CANNES - A FESTIVAL VIRGIN'S GUIDE
History of the Cannes Film Festival
History, Part 4
Moviewise the 1980s were heralded by the comeback film from legendary Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa. Financed by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" shared the 1980 Palme d'Or with Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz". Other key films screened at Cannes during the 80s included, Bruce Beresford's "Breaker Morant", Bernardo Bertolucci's "Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man", Michael Mann's "Violent Streets", Costa-Gavras' "Missing", Jean-Luc Godard's "Passion", Terry Jones' "Monty Python - The Meaning of Life", Peter Weir's "The Year of Living Dangerously", Win Wenders' "Paris, Texas" and "Wings of Desire", Alan Parker's "Birdy", Peter Bogdanovich's "Mask", Roland Joffe's "The Mission", Peter Greenaway's "Drowning By Numbers", Krzysztof Kieslowski's "A Short Film About Killing", Jane Campion's "Sweetie", and Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (the surprise Palme d'Or winner in 1989).
The 1990s kicked off with a continuation of the independent theme set by Soderbergh the year before. During the early part of the decade films such as David Lynch's "Wild at Heart", Ken Loach's "Hidden Agenda", the Coen Brothers' "Barton Fink", Lars von Trier's "Europa", and Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" all grabbing attention on the Croisette. Other notable films included James Ivory's "Howard's End", Robert Altman's "The Player", Joel Schumacher's "Falling Down", Mike Leigh's "Naked", and of course Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction". In 1993, New Zealander Jane Campion also made festival history, becoming the first female director to win the Palme d'Or (for "The Piano").
Although most of the action during the 90s took place on screen, the festival did pause in 1997 to celebrate its 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion a host of previous Palme d'Or winners were invited back to the festival for photo opportunities and to pay tribute to 50 years of film in Cannes. The festival also presented legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman with a special award - the Palme des Palmes ("alm of Palms") - in recognition of his status as a true master of the cinematic medium. The following year, the festival also finally acknowledged the importance of the role played by film schools in developing new talent with the creation of Cinéfondation, a new sidebar dedicated to showcasing the best work from training institutions around the world.
The remainder of the decade continued to be focussed on an eclectic mix of films from across the globe. Highlights included Emir Kusturica's "Underground", Larry Clark's "Kids", Lars von Trier's "Breaking the Waves", the Coen Brothers' "Fargo", Ang Lee's "Ice Storm", Curtis Hanson's "LA Confidential", Thomas Vinterberg's Dogme 95 offering, "Festen", Terry Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", Pedro Almodovar's "All About My Mother", and Takeshi Kitano's "Kikukiro".
As the clocks ticked over to the year 2000, Cannes was busy putting together an official selection which would highlight the importance of digital technology to the future of filmmaking. The first palm of the new millennium went to Lars von Trier's DV-shot "Dancer in the Dark", and since then a whole host of digitally-shot films have appeared in every part of the official selection. But aside from the revolution seen in the way festival films were being made, several other key changes occurred at Cannes during the first half of the decade. In 2002, the festival got an image make-over, losing its somewhat lengthy title to simply becoming known as the "Festival de Cannes". Two years later the Cannes Classics sidebar was inaugurated to present films of archival importance from previous festivals and further a field. And in 2005, a new world cinema section - Tous les Cinémas du Monde - was added to help showcase films from countries with a historically-low cinematic output.
As far as the official selection has gone, key films presented at Cannes since 2000 have included Wong Kar-Wai's "In the Mood for Love", the Coen Brothers' "The Man Who Wasn't There", Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge", Michael Winterbottom's "24 Hour Party People", Roman Polanski's "The Pianist", Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" (the first documentary film ever accepted in competition), Lars von Trier's "Dogville", Gus van Sant's "Elephant", Walter Salles "The Motorcycle Diaries", Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's "Sin City", and Atom Egoyan's "Where the Truth Lies".
Today, Cannes is the most famous of all film festivals and one of the largest media events on the planet. The festival has an annual budget of around €20m, half of which comes from the French Ministry of Culture and Communications (through the Centre National du Cinéma), with the rest from the City of Cannes, various regional authorities, and a large group of corporate sponsors. Each year more than 1,500 films from over 100 countries are submitted to be considered for a very limited number of berths in the official selection. The stars still show up to bask in the limelight, the crowds still gather to watch, and Cannes' reputation as the king of film festivals just gets stronger each year.