‘Titane’ Wins Palme d’Or in Chaotic Cannes Film Festival

Spike Lee, the president of the jury on the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, by accident introduced that Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” received the Palme d’Or in what have been speculated to be his opening remarks on the awards ceremony. The revelation rocked the gang contained in the Grand Theatre Lumiere, and set social media abuzz initially of a ceremony that historically ends with the crowning of the Palme winner.

His slip-up got here when a ceremony host, French actress Doria Tiller, requested Lee, “Can you tell me which prize is the first prize?” Lee obtained to his toes, and as an alternative of telling her that the most effective actor award could be the primary one handed out, mentioned, “Yes, I can. The film that won the Palme d’Or is ‘Titane.’” Fellow juror Melanie Laurent reached for Lee and shouted, “No!” whereas different jurors laughed or buried their faces of their palms.

At the top of the ceremony, when it fell to Lee to formally announce what he’d already let slip, he mentioned, “I know I took a lot of suspense out of the night. It wasn’t on purpose.”

After the ceremony throughout the jury press convention, Lee apologized once more for the blunder.

“I have no excuses. I messed up,” he mentioned. “I’m a big sports fan. It’s like the guy at the end of the game in the foul line, he misses the free throw, or a guy misses a kick. I was very specific to speak to the people of Cannes and tell them that I apologize. They said forget about it.”

“Titane” would have been a daring and provocative win underneath any circumstances as a result of “Raw” director Ducournau’s movie is way extra daring, violent and sexual than the standard Palme d’Or winner. The movie stars Agathe Rouselle as a kinky 32-year-old serial killer who, to flee the police, pretends that she’s a 19-year-old boy who has been lacking for years, and persuades that boy’s father (Vincent Lindon) that she’s his long-lost son.

It’s a horror film of kinds, albeit one with a number of intercourse. As Ben Croll wrote in his overview for TheWrap, “Ducournau’s follow-up to ‘Raw’ is more than comfortable in its genre trappings, offering grab bag nods to past masters and positively delighting in sex, violence and grisly prosthetics as it chants ‘Long live the new flesh’ from the film world’s toniest perch, inviting all gathered to join along.”

The win makes Ducournau solely the second feminine director to win the Palme d’Or, after Jane Campion for “The Piano” in 1993. (Actresses Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos have been particularly named within the Palme quotation for “Blue Is the Warmest Color” in 2013, however that movie was directed by Abdellatif Kechiche.) “Titane” additionally turns into the second consecutive victory for a movie distributed by Neon, which additionally had 2019 Cannes (and Oscar) winner “Parasite.”

Asghar Farhadi’s tense ethical drama “A Hero” and Juho Kuosmanen’s slow-paced “Compartment No. 6” shared the Grand Prize, which fits to the second-place movie. “A Hero” might be distributed within the U.S. by Amazon, whereas “Compartment No. 6” was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics after its Cannes premiere.

Caleb Landry Jones was named winner of the most effective actor award for his efficiency as a real-life mass shooter in Justin Kurzel’s “Nitram.” Renate Reinsve received the most effective actress prize for Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World.”

Two movies shared the Jury Prize, which is actually Cannes’ third-place award: “Memoria,” a dreamy movie starring Tilda Swinton and directed by former Palme winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and “Ahed’s Knee,” from Israeli director Nadav Lapid.

The greatest director prize went to Leos Carax for the opening-night movie, “Annette,” a musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard with songs by the band Sparks. The screenplay award went to writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi for his Haruki Murakami adaptation “Drive My Car.”

The Camera…