Behind the scenes at Cannes 2004

By James Drew

Date: 13/05/04

ON TUESDAY 18 May, the 57th Cannes Film Festival (12-23 May) will be the venue for 2004's 'Europe Day' organized in collaboration with the European Commission.

Supported by the French newspaper Le Figaro, as well as TV channels Arte and RFI, 'Become a Filmmaker in Europe' is the event's theme, and the festivities will be attended by more than 20 culture ministers from the newly enlarged European Union.

Education and Culture Commissioner Viviane Reding, who is one of the event's major sponsors, will also be in attendance, as well as guest-of-honour Milos Forman, the acclaimed Polish director who gave the world such cinematic treasures as One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984).

As a finale, a practical prize of invaluable assistance, guidance and education from filmmaking experts will be awarded to a 'new talent' to assist with his/her ongoing filmmaking project.

In the words of Cannes Managing Director Veronique Cayla, the festival is "a place where the future of cinema is prepared, where politics and artists, north and south, art and industry cross paths, brush against each other or meet. It is our job to channel, organize these meetings so as to make them fruitful".

Six European directors are featured in the official competition selection:

• Frenchman Olivier Assayas, one of the most exciting new directors to have made his mark in the new wave of Gallic visionaries presents Clean, his first work since the techno-thriller Demonlover (2002);
• French actress/director Agnès Jaoui is attending Cannes with only her second film after Le Goût des autres (2000), Comme une image, which she also wrote and, if that weren't enough, she is also the star;
• Algerian born Tony Gatlif complements the French contribution with Exils;
• European harmony is key to Bosnia-Herzegovina-born Emir Kusturica's submission, Kad je zivot bio cudo (La vie est un miracle!), a Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/France collaboration;
• German director Hans Weingartner, who made Das Weiße Rauschen (White Sound, 2001) shows The Edukators, and;
• Naples-born Paolo Sorrentino completes the EU contingent with his Le Conseguenze Dell'amore (or The consequence of love).

The European Union is also ably represented on the jury chosen to award prizes (among them the coveted Palme d'Or) for feature and short films.

Answering to Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction/Kill Bill maestro jury President Quentin Tarantino will be French actress Emmanuelle Béart (Manon des Sources (1985), Un Coeur en Hiver (1992)), Finnish film critic Peter Von Bagh, UK actress Tilda Swinton (Adaptation (2002), Vanilla Sky (2001)).

Perhaps best of all, Claude François (in reality Belgium's über-actor and scriptwriter Benoît Poelvoorde (of Podium fame) will be in attendance, though he has not yet confirmed whether he will be leading the jury in a stylish rendition of Alexandrie Alexandra…

Cannes President Gilles Jacob puts it succinctly, in his introduction to this year's celebration of cinema: "The principles that the board of directors of the Festival de Cannes wished to see respected are as follows: a mouth-watering menu with an inventive cuisine that is neither too traditional nor too pretentious a daring selection that creates desire, that triggers curiosity, that carries that certain vitality which currently fills film today and gives a hint of the film of tomorrow; a selection that helps these films, cinema, its creators and artists to exist and to continue their work."

Aside from allowing the great and good to mingle and savour the films on offer, this year's festival is coordinating an internationally concerted action against film piracy - how it can be deterred and prevented.

On 16 May, the directors of the world's major studios, from Bollywood to Hollywood, China and Europe will discuss the problem, which costs the film industry some €590 million per year worldwide.

On a lighter note, the festival will be invading the local Macé Beach once again, converting it into an outdoor cinema open to all.

Paying careful attention to technical conditions and sound quality, 'Cinema on the Beach' (weather permitting) will be a perfect auditorium, showing restored copies of vintage films as well as out of competition official films and shorts in competition.

And something special is planned for this year's closing ceremony - it will last all weekend!

On Saturday 22 May, a fireworks display will start the awards party with a bang, followed by a live concert in Cannes Bay performed by several of the singers and musicians from Irwin Winkler's film De-lovely (which receives its world première on the same evening), a biopic based on the life of American composer Cole Porter, played by Kevin Kline and starring Ashley Judd and Jonathan Pryce.

On Sunday 23 May, the closing ceremony will be the scene of the official jury prize-giving, honouring the Palme d'Or cast and crew and showing the winning film.

This will be preceded by a presentation of the best moments from the 2004 festival. More details are available at www.festival-cannes.com.

Snapshot of EU film

• THE size of the audiovisual market in the European Union stood at €72.4 billion in 2000 (an increase of 56% since 1996).
• In 2001 there were 24,862 cinema screens in the EU and 6,271 multiplex screens. In 2003, an estimated 933 million cinema tickets were sold across the EU.
• In 1995-2002 admissions in the EU increased by 40.5%.
• The cinema and television sectors are generating around one million jobs in Europe.
• Market share of European films in 2003 (in their own national market and outside it) was 32.3%.

Market share of European films in the US in 2003 was less than 7%.

Only 8.3% of European films were shown beyond their national borders in 2003.

• 625 films were produced in the EU in 2003 (a large majority of films are produced by small- and medium-sized enterprises. European consumers spent some €15 billion on film and TV entertainment in 2003.
• Public funding accounts for on average 42% of film budgets within the EU. France is the biggest supplier of subsidy to filmmakers (€552 million per year) followed by the UK (261m euro), Spain (245m euro), Italy (210m euro), Germany (186m euro), Ireland (71m euro) and the Netherlands (49m euro).

Other European countries stump up €226m between them.

• Wolfgang Becker's Good-bye, Lenin!, a sympathetic portrayal of East Germans dealing with the massive changes to their country with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, was the most successful European film of 2003.

As well as earning €64m worldwide, it won the Blue Angel Award for Best European Film, Berlin 2003, as well as the European Film Prize for best picture.

Source: European Audiovisual Industry.

Article considers the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.