Sophie Marceau creates discomfort, Kristin Scott Thomas forced to intervene

In seventy-four editions, the Cannes Film Festival has had time to be marked by controversy and scandal. On May 17, the 75th edition of one of the major cinematographic events will take place on the Croisette, with actress Virginie Efira as mistress of ceremony this year. While the official selection has not yet been unveiled, just like the jury and its president, it is impossible to think of the Cannes Film Festival without remembering certain highlights, such as the day in 1999 when Sophie Marceau was booed by the assembly, in the middle of the closing ceremony. Responsible for awarding the Palme d’or to the Dardenne brothers for their film Rosettathe star of The party delivered a confused and disjointed speech.

“I wanted to talk to you about something other than cinema, because there are other important things […] and then I spent a day with seriously ill children and I can tell you that cinema is something that matters in the world, rather than making war, we make cinema. And I’m telling you, it makes people dream, and it gives them…a goal, a project…short term and something that stays forever…”she continued under the boos, before being interrupted by the mistress of ceremonies, Kristin Scott Thomas. “If I bore you, tell me”retorted Sophie Marceau, then leaving the floor to David Cronenberg, president of the jury, to announce the Palme d’Or.

Sophie Marceau confides in this outcry

An embarrassing moment for the actress, who will subsequently return several times to the Cannes Film Festival, without ever forgetting this outcry of 1999. “I was not in the mood. I had just returned from an afternoon with my association Arc-en-Ciel, which takes care of sick children. The transition was a little difficult…”she admitted in 2021 in the columns of the JDDexplaining that when he arrived, he was given “absurd texts [qu’elle n’a] didn’t want to read”. “Normally, I prepare things well. There I got confused, I had a hole. I felt it coming… It happens, it’s just boring when it’s in Cannes”, she confided. A speech that will later have some impact on Sophie Marceau, who during the official dinner held after the ceremony was ignored by the world of cinema. “J‘ve seen the job like politics: all the people turned their heads away. Except the American Anjelica Huston, who told him: ‘Tonight, you were like everyone else. It’s not serious'”confided Dominique Besnehard to Tele-Leisure.