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February 08, 2007
Bonfire of the pieties: Cannes, je t'aime
A similar venture at Toronto 2000 birthed Guy Maddin's mad marvel, Hearts of the World, but the estimables at Cannes are fomenting a set of shorts that only one audience will ever witness. [The venture also calls to mind Stanley Kubrick and Terry Southern's notion of an all-star porno that could only be seen in some duchy like Lichtenstein, only with less fucking.] 
Reports Alison James in Variety, "a number of films that will be shown at the Cannes Festival this year have never been seen before and, further, will never be available for release." Running two or three minutes, the 30-plus shorts were solicited from past winners of the Palme d'Or. "The filmmakers were asked to do the films by Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux as part of the 60th year anniversary of the festival, which kicks off May 15." Confirmed contributors include Gus Van Sant, Wong Kar Wai, Theo Angelopoulos, Ken Loach, Michael Cimino, Wim Wenders, Lars von Trier, Amos Gitai, Abbas Kiarostami, Manoel de Oliveira, Chen Kaige, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang. "The Cannes project is such a jealously guarded secret that even the directors involved don't know who their fellow participants are, let alone what order their films are going to be placed in."We were just told to shoot and hand it in," said one source.The feature-length film will screen at a special anniversary gala on May 20, which Cannes organizers said will be relatively low key. "We don't want the festivities to overshadow Cannes' main business of showcasing films," a spokesman for the festival said." No details on the how and where the films will be destroyed.
Posted by Ray Pride at February 8, 2007 02:47 PM
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