All the poetic beauty, hypnotic magic and apparent simplicity of the cinema emerge in this scene from Rhapsody in August, authored by the great Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, 81 at the time. In this film, presented Out of Competition in Cannes in 1991, a grandmother who was a victim of the Nagasaki bombing on August 9, 1945, passes on her faith in love and integrity as a bulwark against war to her grandchildren and her American nephew, with tenderness and contemplation. The next-to-last film by the director of Sanshiro Sugata, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Dersu Uzala and Dodes’ka-den reminds us of the importance of coming together, and seeking harmony in all things.
Mirroring the movie theater, this poster celebrates the Seventh Art, with naivety and wonder. Because it gives everyone a voice, it enables emancipation. Because it remembers wounds, it combats oblivion. Because it bears witness to perils, it calls for union. Because it soothes trauma, it helps repair the living.
In a fragile world that constantly questions otherness, the Festival de Cannes reaffirms a conviction: cinema is a universal sanctuary for expression and sharing. A place where our humanity is written as much as our freedom.
