“I got one thing to say before I sit down,” said Spike Lee during the Cannes Film Festival opening ceremony. “I wish I could speak French like Jodie Foster!”
In the first two days of Cannes, one thing everyone can agree on is that Jodie Foster really speaks terrific French. On Tuesday, Foster was awarded an honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement. The award was presented to her by Lee and South Korean director Bong Joon Ho.
Foster, who walked the red carpet with her wife, Alexandra Hedison, regaled the festival audience with her fluent French.
“During this year of transition, the cinema has been my lifeline,” said Foster.
If Foster, 58, has seemed at home in Cannes, it could be because her experience at the festival spans 45 years. Foster first came to Cannes with “Taxi Driver” in 1976. She was just 13 at the time, a sunny, freckled face in the middle of a media storm over the violence in Martin Scorsese’s film.
