Monday, May 18, 2009

Let's simplify, shall we?


CANNES, France — It goes by a single name, but the Cannes Film Festival is a hydra-headed beast. For most of the world it is a red-carpet event, a seductively foreign affair in which glamorous stars wave at the cameras on their way into films that, save for the larger studio releases, much of the world will probably never see. This is the Cannes where art triumphs over industry (if not necessarily good taste), a festival of auteurs whose work has, at least in the United States, become increasingly difficult to sell to the public. This is the Cannes that, in time, shows up piecemeal at places like Film Forum in New York or through download on cable.
In short...most of the efforts at Cannes just plain suck.

Add to that the self-indulgent and self-important publicity hounds that always frequent these over done circle jerks, and you have the full recipe.