‘Standing Tall’ Starring Catherine Deneuve Opens Cannes Film Festival

Standing Tall directed by Emmanuelle Bercot opened the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, making it the first female-directed festival opener since 1987.

The French film stars Catherine Deneuve as a judge who takes extra interest in a young boy, Malony (Rod Paradot), who crosses her path when his struggling single mother (Sara Forestier) fights to keep custody of her child. The film takes place years later, when Malony, now 15, has developed a habit of stealing cars.

Young actor Rod Paradot, who makes his feature debut in the film, has been receiving rave reviews from critics. “Within minutes, Paradot’s performance erupts into a full-fledged portrait of an irascible problem child who snaps and growls at seemingly anyone in his vicinity,” wrote Indiewire’s Eric Kohn, who called Paradot “the first great discovery of 2015.”

Standing Tall marks a departure for the Cannes Film Festival, which has recently tended to open with big budget Hollywood films, such as The Great Gatsby and The Da Vinci Code. It is also makes a statement with regards to the Festival’s track record when it comes to women filmmakers. While the decision to open the festival with a relatively low budget, French film form a female director has been praised by critics, Bercot said she doesn’t feel disadvantaged by her sex within the film industry. “I don’t feel like a minority in France. Things are working in the right direction. It will take time for women to be on an equal standing with men. We have to catch up with 50 years of history,” Bercot said at a press conference.

It should be noted that Standing Tall is not in the competition of the Festival, something the director admitted could have been a possibility had she rejected the opening spot. “There were so many French films that the committee wanted to choose. To be sure that Standing Tall could be present at the festival, the solution was to open the festival. Perhaps if we had refused we’d be in competition,” Bercot revealed.