Over the years, the Cannes Film Festival has often been the scene of the presentation of particularly sulphurous films.  

  • Viridiana by Luis Bunuel , in 1961

This Spanish feature film has been controversial because it mixes two particularly sensitive topics: sex and religion. Viridiana tells the story of a nun who will become the protagonist of a threesome. The film had scandalized the Croisette and the Vatican even considered it blasphemous.



  • Under the sun of Satan Maurice Pialat, in 1987

A lover who meets the devil, a suicidal teen addicted to sex, murder in shambles ... The film of Maurice Pialat gathered all that was needed to make controversy. Hue during his screening, he however received the Palme d ' Or from the jury, in front of an audience of incredulous journalists.



  • Basic Instinct by Paul Verhoeven , in 1992

If today Basic Instinct is part of cult films, more than 20 years ago in Cannes, the film was controversial . It must be said that the stripped scene of Sharon Stone engaged in lesbian games had clearly marked the spirits.



  • Antichrist by Lars Von Trier, in 2009

Since then, the director has redone about him with the sulphurous Nymphomaniac . But in 2009, it is with Antichrist that Lars Von Trier makes headlines during the Cannes Film Festival. In question ? A particularly trashy scene during which Charlotte Gainsbourg is violently mutilated in a symbolic-sexual delusion that will deeply shock the Croisette.



  • The life of Adèle d' Abdellatif Kechiche , in 2013

Another sulphurous film that won the Palme d ' Or ! In 2013, the film The Life of Adele was controversial because of the particularly explicit sex scenes between Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos , but also because the two actresses complained of particularly difficult shooting conditions.

  • Marguerite and Julien de Valérie Donzelli, in 2015

This is the film that made the Croisette tremble in 2015: four years after The war is declared, Valérie Donzelli was back at the Cannes Film Festival to present her new film, Marguerite and Julien. A feature film particularly anticipated because of its subject: incest. It is indeed a sentimental drama that tells a story of devouring love and passion ... Between a brother and a sister!



Certainly, the Cannes Film Festival is rather naughty!