Friday, April 24, 2009
Cannes: A New Film Language?
The line-up for Cannes was announced last night. But before we get to it, a little love for the poster hey. Isn't it dreamy? According to FilmoFilia, it's the work of Annick Durban, inspired by Michaelangelo Antonioni's L'avenntura, which won at Cannes back in 1960.
Actually, the choice of L'avventura is a curious one for Cannes. The film, now famous (or infamous) for it's long takes, wasn't received well at all upon it's first screening. Indeed the story goes that spectators starting laughing and shouting "Cut! Cut!", being so disruptive that the filmmakers and critics protested until the festival was forced to organise a second screening.
Only upon second viewing was the mastery of this film fully translated. So much so that L'avventura was awarded a special, tailor-made prize, "For the beauty of its images, and for seeking to create a new film language."
Ok, yes, you can tell I geek out on film history. Perhaps, then I'm reading too much into this representation; I wonder who, if anyone remembers this story? If so, does it then follow that this year's festival seeks a similar special (or controversial) tone?
The Opening Night film Up - in 3D no less! - does seem to speak to this 'new film language'. And the big names in competition this year Haneke, Tarantino, Almodovar, Von Trier and Lee are all known for their distinct and at times, confronting, visual and narrative styles. So here I am thinking maybe there's something in my theory after all.
Then I took a look at the press kit, and the opening statement confirmed my thoughts.
Extract: "The new generation of filmmakers from the East and Far East do not have any form, laws or traditions to obey. They are more, to evoke a famous film: Let's throw away the books and rally in the streets! They never run short of visual ideas.
Creativity, boundless energy and singularity - these far-away young filmmakers are constantly stepping outside the boundaries of the cinema of the past. They don't know much about it and they're fine just as they are. They are reinventing it."
It appears the festival is hoping to inject a little adventure into this year's proceedings after all.
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For the full festival line-up, head over to Eyes Wired Open, or you can download the press kit as above - I can recommend reading the rest of the statement.
Special high fives for Samson & Delilah who made it in for a deserved Un Certain Regard.
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3 comments:
I think your identification of a relationship between L'avventura and the 3D screening of Pixar is interesting, but it seems more like a case of the usual 'expect the unexpected' PR garbage.
Having Antonioni poster reminds us of why Cannes deserves our love, and groundbreaking cinema deserves to be rewarded. But do you remember the Kung Fu Panda/Bee Movie stunts that have been pulled in the recent past? Then again, if anyone is going to make 3D cinematic art, it would be the Pixar folks.
It's great to see Samson and Delilah in the Un Certain Regard lineup. Adventure and risk is what makes great festivals, hope some of the choices for this year are genuinely risky and adventurous.
Alice where has your blog been all my life? I can't believe I'm only just discovering this great resource!
@JW It could well be more PR rubbish (I'd suppressed the memory of the Bee Movie stunt), but I'm hoping the allusion to L'avventura is more a sign of Cannes wanting true innovation.
Then again, while adventure and risk are certainly what make good festivals, perhaps Bee Movie type stunts are what keep them afloat. You gotta pay the bills after all. I think 'Up' could well be about commercial viability, but keeping my fingers crossed for cinematic magic too (who says the two are mutually exclusive?).
@Matt Riviera: Ta muchly! Always stoked to get a bit of blog love.
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