'There's more to Cannes than just parties on yachts'
The Cannes film festival: A million different things
Tuesday, 20, May 2008 11:41
Having been the location of the confirmation of Angelina Jolie's pregnancy and daily headline-making from Lily Allen, the Cannes film festival still dominates the gossip pages for its three week of sun-kissed partying.
But with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull having made its international debut there, Clint Eastwood hoping for a Palme d'Or win with new noir film The Changeling and Steven Soderbergh telling the story of Che Guevara, the south coast resort is still the home to some of the most exciting and intriguing cinema around.
inthenews.co.uk's Lewis Bazley talked to Executive Editor of Empire magazine Ian Nathan about Indiana Jones, independent cinema and the schizophrenia of the greatest film festival on earth.
What makes Cannes a greater festival than an event such as Sundance, Berlin or Venice?
I think history is the first thing. It's established itself through many years of the glamour and excitement of the Cannes film festival so it's got itself a legacy that the other festivals haven't yet attained. If you approached someone in the street and asked them to name a film festival, they'd say Cannes.
Just how accurate is the portrayal of Cannes seen in shows like Entourage?
Yeah, that's halfway there. There's a lot more to Cannes than just that though. It's all in aid of the same thing - studios and promoters trying to sell their films. But at the same time, the other side of the festival is its artistic side where films are played in competition so it does have a noble side, if you will, opposed to the partying, champagne-drinking and scantily-clad ladies. And there's another tier to it as well which is the film markets themselves.
Well, in that respect, is there an atmosphere of stars and studios being friendly to all and sundry to create a good buzz for their pictures and get a buyer?
It depends on the level that things are operating on. There's a giant market where independent films are sold and put together which is very basic and humdrum, then there's a film like Indiana Jones 4 which is basically doing its promotional launch in Cannes. Cannes isn't one thing, it's a million things, it's grown on this huge level. There's about 4,000 film journalists down here, there's PRs and producers. I quite the idea that there are also these lovely personal touches where people make deals in bars and restaurants, which happen really informally and quietly. For these three weeks in this southern French town, the whole film world descends upon it and operates at all its different levels, from Steven Spielberg and Indiana Jones 4 right down to some film about talking dogs which'll go straight to video. And along the way there's this amazing festival of art in the middle.
So it's got a lot of different facets to it?
Yes, it's quite schizophrenic. It's a crazy place.
If we could talk about the Palme d'Or briefly - is it too early to pick a frontrunner?
A bit, yes. Blindness [from City of God director Fernando Meirelles] opened the other night and went down quite poorly. I think people felt it was rather dreary and plotless, so that's not a frontrunner. Indiana Jones isn't in competition, of course. I mean, everyone thinks they know, but without having seen these films, how can they? There's the Wim Wenders film.
Clint Eastwood's The Changeling of course...
He's always these days worth seeing and worth paying attention to, and bringing Angelina Jolie with you helps of course!
Why has Spielberg chosen Cannes of all places for the Indy premiere?
I think convenience is one thing. Not a great one for huge amounts of press. He's beyond doing endless amounts of interviews. It gives him a huge amount of exposure in a very short amount of time. He doesn't have to do a London, Paris, Madrid premiere and I don't think he's even doing any US premieres.
And from a film company box office point of view, that will work because Cannes gives you an added exposure.
But it's Spielberg and Indiana Jones - how much promotion do they really need to do?
A good argument the naysayers will come up with is why on earth does it need to go to Cannes? Paramount have put about $200m into it but of course, nothing's certain in the movie business and launching in Cannes gets them a lot of attention they might need.
Your magazine in particular has been notably excited about the film, so presumably you wouldn't prescribe to the notion that Harrison Ford might be a little too old to play Indy?
Of course, he's old compared to the first three films. But from what I understand, that is part of the fabric of the film, it's about Indiana Jones being old. You could say 'does that still make an interesting film if it's less along the lines of the first three?' I don't know. But it certainly provides an opportunity for a lot more humour and maybe a bit more of a human touch.
I think one of the likely themes of the film, which was certainly touched upon in the third film, is fatherhood. Is he mature enough? Indiana Jones was always a grown-up kid. And now you have the sense of 'should he have grown up by now and put away childish things?'
It might have lost certain things, but...
Yes, what it will lack in terms of youthful vigour, it will probably gain in terms of humour and wisdom and a conclusion to it all. And I'm sure, knowing Spielberg, there's plenty of action and excitement, adventure and silliness. It's not going to lack any of those things.
How much of the Frank Darabont plot do you know to have remained in the movie?
What they've said is that facets of all the various scripts that were written have been retained, so it's not Frank Darabont's script but certain elements from that script have been retained. We're not entirely sure which - certainly the Cold War but that was a factor anyway because of Indy's age. I think ostensibly it's not his script.
Just to move onto some of the competition entries - could Steven Soderbergh's Che, at four hours long, be too lengthy for mainstream audiences?
Well, they're playing the two films together down here but I don't know if they're going to release them like that. He wanted journalists and the jury to see it like that, I think. But I can't imagine people are going to rush out to see a four-hour film.
Has Charlie Kaufman got the chops to make the leap from writing to directing with debut Synecdoche?
Everyone's arguing down here about how it's pronounced! It's a curious proposition. Having been a trendy writer - and I'm not the biggest fan of his work but I understand why he's popular or quirkily popular - the jury's out a little on whether he can direct. But being asked to be in Cannes means you've got to have attained some level of artistic respect.
But the question whether it'll be an Eternal Sunshine... or a Human Nature?
Yes, absolutely, that's the debate.
And to finish with an utterly fatuous question - what's the best ever Palme d'Or winner? Pulp Fiction, Secrets and Lies, Taxi Driver?
Well, I haven't seen them all! I think the way to measure it is less about the films on their individual merit but more what it did for them. And I think if you look at Pulp Fiction, it really put Quentin Tarantino on a different level and made him an international level. But personally speaking, I just love the fact that Barton Fink won, this quirky small film and I love that they pick films like that, which is evident from 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days winning last year.
Best ever - I don't know, it's hard to measure, but certainly Pulp Fiction for impact.
Lewis Bazley
Check out the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which debuted in Cannes, below: