64th Cannes film fest set to roll
09.05.11
CANNES -- The Cannes Film Festival is a world-class celebration devoted to all of international cinema. But the world shrank a lot this year for the 64th edition.
Europe is dominant, Asia is reasonably represented, the Middle East is being singled out, Africa and South America are mostly absent, Canada is nothing but a flickering shadow, and the United States is once again an uneasy bridesmaid at the world's most prestigious and powerful film fest.
Naive journalists from shunned countries will undoubtably question jury president Robert De Niro Wednesday on why their favourite sons and daughters were screwed out of competition slots. De Niro will stammer awkwardly and correctly report that the jury did not select the films, that Cannes is run by Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux. If artistic director Fremaux spoke to it, he would point out that Cannes, while trying to pick the best of world cinema, can only program from what is available.
Woody Allen's ode to France, the comedy Midnight in Paris, officially opens Cannes 64 at a blacktie gala in the Cinema Lumiere on Wednesday evening. It plays out-of-competition because Allen is wary of prize-giving. Otherwise, Americans are underwhelming in the competition, despite the presence of legendary director Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life in the lineup. This 1950s period drama co-stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn.
Source: Toronto Sun