This is Dan Mecca reporting from Cannes, overwhelmed and loving it. The sheer volume of films on display here is inexplicable. From the market to the festival competition to Director’s Fortnight (a not-Cannes fest in Cannes that Francis Ford Coppola put Tetro in after refusing the Cannes non-competition slot) Southern France is full of movies from all over the world and the people behind them. Screenings go on from dawn til dusk and France stays up later than it usually does – 2am or so.
Imagine some other world where everyone breathing, and all those passed on for that matter, are in movies, make movies, buy movies and sell movies. That’s here for these two weeks. The worst films are shown in hopes of the DVD market or a foreign buyer who doesn’t know any better, perhaps confident in a good pitch for a bad project.
There are potentially great films, such as Jane Campion’s Bright Star (my current Palme d’Or winner prediction based on the buzz) and Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, which, ironically, I have not heard too much about. The only word is that it rewrites history rather brutally, although it’s based on a true story. This expectant piece of info is from a woman who worked on the film.
But then it seems everyone here has worked on something or has some great story about working on something. A man recalling his days on the set of Coppola’s Rumble Fish, a young woman talking about the turbulent times of the set of the already-infamous The Informers.
Whether you are in an international pavilion (where different countries sell there territories as film-worthy and tax-lenient) or the marketplace, the Lumiere Theatre (which seats about 2200 and screens the competing films) or the top of the Palais watching film prints of unsung classics like Martin Ritt’s incredible The Molly Maguires (caught a screening tonight, features a young Sean Connery and Richard Harris at the top of their game) among only about a hundred others, this is the place to be.
There are bow ties and black suits and short dresses and the most beautiful women the world has decided to showcase, all looking there very best.
This is Cannes, and it’s only just begun. I’ll have my first reviews up this weekend. Look for Bright Star.
From France, Bon Soir.