A man.
A woman.
A deserted beach.
A turbulent sky.
Intoxicating music.
A 3-month-old idea.
A 3-week shoot.
A 20-second scene.
Eternity lasts but a moment in the end.
It was 60 years ago. In 1965, two damaged beings played by Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant met, charmed each other, resisted, and finally twirled under Claude Lelouch’s incandescent camera. The Palme d’or in Cannes in 1966, the two Oscars in Hollywood in 1967 and the dozens of awards around the world pale in comparison to this grandiose moment of tenderness, simplicity and beauty.
Because it is undoubtedly the 7th Art’s most famous embrace (“étreinte” in French, the anagram of “éternité”), because you can’t separate a man and a woman who love each other, because you can’t separate that Man from that Woman, the Festival de Cannes has chosen for the first time in its history to present a double official poster. A Man and a Woman. Side by side. Back together.
— He: When something’s not serious, we says it’s like a film. Why aren’t films taken seriously, do you think?
— She: Maybe because we only go to the cinema when all is going well?
— He: So you think we should go when all is going wrong?
— She: Why not?
During times that seem to want to separate, compartmentalize or subjugate, the Festival de Cannes wants to (re)unite; to bring bodies, hearts and souls closer together; to encourage freedom and portray movement in order to perpetuate it; to embody the whirlwind of life to celebrate it, again and again.
This man and this woman who both won awards in Cannes —Best Actor (Z, 1969), Best Actress (A Leap in the Dark (Salto nel vuoto), 1980)— are no more. These two posters also pay homage. Magnificent heroes of delicacy and seduction, Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant forever illuminate the film of our lives, like these two posters, whose colors express the intensity of a passionate love that triumphs over despair. This light no longer comes from the heavens, today troubled on all sides by dark clouds; it emerges from the radiant fusion of two beings who reconcile us with life.
