Martin Scorsese and the entire team of the film Killers of the flower moon received no less than nine minutes of standing ovation on Saturday night after the screening at the Lumière Theater of this ambitious story of three and a half hours which rescues one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the United States: the genocide committed against the Osage Indians in Oklahoma in the 1920s. "When I got the script I knew immediately that I had to approach this tribe with a lot of respect," Scorsese explained at a packed press conference in the presence of Osage Chief Standing Bear, who showed his gratitude to the director "for having restored the confidence of his people in white men".
Winner of the Palme d'Or for Taxi driver and the award for best director for Quina nit! , Scorsese reveals that he was moved by the reading of the events and wanted to know everything about this tribe. "It's overwhelming... the more things I discovered, the more I wanted to contribute."
He also had words in relation to the war in Ukraine: "I feel very nervous about Russia's aggression; very nervous for that whole area". "The younger generations don't remember the Second World War. My feeling is that, coming from a country that has a republic, which implies freedom of speech, you can have an adversary without driving him crazy or killing him. We must live in peace." And he added: "The problems that are experienced today are even deeper than when fascism destroyed democracy in the 1930s".
The film, which arrives at the Croisette out of competition, adapts David Grann's novel of the same name with the exceptional Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio as protagonists alongside the magnificent surprise of Lily Gladstone's performance, and the cameo of Scorsese himself in the brilliant final scene. De Niro plays Bill Hale, a powerful rancher who poses as a friend of the wealthy Osage oil nation with the help of his nephew Ernest (DiCaprio), a dim-witted man who has just returned from the war and whom he manipulates marry one of the earldom's heiresses. "Scorsese manages to bring out the human side of the most sinister and cruel characters", assured the actor, who considers the film to be a "tribute to the true story that happened". De Niro, who at the age of 79 has become a father again, commented that it is difficult for him to understand his character. “He's a man who tries to be charming to the Osage and then betrays them. It has that double face that has become a systematic thing". And it didn't take long to draw a parallel between his role and Donald Trump, without mentioning him.
Once in competition, Todd Haynes aspires to the Palme d'Or with May December, his umpteenth foray into melodrama with a story based on real events and starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore that proposes a game of mirrors that has convinced a much of the press. Portman plays an actress who will make a film about an atypical family. Gracie (Moore) is a woman married to a man 23 years her junior with whom she began having relations when he was only 13. Despite all the initial scandal, their marriage has survived. But the arrival of the actress at home to prepare for the role and the children's graduation shake the relationship.
"At what age of life do we consider a relationship inappropriate? Human beings impose limits on themselves, but here we see Gracie transgressing that line,” says Moore. "The age difference is a transgression, but also an opportunity to look at ourselves again", reflects Haynes. And Portman refers to her character and Moore's as "extremely complex, conflicted, delicious and full of love." Without a doubt, the two of them are the best thing about the movie.
