The Chivalry alerts are daily reports from Cannes with Chivas, Official Partner of the Cannes Film Festival. Each alert gives you an exclusive, insider’s view of the most chivalrous moment witnessed by Olivier Bassil each day at the Festival.
As the curtain is about to come down in Cannes, the world has been awaiting the word of the jury panel, which has just announced tonight the much-awaited news of the winner of the coveted Palme d’Or: Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Throughout the festival, the members of the Jury have highlighted the importance of chivalrous values in succeeding in the film industry.
Gael Garcia Bernal, who presides over the Camera Jury, which will award the best first film, expressed a sense of team-spirit in an interview from Cannes this week, gallantly paying tribute to the works of directors with whom he has previously collaborated: “I think everyone is in the same spirit. I hate choosing like this because you leave out so many and also you leave no room for the new filmmakers. But I think I would choose all the directors that I’ve worked with: Alfonso Cuarón, Walter Salles, or Almodovar, Iñárritu, Fernando Meirelles, Michel Gondry…You know, they each have a very strong personal point of view and that makes them at the same time similar but also different.”
Another chivalrous value also shared by the Jury was passion for cinema. For example:
Kate Beckinsale: “I remember falling in love with French cinema when I was 15 years old. I went to Paris with my family every year for Easter and we used to go to the little cinemas around Saint-Michel to see classics like Les 400 Coups (The 400 Blows). That’s when I decided I wanted to be an actress.”
Alberto Barbera: “My passion for film started when I was four and a half years old. I went to the cinema in the little village where I was born. Everything I have learned about life has come to me by way of film.”
Atom Egoyan: “I think it is about finding a language that is able to harness their passion, in a way which is both elegant and profound.
Carlos Diegues: “It’s obvious when you make a film, when you love cinema, it becomes manifest in everything you do. And that’s what we’re going to be looking for in all the films we’re going to see.”