{"id":9192,"date":"2017-05-18T18:12:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T18:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9192"},"modified":"2017-05-18T18:12:04","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T18:12:04","slug":"from-nazis-to-netflix-the-controversies-and-contradictions-of-cannes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/from-nazis-to-netflix-the-controversies-and-contradictions-of-cannes\/","title":{"rendered":"From Nazis to Netflix, the controversies and contradictions of Cannes"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Scott Diffrient<\/a>, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

On May 17, the 70th edition of the Festival de Cannes kicked off with the opening-night screening of director Arnaud Desplechin\u2019s \u201cIsmael\u2019s Ghosts<\/a>.\u201d It will wrap up 11 days later, when the Pedro Almodovar-led jury bestows the highly coveted Palme d\u2019Or on one of the 19 international productions in the festival\u2019s main competition. \"The<\/p>\n

In between, dozens more motion pictures will flicker to life in theaters along the Croisette, a sun-kissed promenade dotted with luxury hotels that attracts a swarm of paparazzi with the promise of celebrity sightings and scantily clad starlets. <\/p>\n

But behind the pageantry, controversy has been brewing. Netflix has two entries premiering during this year\u2019s event. The popular streaming service will then release the films to its millions of subscribers \u2013 foregoing the exclusive run in French cinemas requested by the organizers. In turn, they\u2019ve threatened to ban Netflix from submitting any films to future editions of the festival. Telegraph reporter Robert Mendick called this dustup<\/a> Cannes\u2019 \u201cmost explosive.\u201d <\/p>\n

If it is, it\u2019s only the latest.<\/p>\n

As Lucy Mazdon, one of the few film scholars to have studied this annual event, points out<\/a>, the Festival de Cannes has long functioned as an expression of France\u2019s national identity. It reinforces the important place that film occupies in the country\u2019s culture, along with its reputation as a purveyor of artistic \u2013 rather than strictly commercial \u2013 cinema. <\/p>\n

But Cannes has sometimes struggled to live up to this ideal, and the competing agendas of art, commerce, international politics and national pride have long roiled the festival.<\/p>\n

Anti-fascist origins<\/h2>\n

In 1938, French diplomat Philippe Erlanger, film critic Ren\u00e9 Jeanne and Minister of National Education and Fine Arts Jean Zay were disturbed by that year\u2019s Venice Film Festival, when pro-fascist films from Germany and Italy \u2013 Leni Riefenstahl\u2019s \u201cOlympia<\/a>\u201d and Goffredo Alessandrini\u2019s \u201cLuciano Serra, Pilot<\/a>\u201d \u2013 jointly won the top award (the tellingly named Coppa Mussolini). <\/p>\n

They were also appalled by the hostile reception given to Jean Renoir\u2019s anti-war masterpiece \u201cThe Grand Illusion<\/a>\u201d one year earlier. (Joseph Goebbels, the Third Reich\u2019s minister of propaganda, who had been a \u201cguest of honor\u201d at the Venice Biennale, had called it<\/a> \u201cCinematic Public Enemy Number One.\u201d) <\/p>\n

In response, they came up with the idea of a French \u201ccounter-festival\u201d that would stand in opposition to Italy\u2019s. Originally branded as the \u201cFestival International du Film,\u201d the organizers hoped the event would outshine its European counterparts, celebrating the art<\/a> \u2013 rather than political value or propagandist content \u2013 of cinema. <\/p>\n

However, politics almost immediately came into play. On the night of the inaugural gathering on Sept. 1, 1939 \u2013 as guests were arriving at the Casino Municipal, including Hollywood stars Gary Cooper, George Raft, Norma Shearer and Mae West \u2013 Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Following a single screening of the RKO production \u201cThe Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/a>,\u201d organizers brought the festival to a sudden halt.<\/p>\n

Great Britain and France declared war against Germany two days later. It would take another seven years before Erlanger, Jeanne and Zay\u2019s vision was finally brought to fruition. <\/p>\n

Art clashes with commerce<\/h2>\n

In 1946, the first full-fledged film festival held in post-Liberation France took place, featuring soon-to-be classics like Roberto Rossellini\u2019s anti-fascist neorealist film \u201cRome, Open City\u201d and Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s psychological thriller \u201cNotorious.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even then, the festival was torn between dueling agendas<\/a>, with European ideals of art cinema rubbing up against popular Hollywood productions that many French audiences clamored for.<\/p>\n

The contradictory nature of the Cannes Film Festival has only intensified since. <\/p>\n

In 1959, the French Minister of Cultural Affairs Andr\u00e9 Malraux called for the establishment of an international \u201cfilm market,\u201d the controversial March\u00e9 du Film.
\nIntended to strengthen the commercial appeal of the festival, the March\u00e9 brings together industry professionals<\/a> for the purposes of networking and brokering deals between buyers and sellers. Meet-and-greet opportunities are formalized through the inclusion of daily breakfasts, round-table talks and workshops with industry leaders. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n A 1967 photograph of French film director Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut.<\/span>
\n Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Significantly, that initial foray into the business side of cinema took place just as the festival helped launch the \u201cNouvelle Vague\u201d (French New Wave), a hugely influential, decidedly noncommercial film movement. Led by Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut, whose autobiographical coming-of-age tale \u201cThe 400 Blows<\/a>\u201d earned him a Best Director award that year, French New Wave cinema privileged the personal expression of young filmmakers. Films like \u201cThe 400 Blows\u201d and Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s \u201cBreathless\u201d (made one year later, in 1960) also expanded storytelling possibilities through a reflexive foregrounding of the cinematic medium itself (with characters frequently \u201cbreaking the fourth wall\u201d and looking directly at the camera). (Ironically, Truffaut had been banned<\/a> from Cannes one year earlier after he criticized the festival for prioritizing entertainment and spectacle over art and personal expression.) <\/p>\n

A decade later, in 1968, student and worker protests swept through Europe<\/a>. Truffaut and other French filmmakers and intellectuals, including Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Lelouch, called for a premature end to the 21st edition of the festival. The festival, which was supposed to run between May 10 and May 24, was shut down six days early in a show of solidarity with those who were opposed to American cultural imperialism, the Vietnam War and the global spread of capitalism.<\/p>\n

Since then, other well-publicized episodes have disrupted the Festival de Cannes, from the discovery of a handmade bomb beneath a stage at the closing ceremony in 1978<\/a> to Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier\u2019s explosive (if jesting) claims that he was a Nazi who \u201cunderstood\u201d Hitler in 2011<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grappling with Netflix<\/h2>\n

This year\u2019s edition of the festival is no exception to that history of politicized hullabaloo. Much of the recent commentary surrounding Cannes concerns the current state and future of film exhibition and distribution.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the decision of the festival\u2019s artistic director, Thierry Fr\u00e9maux, to include two Netflix-produced films \u2013 South Korean director Bong Joon-ho\u2019s \u201cOkja\u201d and American filmmaker Noah Baumbach\u2019s \u201cThe Meyerowitz Stories\u201d \u2013 has been criticized.<\/p>\n

The move has drawn the ire of the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF), an organization that represents the interests of local theater owners who worry international streaming services will threaten not only their own livelihood<\/a> but also the quality of cinema<\/a> in the years to come.<\/p>\n

Almost immediately after this year\u2019s Cannes program was announced in early April, speculation arose in the pages of U.S. trade magazines as to whether online streaming services and small-screen platforms would be blocked from entering forthcoming film festivals. According to The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> and Variety<\/a>, a new rule set to go into effect next year will require any competing film at Cannes to be distributed in French theaters before being made available for online viewing.<\/p>\n

Moreover, current French law<\/a> requires a window of 36 months between theatrical release and streaming availability, a stipulation that Netflix, Amazon Studios and other streaming services aren\u2019t likely to abide by. <\/p>\n

The wrenching changes<\/a> brought by streaming services to the TV and movie industries mark a departure from the political conflicts of years past. But controversy is certainly nothing new on the Cote d’Azur: a long view of its history suggests that strife and contention have distinguished this French cultural event since its very beginnings.<\/p>\n

David Scott Diffrient<\/a>, Professor of Film and Media Studies, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Scott Diffrient, Colorado State University On May 17, the 70th edition of the Festival de Cannes kicked off with the opening-night screening of director Arnaud Desplechin\u2019s \u201cIsmael\u2019s Ghosts.\u201d It will wrap up 11 days later, when the Pedro Almodovar-led jury bestows the highly coveted Palme d\u2019Or on one of the 19 international productions in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[2383,335,2384,1743,2385,1605],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9194,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9192\/revisions\/9194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}