Festival de Cannes 2024, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

The team of Furiosa ©YesICannes.com

Agathe Riedinger’s Diamant Brut opens the race for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes 2024 Festival, followed by Magnus Von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle, while George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was screened out of Competition and made a sensation on La Croisette.

©YesICannes.com

Festival de Cannes 2024 : opening yesterday with Quentin Dupieux‘s Le Deuxième Acte, the 77th edition saw the official competition open with Wild Diamond by Agathe Riedinger and The Girl With The Needle by Magnus Von Horn. Screened out of competition, George Miller‘s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga caused a sensation on the Croisette with its grandiose action scenes set in a post-apocalyptic universe where chaos and desolation still plunge souls into despair.

©DR

Stunning direction

Whereas the opening film, The Second Act, was based on the finesse of the script and the prowess of the actors, George Miller’s new opus in the Mad Max saga required a profusion of resources to produce a film with breathtaking action scenes and chases, filmed to the millimetre, with renewed inventiveness, and a soundtrack of great amplitude majestically served by the space of the Grand Auditorium. Without a break, except towards the end when the pace slows and a philosophical backdrop emerges, the film transports us for 2 hours 28 minutes into the post-apocalyptic universe thirsting for petrol, water and violence that made Mad Max such a worldwide success.

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Cult films

George Miller, whose real name is George Miliotis, was born in 1945 in Chinchilla, a small town in Queensland. In 1971, he wrote and directed Violence in the Cinema, part 1, a short film that won two Australian Film Institute awards and was screened at festivals in Sydney and Moscow. This recognition reinforced George Miller’s commitment to filmmaking and encouraged him to make his first feature film. In 1979, he made Mad Max, inspired by the “outback gothic” genre then in vogue in Australia. This post-apocalyptic “desert-movie” revealed Mel Gibson in the role of Max Rockatansky, a crazy, cynical but endearing hero. Packed with ultra-violent action scenes and a touch of humour provided by the wacky characters, the film plays on the registers of Road Movie, Western and Science Fiction and has become a cult classic.

©DR

Again, focus on women

A mythical saga was born, which would continue with Mad Max 2: The Challenge in 1981 and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985. Thirty years on, Mad Max: Fury Road resurrects the hero in 2015 in the guise of Tom Hardy, accompanied by Charlize Theron. Ten times nominated for the 2016 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, it won nine Critics Choice Awards, including Best Director. In Fury Road, Mad Max dangled like a leek from a pole, and Charlize took the prize. In Furiosa, he’s absent – we just see his car in one scene for a fleeting glance – and it’s once again a woman, Furiosa (Alyla Browne – Young – and Anya Taylor-Joy) who carries the hopes of a better future – tattooed in her skin – in the face of Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) as well as the “seed” that will eventually grow into a human body. When you go to see this film, may the stars be with you!

©Silex Films

Diamant Brut, the facets of appearances

In Brut Diamond by Agathe Riedinger we meet up again with Liane, the heroine of J’attends Jupiter, the French director’s 2017 short film, this time in sunny Fréjus in the Var. Suffocating in the South of France, which is too small for her incandescent personality, she wants to achieve fame and sees in reality TV a brighter future, which her beauty makes her glimpse and deserve. A phone call turns her life upside down: she’s been called for the casting of ‘Miracle Island’. With Idir Azougli and Andréa Bescond, Liane (Malou Khebizi) comes from humble beginnings and is looking for a meteoric rise up the social ladder.

©Lukasz Bak

Pigen Med Nålen, a national trauma

After The Here After at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes in 2015, Swedish director Magnus Von Hornen entered the Official Selection in 2020 with Sweat. He returns to Cannes with Pigen Med Nålen (The Young Woman with the Needle). The film is based on true events, the most controversial murder case in Danish history. A national trauma that reverberates through time and can still remind us today of what it means to turn a blind eye to the horrors of society. With her husband missing in action, Karoline (Victoria Carmen Sonne) tries to escape poverty and find a better life. But Karoline’s moral compass easily loses its direction and life becomes a living hell.