(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The Cannes Festival is a circus where a select few get to perform in the mane, while the majority only see the color-speaking canvas from the outside. At a time when the film's impact field is both challenged and changed, many believe that the festival appears more timeless than current, and more security-seeking than provocative. The festival is like a predictable palace where the film as an art form is still cultivated in its purest form. Critical voices have argued that the festival program is first and foremost a showcase for long-established filmmakers; If you are first in, you are virtually assured of eternity. The prestigious competition program most often gets this rather boring stamp, while the side program Un Certain Regard with the same cynical distance is referred to as the place where new voices are most graciously allowed to try. Perhaps these, with their next project, can climb the last step up to the starry sky; maybe they fall down brutally without ever recovering. Midnight screenings, special screenings, and opening and closing films, for their part, are seen as the bumps for Hollywood films and domestic French productions, with stars embellishing the red carpet and attracting even more journalists with dazzling flashlights. "It's a good selection. It's new, it's fresh. The quote comes from Program Manager Thierry Fremaux, at the press conference where the festival presented the program for 2015. The statement is obvious – yes, it seems most necessary for a festival that works hard to Keep alive the perception of that particular La Croisette still the world movie's paradigm is number one. If these are just empty words, a review of the 2015 films will reveal, but first it must be added: Cannes these days in May is about a lot more than the films shown in the mastodontic, white-painted Mediterranean palace. Along the beaches that run on each side of the building, long rows of visitor pavilions and all the waving flags of the world testify that yes, this is undoubtedly the place to be. And if you follow one beach until you are halfway, you will soon discover a much larger world than the main building can accommodate: for example, the heart of La Quinzaine des Realizer – a separate film festival that runs in parallel with the Cannes Festival, established by the French directing association in 1969 as an independent counterpart to the latter, Still The fortnight a clear correction to the official program. The Week of Criticism (Critics 'Week) on its side – the festival's oldest side program put together by the French Critics' Guild – you will find a few meters further down the street. And in the film market in the palace's basement, and in the many hotels with their own cinemas as well as many other places, the screen continues to expand in every conceivable direction these hectic spring days. Yes, until 2001, the porn industry even held court here with its own award ceremony, the so-called Hot d'Or.
At a time when the film's catchment area is both being challenged and changed, many believe that the festival appears more timeless than current, and more security-seeking than provocative.
Back to basics: Who's right – the cynical critics on the one hand, or the festival itself with its many supporters on the other? Let's take a look at this year's program, where 19 films have been selected to compete for the Palme d'Or, including our own Joachim Triers Louder Than Bombs. Absence of women. At first glance, it is easy to identify some of the festival's most obvious challenges, which have also been the basis for much of the criticism it has been subjected to in recent years: the low proportion of female directors, and the absence of documentaries. Admittedly, the festival has selected Emmanuelle Bercos La Tête Haute - with Catherine Deneuve in the lead role – as the opening film, and thus beaten two birds with one stone, since it also constitutes the first French opening film since Dominik Molls Lemming in 2005. But – the film is shown out of competition. The competition program includes films by lousy two female directors: Valerie Donzellis Marguerite and Julien and Maiwenns My king. It should be said that neither of the two are newcomers to the Croisette; Donzelli, for example, opened Kritikeruken 2011 with War is declared. The expectations of her Marguerite and Julien, based on a project that François Truffaut himself worked on in the early 70's, are then also large in the home country. One has to look with a magnifying glass to find female perspectives in this year's program, and probably the biggest focus will be as so often before instead on female actors – when first and foremost Cate Blanchett in Todd Haynes' already massively discussed Carol. The director has not made anything for the cinema since 2007s I'm not There, and together with Blanchett's status, this is possibly the single film with the highest expectations in this year's program. Quite banally sold as a lesbian drama from the 1950s, this film will probably be something considerably bigger in Haynes' hands. Actually, there is probably only one other female world star in the program who can compete with Blanchett for attention: Marion Cotillard. In recent years, she has slowly but surely taken over the festival queen title from Isabelle Huppert, also present in Joachim Triers. Louder Than Bombs. Cotillard plays against Michael Fassbender in Justin Kurzel's adaptation of Macbeth, which is met with great interest on the basis of Kurzel's debut film Snowtown, which was shown at Kritikeruken 2011. Kurzel has already demonstrated his flair for psychological discomfort on the screen, and undoubtedly has a good hand with actors. The big question is whether Shakespeare's text – reportedly kept in the original language and in full length – will be too much for the relatively recent director. The range from today's Australian small towns to the medieval Scottish Highlands is at least large enough. New voices. As I said, it is easy to dismiss the Cannes festival as a showcase for already well-known directors. The festival becomes its own enemy is when it allows filmmakers who have previously demonstrated their art to fully fit into the program, even when they are behind trivialities that disappear from the horizon as soon as they have been shown in the Lumièresalen. Atom Egoyan and Wim Wenders are examples of names that have had carte blanche of this type, but reserving the entire program for this group of directors alone, is far too easy to buy. In recent years, it may also seem as if the festival has tightened up on this "distribution of free passes", and instead sharpened its focus on new filmmakers. This is how it appears today more in line with what its organizers claim they want the Cannes Festival to be. Canadian Xavier Dolan is perhaps the foremost example of this. Dolan's explosive career is of course primarily due to a unique talent, but he has also been protected and cultivated by Cannes. Whether the same will happen to Joachim Trier, only time will tell, but together with Greek Yorgos Lanthimos, he is one of those the festival is now fully opening its arms to. Both have climbed the hierarchy with previous films in the side program – respectively Oslo, 31. August og Dogtooth. Lanthimo's film T – his first in English language costume – has among others Colin Farrel, Rachel Weisz and Cannes favorite Léa Seydoux in the roles. Trier's film is also in English. The Cannes festival has kept its eye on the Trier side Recovery, and it probably does not hurt the film's positioning that Isabelle Huppert will be seen arm in arm with the director on the red carpet when it is to be shown. It is a cynical thought, but also captivating: Trier and Huppert together, with the world press at a distance of three meters, are as close to an international breakthrough as one can imagine in an increasingly globalized film world – provided Louder Than Bombs lives up to expectations.
One should therefore look with a magnifying glass to find female perspectives in this year's program, and probably the biggest focus will be as so often before instead on female actors.
The big surprise in the program is the inclusion of feature film debutant Laszlo Nemes, who has jumped over all the steps in the hierarchy and landed right in the main competition with the Holocaust drama Son of Saul. One debutant among 19 directors is still not enough to call the Cannes Festival groundbreaking and daring. Old trotters. There are definitely old trotters in this year's program. A trio of Italian already Cannes award-winning filmmakers lead: Paulo Sorrentino with Youth, with Matteo Garrone It Racconto dei Racconti and Nanni Moretti with My mother. Their three films are on paper as different as three films can be. Moretti will hopefully further develop his already golden palm-winning flair for realism and human relations, while the trailer for Garrone's film has already revealed that his film adaptation of Giambattista Basile's adventure collections will be lavish and far from realistic. Japanese Hirokazu Kore-eda is also back in the competition with a film based on the cartoon Mountains May Depart, while Taiwanese Hou Hsiao-hsien, for his part, is completely changing pastures after a series of films of the more intimate kind: This time he offers what might be a grand martial arts- epic i TheAssassin. The most gratifying reunion in Cannes, however, will be Gus Van Sant, who has not been in the competition since Paranoid Park in 2007. Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe star in The Sea of Trees, with the plot added to a forest at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan. Men are at the same time in what is often referred to as Suicide Forest, but the chance encounter changes both of their plans to take their own lives. The actors and the director alone create expectations for something very special. So where are the provocations? They can be summed up with one title, which many thought had a clear place in the competition program: Gaspas Noés Love. Referred to the midnight screening out of competition, Noé will probably still manage to create his own headlines in the meeting with one of the festival's more exciting films in several years. At least on paper. Smidesang Slåen is a film critic in Ny Tid. eirikss@gmail.com
