Once upon a time in America

Films tell the story of the United States at the Deauville American Film Festival, where “In the Summers” was awarded the Grand Prix for the 50th edition, and where Francis Ford Coppola and Natalie Portman received standing ovations in recent days.

On the opening night of the 50th Deauville American Film Festival, Camélia Jordana sang the song “Un homme et une femme”, in tribute to Anouk Aimée. Each evening before the screenings, a Chanel commercial was broadcast, featuring Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz in a mini-remake of Claude Lelouch’s film. Logically, just a few meters from the boards and beach where he filmed, the French filmmaker closed the festival on Saturday evening with his 51st film, “Finalement” (out November 13), starring Kad Merad as a trumpeter and with music composed by Ibrahim Maalouf (who was removed from the festival jury). “Everything that happens to us is for our own good”, promises this story about ‘health, love, friendship, family and money’.

The day before, Claude Lelouch was already on stage, among a dozen former jury presidents of the Normandy festival, Costa-Gavras, Christophe Honoré, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Pierre Lescure, Guillaume Canet, Audrey Dana, Mélanie Thierry, Clémence Poésy, Elodie Bouchez, Anne Berest, Rebecca Zlotowsky… who came to celebrate this 50th anniversary.

“Two friends have become lovers”

“I have a lot of very good personal memories here,” confided Francis Ford Coppola.

One of the most memorable moments of the evening was the superb standing ovation given by the audience to the legendary director Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather”, “Apocalypse Now”…). “I’ve got a lot of great personal memories here,” confided the old director, before the screening of his new dinguerie, ‘Megalopolis’ (out September 25), a spectacular science-fiction fable. Coppola recounted how, 62 years ago, in a nearby hotel, “two friends became lovers”, and that was the beginning of his story with Eleanor, his wife and close collaborator, who died in April.

Michael Douglas, who also has “personal memories” of Deauville, was there for the opening, and Natalie Portman was present at the closing ceremony, to receive a tribute from Isabelle Adjani, before the winners were revealed, the jury being chaired this year by actor Benoît Magimel. Already an award-winner at Sundance, Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio’s “In the summers” took the Grand Prix and Prix de la Révélation; this sensitive first film about the father-daughter relationship tells the story of two daughters’ summer visits to their “loving and reckless” but also very dependent father.

“Choices have consequences and determine our future”, says the director at the start of ‘The Knife’ by Nnamdi Asomugha, winner of the Prix du Jury; also the main actor in this stressful tale, the director filmed ‘an ordinary family in extraordinary circumstances, plunged into a skewed system from the outset’, during a night disrupted by the intrusion of an unknown woman into their home. Moved by a tragic tale of immigration, the Deauville public awarded its prize to Brandt Andersen’s “The Stranger’s Case”, starring Omar Sy as a bastard. “Hollywood thinks you don’t want to see films about refugees”, said the director, who has yet to find a distributor in France.

Racism, violence, immigration…

Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios' “La Cocina”, winner of the 50th Barrière Prize, is an immersion into the tumultuous kitchens of a New York restaurant. — Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “La Cocina”, winner of the 50th Barrière Prize, is an immersion into the tumultuous kitchens of a New York restaurant.

The critics’ jury chose David Fortune’s “Color Book”, which tenderly evokes the father-son relationship, the latter being “different”, Down’s syndrome and now without a mother. “It’s an everyday struggle, which contains beauty and joy. It’s never easy to accept people who are different,” says the director. The Prix Barrière du 50ème was awarded to “La Cocina” by Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios (whose “Un homme et une femme” is his father’s favorite film), an immersion into the tumultuous kitchens of a New York restaurant, where most of the employees are immigrants. And the special 50th Anniversary Canal+ Prize goes to Todd Wiseman Jr.’s “The School Duel”, a creepy dystopia: to reduce school shootings, a televised tournament is organized in which college students are driven to kill each other.

The Festival had also scheduled a tribute to documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman (94), but the “master filmmaker” was unable to travel to Deauville for health reasons. Under the label “Once Upon a Time in America”, three of his films made in the 70s (“Law and Order”, “Hospital”, “Juvenile Court”) have been restored and are now in theaters. Wiseman filmed an American reality: justice, the hospital, the police… and the films presented at the Festival also tell the story of the United States: racism, violence, prison, social misery, immigration, guns, the difference… Once upon a time, America.

Patrick TARDIT

50th Deauville American Film Festival, www.festival-deauville.com