Sleeping Opening for Cannes

AFP (from left) Agnes Varda, Emir Kusturica, Salma Hayek, Javier Bardem, Nanditas Das, and Benoit Jacquot

Perhaps I had been to Cannes too frequently because this year’s festival seemed too slow. In the past, press and film critics usually crowded the place on the day before the official start of the festival, but this year I hardly saw anyone. By four, I already went home to cook dinner.

The atmosphere remained subdued even on the first day. The festival unofficially opened with a press screening at 10:30am at the 1,000-seat Theatre Claude Debussy. Viewers seemed half asleep as no one rushed out of the venue, booed, or applauded at the end of the film.

Even the press conference with the jury panel sounded sleepy, as it lacked big-name celebrities and directors. While actress Salma Hayek, Nobel Literature Prize winner Toni Morisson, and director Emir Kusturica were famous in their own right, they were not among the biggest names in the film industry. As a result, not many questions were asked and the host had to improvise.

The selection of the Palm d’Or winner is expected to be highly political because Kusturica, who chairs the panel, has a reputation as a controlling man. At the press conference, a question directed at him asked whether or not he would force other members of the jury to agree with him. He responded, “democracy was not my strongest suit.”

Kusturica also defended the jury’s choice of Fahrenheit 9/11 for last year’s Palm d’Or. He declared that the selection was artistic because George W. Bush, the man whom the film opposed, had nothing related to artistry. “When I speak of artistry, I include ethics and other things that come from the heart,” he said.

Another question at the press conference asked about the bases for selecting this year’s winner, to which he jokingly responded, “I cannot tell you; otherwise, next year’s panel will copy.”