The opening ceremony of the 75th Cannes Film Festival was emotionally charged, in particular by the speech of its jury president Vincent Lindon, who moved festival-goers and viewers.
In addition to the striking appearance of the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyon the giant screen of the Théâtre Lumière, the opening ceremony of the 75th Cannes Film Festival also made a big impression on festival-goers and viewers thanks to the president of the jury Vincent Lindon.
After a celebration of his career on video, the actor appeared on stage, already very moved, with a long and memorable speech that he had taken care to write because “It was the only way that[il a] found to be able to speak”. It was in this Théâtre Lumière where he had received the first prize of his career, that of Best Actor for La Loi du Marché, that Vincent Lindon captivated his audience with a text of great power.
“Can we do anything other than use cinema, this weapon of massive emotion to awaken consciences and shake up indifference? I can’t imagine it! That the evocative power and depth of the works of great filmmakers, have no influence on the course of the world. I can’t imagine it either!
Even if it amounts to scooping the hull of a ship that fills up in waves with a thimble, our strength is that we believe in it, and that your works are immortal. Even if sometimes, when the news crushes us and discouragement overtakes me, I wonder if we are not dancing on the Titanic…
Perhaps then, if we listened, we would hear, in the midst of the din of empires and nations, like a tender and weak rustle of wings, the soft murmur of life and hope. The time has come for artists, responsible filmmakers, to carry us, to feed our imagination, and help us, to repeat ourselves in ourselves, whenever we can, in tribute to all those who suffer and who fight in the world: to be alive and to know it.”
Vincent Lindon’s brilliant speech moved the festival-goers present in the halls of the Palais des Festivals as much as the viewers and Internet users who followed the broadcast of the ceremony on France Télévisions and Brut, who signed record audiences.
According to figures from Médiamétrie quoted by the public channel, the opening ceremony of the Cannes festival was followed by 1.77 million viewers on France 2, which represents the best audience for a broadcast of the ceremony since 2011.
On the online media side Brut, “the videos published on the occasion of the opening ceremony recorded a total of 10.6 million views worldwide, including 5.2 million in France”according to the press release.
(Re)listen to our special Cannes 2022 podcast dedicated to Vincent Lindon: