Lynne Ramsay, Rebecca Zlotowski, Agnes Jaoui Breakthrough On Guy-Laden Cannes Director Panel; Nicolas Winding Refn Makes Surprise Appearance

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read
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In part deux today of the Cannes Film Festival symposium on cinema, three female filmmakers were represented in You Were Never Really Here‘s Lynne Ramsay and Grand Central‘s Rebecca Zlotowski and French actress/director/scribe Agnes Jaoui, unlike yesterday when it was all men. The festival on social media took a licking for being tone deaf in the wake of yesterday’s panel.

Cannes Film Festival Boss Thierry Frémaux returned with Guillermo del Toro to lead what was, again, another three hour discussion about the potential death of cinema and its future.

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“There will always be obstacles,” said Ramsay, “Necessity is the mother of invention. You shouldn’t feel depressed because of difficulties, even if my 7-year-old daughter says to me, ‘Mom, don’t make movies anymore, you have the look so sad!”

Jaoui, who won Best Screenplay for Look at Me at Cannes in 2004, spoke about how in regards to job offers, it’s streaming/TV winning out:  “I’m at the stage in my career where if my next film is in the cinema, it’s for a few and not much money. If I make a series, it might be more money and easier in the sense, but far more constraints.”

When asked by Frémaux about the future of the big screen, Jaoui said that won’t stop her in her career.

“I couldn’t stop doing what I do. I also work in theater. If I can’t be free doing a film, I’ll turn to theater or literature,” she added.

Completely unannounced today was Drive filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn. He was here at Cannes in 2019 with an Amazon series Too Old to Die Young and it was at that time that he announced to the Palais, that he’s seen the future and it’s streaming in its long-form storytelling. However, today, he mentioned that “cinema is the underdog” and because of that, it has a fighting chance to come back, but “we need to approach it and have a rebellious nature” as filmmakers.

“I’ll only make cinema for the next many years,” Winding Refn said, “You have to make it otherwise you don’t have a purpose.”

“Nothing has ever died, nothing has ever gone away,” said the filmmaker about art, and in this case cinema. “It just evolves or gives us more canvasses. Who is not to say that a few people getting in front of the TV screen is not as sacred as walking into an arthouse theater.”

“Remember, the reality is that technology enhances creativity and opportunities,” he continued.

“No art form has ever disappeared; it’s been changed or challenged. I think certain things are too strong to fall out of fashion. More than ever, cinema needs people like us to go out and do a lot of mayhem; fight for the kids,” said the Neon Demon director.

“That’s the thing going back to cinema, you have to go back with philosophy and inspiration; what is really needed. We don’t need really big films that appeal, that have a certain sensibility and not mattering to expression. That’s the key of art. Art is there to polarize,” Winding Refn added.

“Art is the only thing that AI can’t duplicate,” he said, “Cinema is the art form that the AI can’t get access to.”

Also on today’s panel were filmmakers Abderrahmane Sissako, Abel Ferrara, Laurent Cantet, Pawel Pawlikowski and Joachim Lafosse.

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