FESTIVAL OF CANNES: history and 2023's
For the first time in the film industry takes place an event destined to become one of the greatest and illustrious of the sector, reaching the same level as the Venice Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival in such a short time: it is the Cannes Festival but not how we know it now, yet.
On the 16th of May of this year, the Cannes Festival started and, with it, dozens and dozens of people that work in the film industry have arrived in France to attend the famous event.
But how does this Festival work? And how was it this year?
Before saying anything else, we should start understanding something about its birth and its history.
This event started as a tourist attraction but, by the time, it grew a lot, as written before, in less than 80 years.
However, this festival, even if it is so famous and known, is pretty secret as the cinemas are not open to everyone: only people that work in the sector are welcomed (not always, actually) with the press, sometimes even not all of it.
The criteria by which viewers at the premieres are chosen are very mysterious as they are divided in different groups (that have the names of some colours) and by those and their hierarchy they can enter the different movie theatres: the problem is that the criteria of the groups are not so clear and no one can change their own colour, as only the organisation can choose yours.
In fact, Cannes is a very different event from, for example, the Oscars: every film can be presented here and it has the right to be watched by the representatives of the international film industry. In fact, each year, about 2,000 films are presented but just about 50 of them and 10 short films are chosen to be part of the “Official Selection”, the others are just screened during the “Quinzaine des Réalisateurs”.
This exhibition now takes place in the “Palais des Festival et des Congrès” for two weeks and it has such a great media impact that producers from all over the world have chosen the latter as a landing point for their products.
The event is also an amazing mass media platform for both filmmakers and actors, who get noticed not only for their fantastic performances, but also for their dresses on the red carpet.
The films that are part of the official competition are judged by a jury and being part of it is certainly one of the greatest moments of a person’s career.
The jury is selected by the organisation of the event and it is divided in 4 sections: one for the long films, one for the short ones, one for the most original films and another one which awards the best first film among all the films of the “Official Selection” and the parallel sections.
If a film, however, wants to compete, it has to follow some strict rules: it has to, for example, be produced during the 12 months before the festival and it cannot have been already presented to any other event. It also has to respect the spirit of Cannes: emotions, friendship and universal cooperation.
The films that do not compete for the jury and the awards (like the “Palme d’Or” which is the greatest one) are divided in the “Hors compétition”, “Séance Spéciale”, “the classics of Cannes” and “Cinéma de la plage”.
Talking about the 2023 festival, as I said before, it started on the 16th of the month and it lasted until the 27th.
It has been opened on the screen by “Jeanne du Barry”, a film directed by Maïwenn that talks about the story of Marie-Jeanne Bécu, a lady from the late 1700s that, thanks to her beauty and intelligence, becomes the favourite of king Louis XV and goes to live at Versailles.
The festival has been closed with the projection of the new Pixar’s animation movie called “Elemental” directed by Peter Sohn: the story of Ember and Wade, a girl and a boy made of fire and water who, besides their different nature, want to be together.
The jury of the film award has been led by Ruben Östlund, winner of last year’s festival, and it has contained other important people of the sector such as Brie Larson, Julia Ducournau and many more: it has judged 21 films.
Talking about the actors that have been on the red carpet, we have, for example, Johnny Depp who returned on the big screen with the first film that has been screened this year at Cannes.
There has also been Micheal Douglas, who received the “Palme des Palmes” or “Palme d’Or”, an award for his magnificent and long career which started in the 60s and still goes on with so many different projects: even Harrison Ford now has this award. The iconic actor has attended the festival starring in the last film of one of his most famous characters: Indiana Jones.
With the new Scorsese’s film have arrived in France Leonardo di Caprio, Robert de Niro and, with “Strange way of Life” by Almodovar, Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke.
With “Asteroid City” and Wes Anderson, at Cannes have arrived Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Maya Hawke, Steve Carrel, Adrien Brody, Tom Hanks and many more actors of this amazing cast that also counts names as Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tilda Swinton etc... This film talks about a story set in an American city in the desert in 1955.
This year three Italian films have taken part in the competition. One of them is “Il sol dell’avvenire” by Nanni Moretti. With this film and the main character, Moretti himself explains his views about life, politics, society, relationships and, of course, cinema. It’s a story set in 1956 that talks about the communist party in Italy.
The second italian film is titled “La Chimera” and it is directed by Alice Rohrwacher, starring Josh O’Connor. It's the story of the search for the Chimera. Everybody has one, has a dream, has a need, and with this film we see the main character chasing his Chimera, a woman, by travelling alone, with others, being happy, being sad, knowing life, knowing death.
The third and last italian film is called “Rapito” and it is directed by Marco Bellocchio. It tells the story of the international case of Edgardo Mortara, a jewish kid that in 1858 was put under the custody of the Pope of that time so he would have become catholic.
We had also seen Cate Blanchett on the red carpet presenting her new movie “The New Boy” and she, as always, became one of the favourites in the theatre but also on the carpet equally with Elle Fanning, Natalie Portman and Jennifer Lawrence who have all stunned everyone with their amazing outfits.
The film who has won the most illustrious award is “Anatomie d’une chute” by Justine Triet: a psychological thriller about a family’s secrets.
This year's Festival was certainly full of good films and emotions and rich of masterpieces that will entertain us for a while even though, of course, complaints are not lacking.
But, in conclusion, to quote Sasha Lane: “As far as festivals, nothing tops Cannes”.
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