Festival de Cannes-celed
The irony is that this is the very year that I finally decided once and for all that I would definitely attend the Cannes Film Festival.
Not really, but who knows? Maybe I would have. Who knows what might have happened in the alternate timeline of the universe where the Covid-19 pandemic did not happen?
Anyway we are one month out from the annual time when I always moan and complain about the fact that I am not in attendance at the Festival de Cannes. I do not know which is worse: regretting that Cannes is going on without me or knowing that Cannes is not happening at all.
The film festival’s cancellation was announced some time ago, but for me the nail in the coffin was the press release I received last week from the Sélection parallèle du Festival de Cannes announcing that a postponement to late June or early July was no longer feasible, as President Macron had banned any festival from taking place through at least mid-July. The Parallel Sections include the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors’ Fortnight), La Semaine de la Critique (International Critics’ Week) and ACID (Association for Independent Cinema and its Distribution).
I have been getting press releases for the Directors’ Fortnight for several years now, and they have been a real comfort to me. They are one of the things that make me feel like a legitimate film blogger. Yeah, I know probably anybody can get on their mailing list, but the thing is I never actually asked to get their press releases. Somehow they found me and just started sending them to me. Perhaps at some point they did a web search of online discussions of how to pronounce the name Cannes? Or maybe instances of the most groan-inducing puns made from the name Cannes?
By coincidence I recently managed to slip a reference to the Festival de Cannes into my manuscript for my third Dallas Green novel, which is currently in the rough draft stage. Readers of the previous book Lautaro’s Spear will recall that a few chapters actually took place at the Deauville American Film Festival on the Côte Fleurie in Normandy. That festival also gets a mention in the new book. If you want to know more about the new novel (or even the old ones) and also find a nifty Spotify playlist to go along with it, you are reminded to consult my book blog.
As of this writing, the Deauville festival is scheduled to open on September, as planned. Optimistically, tickets for it are currently available online. The news is not so good on other fronts. My beloved Seattle International Film Festival (46th iteration), which was due to commence on May 14, has been canceled, although the organizers are offering a virtual online substitute. Other announced cancellations and postponements have included France’s Annecy Animation Film Festival, San Francisco’s Frameline LGBTQ+ Film Festival, California’s Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, Sundance’s satellite programs in London and Hong Kong, the American Black Festival in Miami Beach, New York’s BAMcinemaFest, Massachusett’s Provincetown International Film Festival, Havana Film Festival New York, and no doubt lots of others.
There is much talk of the Covid-19 pandemic being one of those history-altering events à la the Great Depression cum Roosevelt’s New Deal about which future generations will look back and say that this is when everything changed. What future lies ahead of us? Is this the moment when cinemas began dying or became rare because everyone decided it was easier and safer to watch films in the comfort of their own homes? Is this the inflection point where television series, limited series, miniseries and movies all merged into general video literature that lives in a cloud and shows up on your big-screen TV or phone or local screening establishment, as strikes your mood?
These questions are too big for me right now. (Did I mention I was writing a novel?) In this particular time and place I only know one thing for sure.
Covid XIX: Worst Franchise Ever!
-S.L., 21 April 2020
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