Martin Scorsese in Cannes, look back on half a century of eventful idyll

The first time he landed in Cannes, his name meant nothing to anyone. It was in 1974. Martin Scorsese was 32 years old, two films (Who's That Knocking at My Door, Bertha Boxcar) and a participation in the documentary Woodstock to his credit. He came to present his first real feature film, Mean Streets, on the Croisette. This dive into New York thugs announces his future filmography. Charlie and Johnny Boy try to break into the business in Little Italy. Alongside Harvey Keitel, Robert de Niro is an unstable young striker, riddled with debt and too eager to arrive. It was the start of a long collaboration between the director and the man who was to become his favorite actor.

Bob made the trip to Cannes. The two men sleep at the Negresco, in Nice. Palace life. Too happy to mix with the big shots of European cinema, the young Scorsese meets Fellini and talks with Wim Wenders – also back this year. The film is presented in the Directors' Fortnight, a selection born five years earlier, supposed to be less academic and intended to highlight a more daring cinema. Even if the journalists do not fight to interview John Cassavetes' protege, Mean Streets, shot on a modest budget, causes a sensation.

The following year, Scorsese joined the competition with Alice is no longer here. This portrait of a woman who set off on the roads of America after the death of a violent husband seduced critics, but left empty-handed. The consecration will come in 1976. The director presents in official competition Taxi Driver, the pathetic odyssey of a taxi driver in the seedy streets of New York. Martin Scorsese has put a lot of himself into the screenplay of this screenplay by Paul Schrader. Robert de Niro streaks the film with bursts of madness.

Upon his arrival in Cannes, Scorsese discovered in the press that the president of the jury, Tennessee Williams, found the film too brutal. Despite the very good reception that followed the screening, the young director, depressed, decided to return to Los Angeles. Three days later, at 6:30 am, he was woken up by his agent who told him that he had just won the Palme d'Or. This is no miracle. Sergio Leone and Costa-Gavras pushed for his consecration. Fans of Taxi Driver, the two directors had tried during a dinner to dissuade Scorsese from leaving the Croisette.

With Taxi Driver, debutante Jodie Foster makes her screen debut in the role of a prostitute and her first steps on the Croisette. In 2016, she told her experience at Le Figaro: “The studio did not want to pay my ticket. He said that Robert de Niro, Harvey Keitel and Martin Scorsese would make the trip and that was enough. My mother told them that I was the only one who spoke French. She got me a ticket and we landed in Cannes. Scorsese and the others were staying at Cap d'Antibes. There was such a debate over the violence of the movie that they all stayed hidden there. So I was the only one on the Croisette giving press conferences and talking to journalists. »

Jodie Foster added that she found Robert de Niro shy under his air of big bad Bob. With this surprise Palm, Scorsese, the former lonely kid from Queens feels dubbed. And euphoric. Too much, he confided to the Nouvel Observateur in 2017. “I think it allowed me to understand that the euphoria of success could be pernicious, that nothing could replace discipline and concentration. »

In 1982, the festival selected La Valse des puppets, a ferocious satire of the world of show business and television. Jerry Lewis replies to De Niro. The film, which succeeds Raging Bull, will be a resounding commercial failure for Scorsese. After Hours, in 1986, put it back in the spotlight on the Croisette. A computer scientist, played by Griffin Dunne, experiences a nightmarish night in the wake of a young woman who admires him. The film won the prize for directing, awarded by a jury of which Sidney Pollack is the president and where Charles Aznavour sits.

After a long absence, in 1997, Martin Scorsese returned to Cannes to smile in a photo, that of the fiftieth anniversary of the festival. Jacques Chirac, one and only time that a president will go to the Croisette, made the trip. The following year, a mission he had declined in the past, Scorsese accepted the presidency of the jury. Sigourney Weaver, Alain Corneau and Chiara Mastroianni sit alongside him. Eternity and a Day by Theo Angelopoulos receives the Palme d'Or.

La vie est belle by Roberto Benigni wins the Grand Prix. The Italian actor, faithful to his fantasies, throws himself at the feet of the jury during the ceremony to express his gratitude. Le Figaro interviewed Scorsese that year: "I think Cannes is the most important festival in the world, because it brings everyone together, all ideas are expressed there, in the aesthetic field, in new ways of seeing the world. It's the lifeblood of cinema," he says.

This American uncle is now a subscriber to the Croisette. In 2001, he came to present a documentary on Italian cinema, the following year, Gangs of New York. During this same edition, he chairs the short film jury. In 2007, he gave a master-class, in front of Quentin Tarantino and Claude Lanzmann. In 2018, he received the Carrosse d'or, awarded by the French Society of Film Directors. “My introduction to international cinema happened right here. It was worth the trip, just to say thank you," smiled Marty. At 80, Scorsese is back. After Harrison Ford, the director of cult films - Goodfellas, Casino, the Wolf of Wall Street - proves that cinema has no age.