31ª Mostra Internacional de Cinema

Jornal da Mostra

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THE DIFFICULT TASK OF ADOPTING FILMMAKERS

Cannes cultivates the habit of adopting filmmakers and honoring them along its editions. A real revolution happened in this scene in 1968, when the festival was interrupted to re-think its conservative formula of promoting cinema. In 1969 the Directors’ Fortnight would appear, and soon after Un Certain Regard came. Once authorial cinema was encouraged and strengthened, Cannes constellation forged names and talents that are very hard to abandon. Cannes and other festivals act as if they adopted filmmakers and make their audiences follow whatever they do, evolving or not at each film.

But everything has a limit. Many times there is no room left in the selection for the old protégés. But the ones who are privileged with this sortilege know the cost of so much media exposition. That is what happens with the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre e Luc Dardenne, who won the Golden Palm twice and are back to competition with LE SILENCE DE LORNA/ LORNA’S SILENCE. When the press leaves the first screening saying the Dardennes’ style is changing, is more accessible, would it be a compliment or a negative critic? The fact that their last film L’ENFANT/ THE CHILD (Golden Palm in 2005) was a world audience fiasco is for or against their cinema?

It is true that the savage camera in the Dardenne films up to L’ENFANT, sometimes hard to follow, is better behaved and domesticated in LORNA’S SILENCE. But fortunately, their sociological arguing is still the same. The Belgium they uncover would never let itself be represented by a cinema like this before 1968, when it was the countries which officially nominated the films to Cannes. An example created by and still kept in the art biennials such the predecessor in Venice.

The Belgium of the Dardennes is getting worse in the realistic focus given by the implacable brothers. This time there are no youngsters with no work or ascension perspective and no young people unprepared to have children. They conduct us to an organized underworld of Albanian illegal immigrants, of the Euro seduction and an European civility that does not match the social balance that the instituted State tries to keep, at least on the surface. The group we follow has a seductive bait (the talented Arta Dobroshi) who wins her citizenship by getting married to a drugged and suicidal junkie. When she starts humanizing herself with the social flagellum with whom she divides an apartment, she is put under observation and starts a never ending vendetta. Pregnant, she doesn’t think of aborting, she starts helping the arranged husband. She finally refuses to get married again, this time to a Russian, also in search of the European citizenship nirvana, and is for good disenchanted of the seductions of heaven.

Press, producers, distributors, directors, all audiences searching in Cannes for the novelty that will amaze audiences around the world, also experience frustration while the days of the festival pass by them. Authorial cinema keeps on being protected as we are happy to see that the Dardennes concluded another film without betraying their style. The frustration that grows is seeing that the protection of some is the de-classification of hundreds of other films that are not in Cannes for simple lack of room in its several programs. New talents ask for more room. That is the role played by the festivals along the year, around the world.

It is worthy to reproduce the dialogue with master Manoel de Oliveira, remembered in the homage Cannes paid to him with a Golden Palm for the career:
“I visited Fellini in hospital and he told me filmmakers have the airplanes (the films), but nowhere to land. After that I thought that we do have airplanes and many airports to land, our airports are film festivals...”

English version: Laura Rebessi

More infos. About Cannes Film Festival in :

	www.festival-cannes.com