A knee injury may have kept Barbra Streisand away from Cannes this year, but it wasn’t enough to stop her sending a special video message for the festival’s closing ceremony, where she was honored in absentia with the Palme d’Or.
The statuette was brought on stage by Isabelle Huppert, who gave a speech that highlighted Streisand’s achievements in film, music and on the stage and also her support for the LGBTQ+ community and religious and ethnic minorities. Then there followed a video reel that included clips from “The Way We Were,” “The Mirror Has Two Faces,” “Nuts,” “A Star is Born,” “Up the Sandbox” and “Funny Girl,” before the icon herself appeared on the big screen in the Palais to a delighted audience.
In a lengthy message, Streisand revealed how she had fallen in love with foreign films thanks to a cinema near her high school that had shown black and white movies from the likes of François Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa. “I was mesmerized by those images on the screen,” she said. “They were so powerful that they’re still in my head. I wanted to be an actress and live in those other more interesting worlds.”
Years later as an actress, she said she realized she was always “looking at the movie as a whole” and was asking a lot of questions and making suggestions. “I didn’t realise at the time, but I was thinking like a director. Trying to figure out how to tell the story. And I had stories I wanted to tell.”
Among those stories was 1981’s “Yentl,” her directorial debut, for which Streisand became the first woman to win the Golden Globe for best director. But it was a film she said was very difficult to get off the ground.
“I was a woman, which was an obstacle to people,” she said. “Even worse, was an actress who wanted to direct. So every studio turned me down. And for 15 years the project was on the verge of collapsing. But i had to make this movie.”
But she said that the “passion” she had to make “Yentl” was something shared among the filmmakers in the room in Cannes.
“In this crazy volatile world that seems more fractured every day, it’s reassuring to see the compelling movies at this festival, by artists from many countries,” she said. “Film has that magical ability to unite us, opening our hearts and mind. I’m so proud to be part of this community, so merci beaucoup and vive la cinema!”
Streisand had been due to attend Cannes to collect the honorary Palme in person, but midway through the festival announced that she’d been told she shouldn’t travel.
“On the advice of my doctors, as I continue recovering from a knee injury, I am sadly unable to attend the Festival de Cannes this year,” she said in a statement on Sunday. “But I am deeply honored to receive the honorary Palme d’Or and had so been looking forward to celebrating the remarkable films of the 79th edition.”
She added: “I was also very much looking forward to spending time with colleagues whom I so admire — and, of course, returning to France, a place I have always loved. While I regret that I can’t be there in person, I want to extend my warmest congratulations to all of the filmmakers from around the world whose extraordinary talent and creative vision are being celebrated this year. My heartfelt thanks to the Festival, and to everyone who continues to support and champion the art of cinema.”
Streisand is the third recipient of the honorary Palme d’Or this year alongside legendary “Lord of the Rings” filmmaker Peter Jackson on the opening night and John Travolta, who was surprised with award following the premiere of his directorial debut “Propeller One-Way Night Coach.”
“This is beyond the Oscar,” Travolta said through tears. “I can’t believe this. This is the last thing I expected.”
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