ach year, a myriad of film critics, film scholars, film snobs, film stars and film producers looking to write off a vacation gather in a small town on the Côte d’Azur to celebrate cinema and glamour. The Cannes film festival opened last night with the usual combination of hope and expectation. This is the festival where such films as "La Dolce Vita," "Taxi Driver," "Apocalypse Now" and "Pulp Fiction" debuted. The festival welcomed the New Wave and continues to be a controversial and discussed part of the film community, whether it’s being spoken of with reverence or disdain.

The festival typically combines high art and glamour with a good dose of snobbery—the audiences are known for booing as much as applauding.

This year will see the premiere of a Hollywood action film (albeit an artier-than-average one) while celebrating the work of Federico Fellini, the famed Italian director who has made more classics than one can fit in a short list. "La Strada," "8 1/2" and "La Dolce Vita" are among the most recognizable. The festival will present more than 30 of Fellini’s films, including restored prints of several of the films. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of his death, and the festival is being held "Under the Sign of Fellini."

The opening night film (the honor going to a French film, as usual, after some surprising U.S. choices the last couple of years) "Fanfan la Tulipe," features Vincent Perez and Penelope Cruz. The French have made the story into four films since 1907, and here director Gérard Krawczyk tackles it again, with a screenplay by noted filmmaker Luc Besson and Jean Cosmos.

Tonight the red carpet will roll out once again for the festival’s big U.S. premiere, a small independent film called "The Matrix Reloaded."

While the big-budget works often invade the festival’s red carpet ("Armageddon" in 1997 being the most baffling), the competition selection remains elite.

Some might argue it’s too elite. Of the 20 films in competition this year, 14 are by directors who have already been in competition (15 if you count the short film category and one more if you count Un Certain Regard, the category for films that didn’t quite make competition, but that the selectors thought highly enough of to hold in "a certain regard"). And some see this as a good year for young faces. Well-liked films such as "Amelie" and "Innocence" didn’t make it to competition because they weren’t the high-art style of so many of the festival’s films.

A jury selects the winners, usually throwing a few curve balls that either pleasantly surprise or infuriate the critics. French writer/actor/director Patrice Chéreau is the jury president, and the Americans on the jury are actress Meg Ryan and writer/director Steven Soderbergh.

One film in competition will win esteem with the Palm d’Or, while others will earn critical acclaim and make it to arthouse theaters. Other films, often regardless of quality, won’t make it to U.S. theaters because distributors will find them too challenging and thought provoking for the States.

The quick descriptions of what the films are about generally fall short after the films premiere, since the real point isn’t what the film is about, but the artistry used to make it about them.

The competition again welcomes Danish director Lars Von Trier, one of the founders of the Dogme 95 movement, which calls for films to be shot on hand held cameras with natural sound, lighting and existing props. This marks the sixth festival Von Trier has been in the competition, and he’s won something every festival but one, including the Palm d’Or (the top prize) for "Dancer in the Dark," the odd, melodramatic musical that also won Bjork the Best Actress Award in 2000. His excellent "Breaking the Waves,” starring Emily Watson, won the Grand Jury Prize (second place) in 1996.

This year, his film “Dogville” stars Nicole Kidman as a woman on the run who arrives at an American mountain town in the 1930s. The film was reportedly shot on a studio with a controlled, minimalist approach. This controlled style separates it from the Dogme films.

Legendary French director François Ozon makes an appearance with "Swimming Pool," an international production that’s already slated for release this summer. Charlotte Rampling stars as a British mystery author who goes off on a writing excursion to her publisher’s home in southern France and gets involved in her own strange and mysterious relationship.

Samira Makhmalbaf, 23-year-old daughter of famed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, shared the Jury Prize (like third place, only the French wouldn’t call it that) in 2000 for "Blackboard" and returns with "At Five in the Afternoon."

In addition to the well-respected world directors, a few well known American and English language (including Von Trier and Ozon this year) directors will bow new films.

Gus Van Sant’s career has combined some corny, but well made feel-good films like "Good Will Hunting" and "Finding Forrester" with stuff like the intriguing "Gerry," which followed two young men who are lost in the desert. His new film "Elephant" deals with high school violence and stars unknown actors from public schools in Portland along with Timothy Bottoms and Matt Malloy.

Clint Eastwood, who has competed several times before, will premier "Mystica River," which if nothing else has quite the cast behind it: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne and Marcia Gay Harden.

Writer/director/actor/weirdo Vincent Gallo will deliver the follow-up to 1998’s "Buffalo ’66." The film, which co-stars Chloë Sevigny, tells the story of a motorcycle racer struggling with the loss of a loved one. Peter Greenaway, known for interesting titles and interesting films ("The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover") has already delivered half of his promises with his international English language production, "Tulse Luper Suitcases Part I. The Moab Story."

Other notable directors include Raoul Ruiz, André Téchiné, Claude Miller, Denys Arcand, Bertrand Blier, Hector Babenco, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Aleksandr Sokurov, the Russian director who many felt should have won something last year for the technical achievement "Russian Ark," which followed the history of a Russian palace/museum in one unbroken shot.
In addition to the premieres and competition, the festival hosts several other categories, including Director’s Fortnight, Critic’s Week and other special events, including "special sessions" with directors including Wim Wenders and Errol Morris, one of the greatest documentarians of all time.

I’ll be in Cannes for the whole festival, and will file a report as soon as I find out which films were disappointing, which lived up to their promise and which came out of nowhere to surprise.
jeremy@red-mag.com

Want more about Cannes? Read next issue's cover story. -jp