Present at the Cannes Film Festival for the global premiere of the fifth installment of the Indiana Jones saga, 80-year-old Harrison Ford was surprised to be awarded with an Honorary Palme d’Or. This award, in recognition of his entire career, was presented to him by Thierry Frémaux, the festival’s general delegate.
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Indiana Jones defies time, and Harrison Ford, at the ripe age of 80, sparkles brilliantly, holding the Honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. “I am deeply touched by this distinction,” says the actor, visibly moved. The surprise event took place just before the screening of the movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, one of the most anticipated family blockbusters of the year. This is the second Honorary Palme d’Or awarded at this 76th edition of the festival, the first having been presented to Michael Douglas at the opening ceremony. Countless successes have paved the way for Ford, a figurehead of Hollywood cinema. Indeed, the actor has portrayed a wide range of characters, from Han Solo in the Star Wars saga, to Blade Runner, and of course the whip-wielding, hat-wearing adventurer he has been playing since 1981. The fifth installment of Indiana Jones, hitting theaters in late June, marks Harrison Ford’s farewell to one of his most beloved characters, alongside Han Solo in Star Wars.
The director, James Mangold, known for Logan, Le Mans 66, and Walk The Line, chose to remain faithful to the universe of Indiana Jones. For the first time, Mangold takes over from Steven Spielberg, director of the previous four installments of the saga: “It was like putting on a very big costume,” he recalls. First images, first impression, a whip, a hat, stunts: after the triumph of superhero films, “old school” action cinema offers something “refreshing,” according to the new Indiana Jones director James Mangold. “I like this style, and I think the audience responds well to it. It might not be fashionable, but I think it offers something refreshing for people,” he says. “We are at a time when films are hyperactive. Everything has to be so fast that it doesn’t even give the characters or the story time to breathe,” adds the 59-year-old filmmaker. “I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I exist. So does Steven Spielberg, as do other directors who have a more classic style.” For this film, he wanted to keep “a combination of love for classic cinema of the golden age and action scenes that are not just physical, but also comical and inventive, kind of like Buster Keaton, but fueled by diesel.” From the first images, a rejuvenated Harrison Ford appears on the screen, looking a good forty years younger, showcasing the progress of digital facelift techniques, which are increasingly popular in Hollywood. This device is used for a period of twenty minutes, in a sequence representing an attack on a Nazi train during World War II, in a tribute to the adventure cinema of yesteryear. This sequence emerges before the film returns to Dr. Jones in 1969, worn out, on the brink of divorce, on the eve of his retirement. There is nothing better than a new adventure to lift the spirits. “It takes a lot of money to do” this digital rejuvenation which cinema is increasingly fond of, notes James Mangold. “I’m not sure it’s relevant in most films, where you can do a lot with makeup or lighting. Every technological innovation in storytelling, filmmaking, special effects, comes with dangers and a risk of being overused,” he emphasizes, such is the case with 3D, for example. “I want people not to think about technology, I don’t want to think about it. For me, the joy of this opening sequence is not the technology, but the fact that it fades into the background,” he stresses. As for the rest of the film, when Indiana Jones comes back into action at an age in which he should be retiring, the director says: “we have to be honest with the audience.”
Marie-Christine Tayah with AFP.
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