For days prior to the opening of the Cannes Film FestivalIt seemed that rain would dampen the 78th edition. The film gods have saved the worst. The red carpet remained dry on Tuesday and the beautiful people also in the Lumière, the Grand Auditorium where every year Wang-Kissing, Happy Stars and Dealmakers generally get this bustling party. During the 2024 edition, a Channeuse on bare feet had sung Bowie’s “Modern Love” to Greta Gerwig, the president of the jury, who was looking forward to her and all other people present. This year, on the other hand, the atmosphere in the room was moody and he felt more uncertain than the weather.
There were the usual smiles, couture dresses and star corridors. But in general it was a fairly sober affair, and only partly because the evening had a moving tribute David LynchHe died in January. When Juliette Binoche, the president of the main competition jury, entered the stage, she spoke about the obligation of artists to testify on behalf of others, mentioning the hostages of Hamas on October 7 and quoted Palestin photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, who was murdered in an Isaeli Airstrike in April. Hassouna is here in a documentary: “Put your soul on your hand and walk.”
Later during the ceremony, Robert de Niro received an honorary palm d’Or (handed over to him by Leonardo DiCaprio), and spoke about democracy and art. “The American Philistine president has appointed the head of one of our premiere cultural institutions,” he said, a clear reference to the name of President Trump who calls himself Chairman of the Kennedy Center In February. The Niro then referred to the subject that started on 4 May through the entertainment industry in the entertainment industry and led to grim heads and main screens.
To know, President Trump’s announcement of 4 May on social media that he imposed a rate of 100 percent on films ‘produced in foreign countries’, a matter that he called a threat of national security. The next day a spokesperson for the White House, Kush Desai, said that No final decisions Was made at such rates, but that the administration “was all the options to deliver President Trump’s guideline to protect the national and economic security of our country and at the same time make Hollywood great again.”
Just like other film lovers, I responded to this tariff threat with a mixture of concern and confusion. Among other things, how such rates would work, is astonishing considering the complexity of the film world and internationalism, or how it is possible to even define which films are ‘produced in foreign countries’. Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” was partially shot outside the United States; When Florence Pugh gets out of a skyscraper In the film she turns a building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The ghost of retribution rates from other countries is a different concern, considering how dependent American companies are on the world market. In 2024, “Inside Out 2” was the best -going film both in your own country and abroad, with 61.6 percent From the overall cash register from abroad.
A lot is possible at stake, both in the United States and abroad. In one interview With variety, Gaëtan Bruel, the president of the National Film Sign of France, noted that “European cinema only just 1 percent of theatrical admission in the United States and the American cinema will appreciate 60 percent of admission in Europe.” Bruel also noted that members of the European Union can force Streamers to invest In their film and TV production, which some people have criticized in American industry. Last year, Netflix has filed a profession in Belgium against the EU law; Disney was added in November.
The tariff threat seems to be particularly alarming for the American entertainment industry, which, despite recent successes such as ‘sinners’, is still struggling to recover from the pandemic, the Hollywood attacks of 2023 and countless self-inflicted wounds. Given that the remaining large studios resemble destroying the theatrical exhibition and are hardly interested in making films, it will cost much more than rates to make Hollywood great again. The situation is wild frustrating. Yet the first thing was to appear in my head when I heard about the possible rate was Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” and the already fragile foreign film market in the United States.
“Parasite” had his world premiere here in Cannes in 2019 in the main competition and soon became a crucial favorite before he continued Win the Palme d’Or; It was the fourth bong production that I had seen here for the first time. In 2018, the American company Neon closed a deal To finance and release “parasite” in the United States. Neon not only spread the film, it also fed “parasite” in a must-see sensation and also offered proof that that Subtitles in films are no longer the barrier for Americans they had been. By the time “parasite” was finally closed, it had itself won four OscarsIncluding best photo and director.
It is impossible to quantify how much a role that Cannes played in the fortunes of the film. What is certain is that because this is the most prestigious film festival in the world and one of the most worldwide published, it has greatly increased Bong’s reputation and has widened its audience exponentially. Cannes also legitimizes filmmakers for other festivals, which they program and attract even more audiences. The Film Festival Circuit is in fact an alternative distribution network that reaches around the world. The Big American Studios dominate the world market, but the festivals help film lovers to give real choices, different stories, art.
Nowadays, despite “Oppenheimer”, the films that often generate real excitement in the United States, which end up on the top 10 lists and sometimes even even Academy Awards, are released by what we still call nostalgic Hollywood. They are films such as “Parasite” and Sean Baker’s “Anora”, who also released Neon. “Anora” also won the Palme d’Or and then won the best photo. It was a number of films that were in Cannes in 2024 and made the Oscars more interesting, including the Latvian animated function “Flow”; the Spanish -speaking French musical “Emilia Pérez”; And the French horror film ‘The Substance’ with Demi Moore.
It is too early to know which selections will be in this year’s festival with the American public. It is easy to admire the critical favorite “Sound of traps,” From the German director Mascha Schilinski, who is located in four time periods of the same North German farm, for a century. From the beginning of the 20th century to the present, chronologically jumps around to follow four girls of different ages whose lives are connected differently and mysticism at the same time. Death chases all sections, and spirits (perhaps those of earlier girls) seem just as good, as the floating, sometimes floating camera work suggests. Technical virtuoso, the film gestures for certain ideas, Patriarchate very much recorded, without being convincing.
I have seen some strong films, especially “Two prosecutors‘A drama of the Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa. In the Stalinist cleansing in the Soviet Union in the Soviet Union in the 1937, although clearly as much about Putin’s Russia as Stalin’s, it focuses on a dangerous idealistic, idealistic legal lawyer who teaches that the secret police will be ridiculous that his idealism will be his idealism. Brutal faces, restless camera work, careful films, shivers of bitter humor and scenes of characters who just talk to your heart on racing.
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