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At Large
Robert De Niro Likes Cannes
Fortunately, there was a lot more to this year’s festival.
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival, the leading international showcase for auteur films, closed Sunday night with the top award, the Palme d’Or, going to U.S. director Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life featuring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. The reclusive Malick stayed away from the ceremony claiming shyness, but Pitt and Penn showed up.
American actress Kirsten Dunst won best actress for her role in the Danish film Melancholia and French comedian Jean Dujardin took best actor for his role in the offbeat silent black-and-white comedy The Artist.
Cannes is a strange duck — essentially a clash of cultures, small art films from little-known directors coming up against a few expensive, mainstream productions from “the industry.” Some call Cannes the anti-Oscars, a competition with significantly less crass commercialism than Hollywood. Indeed, the megastars from California always seem somewhat out of place at this event.
Jury president Robert De Niro steered the judging of the 20 films that were in contention, culled from 49 entries from 33 countries. Action by producers and distributors on the periphery involved several hundred other movies looking for ways into the marketplace.
A weary De Niro was granted a prolonged standing ovation when he appeared on stage at the awards ceremony but seemed embarrassed and unsure how to react. He finally spoke in garbled, unscripted French and got a burst of laughter when he referred to the jury as his “champignons” (mushrooms). On the second try, with the help of a fellow presenter, he managed to say “compagnons” (companions). The rest of his comments during the evening were in English but hardly more intelligible.
This year’s festival was a study in contrasts — A-list American stars mixing with more modest Turks, South Americans, Ukrainians, Chinese, and others representing their own film cultures.
If anything, Americans were more prominent this year than in the recent past. Woody Allen, who snubs the Oscars but likes Cannes, opened the festival with his new production, Midnight in Paris, to affectionate comments from viewers and critics, several of whom said it is his best film in years. Shuffling around Cannes with his thatch of white hair and loose garb, he looked every bit his 75 years. Jane Fonda, 73 but looking 37, introduced the Palme d’Or award in her exuberant French and Jodie Foster, a better French-speaker, attended with her hors concours film The Beaver and its male lead Mel Gibson.
At the Beaver press conference last week, Gibson stayed away, apparently to avoid questions on his personal life. Ms. Foster did the talking but dodged any reference to Gibson’s recent anti-Semitic remarks and threats against his ex-girlfriend. Gibson preened silently on the red carpet, as did hundreds of others from around the world throughout the festival.
A landmark springtime event in the warm Mediterranean climate, Cannes is treated seriously in international media. This year it was a bit different, however. Normally front-page news in Europe throughout the event, Cannes was knocked off its pedestal by an even sexier, wilder story, the saga of ex-IMF director general Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest. Only by Sunday night, when DSK was locked away in his temporary flat in New York, did attention turn again to Cannes, just in time for the awards ceremony.
The 11 days of events are wearing on participants but the final ceremony has been brought under control. While some winners ramble on and others are poorly translated, the organizers managed to complete the ceremony in one hour sharp. Oscars organizers may have something to learn from this discipline.
The leading French cable channel, Canal Plus, broadcast from a seaside set daily as personalities paraded through their interviews. Most were forced or just flat. The host asked De Niro for his best memory in the 35 years he has been attending the festival. “Cannes. Just Cannes. I like Cannes,” he murmured.
The controversial Danish director of Melancholia, Lars von Trier, made the biggest commotion this year by stating at his press conference that he was sorry for the treatment of the Jews in World War II but preferred not to work with them when making films. He then added that in some ways he understood Hitler. As the audience of journalists and photographers sat stunned, he said jokingly, “Okay I’m a Nazi.” But the Cannes organizers found him unfunny, pronounced him persona non grata the following day, and he left town. The Cannes brass called his comments “unacceptable, intolerable and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity that preside over the very existence of the festival”.
A memorable moment was the award of the Jury Prize to the French film Polisse. Glamorous French director Maïwenn gasped and choked, never quite weeping, through her litany of thankyous as the red gown she was almost wearing threatened to drop off her shoulder and become a wardrobe malfunction. She seemed unaware of it but audience attention was riveted.
Cannes’ auteur dimension is evident in the list of prizes, which went to directors and players from Argentina, Denmark, Ukraine and Turkey, alongside the more prominent U.S. and French winners.
Watching the event unfold over a week and a half, however, Cannes leaves a strange impression — an amalgam of two separate cinema worlds. Fans in Cannes mob the Hollywood stars while the lesser-known players and directors from East Europe, South America or Asia make their way through the festival unnoticed by all but the cognoscenti.
The irony — and the justice — is that often these smaller-profile contenders get the recognition they need for their less commercial but more interesting work.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (22) | Leave a comment
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Dee See| 5.24.11 @ 8:31AM
"It was decided way, way back in the 50's
that Hollywood, NOT London was to be in
charge of the new 'world culture' of MASS
entertainment, standardization,
subversion of the genuine cultures,
leading to where we are today ---TOTAL degradation."
-ALAN WATT
(essential online coverage)
Even the most generous survey of Boomer
Hollywood and its aftermath has to chime in
with Watt.
Esp. inexcusable considering today's ultra-cheap
technological means, and the incredible choice of
unfolding themes just waiting for treatment
(massively revised historical views,
TREASON, EUGENICS, and the 'engineering' of
false culture itself, otherwise known as the
'culture industry' ---just for starters).
Add to this the FACT that our reigning 'artists'
are certainly in no need of more money.
The sheer cowardice is truly and utterly without parallel.
Where's the likes of the late John Huston,
David Lean, Kurosawa or Orson Welles today.
"These people, they don't even get old,
they just get stale---"
D H Lawrence
essays 1920
AMEN-----------------
pas de deux| 5.24.11 @ 10:13AM
Ben Stein and Emmett Tyrell were in Cannes enlisting support for their cause celebre, Dominique Strauss Kahn.
Ben was overheard saying to a couple of French moneybags, "If we can just get to the maid's family in Guinea and offer them . . ."
Sylvia| 5.24.11 @ 11:10AM
Love your sarcasm, pas de deux.
Dominique Strauss Kahn is their man!
Anthony| 5.24.11 @ 2:35PM
Very funny!!! Yep, that damn DNA will getcha each and every time, don't you know.
I expected this tripe from Stein, I was disappointed to see RET sign on last week.
RET, you'd think you know better having heard it all from your best pal, Slick Willie. That DNA stuff is terribly messy.
Anyway, DSK will put up a strong defense of consent; afterall, those damn maids just can't keep their paws off of this French stud.
It's a slam dunk. Oops, that was WMD, not DNA. Never Mind!!!
Bill| 5.24.11 @ 2:23PM
"It was" probably "decided" in the 1930s that Hollywood, and not London, would be "in charge" of this "new world culture," not the 1950s. I don't know who Alan Watt is, at least I think he must be someone different from the LSD Alan Watts.
But my main comment on this post is that saying "it was decided" makes it sound like there was some cabal of cigar-smoking Philistines in a smoke-filled room somewhere who pulled the puppet strings and subverted all the world's diverse cultures. That sort of vision is delusional; the real way in which "it was decided" that Hollywood's vision of the world would prevail over London (why London, by the way? Moscow was a major world leader in culture at the time, particularly in movies, as was Germany) was a consensus among the people of the world that the Hollywood vision of things was highly seductive and desirable. If there was a smoke-filled world in the mix, it was the movie theaters of the world, where people decided on the vision they liked the best.
Barky| 5.25.11 @ 4:09AM
Woody Allen film looks really interesting...I saw the previews...Beautiful shots of Paris...Interesting concept of a guy wandering away from his wife and her boring friends and ending up on the Left Bank with Hemingway and
other literati. But Owen Wilson ? Please !! Dumb and Dumber actor is totall miscase...A good actor would have made this a masterpiece.
Seek| 8.24.11 @ 3:47PM
I'm not chiming in with you.
The Coen Brothers, Ridley Scott, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, David Fincher, Tim Burton, Taylor Hackford, Curtis Hanson, Sam Raimi, Lasse Halstrom, Woody Allen, Peter berg, Ang Lee, James Cameron David Cronenberg -- to name but a few contemporary filmmakers who have achieved visionary greatness. Do some serious filmgoing before rendering your world-is-going-to-hell Culture War antiquarian nonsense.
Denver Todd| 5.24.11 @ 8:35AM
I like these slice of life articles from the other side of the world.
PJ| 5.24.11 @ 10:30AM
I heard that The Artist was very good; hope to see it, & also Midnight in Paris. As much as I would like to see Midnight in Paris, I just can't seem to bring myself to watch anything created by that despicable pervert. Yet I like Owen Wilson's trademark, thoughtful absentmindedness, on the screen. ----------I don't know.
Peter McGrath| 5.24.11 @ 10:38AM
I'm very much anticipating Terrence Malick's new film. This one, I hear, will definitely need to be seen on a big screen.
Bill| 5.24.11 @ 2:25PM
I like Terence Malick a lot. I was utterly blown away by Badlands and again by Days of Heaven when they came out, and for me they still retain much of their fresh attitude toward filmaking.
Seek| 5.24.11 @ 12:00PM
I've noticed that every person who professes a hatred of Woody Allen for his "perversions" (never mind that Soon-Yi made an honest married man out of him long ago) knows next to nothing of his films.
I plan to see "Midnight in Paris." With "Match Point," "Vicki Christina Barcelona" and "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," he's on a winning streak anyway.
Bill| 5.24.11 @ 2:27PM
I pretty much lost interest in Woody Allen's films after Annie Hall due to their becoming so self-indulgent and self-referential. My dislike of Woody Allen's films is not a reflection of any attitude I might have (or might not have) about the way he's conducted his life.
Brian B| 5.24.11 @ 10:45AM
--The Cannes brass called his comments "unacceptable, intolerable and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity that preside over the very existence of the festival".--
The new blacklist, eh?
Are we going to get movies, books and plays about this heroic artiste and the evil little men suppressing his art?
The guy may be quite reprehensible but apparently it is beyond the pale to the Cannes cretins and Hollywood to make what appeared to be an admittedly bad joke about being a Nazi while actually being a communist means you're not only a hero but presumed to be morally unassailable.
Sardonikus| 5.24.11 @ 3:17PM
'Hors concours'?! Love it - that one is going on file for future use among my smarmy (but lovable) liberal friends!
simon templar| 5.24.11 @ 5:19PM
Ask me if I care?
Occam's Tool| 5.24.11 @ 5:32PM
Best screenplay went to the Israeli film "footnote" about a scholarly war between father and son.
That's about the only reason to care, Simon. I plan to get it.
simon templar| 5.24.11 @ 6:15PM
OT, have you ever seen this site? Always interesting to learn about web sites from different cultures and perspectives.
http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/
somnolence| 5.24.11 @ 5:39PM
The less mention I hear of Hanoi Jane, the better. This article is essentially worthless. Bob Dornan put Woody Allen in his sordid place way back in 1992.
Richard Baker| 5.24.11 @ 9:27PM
Yaaawn.
Dee See| 5.25.11 @ 6:11AM
BTW ----are we all noticing how 'suicide culture'
is ever so deftly being pre-programmed via
irresolvable demoralization themes, and persistent treatments of terminal illness and
YOU-than-Asia.
ESP. turn your spotlights on the agenda of
California cowboy EYE-con Clint Eastwood
(Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, IWO trilogy
et al).
NEVER discussed in A.S. ---or a y of our other
Rockefeller front CON-serve-ative outlets.