The Cannes Film Festival is No. 1

By Claude Brickell

Ah, le Festival de Cannes, known to most of the world as the famed Cannes Film Festival, and recognized for hosting the best in cinematic artistic achievement from around the globe. Its international film market has also become the favorite meeting place of major producers and distributors where they exchange ideas, view the latest films and sign their coveted contracts.

Cannes is also a gathering place for cinema enthusiasts celebrating film as an art form. Where the juryless Oscars features glitz and glamour, Cannes is about artistic perfection. It has been said that European film is an artistic business trying to become commercial where American film is a commercial business trying to become art. And the two festivals reflect that polarity.

It all began in Venice in 1938 when Hitler and Mussolini changed the festival’s jury winners for the Mostra (later Venice) Film Festival in favor of a Fascist propaganda documentary. Appalled by that move, the French film elite formed their own festival apply called the International Film Festival in Cannes, officially opening in 1939.

War in Europe was declared on the 3rd of September of that same year when Germany invaded Poland, and it was all the fledgling festival could do to keep itself afloat following that. Funds were hard to come by and tensions among the organizers flared. For the struggling Rivierabased festival, the war could not end quick enough. It did end, eventually, but the festival did not survive. A new festival, however, soon blossomed out of the original and it became known as the second Cannes Film Festival of 1946. After that, Cannes never looked back. It has become ‘the place to be’ for filmmakers and film lovers the world over.

The postwar years were not without controversy, though. Film was changing and the festival had to find a way to adjust. It knew that if it were to remain relevant on the international festival circuit, it had to make a name for itself with what was nouveau. The earlier festival had introduced us to a new generation of filmmakers who were not always to the festival elite’s liking, but their quirky films fit the bill, films that expressed neorealism or cinéma vérité (La Nouvelle Vague or New Wave Cinema), showcasing French directors like Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Romer, François Truffaut, and others, and neorealsmo showcasing Italian directors like Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica, and others. And here is where the Americans came in. We have Brigitte Bardot (who was actually discovered in Cannes) to thank for that, and who Americans could not get enough of (as in Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman

To Catch A Thief

featuring her) as well as other French and Italian starlets spicing up foreign film screens, everywhere (starlets such as Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, Gina Lollobrigida, and others). Hollywood producers took note and, suddenly, everyone was talking about Cannes and its new film fare.

The 1950s and ‘60s saw a rebirth in the festival’s US popularity, as a result, and needed funds from American producers began flowing in, hosting lavish parties and parading their own American stars on the Cannes red carpet. Stars like Grace Kelley and Cary Grant who had recently delighted audiences worldwide in Alfred Hitchcock’s box office hit To Catch a Thief, filmed on the Riviera at La Victorine Studios in Nice, where I served as Hollywood studio representative.

Cannes has not escaped scandals, however, over its long and illustrious years. And it has seen more than its share of political and religious controversies, as well, due to contentious film selections. Among them have been Federico Fellini’s 1960 film La Dolce Vita , a Palm d’Or winner, was considered pornographic by conservatives. The film was deemed blasphemous by the Vatican which threatened to excommunicate any Catholic viewing it, and Luis Buñuel’s 1961Viridiana, a Palm d’Or winner, as well, which criticized religion and its deviations. Franco of Spain tried to censor it but the director sent the film to the festival anyway, which led to his unlawfully returning to his beloved homeland. And, in 1993, Farewell My Concubine, also a Palm d’Or winner, by Chinese film director Chen Kaige, garnered accolades worldwide. A few weeks following its Chinese release, the film was abruptly pulled by the politburo unless and until major changes were made. While allowing the premiere of the film in Beijing, it was denied release in other Chinese cities. The government had objected to the film’s representation of homosexuality, the suicide of a leading character and its description of the political turmoil during China’s repressive Communist period. Farewell My Concubine is considered one of the landmark films of the Fifth-Generation movement that brought Chinese film directors to world attention. I was fortunate to have attended the film’s premier at the Cannes Palais

The Catholic Church in Rome has a longstanding ideological struggle with filmmakers worldwide. My own feature Havana, Habana , filmed both in Havana and Hollywood, was forbidden by the Church to film in one of its sanctuaries for a critical scene in which the dialogue openly criticizes ‘as an addiction’ Church dogma. And filming had to be moved to an adjacent area away from the sanctuary, altogether. The film went on to garner official selection at the Rome Independent Film Festival in Italy.

Today, Cannes is still the number one festival for international stars, class, and artistic excellence. And, if you can get your film noticed, there, you’ve arrived. The Oscars are all glitz and winning there is sure to make you a bundle. But it is at Cannes where the rest of the world takes notice and where the festival honors, internationally, its winners with fame as writers, directors, producers and stars.