CANVAS: MOVING IMAGES
Let’s go to the movies
SADHANA RAO
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With the 62nd festival upholding the tradition of a wide range of films, Cannes remains an important date in the cinematic calendar.
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Photos: AFP, AP and Reuters
Long Live Cannes: (Clockwise from left) Photo-op for the jury; Michael Haneke with the Palme d’Or for his “’The White Ribbon”, Quentin Tarantino returns to the red carpet and Jane Campion.
Cinema and Cannes share an exhibitive and emblematic intimacy. The affinity is interwoven in the city precincts, giving Cannes the appearance of a cinematic tessellate. The pedestrian pathway, Allee des E’toiles du Cinema, has stone tablets with celebrity handprints. A dramatic building (behind the Hotel de ville) is dressed with the ‘trompe l’oeil’ fresco. This creation, the Cinema Cannes, features 34 faces from Cannes’cinematic heritage. Autographs frame a part of the 60,000 concrete hulk — the Palais des Festival. Each year in May, for two weeks, the world comes calling, bringing along loads of images and exhibits of world cinema.
Wonderful setting
Cannes lends itself well as a setting to a festival based on movies. The history of this hamlet on the French Riviera is a searing pastiche of adventures till it emerged as an eclectically bohemian hub. Cannes, of course, has had and continues to indulge in an incredible and enviable romance with Nature bordered by Alps, the exquisite azure blue coastline, the calmest sea, a snug port, and palm fringed promenades.
The Indian pavilion in the “Village International” — where all the film producing countries have a window to showcase their cinematic endeavours — was marked by the tri-colour swaying to the Mediterranean breeze. The generous interiors flowed into a spacious terrace, which was flanked by coffee counter and a bar with a ceaseless flow of spirits, ensuring footfalls even after the day’s work had ended.
The presence of an Indian star on the jury (Sharmila Tagore) turned some of the spotlight on the Indian scene. Director Anurag Basu (“Kites”) spoke about creating a film with loyalty to his culture and country and hoped that the time was right for global audiences to accept the story, narration and integrity to its origin. Of course, there was galloping crowd hysteria given the presence of actor Hrithik Roshan, alternately referred to as “exquisitely sensitive” and “gorgeous hulk”.
The National Film Development Corporation’s stall in the “Marche du Films”, a forum where art meets commerce, had an evocative montage of Indian films. It was heartening to witness queries on the films of Satyajit Ray and actor Om Puri and the formidable sway and hold they have on the European markets. In Cannes, while the jury is shielded from reviews and press, it is the cinephile who creates the buzz.
A cinephile has various categories at Cannes. The serious ones sign up for film-focused activities. Another layer is the comfortable owners of the mandatory access badges who secure their seats at the screening venues, and engage with the silver screen. A motley crowd that storm the barricaded pathways leading to the Red Carpet (incidentally the smallest space in the festival circuit — all of 22 steps) with no access badge also call themselves cinephiles. They are the strongest group as they cover on foot the vantage spots to spot celebrities all over Cannes: at hotel entrances, restaurants, on boats and beaches.
The resonance of the cinephiles is best felt along the famed water front promenade, La Croisette, during the beach screenings and thereafter. In the open air, in myriad accents, dialects and languages, the film is discussed and debated.
Impact
Amid the different dialects, the language of cinema still shows its identity of being universal. From an initial selection of over 1,500 films, 20 finally make it to the “En Competition” — the final quest being the Palm d’Or — covering a sweeping broadscape of themes and plots. The impact of the films is deeply personal and an individualistic one; hence public opinion in Cannes is polarised. The jury is often accused of being blind and unjust by some and praised by another lobby for its fair and just choice. At many moments Cannes resembles an artistic battle ground.
Festival de Cannes, despite being disparaged and denounced, is a significant date in the cinematic calendar. Federico Fellini’s three-word cantation “Vive le cinema” (Long live cinema) reverberates resoundingly as the festival gets an encore every year.
Eclectic fare
The 62nd festival saw a wide range; from first-time directors to films backed by megastars, and language base extending from Spanish and Italian to Japanese and Chinese.
This year apart from the Palm d’Or winner “The White Ribbon”, Ken Loach’s “Looking for Eric” drew on the life of a simple postman; Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” etched the extremely private romance of John Keats; Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock” was a telling tribute to music and the festival.
Pedro Almodovar in “Los A brazos Rotos” (Broken Embraces) caressingly rests the camera on Penelope Cruz, the main protagonist of an intense love story. Marco Bellocchio’s “Vincere” tackled head-on the secret life of Mussolini. Quentin Tarantino returned with “Inglorious Basterds” and stupendous queues to view his film.
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