“The Return”, a feature film by Catherine Corsini, joins the list of 21 films in the running for the Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, the organizers announced on Monday April 24. According to information from Le Parisien and Télérama, this film was initially to appear in the official selection unveiled in mid-April by the general delegate of the festival, Thierry Frémaux, before being temporarily withdrawn. In question, suspicions of harassment and an irregularity concerning a scene involving an underage actress.
The selection “was not canceled but the board of directors wanted to know more about the situation of the work”, had then told the Parisian the Cannes Film Festival, which therefore finally included it in its list of films in competition. This work was nevertheless the subject of a rare measure: the National Cinema Center deprived it of financial assistance because a scene involving a minor had not been declared to a commission responsible for studying the requests for filming with children, the organization told AFP.
Catherine Corsini, 66, had been in competition on the Croisette in 2021 with “La Fracture”, a film featuring a couple of women (Marina Foïs and Valéria Bruni-Tedeschi) stuck in the hospital one evening of violent demonstrations and repressions “yellow vests”. With this selection, seven women will compete for the Palme d’Or this year, an unprecedented number. They were five in the running in 2022.
For his part, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, 54, will present “Black Flies”, a thriller following two doctors in New York, adapted from the novel “911” by Shannon Burke. He was last present at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, out of competition, with “A Prayer Before Dawn”, about a Briton finding himself in a Thai prison and discovering boxing there.
Both join a competition which includes the American Wes Anderson, the British Ken Loach and the Frenchwoman Catherine Breillat. A total of 14 films joined the Official Selection on Monday, including “Love and Forests” by French director Valérie Donzelli, “L’abbé Pierre – Une vie de combats”, biopic on the life of the association’s founder Emmaüs directed by Frédéric Tellier, and “Perdidos en la noche” by Mexican Amat Escalante, who won the prize for directing in 2013 with “Heli”.
