In France, the Festival de Cannes is a show on the movie screen and off
May 20, 2008
In Cannes, stars and movie fans line the Croisette for the glamorous French film festival.
France is a film loving country all year round, but more than any other time of year June in France means movies, and movie stars, at the glittering Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 14-25 this year. With the famous French long weekends of May already past, attendance by French fans is reported to be not as great as in former years, but there are still plenty thronging the streets and hoping to score a ticket for a premiere or spot one of the their favorite stars on the Croisette, Cannes’ answer to a boardwalk.
Once the stars left the darkened theatre and headed out into the darkened city, the show was just beginning. Cannes was aflutter with parties this weekend, with most nights seeing three of four headline bashes to choose from. One party was an Australian inspired barbecue in honor of Cate Blanchett, who plays a Russian femme fatale in the premiere everyone has been waiting for - Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. And earlier, the stars were out on the red carpet all weekend in eye-popping fashions, ensuring that there was at least as much to gawk at off screen as on.
This year, entertainment at Cannes may have been more at a premium than ever, so that moviegoers could cheer themselves up after viewing a spate of serious, political and troubling films on the Cannes slate this year, such as “Blindness” which deals with an apocalyptic loss of sight and the societal breakdown that follows, “Gomorra,” a violent depiction of a fictional Italian town, and “Linha de Passe” about life on the mean streets of Brazil. Even Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling”, the only US film in competition at Cannes, is a troubling story of a child’s disappearance and its strange aftermath.
Even animated films have taken on darker themes. “Waltz with Bashir” tells of the main character’s recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs and relates it an Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War in the 80s.
The one spot of pure movie fun was to be had at the out-of-competition premiere of the new Indiana Jones movie, directed by Steven Spielberg following a raft of serious movies of his own. “We did it as a celebration of the movies,” Spielberg said at the news conference. “We wanted to reacquaint people with the pure joy of seeing something with others in a darkened room.” He also left the door open for yet another Indiana Jones sequel if the movie-going audiences appeared to want one.
Some critics sniffed at the latest Indiana Jones installment, calling Harrison Ford–and the franchise–to old and tired, and others disdaining its mass appeal. Ford made a number of statements to the effect that he works for the people “who buy the tickets” and avoids reading reviews of his films, good or bad. Harrison Ford is favorite in France, where he has owned a home for years and is a regular at the Deauville Film Festival held in the fall. In addition to Harisson Ford, other stars spotted around Cannes have been Natalie Portman, Penelope Cruz (who appears in Woody Allen’s film premiering at Cannes), Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry and many others. Madonna is rumored to be making an appearances at some point during the festival.
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