The 71st Cannes Film Festival culminated Saturday with the Palme d’Or awarded to Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters, a tender portrait of a poor, improvised family. At the closing ceremony for the French Riviera festival, the Cate Blanchett-led jury selected one of the festival’s most acclaimed entries, one hailed as a modest masterpiece from a veteran filmmaker renowned for his delicate touch. Shoplifters is about a small-time thief who takes a young, alone girl home to his family; after seeing scars from abuse, they decide to keep her and raise her as their own. Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, the highest profile American film in competition at Cannes, was awarded the grand prize. The film ignited the French Riviera festival with its true tale of a black police detective who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. Lee connected the film to modern day with real footage from last year’s violent white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va. “I take this on the behalf of the People’s Republic of Brooklyn, New York,” said Lee, accepting his award.
The Metropolitan Opera said in court documents Friday that it found credible evidence that conductor James Levine engaged in sexually abusive or harassing conduct with seven people that included inappropriate touching and demands for sex acts over a 25-year period. The Met fired Levine as its music director emeritus on March 12, citing evidence of misconduct, but it did not make public any details. Levine sued the Met three days later for breach of contract and defamation, which the opera company denies. The Met filed its reply and counterclaims Friday in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan. It is seeking damages for what it called breach of loyalty. Levine, who turns 75 next month, has not been charged with any crime. In its court filing, the Met said it learned during its investigation about improper conduct by Levine from 1975 to 2000. The Met identified the individuals only by number but described them as including a musician, an opera singer, an artist, two people who were 16 years old and a member of its Young Artists Program. Levine’s lawyers filed an answer to the Met’s papers saying the company “has chosen to create sensationalized allegations … all of which have no legal or factual basis whatsoever.” The Met said it found evidence of conduct that included discussion of pornography, groping, kissing and mutual masturbation.
