Columnist/International Editor At Large
EXCLUSIVE: Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) agreed that making Cannes opening-night film Final Cut (Coupez!) with filmmaker husband Michel Hazanavicius (The Players) had been a family affair.
Pausing for a split second to make a mental calculation, she began, “Our daughter, his daughter, a niece who was the camera woman in the film, and our son who you barely saw — yes, it was a family affair.”
To explain, she’s referring to the couple’s daughter Gloria, Hazanavicius’ daughter Simone from a previous relationship, his brother’s daughter and niece Raika and the couple’s teenage son Lucien.
”That’s right,” Bejo told Deadline at the opening-night dinner for Final Cut at the Hotel Martinez. “We wanted the family close. The pandemic was going on and it gave us peace of mind to all be together.”
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It was well after midnight, probably closer to 1am, and following each conversation with a mixture of guests, Bejo inched further towards the exit where very nice young people were handing out goodie bags of L’Oreal cosmetics plus a book of photographs and text by Vincent Delerm.
The tome featured a page of nine photos of Cannes Film Festival head Thierry Fremaux demonstrating the correct way to put on a tie. No doubt he and his public relations team spent many hours on photo and caption approval.
Lashana Lynch (No Time To Die) was seated at the top table. The London-based actress told Deadline she was a guest of the festival. “I’m simply here to watch films. What a treat.”
Rossy de Palma (Parallel Mothers), a favorite of Pedro Almodovar’s (Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown) was holding court at her table, fellow guests were drawn to her like bees to honey. Something about her simple but vivacious style held people’s attention. She wore a black double-breasted coat dress but what made the outfit pop was her smack of rouge lipstick and red leather gloves peeking out of her black patent leather purse.
Pierre Zeni described himself to Deadline as the “Voice of Cannes.” He explained that it’s his voice that we hear announcing guests arriving on the red carpet at the Palais.
Does he ever get a tongue-twister, I wondered.
Zeni recalled when Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palme d’Or in 2010 for Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, “I practiced for hours. Some names like that you want to get absolutely right. They’re often not pronounced the way they’re written.”
Zeni and his guest didn’t remain at table 64 for long. Perhaps he thought there’d be a test for the correct way to pronounce this reporter’s surname, Bamigboye (think of the song “Oh, Danny Boy…”) .
That meant a double portion of of purple asparagus from Grasse for me. The gentleman on my right, film director Giulio Base (Postcards from Rome) urged me not to forgo the half-cooked (chaud-froid) trout from Vaucluse with fresh smoked infusion with soufflé black rice from Camargue. Delicious.
It was right and proper that Fremaux called for us to applaud chef Christian Sinicropi and his team from Restaurant La Palme d’or at the Hotel Martinez.
Interesting, that after watching a vampire comedy, so many of us were ravenous.
Probably just as well there was no meat on the menu.
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