SHOWDOWN OF THIGHS AT CANNES
The 70th Cannes Film Festival opened Wednesday under the lights of Cote D'Azur sunshine and high-wattage stars such as Will Smith and Marion Cotillard. But a brewing storm over Netflix's place at the world's most prestigious film festival clouded the event as Cannes rolled out the red carpet.
Optimism is high at this year's Cannes, which features a lineup widely considered to be well-stocked with heavyweight filmmakers, including Todd Haynes ( Wonderstruck), Sofia Coppola ( The Beguiled), Michael Haneke ( Happy End) and Lynne Ramsay ( You Were Never Really
Here). Rancor and controversy nonetheless dogged the festival's preamble, as well as its opening day.
During the opening ceremony, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi helped set a welcoming tone for the festival, calling it a "place where cultures speak to one another." Farhadi's presence in Cannes sharply contrasted with February's Academy Awards ceremony, which the filmmaker (whose
The Salesman won best foreign language film) boycotted to protest President Donald Trump's proposed travel ban on visitors from several predominantly Muslim nations.
But while Cannes maintained its status as an international melting pot, definitions of what qualifies as cinema continued to stir debate. For the first time, Cannes selected two Netflix releases: Bong Joon-ho's Okja and Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories for its Palme d'Or competition.
French theaters, which have strict rules regarding streaming service films, rebelled at the thought of a movie that won't play on the big screen winning the Palme d'Or—the biggest award in film next to an Oscar. The festival relented and next year won't accept streaming-only films in the competition.
Pedro Almodovar, who's presiding over this year's competition jury, read a lengthy statement in which he said, "I personally cannot conceive of not only the Palme d'Or, but any other prize, being given to a film and then being unable to see this film on a large screen."
Coming from the head of the jury that will decide the award, the comment was striking and potentially means the Joon-ho and Baumbach films already are out of the running.
Will Smith, a member of the jury that also includes Jessica Chastain, Paolo Sorrentino and Park Chan-wook, stuck up for Netflix. Later this year, Netflix will debut one of its biggestbudget films yet, the $90 million fantasy thriller Bright, in which Smith stars.
"In my house, Netflix has been nothing but an absolute benefit," Smith said of his children's viewing habits. "They get to see films they absolutely wouldn't have seen. Netflix brings a great connectivity. There are movies that are not on a screen within 8,000 miles of them. They get to find those artists."
Security was greater than ever at the French festival, which has stepped up efforts to restrict access, added more metal detectors and even introduced an anti-drone system. France has been under a state of emergency since the November 2015 Paris attacks.