May 2007

On this podcast we report from the Cannes Film Festival and discuss the films that have been making headlines.

The films covered include the new Wong kar-Wai film My Blueberry Nights which opened the festival, Michael Moore’s latest documentary Sicko, Angelina Jolie’s new drama A Mighty Heart and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof.

Plus we also discuss what might win the coveted Palme D’Or on Sunday.

Listen to the podcast here:

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A Mighty Heart is the new film starring Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl, the widow of the late Daniel Pearl.

He was investigating a story about Islamic extremists in Pakistan for the Wall Street Journal and was murdered by militants in early 2002.

Jolie was in town for the press conference earlier today with the other lead actors and director Michael Winterbottom.

Brad Pitt was also there (he was a producer on the film) alongside Winterbottom, actor Dan Futterman (who plays Daniel Pearl) and  Indian actor Irfan Khan who also stars.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the press conference was  when a Bloomberg TV journalist asked Marianne Pearl for forgiveness.

After Daniel’s death in 2002 he had probed her about whether she had seen the tape of her husband’s death that was released on the internet by his killers.

Nacy Tartaglione-Vialatte of the LA Times reports:

The usual sorts of questions were asked of Pitt and Jolie; some to do with acting and producing or their feelings about the film and of course the inevitable “What do you think of Cannes?” (Pitt said, “It doesn’t feel much different because we usually have a camera following us every day”), but no one was prepared when a Bloomberg TV journalist took the microphone.

“Hi, Mariane,” he said, to which she replied with a nod. “We meet again,” he added before going on to explain that he was in fact the reporter represented in the film who asks a controversial question. “What is in the film isn’t exactly what I said and I wish someone more handsome could have played me, like Brad. But, I wanted to ask you Mariane, would you forgive me?”

A hush fell over the room before Pearl said, “I accept your apology.”

The question had been, “Did you watch the tape?”

A Mighty Heart opens  in the US on June 22nd and in the UK on September 28th

> Official site for A Mighty Heart
> A Mighty Heart at the IMDb

The AP are reporting that Roman Polanski walked out of a press conference earlier today at Cannes.

He was talking about To Each His Own Cinema, a collection of short films from 30 illustrious directors from around the world.

They report:

Director Roman Polanski walked out of a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday after berating journalists for asking ‘empty’ questions.

Polanski, whose film “The Pianist” won the top prize at Cannes in 2002, was onstage with nearly 30 major directors - from Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu to Germany’s Wim Wenders to China’s Wong Kar-wai - who were showing short films in homage to cinema.

Apparently several questions focused on the future of cinema in the digital age and towards the end Polanski took the microphone and said:

“It’s a shame to have such poor questions, such empty questions. And I think that it’s really the computer which has brought you down to this level. You’re no longer interested in what’s going on in the cinema. Frankly, let’s all go and have lunch”.

None of the directors followed him and it is unclear what the director of Chinatown and The Pianist had to eat.

But here he is with his fellow directors at the photo call (he is on the front row to the left  wearing a white jacket and jeans):

> AP story via Guardian Film
> Roman Polanski at the IMDb

Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University has made a clever mashup of Disney movies to make a few points about copyright:

> Find out more about copyright at Wikipedia
> Link to the video at Stanford law school

(Link via Boing Boing)

This is the latest Transformers trailer, which shows a lot more action and transformations.

It opens in the US on July 4th and in the UK on July 27th.

For those of you unfamiliar, the Cannes Film Festival is the biggest and most important in the world.

Although Toronto, Berlin, Venice and Sundance are all important in their own right, nothing can quite match Cannes for the glamour, deals and networking.

It is estimated that between three to four thousand journalists attend every year, which probably makes it the most covered annual event in the world (the Olympics gets more, but that is every four years).

Although its roots remain in the film competition that culminates in a big awards ceremony, it has grown over the years into the most important marketplace for the film industry.

Filmmakers, distributors, sales agents and other people from all over the world meet up here every year to show their films, cut deals and make contacts for future projects.

So, if you are not familiar with the festival here is a guide to the history and importance of the festival.

HISTORY

The first ever Cannes Film Festival started in September 1939, but World War II and the not inconsiderable business of Nazis invading France got in the way of things.

It was only years later during the 1950s that it revived itself and gradually started to become what it is today. In 1955, the Palme d’Or was introduced as a prize and was won by the US drama Marty.

Coincidentally, that film also won the Best Picture Oscar and to date it is the only time that a film has won both - perhaps a sign of just how different tastes still can be on each side of the Atlantic.

With the scenic backdrop of the Cote d’Azur in late May and stars like Brigitte Bardot and Grace Kelly making celebrated appearances, the festival soon became established as the most high profile in the world.

THE COMPETITION

Despite the glitz, glamour and business surrounding it, the core of the actual film festival is about films from around the world getting screened and competing for recognition from an international jury.

There are several sections to this side of the Festival: In Competition, Out of Competition, Un Certain Regard, Cinefondation,Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight. The most important strand of these are the films screening In Competition as they are all up for the coveted Palme d’Or prize.

Usually around 20 films are entered each year each year and victory can significantly boost the profile of a film and guarantee it distribution around the world.

Sometimes it can help launch a career such as Steven Soderbergh (who won in 1989 for Sex, Lies and Videotape) or Quentin Tarantino (who upset the odds in 1994 by winning for Pulp Fiction).

It might also give exposure to smaller and more artistic fare like L’Enfant, which scooped the prize in 2005 for the Belgian film making pair, the Dardenne Brothers.

At other times it can propel a film into a global news story, which was the case in 2004, when Michael Moore’s documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which won and went on to unlikely success at the global box office.

Whilst the films in the official competition get the red carpet treatment and a crack at the Palme d’Or, many other films come to the festival to screen out of competition.

They are here essentially for the exposure the festival provides. Some films will be looking for a distributor in a certain territory, some big Hollywood style films will be here to use Cannes as a launch pad for their European release, whilst others are just here hoping to make waves at such a huge festival.

In recent years huge blockbusters like Star Wars Episode III and The Da Vinci Code have had high profile ‘out of competition’ screenings. Reaction has been decidedly mixed as true cineastes feel the Festival proper gets tainted by such overtly commercial films.

However, the festival organisers (though wary of being mere stooges to Hollywood) know that the presence of big stars helps keep the status of Cannes in the news and could even help shine a light on the more uncommercial films screening here.

The other strands of the festival include Un Certain Regard which was set up in the late 70s to showcase more world cinema and to absorb smaller aspects of the festival. Although there are no prizes it is still a prominent strand to showcase films.

The french have a great tradition of film criticism with publications like Cahiers Du Cinema and Critics’ Week was founded way back in 1962. Run by the Union of French Film Critics, films in this section compete for the Grand Prix and it has often given new filmmakers their first taste of the limelight.

Directors’ Fortnight was established in 1968 after the famous strikes all over France that year shut down the festival. Features and shorts are shown together and it can often be the place to find a hidden gem away from the glare of the main competition.

Cinefondation came in to being in 1998 as a program to help young film makers. It shows several films selected by from all around the world and has its own jury which select three awards for the best films.

THE BUSINESS

Gradually the exposure of the film festival led to the growth of the business side of Cannes. Almost anyone of note in the film world comes to town to network and do deals of various shapes and sizes.

The Marche du Film (or “The Film Market“) is the largest event of its kind in the world and it is where films and projects in development are pitched, bought and sold. For distributors and sales agents from around the world it is a vital place to meet as key rights in different territories are traded.

Although differing levels of business is done at other film festivals around the world, Cannes is unique in terms of its scale and importance.

The Marche is based next to the Palais du Festivals (the central venue where films are screened) and market screenings are held in smaller rooms within the same complex that also shows the bigger films in competition.

The business action also spreads out all over town as meetings are held on boats in The Old Port, hotels like The Grand (where many film companies book entire suites throughout the festival) and The International Village which is a series of small white pavilions situated on the beach near the Palais and stretches along the seafront of Cannes.

Many countries from all over the world have their small bases here. Delegates attend seminars, interviews and meetings during the day and later on they often hold drinks and receptions to promote various aspects of their country’s film industry.

I’ll be posting more photos and interviews from the festival but in the meantime check out the links below to find out more.

> Official site for the Cannes Film Festival
> Wikipedia entry for this year’s Cannes Film Festival
> A Beginner’s Guide to Surviving Cannes
> IMDb entry for The Cannes Film Festival
> Tales of Cannes from previous years

Sicko screened earlier today at the Cannes film festival.

The new documentary by Michael Moore explores the US health care system and screens at the festival 3 years after he won the Palme D’or with Fahrenheit 9/11.

Mike Collett-White of Reuters reports from Cannes:

Director Michael Moore says the U.S. health care system is driven by greed in his new documentary “SiCKO”, and asks of Americans in general, “Where is our soul?”

He also said he could go to jail for taking a group of volunteers suffering ill health after helping in the September 11, 2001 rescue efforts on an unauthorised trip to Cuba, where they received exemplary treatment at virtually no cost.

The controversial film maker is back in Cannes, where he won the film festival’s highest honour in 2004 with his anti-Bush polemic “Fahrenheit 9/11″.

In “SiCKO” he turns his attention to health, asking why 50 million Americans, 9 million of them children, live without cover, while those that are insured are often driven to poverty by spiralling costs or wrongly refused treatment at all.

But the movie, which has taken Cannes by storm, goes further by portraying a country where the government is more interested in personal profit and protecting big business than caring for its citizens, many of whom cannot afford health insurance.

Stephen Robb of BBC News quotes Moore about his Cuba trip:

“The point was not to go to Cuba, it was to go to American soil, to Guantanamo Bay, to take the 9/11 rescue workers there to receive the same healthcare that they are giving the al-Qaeda detainees. No film-maker should ever have to be talking about jail or fines or where he or she can travel.”

Moore told a Cannes press conference: “I know a lot of you have written: ‘How dumb are they to give us all this publicity?’ But I am the one who is personally being investigated, and I am the one who is personally liable for potential fines or jail so I don’t take it lightly.”

Slashfilm has a rundown of the early critical reaction (which seems mostly positive) and also has a very interesting story about Moore (apparently) paying the medical bills of one of his fiercest critics. (Moore even left a voicemail for him).

> Sicko at the IMDb
> BBC News on Sicko opening at Cannes
> Moorewatch on Sicko
> Slashfilm on the early reactions