‘I’m very moved by this’: Harrison Ford accepts honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes film festival

Harrison Ford’s Palme d’Or

It was all about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny on Thursday night. The fifth film in the sequence premiered to the sort of red carpet that only Cannes can provide. Following the epic gathering around the famous steps, Harrison Ford received an honorary Palme d’Or from Iris Knobloch, the film festival’s president. The veteran actor clearly cared about the prize. “I’m very moved by this ... I’m so grateful to be able to work with artists like Jim, Phoebe, Mads, and I’m deeply moved by this honour,” Ford said, referring to his costars Mads Mikkelsen and Phoebe Waller-Bridge and to the film’s director, James Mangold. “But I got a movie you ought to see. It’s right behind me. So let me get out of the way and thank you again for this.”

Masturbation-scene accusations

Johnny Depp has been dispatched, but Cannes still has to juggle a few lingering controversies. The news that the competition had managed to include as many as seven films by women – a record – was somewhat tainted by serious accusations relating to the shooting of Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming. French newspapers reported harassment of workers and a controversial masturbation scene involving minors. The film was initially left out of the race for the Palme d’Or, but, following its late addition, Corsini issued an open letter defending her conduct. “Thankfully, the biggest festival in the world took the time to carefully check the truth,” it read. Speaking to the press following the film’s premiere, Corsini admitted that she could have handled things better. “I would ask myself more questions,” she said. “We should have intimacy coaches so that the actors feel comfortable ... We did a lot of preparation for these scenes in any event. Today, I now realise these are important issues I might call an intimacy coach on.”

Terry George and Mike Leigh’s next films

News of tantalising productions is spreading about an apparently busy Cannes film market. Terry George, the Belfast man who wrote In the Name of the Father and Some Mother’s Son, is set to embark on a new thriller entitled Riverman. Derived from diaries of an Afghan War veteran, the film is due to shoot in the UK and in the Saudi Arabian “smart city” of Neom. Also creating buzz is a new film from Mike Leigh. The veteran English director, winner of the Palme d’Or here for Secrets & Lies, in 1996, has complained that funding was becoming difficult, but his recently announced (undoubtedly improvised) new feature has sold to multiple territories. Few details have emerged, but, after moving to period material with Mr Turner and Peterloo, he seems to be returning to contemporary London.

Hollywood strike threat unnerves producers

The Writers Guild of America strike in the US is causing some problems for producers trying to get deals finalised on the Croisette. The trade papers report that all kinds of juicy projects are being floated but that start dates are likely to be pushed back if the strike continues. An unnamed agent told Variety that the industry is now also keeping an eye on the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America. “It’s not just about the WGA, it’s also about our clients in the DGA and SAG, and the bond companies are being mindful of a tri-guild strike,” the source said. “What would we do if we’re in the middle of production and the AD department” – the assistant directors, who essentially plan the shooting of a movie and keep it on track – “decides they aren’t coming on set tomorrow with the directors?”

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Cannes review: Monster

The first of this year’s returning Palme d’Or winners has laid out his challenge for the 2023 prize. Hirokazu Koreeda, who triumphed here with Shoplifters in 2018, re-enters with another humanistic tale from his native Japan. The new film is, however, his first from another writer’s script since his debut, way back in 1995.

Monster does move in familiar territory. The picture hangs around a mother’s efforts to have a teacher take responsibility for bullying her child. Koreeda has always been good with troubled families. He has always been a particularly good director of children. Sakura Ando has a quirky energy as harassed mum Saori. Soya Kurokawa conveys all sorts of competing stresses as Minato, her apparently traumatised son. But this is a much knottier, more convoluted affair than we expect from a master of the minor key. Yûji Sakamoto’s screenplay zips back in time to offer conflicting perspectives as the film spins to an ending that was causing much debate on the steps of the Palais.

The film-makers use the dramatic burning of a building housing a hostess bar as the starting point for its various retellings. It has been rumoured that Mr Hori (Eita Nagayama), the teacher who allegedly harassed Minato, visited the venue, so accusations of arson waft in his direction. When Saori visits the school to complain, she is met with condescension and obfuscation. It looks as if the establishment is shutting out justice.

As events progress, however, it becomes clear that nothing whatsoever is clear. Those switchbacks are initially invigorating, but in the closing act the confusions start to irritate just a little. What keeps the film fresh is Koreeda’s gift for low-key drama, the lulling imagery and, poignantly, a last great score from the recently deceased Ryuichi Sakamoto. His deceptively simple piano refrains add both tension and comfort to a spiky tale of tolerance.

Cannes review: Youth (Spring)

By one calculation Wang Bing’s study of textile workers in eastern China is the first documentary at Cannes in 15 years. That marker was Ari Folman’s animation Waltz with Bashir. We have to go back a little further to find the last live-action doc.

Anyway, Wang reintroduces the genre with a mighty blow in this moving, busy, occasional troubling sprawl across a full 212 minutes of clattering verite. His subjects are the young people – most identified as being between 20 and 24 – who make their way from rural villages to the town of Zhili, where they fashion garments for the world.

We should probably avoid the reductive term “sweatshop”, but western viewers will certainly have it on their minds as the characters furiously sew their way towards Stakhanovite challenges. It is a wonder that Wang Bing managed to persuade the managers – on this evidence less than avuncular – to film on the premises, but they do indeed seem to have given him total freedom. The workers strive in a shabby workplace, sleep in shabbier dormitories and occasionally make their way out to (such things still exist) internet cafes. They flirt with one another. They get in fights. Towards the middle of Youth (Spring) – apparently the first part in a trilogy – they make a determined attempt to get an increase in rates. They are called idiots and retards for their efforts.

The surprise is that Youth does not come across as a relentlessly miserable hike. The spirit of the young people is indomitable, and Wang Bing allows individual personalities to emerge with great economy. The film, of course, invites us to consider the human cost of cheap fashion, but it also allows us to celebrate the variety and resilience of ... youth.