Cannes: What recession, what Swine Flu? It’s the Competition that will make all swoon
Palais des Festivals, 1 boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes, Alpes-Maritime, France. It is the level 3 of this Mecca of cinema, at the Wi-Fi Zone for the media, that I am sitting in. In front of me across the wide glass windows is the Mediterranean Sea, with the numerous yachts gently bobbing on the waves created by the incoming breeze. Down below, at another level, queues are getting longer at the delegate and media accreditation counters, as devotees of cinema (well, not all, some are pure businessmen) are pouring in from Nice, the nearest airport, travelling from all corners of the globe, jetlagged but completely kicked up. Crowds have already started their waiting game outside the venue, hoping to be the first in catching the glimpse of any star who might drop by today. From tomorrow, they will have a whale of a time of stargazing, as the Red Carpet rolls out.
The 62nd Festival de Cannes begins tomorrow, and history will be created as soon as the opening film is screened. For the first-time ever, the festival will open with an animation film. By now, we all know it is going to be UP, from Pixar Animation Studios of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. This Pete Doctor-directed film will open the floodgates, and delegates will not know which film to catch in the official Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, Special Screenings and Midnight Screenings sections or the unofficial but equally-prestigious Directors’ Fortnight (Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro will be premiered there, after he refused to screen his film in Out of Competition after it did not get selected for Competition) and Critics Week sections.
But this year, it is the competition, that will surely blow everyone’s mind away. Just look at the line up of the greats here: Pedro Almodovar (Broken Embraces), Jacques Audiard (A Prophet), Marco Bellocchio (Vincere), Jane Campion (Bright Star), Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon), Ang Lee (Taking Woodstock), Ken Loach (Looking for Eric), Park Chan-Wook (Thirst; remember his ‘Old Boy’ which ‘inspired’ Zinda?), Alain Resnais (Wild Grass), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Johnnie To (Vengeance) and Lars von Trier (Antichrist). Best of luck to the jury, chaired by Isabelle Huppert and comprising our own Sharmila Tagore, among others.
Today, it’s all relaxed. Tomorrow the mad chase to catch cinema’s best begins. Not to forget the partying (this time reportedly a little less thanks to recession). Yes, the global recession and the Swine Flu seem to have dampened the spirit a little bit, but once the theatres get darkened and the projector lights up, I am sure all that will be forgotten for the next two weeks. Will try to steal some moments to give some updates here on PFC on movies that I watch, the directors I can meet, or at least get to hear at press conferences, and the experience I get to soak in. They say, the first time of everything is the best time, and yes, this is my first time at Cannes. Maybe that’s why they cobbled up such a great competition line up, what say!
Tags: 62nd Cannes Film Festival
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
BY GOD KI KASAM… THANKS UTPAL!!!!
Enjoy utpal – u lucky guy!!
Waiting for your updates..
With due respect to messrs von Trier , Lee, et al… I just can’t wait for Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” … saw the trailer and was blown away!!!!!
Make way, kids…. baap aa raha hai…
Hey..Utpal…great to know you are attending…keep us posted!
Great Utpal! Do keep us posted…Njoy!..
Really lucky..I wish I was there too.:(
Fantastic collection of talent at one place…alas, India ever absent…this is a clarion call for all Indian makers to wake up and do good stuff…and be there next year!
I think its the most commercialized Cannes ever… where is the Indy cinema that Cannes was known for?
How is Cannes pronounced? Is it Kaan?
oh no it is “cane nee see”
Utpal – Thanks a ton for this.
Great sfuff again, Utpal..thank you…
Great stuff again, Utpal, thanks…
damn lucky !best of luck.enjoy
Utpal- Really envious of you
do enlighten us with insights & updates from there.
hey utpal,
hope you have a great time at the festival, keep us posted. really looking forward to any review of almodovar’s broken embraces and tarantino’s inglorious basterds…
Utpal: great opportunity to all of us to get that vicarious pleasure of attending cannes thru u. btw, is it true that sharmila tagore is one of the jury members this time? if yes, then, thats our INDIAN connection this year..
Isn’t Deepti Naval going to be there promoting her directorial debut ‘Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Char Aane Ki Baarish’ this year? Some bytes on that would be great, if so that is….
This is one film Im looking forward to…