The 46th American Film Festival in Deauville (Calvados) opens Friday for nine days with almost no Americans, but with private films showing in Cannes due to the coronavirus epidemic.
“Obviously”, with three exceptions, “the Americans will not be there” given the closure of the borders but “it will be the first important festival since the Covid”, in France, says its director Bruno Barde.
The Norman festival opens two days after the close of the Angoulême French-speaking cinema festival, with attendance usually a little smaller than that of Deauville. And it is held almost at the same time as the prestigious Venice Film Festival, where international stars will be scarce due to the sanitary situation.
In Deauville, 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.
In addition to the president of the jury, Vanessa Paradis, are announced on the Norman red carpet Catherine Frot, Maïwenn, Benoît Poelvoorde, Louis Garrel, Pio Marmaï, Lucas Belvaux, Bruno Podalydès, Vincent Lacoste, Noémie Merlant, or Luana Bajrami.
A total of nine of the 52 films that had been selected for the aborted 2020 edition of the Cannes Film Festival will be screened in Deauville.
In this way, masked spectators will be presented successively in small rooms “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, “ADN” 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 the film crew is not in Deauville.
Along with these previews, 15 American films are in competition, including eight women films and seven first films. 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).
Eleanor Coppola, wife of Francis Ford, competes with “Love is love is love”, three stories that evoke love, commitment and loyalty in couples and among friends.
Great figure of American independent cinema, Kelly Reichardt is also selected with “First cow”, a reinterpretation of the western centered on the friendship between two men, a film which was also selected in Berlin.
30% fewer places
The competition brings together “a lot of films on female emancipation,” said Bruno Barde questioned by AFP during a press briefing. “There aren’t many films 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 organizers of the Norman festival, which usually attracts some 60,000 people, expect a 30% drop in attendance, corresponding to the reduction in room capacity for health reasons, they recalled Tuesday.
The Angoulême francophone cinema festival, which was held from August 28 to September 2, had 28,000 seats available against a usual attendance of 40,000. About sixty films were shown there.
In 2019, Deauville awarded Annie Silverstein’s “Bull”, a portrait of Trump’s America abandoned by his policies.
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