Does the Cannes International Film Festival still matter?
Of course.
Then why are we even asking the question?
We probably wouldn’t if international cinema got all the attention it deserved in the United States. But it doesn’t. Cannes, though still regarded in the world’s eyes as the year’s premiere cinema event, is often slighted here. And that slight speaks volumes about our often cavalier attitude toward the world’s film culture and our own.
Is that attitude sensible? We’ll see. Wednesday night, in another flurry of popping flash bulbs and eye-popping evening gowns, the Cannes Film Fest starts its second half-century with a gala opening night showing at the Palais du Cinema of “Primary Colors.” The movie, already playing in theaters here, is based on Joe Klein’s novel about a fictionalized Bill Clinton and his presidential campaign.
The always spectacular Cannes opening — with the darkening Mediterranean just behind the Palais and dozens of yachts docked nearby — will once again boast platoons of international movie luminaries — including director Mike Nichols and actors John Travolta (as the movie’s Bill Clinton type) and Emma Thompson (as its Hillary).
And, as always with Cannes, that’s just the beginning.
Martin Scorsese, the uncrowned king of American movies, will head this year’s international jury — with China’s Chen Kaige (“Farewell my Concubine”), France’s Alain Corneau (“All the Mornings of the World”) and U.S. actresses Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder sitting alongside him. Gerard Depardieu, Charlton Heston, Robert Duvall, Johnny Depp, Vanessa Redgrave and the Blues Brothers themselves (Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman), are among the stars passing through. And, over the next 12 days, the 4,000 or so journalists will jockey for quotes and places around them all.
The official lineup of films, in contrast to last year’s more tepid schedule, is a very exciting one. It is, in fact, such a notable upswing that festival director Gilles Jacob has been quoted in Variety as wishing this year’s films had been available last year, for the 50th anniversary.
So strong is the lineup that it isn’t even hurt much by the last-minute loss of promised entries from two major filmmakers: France’s Andre Techine (“Wild Reeds”) and the former Yugoslavia’s two-time Grand Prize winner Emir Kusturica (“Underground”). Neither film was finished in time.
The rest of the competitive lineup includes new efforts by a gallery of movie luminaries, including Britain’s John Boorman (“The General”), France’s Claude Miller (“La Classe de Neige”), Brazil’s Hector Babenco (“Foolish Heart”), Italy’s Nanni Moretti (“Aprile”) and arguably Greece’s finest living directors (Theo Angelopoulos’ “An Eternity and a Day”). Others entries are from Britain (Ken Loach’s “My name is Joe”), Taiwan (Hou Hsaio-hsien’s “the Flowers of Shanghai”) and Denmark (Lars Von Trier’s “Idiots”). Also represented at Cannes will be the severe Swedish cineaste, who probably ranks as the world’s preeminent living filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman.
Side by side with all of them is the youngest director of an official Cannes selection in the festival’s history, Iran’s 18-year-old Samirah Makhmalbaf (“The Apple”). Not only young, she is also a woman, the daughter of renowned filmmaker and ex-radical Mohsen Makhmalbaf. And she is joined by Cannes’ oldest director: Portugal’s Manoel de Oliveira, who will be 90 in December, and whose astonishing productivity continues with yet another new film, called, suggestively, “Inquietude.”
America’s all-time greatest filmmaker also will be represented — though, sadly, he has been dead since 1985. Yet, if all goes well, the late Orson Welles will score another posthumous triumph over the Hollywood studio establishments that bedeviled him in life. Thanks to October Films, Cannes will see the real final director’s cut of his much-tampered-with 1958 masterpiece, “Touch of Evil” — this time using the Welles editing plan ignored by Universal in 1958. On hand for the film’s unveiling will be its star couple from 40 years ago, Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh.
The new Bergman film, “In the Presence of a Clown,” was written and directed by Bergman — unlike “The Best Intentions” and “Private Confessions,” which he wrote for others. It is his first directorial effort since the 1986 short about his mother, “Karin’s Face.” “In the Presence of a Clown” is being shown non-competitively in a sidebar event, along with Robert Duvall’s “The Apostle” and novelist Paul Auster’s directorial debut “Lulu on the Bridge.”
Only last year Bergman was awarded the all-time directorial accolade “Palm of Palms” from all living director-winners of Cannes’ top prize, the Golden Palm (or “Palme d’Or’). Now nearing 80, and reluctant to leave his Faro island home, Bergman didn’t attend then, and probably won’t this year. But at least he’s directing again, an event comparable in film history, to, say, new symphonies from Beethoven.
Faced with such a strong lineup, what fuels the speculation that Cannes is a champion past its prime?
Perhaps besotted by all those great parties and Hollywood heavies at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah — or overly affected by last year’s 50th anniversary Cannes Fest, widely (and accurately) perceived as disappointing — some iconoclasts rumble that the center of cinema gravity has shifted. Their theory: Upstart Western Hemisphere festivals like America’s Sundance or Canada’s Toronto and Montreal now wield the clout once held by Cannes and Venice.
In that view, Cannes is the establishment, Sundance the cutting edge. Cannes, with its sun-drenched Riviera setting and bevies of stars may be the undisputed champion of glamor and a thriving international marketplace. But Sundance has newer directors, bolder films.
Hollywood takes increasing notice of Sundance, while its relationship to Cannes has always been touchy. (Despite that ambivalence, though, the 1998 fest opens and closes with major Hollywood productions: In addition to “Primary Colors,” there is the new Roland Emmerich monster spectacular “Godzilla.” Shown in competition from America are Terry Gilliam’s gonzo chronicle “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” Hal Hartley’s “Henry Fool,” John Turturro’s “Illuminata,” Todd Haynes’ glam rock history “Velvet Goldmine” and the newest film, “Claire Dolan,” by a director discovered at the Chicago Film Festival, Lodge Kerrigan (“Clean, Shaven”).
The arguments are interesting, but under scrutiny, they collapse. Sundance may be stirring up a bigger local fuss in U.S. papers, but the best films are still at Cannes. The Cannes Festival owes its preeminence to the fact that, since 1946, it has been the fest that, more than any other, creates and consolidates the major world film reputations.
It was at Cannes that Bergman got his first big film prize (for 1955’s “Smiles of a Summer Night”) So did Roberto Rossellini (with “Open City” in 1946); Francois Truffaut (“The 400 Blows” in 1959); Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson (“Easy Rider” in 1969); Robert Altman (“M*A*S*H” in 1970); the Taviani brothers (“Padre Padrone” in 1977); Emir Kusturica (“When Father was Away on Business” in 1985); Quentin Tarantino (“Pulp Fiction” in 1994); and last year, Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami for “Taste of Cherry.”
And, disappointing as it was, Cannes 1997 still showcased three of last year’s most acclaimed movies — and Oscar nominees — “The Sweet Hereafter,” “Mrs. Brown” and “L.A. Confidential.” That’s not atypical for the ’90s. In 1996, three other Cannes winners — “Secrets & Lies,’ “Breaking the Waves” and “Fargo” — were all major Oscar contenders.
Sundance and the other festivals simply don’t compare as reputation-establishers. And Sundance itself is limited by the fact that it is still primarily a fest for American independents, a not at all dominant section of international cinema. To argue that the cream of American independent moviemaking outclasses the cream of studio and independent filmmaking from over the rest of the world seems absurd. And, in fact, many of the arguments at Cannes, boiled down, are usually arguments against foreign cinema from people who don’t like to read subtitles.
So Cannes continues, still the current hot center of world cinema. And, we should note, not a stodgy center. This year, there’s even a Sundance-inspired event at Cannes: The organizers of that anti-Sundance counter-festival, Slamdance, will show up with their own alternative. As of last week, it had only two films — including one (“Cannibal”) by “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker. But it has a snappy name: “Cannes You Dig It.”
