Jornal da Mostra

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ONE FILM BY 35 FILMMAKERS TO CELEBRATE
THE 60 YEARS OF THE FESTIVAL

In order to celebrate the 60 years of the Festival de Cannes, its president Gilles Jacob invited 35 filmmakers from all over the world for the collective creation that was named “To Each his Own Cinema” (or, in French, “Chacun son Cinéma”). When inviting, Gilles Jacob did some positive observations: no return to the past, deadly commemoration or blissful self-congratulation, nothing which makes the future even more intimidating.

The project turned out as a feature film with the following signatures: Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August, Jane Campion, Youssef Chahine, Chen Kaige, Michael Cimino, Ethan & Joel Coen, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Manoel De Oliveira, Raymond Depardon, Atom Egoyan, Amos Gitai, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, Aki Kaurismaki, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Andrei Konchalovsky, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Nanni Moretti, Roman Polanski, Raoul Ruiz, Walter Salles, Elia Suleiman, Tsai Ming Liang, Gus Van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Wim Wenders, Wong Kar Wai and Zhang Yimou.

The only details Jacob reveals are that Wenders filmed in the Congo, Tsai Ming Liang in Kuala Lampur and Cronenberg in toilets. No director had knowledge of the other projects, or even synopses from his colleagues. They all accepted to discover them at the same time as the festival-goers themselves, on May 20th, as well as the general public, as it will be replayed the very same evening on the French television.

Does this group form a school?, asks Gilles Jacob. And he answers: “No, even if they all revisit the heart of things, they are individuals each expressing his aesthetic orientation, poets who capture a parcel of the world and transfigure it, each in their own way. They are highly industrious; they work hard and are not duped, for they take part in an art, the cinema, which under our very eyes creates its own history. The modesty of the budget allocated to each has stimulated them to be not only particularly creative, unexpected, comic, tender, cynical, contemplative, funny, moving or provocative, but accessible and audacious as well. Let us hope that this great adventure, even if short-lived, will give audiences desire to travel in the company of filmmakers who have never ceased to astonish and renew creation. But is this not one of the very functions of art itself?

Following the same spirit of putting talents together, the poster of the 60th Cannes Film Festival was conceived during last year’s edition. It was then that photographer Alex Majoli, from the Magnum Agency, created the series ‘jumping artists’. Based on them, graphic designer Christophe Renard composed a choreography to celebrate the energy of cinema. On the poster one sees jumping: Pedro Almodóvar, Juliette Binoche, Jene Campion, Souleymane Cissé, Penélope Cruz, Gerard Depardieu, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and Wong Kar Wai.

For further information:
www.festival-cannes.org

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