The iconic French film festival opens today with the looming threat of a MeToo explosion. Also: 11 very good reasons for Indians to celebrate.
The lead image: is from ‘All We Imagine As Light’ by Payal Kapadia, starring Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha.
Cannes: The backstory
There have been 77 editions of the festival—staged every year in May since 1946. The glitzy event fronted by a truly global A-list of celebrities began as an act of rebellion against fascism. Here’s what happened:
- Mostra di Venezia was the first-ever international film festival—staged at the peak of fascist power in Europe.
- Its highest prize was named Coppa Mussolini—after Benito Mussolini. And the politicisation of the festival had become more blatant over the years.
- In 1937, the guest of honour, Joseph Goebbels—the Third Reich’s minister of propaganda—attacked Jean Renoir’s anti-war masterpiece ‘The Grand Illusion’—calling it “Cinematic Public Enemy Number One.”
- A year later, the top prize was jointly won by two pro-fascist films from Germany and Italy—Leni Riefenstahl’s ‘Olympia’ and Goffredo Alessandrini’s ‘Luciano Serra, Pilot’.
- Outraged at the blatant favouritism, France, the US and Great Britain decided to boycott the Mostra.
- And French diplomat Philippe Erlanger soon began working toward creating a French alternative—called ‘Festival International du Film.’ FYI: Cannes was selected over other contenders like Biarritz because it had better hotels.
- It launched on September 1, 1939—the very same day as the Mostra—and the day when Adolf Hitler invaded Poland.
- On September 3, World War II was declared—and the festival was put on the backburner after screening just one film: ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’ directed by William Dieterle.
For more, check out our 2023 deep dive on the festival last year. It has lots of fun details on its history—including a history of breast-baring actresses.
Cannes 2024: All the good stuff!
The 2024 Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 14 to 25. This year, the organisers picked a still from a 1991 Akira Kurosawa film—titled ‘Rhapsody in August’ for its poster:
Let’s go to the movies: Since it’s a film festival, let’s start with the movies. Reminder: the biggest prize is the Palme d'or—followed by the Grand Prix. The festival also awards the prestigious jury prize, as well. And a parallel category called Un Certain Regard (a certain look)—which spotlights emerging filmmakers.
The most anticipated flicks this year are:
‘All We Imagine As Light’: After 30 long years, an Indian film has been chosen to compete for the prestigious Palme d’or. The last Indian film to compete in the category was the Malayalam film ‘Swaham’ in 1994. And Chetan Anand’s ‘Neecha Nagar’ is the only Indian film to have bagged the prize in 1946.
This is an Indo-French production about two Malyali nurses navigating life in Mumbai. Every Indian publication has the same crappy, copy/paste description of the plot:
All We Imagine as Light follows the lives of Prabha and Anu, nurses from Kerala working at a nursing home in Mumbai. Prabha's life takes an unexpected turn when she receives a gift from her estranged spouse, while Anu, her roommate, seeks solitude for a romantic encounter with her boyfriend. Their journey to a coastal town prompts them to break away from the confines that have shaped their lives until now.
Far better to figure it out for yourself from the trailer.
The other Indian highlight: British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri’s debut feature film ‘Santosh’—which has been selected for Un Certain Regard. It is a BBC-backed flick about a widowed woman who takes her deceased husband’s job as a cop in north India. Ok, we can’t wait to see this one. Plus: Santosh Sivan will become the first Indian filmmaker to receive the Pierre Angénieux prize for career achievement in cinematography.
‘Megalopolis’: People can’t wait to see Francis Ford Coppola’s highly delayed magnum opus. Adam Driver plays a “visionary architect determined to rebuild a city after it’s beset by disaster.” That sounds a bit Ayn Rand-ish to us (eeks!). In any case, according to early buzz, it’s too weird for mainstream cinema:
Puck’s Matthew Belloni reported that at a March screening meant to entice buyers, many came away confounded by Coppola’s vision: “There are zero commercial prospects and good for him,” said one source. But if it’s true that the film is a big, wild swing, it’s hard to imagine a friendlier place for its public debut than Cannes, where the filmmaker is revered.
‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’: is also greatly anticipated—but promises to be very much commercial. It’s a prequel to the Oscar-winning ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’—which had a rocking debut at Cannes in 2015. Everyone is also looking forward to Charlize Theron’s replacement—Anya Taylor-Joy’s red carpet moment.
‘The Apprentice’: Ali Abbasi’s movie is the origin story of—wait for it!—the Donald, himself:
[Sebastian Stan] stars as the tangerine menace himself, as the film follows Donald Trump as a young real-estate executive in 1970s New York. He’ll apparently enter into “a Faustian deal” with right-wing lawyer Roy Cohn (Succession’s Jeremy Strong).
It’s slated to be a strong contender for the top prize. See Stan as Trump below.
‘Caught By The Tides’: China is expected to stage a bit of a comeback this year—after dropping out during the pandemic. The hottest entry is director Jia Zhangke’s movie—which is about a woman (Zhao Tao) who looks for a lover who disappears without an explanation. Also: “It was shot organically over the course of 23 years with the same cast and crew.” Ok, wow! Watch a clip from the movie here.
‘Emilia Perez’: This one is from Jacques Audiard—also known for ‘A Prophet’ (2009), ‘Rust And Bone’ (2012), and ‘Paris, 13th District’ (2021). The plot is as follows: “His Mexico-set musical melodrama is about a cartel boss who undergoes sex reassignment surgery to retire from the business, evade authorities, and affirm a new gender.” Enuf said.
‘The Substance’: This one has Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid—so as nostalgic as it gets. No one knows the plot except it’s supposed to be a bloody feminist revenge flick—which makes it even more fascinating. There is no trailer as yet—only first look images like this:
Content warning: This story mentions sexual abuse, but there are no graphic descriptions.
Coming soon: Cannes’ MeToo moment
A bit of background: Back in 2017—when the rest of the world was swept up in the MeToo movement—France mostly stayed on the sidelines. Even last year, Cannes chose ‘Jeanne du Barry’—starring Johnny Depp—despite a firestorm of criticism. But this year, the same festival will showcase a short film ‘Moi Aussi’ (Me Too)—directed by French actress turned MeToo activist Judith Godrèche.
About Godrèche: She got her breakout role at the age of 14—and was living with her 40-year-old director Benoît Jacquot at the age of 15—which is the age of consent in France. Decades later, Godrèche was triggered by an interview by Jacquot in a documentary:
[He] admitted that their relationship had been a “transgression” — he denies sleeping with her before the legal age of consent at 15 — while arguing that making films in France “is a kind of cover” for “illicit traffic.” “Watching this man talking about me as if I were just an object, like he was the one who brought me to life, as if he had this sort of ownership of me as a child, it just sort of switched something in me,” Godrèche says.
She filed charges against Jacquot for rape of a minor—and another director Jacques Doillon. During the making of his film ‘The 15-Year-Old Girl’—where Doillon plays a father in love with his son’s girlfriend (Godrèche)—he demanded 45 takes for a sex scene.
A rising MeToo tide: Godrèche’s movie is inspired by the more than 6,000 stories of abuse women shared with her after she went public. It comes in the midst of a long overdue reckoning for revered actors like Gérard Depardieu—who has emerged as France’s Harvey Weinstein. A number of women have come forward naming Doillon, Jacquot—and a third director Philippe Garrel—who has been accused of sexual assault by five actresses.
Important point to note: The culture of sexual abuse within the French industry is especially nasty because it is romanticised as ‘art’—Hélène Frappat points out:
“This worldview is built on a scam,” wrote Frappat. “A scam for women, not the for these so-called great creators who defend themselves by explaining that in France of the Nouvelle Vague a director must sleep with his muse in order to find inspiration. [In other words] our romantic vision is built on harassment.”
“I think many of these directors sincerely believe that such harassment, which can lead all the way to sexual assault, are products of [a romantic instinct],” she tells Variety. “And that in turn, they feel their victims should be happy for such attention…Only we shouldn’t fall into the trap of isolating cinema, because cinema is just a blown-up image of society—and this issue affects our society on every level.”
Also this: Cannes mayor David Lisnard just wrote a blistering column comparing sexual harassment investigations to harassment by East Germany’s secret police (Stasi) of political dissidents.
Coming to Cannes: Film festivals are now becoming a protest venue for women angry at the French establishment. At the Berlinale, actor Nora Hamzawi demanded director Doillon’s upcoming film ‘Third Grade’—in which Hamzawi stars — should be blocked from release. Apart from Godreche’s speech—which may name new names—there are rumours of an “explosive” list of 10 A-list men which may be published—right in the middle of the festival.
Festival director Thierry Fremaux claims he isn’t too worried:
Last year, as you know, we had a few polemics, and we realized it, and so this year we decided to host a festival without polemics to make sure that the main interest for us all to be here is cinema. So if there are other polemics, it doesn’t concern us.”
The bottomline: The only thing surprising about new MeToo allegations is that they still have the ability to shock us.
Reading list
- Associated Press offers a good overview of this year’s festival.
- EuroNews has a good list of 10 Palme d’or contenders.
- For the India angle, read Forbes for more on the Indian entries, New Indian Express and New York Times on Indian indies having their moment. Also: The Hindu on Santosh Sivan.
- On the French film industry’s MeToo moment, read Variety and Hollywood Reporter. France24 and The Guardian have more on the MeToo undercurrents at the festival. Deadline reports on a workers strike brewing in the background.
- We have the best Big Story on the history and evolution of Cannes.
