Cannes cracks down on critics who spoil stars’ big moment
FOR the stars of the Cannes Film Festival it is the biggest moment of their year, as they step out on the red carpet to celebrate the global premiere of their long-awaited film. Before, that is, the festival was “blown to bits” by the rise and rise of the social media critic.
The organisers of Cannes have made the first major changes to the festival in decades, insisting they must move to protect filmmakers and actors from the indignity of knowing that their work has received a one-star drubbing before they set foot in the official premiere.
Saying social media had left opinions about films flying around the world as “confetti-like strips of rumours”, they claimed it was ruining the festival experience for cast and hard-working crew.
Until now, the festival, which is in its 71st year, has allowed critics to view its star films in the morning, with a glamorous gala premiere in the evening. There, in front of the world’s cameras, the director, producer and stars walked the red carpet and watched the film with their peers, often to a rapturous standing ovation.
In years gone by, photographs from the premiere and a review of the film would appear in the next day’s edition of newspapers around the world, launching the film into the public eye after actors had enjoyed their moment in the spotlight.
But as Twitter, blogs and industry websites have become ever more popular, organisers said that filmmakers were increasingly reading bad reviews and hearing reports of booing in the theatre before their big moment.
In a long letter to the press, Cannes Film Festival has now confirmed it has been “necessary” to rethink the programme to better suit festival-goers.
“The schedule has not changed for decades,” it said. “The underlying logic was based on best practice blown to bits by the massive incursion of digital technologies in our professional and personal lives over the past 15 or so years. Basically, as soon as a film is screened, the social networks turn it into confetti-like strips of rumours.
“As you already know, the principle behind the change we have introduced this year is simple: make the gala session, attended by the team that made the film, the veritable first screening of the film. When the team walks the red carpet and enters the room… the moment will be far more powerful as no one will have already seen the film.”
The decision follows a series of incidents at the festival where Hollywood stars and leading directors have attended premieres after receiving onestar reviews and dramatic booing at earlier press screenings. Last year, Sean Penn’s The Last Face, starring Charlize Theron, was panned as the “pompous nadir” of his career, with Robbie Collin, The Daily Telegraph critic, noting: “Their story, if it can even be called that, is a wash, an abject waste of time, and a cravenly focus-pulling foreground for the whole vain exercise.”
In 2012, Nicole Kidman faced an extraordinary walk along the red carpet after The Paperboy, and its scene featuring her character urinating on Zac Efron, became news. In 2015, The Sea of Trees was roundly booed at screenings before its premiere, while Mr Collin described how the 2014 festival opening film, Grace of Monaco, had critics “curling up, like startled armadillos, into tight little balls of embarrassment”.
Thierry Frémaux, the director of the festival, has likened the publication of reviews before the premiere to a football match, saying: “You don’t have the result before the game.” This year, he has also banned films by Netflix from the competition, and issued an outright official ban on selfies from the red carpet, claiming: “We want to restore a bit of decency.”
‘As soon as a film is screened, the social networks turn it into confetti-like strips of rumours’