‘Under the Sun of Satan’: the Palme d’Or winner that was incessantly booed
The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most prestigious film ceremonies, acting as one-third of Europe’s main cinema celebrations alongside the Venice Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival. However, Cannes Film Festival is easily the most lavish of the ceremonies, taking place in the heart of the French Riveria.
As cinema’s most prominent stars gather in Cannes each year to watch the most hotly-tipped new releases, there’s never a shortage of lengthy standing ovations. Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth has received the longest-standing ovation to date, with audiences clapping and cheering for 22 minutes straight.
However, many films have been met with an overwhelmingly negative reception at Cannes, earning incessant booing. Many unlucky recipients, from Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, are now considered classics or cult favourites. Yet, Cannes audiences often find it hard to resist a good booing session, much to the dismay of certain filmmakers.
One of the most memorable booings in Cannes history came in 1987 when French filmmaker Maurice Pialat won the Palme d’Or for his film Under the Sun of Satan. It was the first French-language movie to win the award since Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman from 1966, 21 years prior. Based on Georges Bernanos’ 1926 novel of the same name, the film starred one of France’s best-known actors, Gérard Depardieu. Alongside the prolific star, Pialat cast Sandrine Bonnaire, who starred in the director’s 1983 film À Nos Amours, in her first film role.
Under the Sun of Satan follows Depardieu’s leading character, a priest, who finds himself tormented by all the evil in the world. Despite winning the coveted prize, the film, which explores themes of religious and moral crisis, is primarily remembered for the controversy it stirred up at Cannes rather than its actual material. The film was divisive, although The New York Times championed Pialat’s work, describing it as “a work of great subtlety, some difficulty and tremendous assurance, one that demands and deserves close attention.”
However, this quotation indicates why the film might have been so contentious, with many critics believing Under the Sun of Satan to be boring, oddly structured and off-balance. When Pialat accepted the award, he delivered an icy speech in response to the jeers. He said, “I won’t be untrue to my reputation. I am, above all, happy this evening for all the shouts and whistles you’ve directed at me, and if you don’t like me, I can tell you that I don’t like you either.”
Pialat didn’t let the mixed response to his film stop him. Just a few years later, he released Van Gogh, which received particular praise from Jean-Luc Godard. His final film, Le Garçu, was released in 1995 before he passed away aged 77 in 2003.
