Cannes gold less important than message, Okja actors say
‘We didn’t actually come here for prizes,’ Tilda Swinton tells fest
CANNES, FRANCE — Actors Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal came out swinging Friday in the screensize debate at the Cannes Film Festival, as they sided with online service Netflix and against Palme d’Or jury president Pedro Almodovar.
They co-star in Netflix’s Okja, a film by South Korea’s Bong Joon Ho in the style of E.T. the Extraterrestrial about a young girl’s quest to save her giant pet pig from corporate butchers, and they were reacting to Almodovar’s earlier comments that he couldn’t see giving the Palme to a movie that skips traditional big-screen distribution. Netflix plans to stream Okja directly to TV and computer screens starting June 28, with only a token theatrical rollout in a few countries, Canada not among them.
“The truth is, we didn’t actually come here for prizes,” a defiant Swinton told a news conference after Okja’s world premiere in the Palais des Festivals, where it’s one of 19 films competing for the Palme and other glory at festival’s end on May 28.
“We came here to show this film to the Cannes Film Festival and to people who have gathered here from all over the world.”
Gyllenhaal agreed, saying there is “no better time than now” for Okja’s pro-environment, pro-nature and pro-animal welfare messages, and if the film can reach more people by way of online distribution that’s all to the good.
“The platform of a film, how far it can reach, to how many people it can get to, to communicate a message, is extraordinarily important. I think it’s truly a blessing when any art gets to reach one person, let alone hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.”
At Wednesday’s fest-opening news conference, Spanish director Almodovar strongly voiced his opposition to giving festival prizes to onlineonly films because they lack “the capacity of hypnosis of the large screen for the viewer.”
The festival seems to agree, perhaps regretting allowing Netflix into the competition for the first time this year, since it has announced that starting in 2018 only films destined for the big screen will be allowed to compete here.
Almodovar’s disdain for onlineonly films appears to have chilled the Palme chances for Okja and the other Netflix film in the competition, Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories, a dysfunctionalfamily drama starring Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller. But Almodovar has just one vote of nine on the jury, which also includes Hollywood actor Will Smith, who defended Netflix at the same Wednesday news conference.
Swinton called the furor over screen sizes “an enormous and really interesting conversation” but added it’s disingenuous for anybody to suggest that all films screened at Cannes go on to have big-screen theatrical runs.
“Let’s be honest: there are thousands of films that are screened in the Cannes Film Festival that people don’t see in the cinema. The most beautiful, the most esoteric films that people never see in the cinema. It’s all an evolutionary process and Netflix has given Bong Joon Ho the chance to make his absolutely liberated vision a reality and, for that, I’m so grateful.”
As for director Bong, a Cannes veteran but first-time participant in the Palme competition, he seemed
“There were no restrictions on their part. It was a wonderful experience.” BONG JOON HO ON WORKING WITH NETFLIX
both amused by the debate and in awe of being recognized by Almodovar, a fellow filmmaker he admires.
“I’m just very happy he will watch this movie tonight!” Bong said, referring to Friday’s red-carpet gala premiere. “He can say anything. I’m fine, thank you.”
Bong added that Netflix gave him “total freedom” to make his film.
“They put no pressure on me. There were no restrictions on their part. It was a wonderful experience.”
Directed in his usual genreblending style, as seen in previous films such as Snowpiercer and Mother, Bong’s Okja stars South Korean actress Ahn Seo-Hyun as Mija, a farm girl living in the mountains outside Seoul who befriends a “super pig” raised under contract by a corporate food giant called the Mirando Corporation.
Although title beast Okja is referred to as a pig, she resembles an elephant with the head of a dog and she’s as loyal to Mija as any canine would be. Mija returns the favour after Okja is “pignapped” by Mirando’s villainous CEO, played by Swinton, and her TV-showman accomplice, played by Gyllenhaal, with both actors seriously chewing the shrubbery in their portrayals.
Mija sets out on a spirited quest to rescue Okja before the beast ends up in Mirando’s factory slaughterhouse, a place Bong reveals with no quarter given for sensitive viewers.
Half affecting pet-rescue drama and half screwball farce, Okja is certainly no E.T., although it was generally well received by critics here. There were boos when the Netflix logo appeared at Friday’s morning press and industry screening, and then jeers when the film had to be briefly halted 10 minutes in to fix an aspect-ratio problem.
Okja was restarted from the beginning and Bong joked that he’s “quite happy” journalists had to see the opening minutes twice because so much essential information was in them. The Cannes Film Festival runs May 17-28. Follow Peter Howell on Twitter and Instagram: @peterhowellfilm