The news falls in the early morning, sharp as a cleaver. It is indeed the Swede Ruben Östlund, a great renderer of the puffiness and turpitude of Western society, already the holder of two Palmes d’Or, who will officiate at the head of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival, during its 76e edition to be held from May 16 to 27.
Born in Styrsö, aged 48, author of six feature films made since 2004, Östlund is a filmmaker whose taste for uneasy satire and robust appetite for the sordid divide viewers quite deeply. It is none the less “creature”so to speak, of the Cannes Film Festival which, striking the iron while it is hot, does not fail to recall it by appointing it this year president of the jury.
Happy Sweden – an essay on Swedish entomology applied to its nationals – thus found itself in the official selection of Un Certain Regard in 2008. Play – a devious gang of black teenagers extorting docile petty bourgeois Sweden – was in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2011. Snow Therapy – a father abandons his family following an avalanche – appeared once more in Un certain regard in 2014.
“Happy, proud and full of humility”
More recently, The Squares (2017) – stained glass of the contemporary art world – then Without filter (2022) – addendum scatologique au Capital by Karl Marx – won the available Palmes d’Or during their competition. We sometimes hear that going through the Cannes Film Festival, including the Palme d’Or, would no longer be likely to influence the success of a film or a career. In this case, it would be necessary to reconcile the figures for Östlund’s first and last film distributed in France – 1,370 spectators for Happy Sweden568 000 pour Without filter – to convince yourself that the martingale is highly recommended.
The lucky winner, who will therefore preside over the destinies of the next Cannes competitors, declared when he learned of his appointment: “I am happy, proud and humbled to be entrusted with the honor of presiding over the Cannes Film Festival jury this year. No other place in the world sparks such a desire for cinema when the curtain goes up on a film in competition. How lucky to be there with these fine connoisseurs who are the Cannes festival-goers. I sincerely believe that the culture of cinema is going through a crucial period. Cinema is unique. We share it. Looking together demands more of the thing represented and increases the intensity of the experience. It sends us back something so different than the dopamine secreted by scrolling through individual screens. »
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