Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papam, We Have A Pope, opens today in New York City and in other cities throughout this month, but next month he’ll be busy with his next job: Cannes Film Festival jury president.
Nanni’s a pistol; he’s sure to piss somebody off and make news, but he’s sincere and wants the best films to win the prizes:
(On a unanimous vote in the jury): “I believe that’s a mistake on the part of juries,” he said. “You’re trying to give a prize because not everybody’s film is great. Every juror has to have a vote, which has to have the same importance as every other jurors’. And all of the films need to be seen and judged with the same amount of attention.”
He doesn’t care about being divisive – ever, actually but of the festival he said: . “It’s not the average film that should win — not the film that everyone agrees on but doesn’t make anyone happy. It should be the film that gains the majority of the votes; the film, or the actor or the actress. The jurors aren’t conditioned by the directors or the spectators or by the people running the festival. It’s just single jury members’ opinions that count.”
No stranger to Cannes, his The Son’s Room (La Stanza Del Figlio) won the Palme d’Or in 2001, served on the jury in 1997, and We Have a Pope was in competition there last year.
Of We Have A Pope, he said: “I don’t know what really happens in a conclave but I wanted my conclave to be different from the ones we have seen in movies and TV, with cardinals that not only didn’t represent themselves as candidates but were afraid to become the pope. I’m not a believer. I have a lot of distance from the Catholic Church. So I can give, as a gift, humanity to a pope, a cardinal or a conclave.”
I Love Italian Everything 