The Cannes Film Festival commenced on Tuesday, May 14, with celebrities gracing the red carpet at the luxurious Grand Theatre Lumiere to pay tribute to Hollywood actress Meryl Streep.
Before she could accept her honorary Palme d’Or, she was met with a thunderous two-minute standing ovation. The 74-year-old Academy Award winner was so overwhelmed with emotion that at first, she pretended to walk off the stage, but ended up dancing to the applause.
French star Juliette Binoche, visibly moved herself, presented the award to Streep, expressing her sentiments, saying, “When I see you on the screen, I don’t see you … Where does it come from? Were you born like this? I don’t know, but there’s a believer in you; a believer that allows me to believe.” Calling Streep an “international treasure,” Binoche went on to say, “You changed the way we look at cinema.”
In her speech, Streep reflected on watching the ceremony’s montage video of her career, likening it to “looking out the window of a bullet train, watching my youth fly into my middle age, right onto where I am standing on this stage tonight. So many faces and so many places that I remember.”
‘The Devil Wears Prada’ actress expressed gratitude to Cannes for welcoming her back after 35 years, with her last appearance being for 1989’s ‘Evil Angels.’ Recalling her last appearance, “I was already a mother of three, I was about to turn 40 and I thought that my career was over.”
She then continued, “That was not an unrealistic expectation for actresses at that time. And the only reason that I’m here tonight and that it continued is because of the very gifted artists with whom I’ve worked, including Madame La President (Greta Gerwig).”
The actress concluded her speech by saying that she is “just so grateful that you haven’t gotten sick of my face and you haven’t gotten off the train.”
“My mother, who is usually right about everything, said to me: ‘Meryl, my darling, you’ll see. It all goes so fast. So fast.’ And it has, and it does, except for my speech, which is too long,” she signed off.
Tuesday night’s ceremony did, in fact, appear to have a Streep-themed atmosphere, as even the music aligned with one of her fan-favourite roles in ‘Mamma Mia.’ The title track by ABBA played outside on the red carpet, while Streep’s rendition of ‘The Winner Takes It All’ accompanied her credits reel, and ‘Dancing Queen’ echoed in the room as she accepted the Palme d’Or.
