Page 32 - Fujifilm Exposure_18 Shackleton_ok

54TH CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 9 - 20 MAY 2001
CôTE OF MANY COLOURS
CôTE OF MANY COLOURS
Cannes can as Moulin Rouge rocks the Riviera
O nly a war could stop Cannes and so far only
World War II has. But for the past few years the Cannes Film Festival seems to have been shirking in the trenches, seldom com-
ing out and never conquering.
This year, the 54th, the excuse for
the lack of shining stars up the Palais’ red staircase was the SAG strike, but the real problem was the tedious choice of films. With no British films in competition and loads of truly unexcit- ing movies, what we lacked was debate, controversy and scandal; in fact, any excuse to live it up on the Riviera.
Festival president Gilles Jacob and his new team of Thierry Fremaux and Veronique Cayla apparently saw 854 features (and 944 shorts) to make their final selection, and all I can say is thank God for their brief exception into comic relief with the utterly enchanting
computer-ani-
mated feature
Shrek. It says
something
about a film fes-
tival when the
hottest leading
man is a smelly
green ogre.
The high- light of the vis-
iting celebrities
was the beauti-
ful, normal
Nicole Kidman,
there with Baz
Luhrmann’s
deliciously
post-modern
Moulin Rouge
which opened the festival. She did her press commitments - an unenviable task at a time when she had just had a miscarriage, was being divorced by Tom Cruise and was legally trying to stop a stalker – with that age-old
Cannes style but once she waved her last to the rubbernecking crowds, all became uneasily quiet.
McGregor also
passed through for
Moulin Rouge, Andie
MacDowell for Crush!,
Sean Penn and wife
Robin Wright for The
Pledge, Natasha
Richardson for Chelsea
Walls, Michel Piccoli,
The Sopranos’ Drea De
Matteo with Abel
Ferrara’s R Xmas, Debra
Winger, Tim Robbins,
Molly Parker, Sarah
Polley, Jackie Chan, Jet
Li, Alan Cumming and
Jennifer Jason Leigh for their Anniversary Party, Gerard Depardieu and wife Carole Bouquet, Jean-Claude
Van Damme to show off his new haircut, and Bridget Fonda for the martial arts filmKissOfThe Dragon.
Faye Dunaway was there with the
script of her directorial debut, and Francis Ford Coppola and his son Roman and daughter Sofia, with Dad’s expanded ver- sion of Apocalypse Now
Redux, made 22 years ago and still the best film at the festival. But where were the Sophia Lorens prancing on the golden sands beneath the serge blue skies and the new BBs? Or the George Clooneys and Mel Gibsons?
You could have done more star-spot- ting in one night at the Vanity Fair party at the Hotel du Cap in Antibes, frankly. As one of the dailies commented: Cannes d’Or-mant.
Okay, the usual
yachts were wedged
poopdeck to
poopdeck, as well as
well-toned industry
spouses stretched out
on the beach, hoards
of gymed-up garcons,
the man who poses all
day as a statue of
Charlie Chaplin (when
does this guy pee?)
and the usual topless girlies leaping out of fountains.
But mainly it was industry hon- chos, the producers, the directors, the buyers and sellers, who plodded the Croisette glued to their mobile phones, in Ray Bans, more hair and tighter tucks, hoping that this year the bread they throw on the waters would come back as smoked salmon sandwiches.
Apart from Michael Haneke’s chilling sado- masochistic The Piano Teacher starring Best Actress and Actor-award winners Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel, the powerful real-life thriller Roberto Zucco starring newcomer Stefano Casseti,
Photos from top: The Majestic Hotel crush; star paparazzi; the Carlton Hotel displays; Gilles Jacob and Francis Ford Coppola; Nicole Kidman and Moulin Rouge; Sean Penn and wife Robin; line-up at the Hot d’Or, the X-rated film showcase; Faye Dunaway; bikers on the way to the Harley Davidson gathering in St Tropez; a panoramic view of the Croisette
(photos courtesy ImageDirect and Foyer Libraire)
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