Cannes 2019 Cannes 2019 Party kicks off as clouds of controversy gather When Thierry Frémaux, artistic director of the
Cannes film festival, held the traditional press
conference in April to announce the lineup of the
72nd edition, one big name was conspicuous by its
absence. Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood, the auteur director's take on late-60s,
Manson-traumatised Los Angeles, was, Frémaux said,
"not ready"; its failure to meet the deadline would
be a big loss for the festival, depriving it of one
of its favourite master directors and the immense
firepower of its cast - Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad
Pitt, Margot Robbie and Al Pacino.
Fortunately for all concerned, Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood did manage to make the party: Frémaux was
able to announce its inclusion a few days later,
saying that Tarantino "has not left the editing room
in four months". Having won the Palme d'Or, the
festival's highest award, in 1994 for his second
feature, Pulp Fiction, Tarantino will be able to
join the other big beasts in Cannes, including the
UK's Ken Loach (with gig economy drama Sorry We
Missed You), Spain's Pedro Almodóvar (film industry
memoir Pain and Glory) and the Dardenne brothers
from Belgium with radicalisation drama The Young
Ahmed. A Hidden Life, a new film by another American
auteur, Terrence Malick, about anti-Nazi activist
Franz Jägerstätter, is also due to premiere at the
festival, but Malick has been a famously elusive
figure for decades and is not likely to attend.
Behind the hoopla and star power, however, a number
of controversies lie in ambush. Tarantino himself
could well be in the firing line, as critics wait to
see if Once Upon a Time in Hollywood crosses the
taste and decency line in its treatment of the real-
life savagery of the 1969 murder of Sharon Tate, the
then-wife of film-maker Roman Polanski. Tarantino's
films have a record of extreme violence, and the
director himself has not emerged from the industry
reckoning over #MeToo with much credit, after
accusations emerged of his treatment of Uma Thurman
during the making of Kill Bill for which he
apologised, and his 2003 comments about Polanski's
1977 sexual abuse case, in which he said Polanski's
13-year-old victim was "down with it".
Cannes' eager embrace of Tarantino also throws into
sharp relief the sluggish progress the festival has
made in including female film-makers in its
selection. After Frémaux signed a pledge at the 2018
edition aiming to improve gender parity at the
festival, this year only four films with female
directors (out of 21 in total) have been selected
for the prestigious competition section. This still
represents a record - four women were also selected
in 2011 - but is not enough to satisfy activists,
who staged a silent protest on the Palais des
Festivals' steps in 2018.
Melissa Silverstein, founder of campaign group Women
and Hollywood, said: "There are different excuses
each year. Instead of being defensive, we'd like
[Frémaux] to embrace the issue and be a leader."
However Frémaux refused to say that Cannes was
aiming for gender parity in its selection. At the
festival's opening press conference, he said:
"People ask Cannes to do things they don't ask other
festivals to do … The Cannes film festival is asked
to be impeccable and perfect. No one has asked me to
have 50% of films made by women. That would show a
lack of respect."
Small improvements have been made with the
introduction of family-friendly facilities, such as
a nappy changing area and list of childminders;
these complement the hotline to report harassment
that was set up last year. On the other hand, the
decision to honour veteran French actor Alain Delon
with an honorary Palme d'Or has been greeted with
dismay by campaigners, who point to Delon's history
of misogynist comments and far-right politics.
French feminist organisation Osez le féminisme said:
"Cannes is sending a negative signal to women and
victims of violence by honouring Delon in spite of
the fact that he admitted to having slapped women."
Frémaux responded by saying: "We're not going to
give the Nobel peace prize to Alain Delon … He is
entitled to express his views. Today it is very
difficult to honour somebody because you have a sort
of political police that falls on you."
Cannes' other exposed flank is its continuing row
with streaming giant Netflix, which remains
unresolved. French distributors reacted angrily
after two high-profile films - Okja and The
Meyerowitz Stories - distributed by Netflix appeared
in the 2017 competition, despite the streamer's
refusal to adhere to the French practice of allowing
a 36-month window before release on a streaming
service.
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