The three films on this disc are a cinephile’s dream come true.
Venice is the longest running film festival in the world, and Sundance gets the most coverage in the American press, but the Cannes Film Festival remains unchallenged as the premiere annual event in world cinema. Films from as many as eighty different countries vie for the honor of contending for the prestigious Palme d´Or, but only a few are even allowed into competition. The Oscar for Best Picture is determined by over five thousand Academy voters and seldom goes to the actual best picture but rather the best picture that thousands of people can agree on; mass consensus often breeds mediocrity. The Palme d´Or, however, is awarded by a small jury of international filmmakers, resulting in many idiosyncratic and controversial choices, some exciting, others downright inexplicable. I wouldn´t subject my worst enemy to a festival of Best Picture winners, but a marathon of Palmes d´Or films? Sign me up any time.
The Cannes film festival was first held in 1946 as a small and somewhat disorganized event in which all the films shown received the top prize. In 1949, Carol Reed´s "The Third Man" became the first solo winner of the Palme d´Or. After skipping 1950, the Festival convened again in 1951 and has met every year since. There is, of course, far more to Cannes than just prizes: there are the films and the filmmakers as well. The festival has been the province of established stars like Orson Welles and Federico Fellini, and has also launched the careers of exciting young talents such as Jim Jarmusch who won the Camera d´Or in 1984 for "Stranger Than Paradise."
Gilles Jacob has been involved with Cannes in various capacities for nearly forty years, first as a journalist, later as an event official and, since 2000, as the President of the whole shebang. When he took over Jacob realized that, amazingly, the festival kept no official archives and records of the event´s earliest years were sparse indeed. He embarked on a project designed to rectify the situation, sorting through thousands of hours of broadcast news coverage and other material in order to compose a chronicle that does justice to the monumental history of the event. The result of his efforts is three short films, all directed by Jacob, which tell the story of Cannes from different perspectives.
The three documentaries included on "Heart of the Festival" are heavy on images and refreshingly light on words. There is no ponderous voice-over narration and the filmmakers speak for themselves either in interviews or in press conferences. Jacob presents Cannes as a series of dazzling images and famous personalities, not as a dry history lesson and his decision pays off handsomely. The three films on this disc are a cinephile´s dream come true.
"Cannes Stories" (26 min.) highlights some of the more memorable events from the festival from its earliest days to its recent ones. Jacob mixes the chronology so that in one moment we can see a ravening horde pursuing jail bait-era Brigitte Bardot and in the next Tim Burton. Perhaps the most exciting moment is when an elderly Charlie Chaplin is presented a medal as Commander of the Legion of Honor. A grateful Chaplin can barely choke back the tears as he thanks the crowd for honoring him both in the past and in the present: he rewards the throng with a brief reprise of his trademark Little Tramp character.
"The Red Carpet (A Musical)" (26 min.) focuses on the celebrities and the festivities surround Cannes. Jacob fortunately has managed to unearth some rare footage from the earlier years of the festival and we get to see brief shots of legends like Erich von Stroheim, Abel Gance and Jean Cocteau. As the title suggests, this short documentary is more of a musical montage than anything else and it is quite lovely.
"Words in Progress" (52 min.) covers many of the most interesting press conferences from over the years. Cannes is a place where fans, critics and filmmakers come together to talk film and, just as often, to argue about it. In the most amusing exchange, prickly critic Alexander Walker confronts Australopithecine director Abel Ferrara about his new film. Walker describes the characters in the film as "sexual homunculi" prompting confusion from Ferrara: Walker retorts snidely, "I apologize for using polysyllabic words while addressing you." Many filmmakers get to hold court here, but Jacob reserves a special extended section for Jean-Luc Godard who is seldom at a loss for words.
