Barbra Streisand accepted her honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival via a pre-recorded video message, after being unable to attend due to a knee injury. The festival proceeded with the honour despite her absence, with a taped acceptance played to the packed Grand Theatre Lumiere.
In her message, Streisand recalled how foreign films shown at the Astor cinema near her high school inspired her career. She mentioned works by Truffaut, Bergman, Fellini and Kurosawa, saying: 'I was mesmerized by those images on the screen, they were so powerful that they're still in my head. I wanted to be an actress and live in those other more-interesting worlds.'
The two-time Oscar winner reflected on her transition to directing, noting that while working with great directors, she found herself thinking like a filmmaker. She described the struggle to get her directorial debut 'Yentl' made: 'I was a woman, which was an obstacle to people, and even worse, I was an actress who wanted to direct, so every studio turned me down, and for 15 years the project was on the verge of collapsing.'
Streisand praised film's unifying power in a fractured world, saying: 'Film has that magical ability to unite us, opening our hearts and minds, and that's what we're really celebrating at Cannes.' She concluded with 'Merci Beaucoup and Vive La Cinema!'
Earlier this week, John Travolta received a surprise honorary Palme d'Or before the premiere of his Apple Original Film, and Peter Jackson was also honoured at the start of the festival.
