31ª Mostra Internacional de Cinema

Jornal da Mostra

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HOMAGE TO THE CENTENARY MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA

This year the CANNES CLASSIC selection promises many emotions. Manoel de Oliveira will be 100 years old on December 12, 2008. The 61st Cannes Festival and the parallel 40th Directors’ Fortnight will pay thrilling homage to him on the first weekend. He is the oldest filmmaker still working in the world. He is now preparing the film SINGULARIDADES DE UMA RAPARIGA LOURA, inspired on an Eça de Queirós’ short story. And Cannes will celebrate his centenary showing a restored print of the first film made by Manoel de Oliveira, still in the times of silent films, DOURO, FAINA FLUVIAL, from 1931. It is an 18-minute short, that will open the presentation of the restored version of ASHES OF TIME REDUX, a western adapted to the sceneries of China by Wong in 1994 and now re-edited and restored.

The movements of May, 1968, reached Cannes and had two consequences. The first of them was the interruption of the festival, with manifestations led by François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. The other one was the creation of a parallel ‘festival’ christened as DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT (or Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), founded by the French association of film authors. What did they want and worked out? Broaden the scope of diversity of the selected films under the motto created by the first director of the ‘Fortnight’: “All films are born free and equal: we must help them to remain so”.

That is how the festival repeats, 40 years later, the screening that never happened in 1968 of PEPPERMINT FRAPPÉ, directed by Carlos Saura. The Spanish filmmaker will be present for the correction of this injustice, exactly with him, who was an active voice against Franquism. Will Godard also be there, to apologize?

Four other films that couldn’t be presented in 1968 will be presented now: 13 JOURS EN FRANCE, by Claude Lelouch, with a restored print, with the presence of the honored author; ANNA KARENINA, by Russian Aleksandr Zarkhi; THE LONG DAY’S DYING, by British Peter Collinson; and 24 HOURS IN THE LIFE OF A WOMAN, by French Dominique Delouche.
 
The other homage will be a celebration, for the 40 years of existence of the ‘Fortnight’, with the presence of directors selected out of its history. Among them, Manoel de Oliveira, the tireless.

The French Cinematèque, generator of the May 1968 crisis, when the first demonstrations against the dismissal of its director at the time, Henri Langlois, will come with a restored print of LOLA MONTÈS, by Max Ophüls, with the same impressive Technicolor of 1955.

Eight other films will be presented in restored prints: GUIDE, by Vijay Anand (1965, India), EFFECT OF GAMMA RAYS ON MAN-IN-THE-MOON MARIGOLDS, by Paul Newman (1972, USA), LET’S GET LOST, by Bruce Weber (1988, USA), SANTA SANGRE, by Alejandro Jodorowsky (1989, Mexico), ORPHEE, by Jean Cocteau (1949, France), FINGERS, by James Toback (1977, USA), GAMPERALIYA, by Lester James Peries (1965, Sri Lanka) and THE SAVAGE EYE, by Ben Maddow, Sydney Meyers and Joseph Strick (1960, USA).
 
CANNES CLASSIC has still programmed interesting documentaries about cinema. NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: LASZLO & VILMOS by American James Chressanthis tracks down the careers of the great Hungarian cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond, who contributed to many Hollywood successes in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

THE CINEMA CINEMAS COLLECTION, by French Claude Ventura, with two episodes of the show produced in the 1980’s.
 
YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS: A HISTORY OF WARNER BROS, by American Richard Schickel, with two hours about the best moments in the history of the Warner Bros studios. The anniversary will also be remembered in the pleasant open air screenings on the Cannes beach, with the screen set on the sea, with the best cartoons of LOONEY TUNES and nine other successes of the production company: DIRTY HARRY, by Don Siegel; I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG, by Mervyn LeRoy; WHAT’S UP, DOC?, by Peter Bogdanovich; BONNIE AND CLYDE, by Arthur Penn; ENTER THE DRAGON, by Robert Clouse; BLAZING SADDLES, by Mel Brooks; CAPTAIN BLOOD, by Michael Curtiz; MATRIX, by the Wachowski brothers; and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, by Robert Aldrich.

The one hundredth anniversary of birth of David Lean (1908 – 1991) will be commemorated with THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS (1949) and THIS HAPPY BREED (1944). French documentary maker Anne Kunvari remembers one of Lean’s great successes ever with IL ETAIT UNE FOIS... LAURENCE D’ARABIE.

Cannes also pays homage to the centenary Kashiko Kawakita and to the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, protector and promoter of Japanese filmmakers around the world. The anniversary will be celebrated with the special screening of ZIGEUNERWEISEN, directed in 1980 by Seijun Suzuki.

With the aim of stimulating and helping save treasures of world cinema, the World Cinema Foundation, presided by Martin Scorsese, presents for the second year in a row the results of its works. We will see restored the 1964 Turkish film SUSUZ YAZ (Dry Summer), by Metin Erksan; Korean HANYO, by Kim Ki-young, from 1960; and the 1973 Senegalese TOUKI BOUKI, by Djibril Diop Mambéty.

English version: Laura Rebessi

More infos. About Cannes Film Festival in :

	www.festival-cannes.com