking film festival, the first major film festival organized (from August 28 to September 2) in France since the health crisis, attracted 23,000 spectators out of 28,000 available seats, a deliberately lower level compared to the vintage 2019 (47,000).
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