Clockwise from top left: Okja, Inglourious Basterds, Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver. Photo: ScreenProd/Photononstop Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo < p>The Cannes Film Festival audience is renowned for its vocal audiences that are not afraid to express their admiration – or disdain – for the new films shown at the event.
For even more fun, visitors are usually completely unfazed by the fact that the stars and directors of the films they vociferously denounce are often only a few feet away.
But do boors always understand correctly? Quite a few films they turned their backs on have received international acclaim, not to mention the Palme d'Or…
With the 2023 festival gearing up to open on May 16th, here's our pick of 15 films that have made waves – and not always for the better.
Gertrude (1964) 
Carl Theodor Dreyer was no stranger to controversy, famously speaking out against the cuts of religious censors in his taciturn 1928. the masterpiece of The Passion of Joan of Arc (the uncut version was thought to be lost forever until a copy was miraculously discovered in 1981).
But it was his latest film, Gertrude, an introspective study of an opera singer who finds herself lonely because of her passionate, perfectionistic attitude towards love, that brought him a fearsome chorus of French exclamations.
The film was later considered by critics to be one of the best of the year, but at first the attention-deficit Cannes audience simply couldn't handle the film's slow pace and all the long shots. (one of them lasts almost 10 minutes).
Taxi Driver (1976) 
Taxi Driver Credit: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
Yeah, a lot of movies boo at Cannes…but really Have audiences rebelled against Martin Scorsese's “Taxi Driver”?
To modern fans of a film that is now considered a classic, this idea seems unthinkable. But on first viewing, the film's paranoid, nihilistic tone and Robert De Niro's complex anti-hero turned off: they were too different; too far ahead of their time.
Despite this, the film won the festival's prestigious grand prize, the Palme d'Or, as well as four Oscar nominations (including Best Picture).
Under the Sun of Satan (1987) 
Under Satan's Sun Photo: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo Hollywood big cheeses in need of a dressing room that suffer the derision of the Cannes crowd—French festival-goers are just as likely to turn on one of their own.
Even the great Gerard Depardieu is not immune. Maurice Pial's dark religious drama Under the Sun of Satan, in which Depardieu plays a priest tempted by the devil, was booed at its first screening at Cannes, and when it later won the Palme d'Or, audiences disappointed by Pial's unconventional, furious performance. Individual approach to film production.
“I will not lie to my reputation,” Piala protested defiantly. “I am, first of all, happy this evening for all your cries and whistles addressed to me; and if you don't like me, I can tell you that I don't like you either.”
Pulp Fiction (1994) 
Quentin Tarantino's effortlessly cool little crime film, with its sharp but drawn-out dialogue, clever non-linear structure and irresistible hit on the soundtrack, was not badly received at Cannes when it premiered there in 1994.
But audiences were upset—by that we mean upset enough to boo—when the film won the top prize, pushing not to mention Krzysztof Kieślowski's weightier, much more serious Three Colors of Red.
Crash (1996) 
Crash Credit: Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
Like the work of Lars von Trier, an auto-erotic odyssey directed by body horror master David Cronenburg that didn't get a chorus of cheers would be something of a misnomer.
Nevertheless, Cronenburg's masterpiece, which, in True to the original J.G. Ballard novel, loving close-ups of car crashes and explicit sex are more than deserving of ridicule.
Not to be confused with Paul Haggis' raw 2004 crime drama that inexplicably won six Oscars ”, despite the apparently dubious racial politics. Honestly, give us Cronenburg's sex 'n' smash any day.
Idiots (1998) 
Idiots Credit: Maximum Film/Alamy Stock Photo
Given that Cannes audiences have a habit of booing anything that is vague annoying, it's no wonder Danish enfant horror movie Lars von Trier has repeatedly managed to irritate festival feathers.
His 1998 film The Idiots, a boundary-pushing comedy in which a group of friends decide to act like mentally ill people in search of their “inner idiot,” was never going to draw “polite applause.” kind of movie.
But the angry reaction that this caused from the crowd was extreme even by Cannes standards: not only did the audience boo, but the critic Mark Kermode decided to shout “Il est merde!” from the back of the cinema.
Dancer in the Dark (2000) 
Björk is an example of quality. Any film that an Icelandic musician deigns to star in will be at least interesting. (See how she played a blind seer last year in Robert Egger's The Northerner.)
So we can conclude that the audience who first booed her in Lars von Trier's dark musical about a factory worker who is slowly losing his sight. Not only did Björk give a poignantly sensual performance, she wrote most of the music.
Fortunately, the more cold-blooded prevailed, and the film ended up winning the Palme d'Or.
Brown Bunny (2003) 
Brown Bunny. Photo 12/Alamy Stock Photo
Poor Vincent Gallo. Despite his best efforts – and the inclusion of a simulated oral sex scene featuring actress Chloe Sevigny – his rambling second feature flopped at Cannes in 2003, where he was booed loudly.
Critic Roger Ebert even called The Brown Rabbit the “worst film” he had ever seen at the festival. In response, Gallo called Ebert “a fat pig with a slave trader's physique” and expressed a wish (particularly unpleasant in retrospect) that Ebert “get cancer”.
Surprisingly, however, the actor-director was later able to redeem himself and mend his relationship with the critic by recutting the film to create a more condensed and focused version that ultimately captivated Ebert.
Marie Antoinette (2006) 
Marie Antoinette Credit & Copyright: AP Photo/Sony Pictures/Leigh Johnson
In her film Marie Antoinette, director Sofia Coppola has taken one of France's most iconic national figures — an ill-fated young queen whose decadent lifestyle has become a symbol of everything that was wrong in pre-revolutionary France — and created an extraordinarily modern impressionist period. drama based on songs by the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, starring Kirsten Dunst.
Predictably, this unconventional response didn't go over well at Cannes (although Coppola at least managed to keep his head). “I didn't know about the cheers – that's news to me,” the director said upon learning of the reaction. “But it's better than a mediocre answer.” And, of course, her iconoclastic approach became the model for a whole movement in historical drama, from Bridgerton to The Favorite. (Which, coincidentally, also starred Kirsten Dunst.)
Antichrist (2009) 
Antichrist Credit: Christian Geisnaes
Explicit sex. Close-up of genital mutilation. An unusually talkative (though somewhat pessimistic) fox.
Antichrist by Lars von Trier is a disturbing, surreal, compelling film. It might even be a great movie. But did anyone – least of all a scandalous director – really expect the Cannes audience to not boo him?
Inglourious Basterds (2009) 
Another example of how Cannes' reaction is at odds with later critical reviews, revisionist (note: extremely revisionist) Quentin Tarantino's World War II adventure was booed when it was screened at the festival in 2009. .
Tree of Life (2013) 
“Tree of Life” Credits: PLANET PHOTOS
Terrence Malick's brazenly poetic “Tree of Life” with dinosaurs and Brad Pitt certainly didn't flop when it premiered at Cannes in 2013.
In fact, many viewers (not to mention many critics) left the cinema delighted with the film they had just seen. But we include it on this list because of the fact that a small, determined part of the audience, outraged by the hype around what they considered an unworthy film, decided to boo it at the end.
Personal Shopper (2016) 
The Personal Shopper Credit: movie stills
Personal Shopper, Clouds of Sils Maria and non-fiction director Olivier Assayas has been booed, but neither Assayas nor star Kristen Stewart should despair.
In his review, Robbie Collin wrote, “The Personal Shopper has been booed not because it's bad (it's emphatically not), but because it breaks a lot of the conventions of good taste in a way that's deliberately designed to get your soul pumping… Stuart may wear a whistle as a badge of honour.
Neon Demon (2016) 
Neon Demon Credit: Neon Demon
Knife sex acts. Cannibalism. Flawless brows. Nicolas Winding Refn's vicious horror satire of the Los Angeles beauty industry is meant to offend – and the boy does.
Refn doesn't like to tell economic stories. He is a supporter of the show, the show and the show until the audience fidgets in their seats.
Is this a convincing film? Undoubtedly. Does it make you want to take a hot shower and avoid the Boots makeup section forever after? Oh yes, it is.
Okja (2017) 
Look, we get it. A Marxist bio-satire about the horrors of genetic engineering and industrial animal husbandry featuring a giant charismatic pig is not an easy task.
But given that this film was directed by the same Bong Joon Ho, who later with his next film Parasite he will receive « Oscar,” a bit of weirdness should not be surprising.
However, unlike the others on this list, it was circumstances beyond Jun Hu's control that caused the repeated uproar. . First, when the Netflix manufacturer's logo appeared. Then, due to a technical failure, the viewing stopped. Hell has no anger like a film critic forced to buffer the screen.
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