CANNES - A FESTIVAL VIRGIN'S GUIDE
History of the Cannes Film Festival
History, Part 3
However, while the official selection witnessed many of the Cannes alumni present some of their most seminal films, there was a feeling in some quarters that it was becoming increasingly difficult for newer filmmakers to get their films shown at the festival. It was this sentiment which led to the creation of the world's first festival "sidebar", the Semaine Internationale de la Critique ("International Critics' Week"), founded in 1962 as a parallel section focussed on presenting the work of first and second time directors.
Although by the time the 1960s had rolled around, the festival was pretty much over its shaky past, there was to be one more hiccup in 1968. Amidst an undercurrent of general discontent in France, the culture minister André Malraux tried to fire the co-founder and head of the Cinématèque Française, Henri Langois, over a long-running budget dispute. Langois was an extremely popular and respected figure, particularly with the French "new wave" directors, so when the news of the sacking hit Cannes towards the middle of the 1968 festival, all hell broke loose. Louis Malle and Roman Polanski both immediately resigned from the festival jury, joining the call from François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and a host of other French filmmakers, for the festival to be closed down as a sign of protest. The feelings ran so hot that on 19 May 1968 the directors burst into the noon screening and literally hung from the curtains to prevent the festival from continuing. The festival was cancelled shortly after with many foreign filmmakers finding themselves trapped in France for several days in the face of the nationwide strikes that had brought the country to a standstill.
The French authorities eventually brokered a deal to end the strikes, and the filmmakers successfully forced Malraux to reinstate Henri Langois, but it was too late to resume the festival. However, the events of 1968 did leave an impression on another group of French filmmakers, amongst them Robert Enrico and Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, who were appalled that the festival had been used as a political platform by Truffaut, Godard et al. Together with a group of colleagues they formed the Société des Réalisateurs de Films and gave birth to the second festival sidebar, Quinzaine des Réalisateurs ("Directors' Fortnight"). The Quinzaine was intended to be a forum where films could be presented free from "... all forms of censorship and diplomatic considerations." Its spirit was immortalised by a mildly Orwellian quote from French director Pierre Kast: "All films are born free and equal: we must help them to remain so."
The 1970s brought with them profound change, both in the world of filmmaking and within the festival itself. In the early days festival films had been chosen and submitted by officially appointed representatives from their country of origin. But in 1972 the board of directors decided that from that point on the festival itself would look after the process of choosing films for inclusion in the official selection, thus setting the blueprint for the selection format which is used by most modern international film festivals today.
As far as the films went, the 1970s was largely dominated by the new "golden boys" of American cinema. With Hollywood in a transitional phase (the studio system was long dead, but the corporations had yet to become interested in movies), directors such as Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Robert Altman, were at the forefront of cinema in the 1970s - in effect, America's answer to the French new wave of the 60s. And Cannes certainly approved. Over the course of the decade American new wave films screened included Robert Altman's "M.A.S.H" and "3 Women", Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation" and an unfinished "Apocalypse Now" (which still managed to clinch the Palme d'Or), Martin Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and "Taxi Driver", and Steven Spielberg's "The Sugarland Express".
But the 1970s in Cannes wasn't only about American movies. Filmmakers from Europe and further a field were well represented by films including John Boorman's "Leo the Last", Louis Malle's "Murmur of the Heart", Milos Forman's "Taking Off", Andreï Tarkovski's "Solaris", Ken Russell's "Mahler", Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Fear Eats the Soul" and "Despair", Wim Wenders' "Kings of the Road" and "The American Friend", Roman Polanski's "The Tenant", Ridley Scott's "The Duellists", Alan Parker's "Midnight Express", and Werner Herzog's "Woyzeck".
In 1975, festival boss Maurice Bessey decided to expand the scope of the event further by introducing three new out of competition sidebars to the official selection: Les Yeux Fertiles ("Fertile Eyes"), l'Air du Temps ("Spirit of the Time"), and Le Passé Compose ("The Perfect Past"). While this seemed like a good idea at the time, it became quick apparent that the addition of these sidebars overly complicated the official selection, so in 1978 new Delegate Générale Gilles Jacob (now festival president) rolled up these events into a single sidebar: Un Certain Regard. That same year Jacob also introduced the Camera d'Or, an award for the best first-time feature film in any section of the festival.
The arrival of the 1980s saw the festival facing the reasonably serious problem of having outgrown its home in the Palais Croisette. Not wanting to lose the lucrative event, the City of Cannes commissioned a new Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on the site of the old winter casino. Completed in December 1982 as a dual festival and conference venue (and quickly dubbed "The Bunker" by Cannes regulars), the new Palais hosted its first festival in 1983. To celebrate the opening, the City of Cannes invited many stars of past and present to leave their hand prints in clay outside the building on Esplanade Georges Pompidou.