The Cannes Film Festival in ten snapshots

The 78th edition of the world's most important film festival , the Cannes Film Festival, began yesterday, Tuesday. Here are the ten highlights of this year's event:

- A man and a woman

At almost ninety years old, a youthful Claude Lelouch signed the poster for the 78th Cannes Film Festival right in the street on opening day. The poster, dedicated in a double montage to his famous film A Man and a Woman (1966), starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée, dominates La Croisette from all sides. Lelouch—wearing a windbreaker, jeans, and sporty sunglasses—was delighted by the hustle and bustle around him and by the tribute to a film that won the Palme d'Or more than half a century ago.

- Hell in the kitchen

The opening night at Cannes is once again a nonsense. Since the unwritten rule of opening the festival with a French film the week of its release was imposed, the options have narrowed to the point of nothing. This is a unique international showcase dedicated to the French market, and it gets worse every year. This time, the honor goes to Partir un jour , the musical drama by director Amélie Bonnin starring French actress and singer-songwriter Juliette Armanet. The story follows a successful cook (winner of a cooking talent show ) who returns to her parents' roadside restaurant, which is the subject of The Kitchen War, and whose family dog ​​is named Bocuse. Thus, between plating and singing, old and new cuisine, represented by father and daughter, maintain a dramatic pulse while the fire of a teenage love is rekindled.

- 100 years of The Gold Rush

The excitement of seeing the restored version of Chaplin's The Gold Rush was palpable on Tuesday in the Debussy Room at Cannes. Thierry Frémaux presented it with two of the legend's grandsons and those responsible for restoring the film as Chaplin conceived it in 1925. The restoration involved the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, the BFI National Archive, the Filmoteca de Catalunya, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), among other institutions. His grandson, Charles Spencer, recalled how The Gold Rush was a very expensive production for its time and how Chaplin built a mountain of snow for sets. The first sequence, which was filmed outdoors, depicts a dramatic adventure in which Charlie Chaplin performs his famous shoe sequence. Cold, hunger, and loneliness plague the poor, tender tramp. More than half of yesterday's audience raised their hands, confessing that they were seeing the film for the first time. But a century later, the excitement and laughter remained intact.

- Spaniards on the Croisette

The anticipation surrounding the two Spanish films participating in Cannes' official competition section is enormous. Oliver Laxe 's Sirat will open the competition this Thursday. Since his debut film, Todos Ustedes Sois Capitánes (2010), Laxe has been linked to this festival, then part of Directors' Fortnight and later, with Mimosas , in Critics' Week. Carla Simón, competing next week, arrives backed by her Golden Bear at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival for Alcarrás. Outside the official section, Ciudad sin sueño, the feature film debut by Guillermo López García, shot in Madrid's Cañada Real with live actors, is participating in Critics' Week, whose jury is chaired this year by another Spaniard, director Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

- 'Enzo'

The posthumous film by French filmmaker Laurent Cantet, winner of the Palme d'Or for The Class in 2008 and who died last spring at the age of 63, opens the prestigious Directors' Fortnight, which this year features a poster designed by American director Harmony Korine. Some 30 films will be screened, including feature-length, medium-length, and short films. Enzo, which Robin Campillo completed filming and editing, tells the story of a 16-year-old bricklayer apprentice who confronts his father, disappointed that his son hasn't continued with higher education. In the film, far from family pressure, Enzo befriends another Ukrainian worker.

- In Search of Magellan

A Portuguese, French, and Spanish co-production shot in the Canary Islands, Filipino director Lav Diaz's biopic of Ferdinand Magellan is divided into three parts, the first of which (almost three hours long) will be released in the coming days at Cannes Premiere. Magellan, played by Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, focuses on the relationship between the Portuguese explorer and his wife Beatriz Barbosa de Magallanes, whom he married in 1517, two years before the explorer set out on the expedition to Southeast Asia from which he never returned.

- Seven women: Reichardt, Ramsay, Ducournau, Hayakawa...

Seven of the films in competition this year are directed by women. From the latest work by the director of Titane, Frenchwoman Julia Ducournau (Alpha), to The Mastermind; to the new film by American Kelly Reichardt, one of the most relevant voices in current cinema; Die My Love, by British director Lynne Ramsay; and what could be one of the big surprises of the selection, Renoir, by Japanese director Chie Hayakawa. Reichardt will close the competition with the story of an art heist set in the 1970s, with a cast that includes Josh O'Connor, Alana Haim, and John Magaro. Ramsay's film is a psychological thriller based on the novel by Argentine director Ariana Harwicz about a mother (Jennifer Lawrence) in crisis after giving birth.

- And from Julian Assange to Orwell and Jayne Mansfield

Documentaries arriving at Cannes tend to be pleasant surprises. Among those scheduled for the coming days, and as part of a special session, will be the screening of Eugene Jarecki's The Six Billion Dollar Man, about Julian Assange . The Cannes Premiere also features Orwell: 2+2=5, directed and produced by Raoul Peck, about the life and work of the British writer, and Mariska Hargitay's film about her mother, actress Jayne Mansfield.

- Tom Cruise's final jump

The star of the first few days, with the permission of Robert De Niro, who received the Honorary Palme d'Or this Tuesday with a speech against Trump, will be his compatriot Tom Cruise with the final installment of Mission: Impossible, titled Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, it's hard to believe that this new installment, in principle the closing of the famous saga started in the 1990s by Brian de Palma, will surpass the action-packed thriller of the first part, released two years ago. Cruise, 62, has to cool down his adrenaline rush and say goodbye to his favorite character, Ethan Hunt.

- Trio of aces: Godard, Linklater and Wes Anderson

Nostalgia will arrive thanks to Richard Linklater and his Nouvelle Vague, a black-and-white film that tells the story of Jean-Luc Godard 's adventures during the filming of his debut feature, Breathless (1959), on the streets of Paris. Nostalgia also informs the vision of Wes Anderson, a Cannes regular, who will bring his new work, The Phoenician Scheme, starring Benicio Del Toro and Scarlett Johansson, an actress who, like Kristen Stewart, is making her directorial debut in another of the parallel sections, Un Certain Regard.