17/05/07

Today, the following actors are present in Cannes: Asia Argento, Claudine Auger, Alex Beaupin, Juliette Binoche, Jane Birkin, Anna Maria Cecilia Bonnevie, Elodie Bouchez, Michel Boujenah, Patrick Braoudé, Kelly Brook, Vincent Cassel, Sergio Castellitto, Patrick Chesnais, Minnie Driver, Faye Dunaway, Sara Forestier, José Garcia, Louis Garrel, Hippolyte Girardot, Judith Godrèche, Liz Hurley, Vlad Ivanov, Adrien Jolivet, Norah Jones, Diane Kruger, Bernadette Lafont, Ringo Lam, Konstantin Lavronenko, Jude Law, Gong Li, Andie MacDowell, Aïssa Maïga, Sophie Marceau, Olivier Marchal, AnaMaria Marinca, Helen Mirren, Julian Moore, Carl Ng, Shu Qi, Jocelyn Quivrin, Tsui Hark, Laura Vasiliu, LinDa Yuen, Billy Zane, Zhang Zihi, Preity Zinta, Kerry Washington, Aishwarya Rai.

Photo Copyright AFP
From Cannes 2007

16/05/07
One of the events opening this 60th Cannes Film Festival was a forum concerning the cinema of tomorrow. The discussion centered on the issues faced by cinema in the coming decade, as digital technologies become increasingly prevalent. Professionals from the worlds of film and new media, journalists, and sociologists thus came together this afternoon, Wednesday, May 16, in the Salle Buñuel, to discuss the paradigm shift the Seventh Art must prepare for, with new trends in film viewing practices, and the links between cinematographic creation and new film promotion and distribution media. They also examined the ways in which these new film distribution media might affect the impact a film has on a viewer.

After a welcoming speech given by Catherine Démier, General Director of the Cannes Festival, Philippe Dana, a journalist at iTélévision and Canal +, screened ITV, a film introducing the Forum, made by the agency CAPA. A number of speakers then took the podium to present the various themes that would be the subject of the encounter. The first of these was Michael Gubbins, an editor at Screen International, who opened the Forum with a talk entitled "Digital technologies in the era of globalization." He emphasized the fact that these changes are irreversible, but demonstrated that, if the wave of change is surfed successfully, the revolution will be beneficial. Next, Adrian Sexton, Executive Vice-President of Digital and Participant Productions, outlined the changes engendered by the new digital environment, from creation to distribution, including marketing. He also discussed ways for filmmakers to maintain greater control over their work as well as decrease their production costs, while attracting the 2.0 audiences.

Danah Boyd, ethnographer and community networks researcher, gave a talk on the impact of new media and 2.0 Web on filmmaking – both as concerns film production and distribution, and audiences. She commented on the way technology affects practices at every step of the filmmaking process, and discussed the effect on filmmaking and the advent of community networks like MySpace and YouTube. "The teenagers of today post images from films they identify to their blogs the way those of yesterday used to hang posters on their bedroom walls." she observed. "They don't have the impression they are stealing someone's property. For this generation, it is totally normal to play with film content and share it via the Internet," she continued. "The Internet has become the place where they socialize, the way going to see a movie with a group of friends was, for earlier generations."

Next, the Salle Buñuel hosted a discussion moderated by Colin Brown, editor-in-chief of Screen International, on new trends in the roles of film directors, producers, and distributors, in a rapidly evolving digital environment, and the new perspectives available to artists and film viewers. The debate concluded with a presentation by Emmanuel Ethis, a film and film-audience sociologist, who explained, "to endure, any new means of filmmaking and film-viewing must primarily be conceived as a subtle art of encounter." He went on to say, "Because digital media make it possible to tailor the cinematic offer to the individual's demand, they are also a factor in the growing segmentation of the audience." "The concept of the general public, as applied to film, is in the process of shattering," Ethis declared. "In the old days, a film buff was supposed to be knowledgeable about a canon of classic films. This requirement has disappeared, replaced by a trend whereby viewers focus increasingly on a niche genre, as shown by the proliferation of themed websites."

The findings of this forum will be presented to the European Ministers of Culture who, on Saturday, May 26, will be discussing the political aspects of these questions at the 5th European Day.



Red Carpet Arrivals: "My Blueberry Nights"

16/05/07
Flanked by Norah Jones and Jude Law, the two leading actors in My Blueberry Nights, Chinese director Wong Kar Wai was the first to tread the red carpet at this 60th Cannes International Film Festival.

Photo Copyright AFP

Jury Press Conference
16/05/07

The Jury of the 60th anniversary Cannes Film Festival was assembled today for its opening press conference. Jury President Stephen Frears was able to impart his impressions and intentions to journalists with the members of his jury at his side: Maria de Medeiros, Toni Collette, Sarah Polley, Maggie Cheung, Marco Bellocchio, Orhan Pamuk, Abderrahmane Sissako, and Michel Piccoli. Excerpts follow.

On the responsibility of being a juror at Cannes
Marco Bellocchio: It’s a real opportunity for me to see films from other great filmmakers and to learn from them. It’s about emulation, but I don’t really like judging.

Maria De Medeiros: A bit like everybody said: it’s a great honor, it’s a great pleasure to discover so many films from great authors, and I think of the pleasure of discovering those films much more than the judgment. I don’t know if it’s possible to judge art, but anyway it will be just wonderful to exchange ideas around the films.

On preparing to be a juror at Cannes:
Toni Collette: I don’t know how one can prepare. I think it’s a matter of being in the moment with the movies and being affected just as you watch any other film. It’s being engaged.

Orhan Pamuk: We are not here to judge the director's previous work, we are here to look at the movies and to say this one is better, this one is this, this is not so good. So we don’t need any preparation; we have done what we have done in our lives. It’s just about going to movies with a child’s enthusiasm and then saying to Daddy, ‘This is the best one, this is the one I like.’ That’s why it’s so much fun. We are not professors, we are just filmgoers.

Sarah Polley on the act of judging a film:
I think finding out how incredibly difficult it is to make a film makes you much more generous when you’re watching other people’s films. It’s much easier to see the merit in things that might not be perfect. So I think I’m a much less harsh critic of other people’s work at this point, so it’s probably a good time to do this.

Stephen Frears on the importance of the Cannes Festival:
Thank goodness there’s a demand for a certain kind of film, in other words, that there is an alternative to just the films that the American studios make. Many places celebrate that, and Cannes is at the top of that. So I’m pleased that those kinds of films go on being made.

Maggie Cheung on the process of judging actors:
I don’t think there are any rules; it’s really the performance itself. I think acting is the hardest thing to judge in a film. Sometimes the actor can be great all by himself, or it can be a great director directing an actor who doesn’t know how to act. So it’s hard to say who the credit should go to when you see good performances, but then I think you can always tell an actor when they are true to their part or just playing.

Abderrahmane Sissako on the way he works:
I think that what is important is to like going to see films. Nobody’s a specialist. As jury members, we’re cinemagoers. I’ll see the films with a free spirit. I want to share different visions of the film, different points of view. I’m capable of changing my opinion if something convinces me of something. 

Orhan Pamuk’s first memory of the Cannes Festival:
Probably like people in the rest of the world, it was a B&W photo taken on the beach of a naked woman, early 60s. That was my first image. God, I wanted to be there!

Stephen Frears on the act of judging films:
In the end, you sit there and watch a film. In a way, knowledge is unhelpful. I grew up when cinema was innocent, before it became so self-conscious, so my prime memories are of just going to films because they were enjoyable. So I don’t quite see what the nationality of a film has to do with it.

From Cannes 2007

Nigerian director Faruk Lasaki joins others at Cannes next week.

Once again, the so called third largest film industry in the world, Nollywood, does not even have any film in the competition.

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