75th Cannes Film Festival opens with large public participation

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MALTI SAHAI

CANNES: The Cannes Film Festival opened with the screening of the Ukrainian film titled Final Cut (International Title) or Couper (French title) directed by Michel Hazanavicius.

Originally, the film was called 'Z' as a tribute to the genre film, it echoes. Since the letter 'Z' has taken on a warlike meaning with the war of aggression waged against Ukraine by the Russian government, the film has been renamed Coupez (Cut!) in French. The international title remains Final Cut. With this choice, the film's director, producers, and distributor, the Festival de Cannes, and by extension, all the French cinema, mark their solidarity with the Ukrainian people who are suffering and reaffirm with force their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. The film stars Romain Duris and Bérénice Bejo. She was also part of the director's most celebrated work, The Artist, which got him an Oscar for direction.

The Festival, has also made a statement by not inviting the official Russian delegations, as a show of support for the struggling Ukrainians in the face of what has been largely seen as an unjust war. In a statement, the Festival said: "As the world has fallen into a grave crisis and sees part of Europe in a state of war, the Cannes Film Festival would like to express its support for the Ukrainian people and all those who are currently in Ukraine. As modest as it can be, we are joining all those who are opposing this unacceptable situation and are denouncing the stance of Russia and its leaders. We have a particular thought for the artists and professionals within the Ukrainian movie world, as with their families whose lives are now in danger."

The Red Carpet event at the opening ceremony of the 75th Cannes Film Festival on May 17 was a special event for the Indian audience, particularly as celebrities from across India were expected to walk there as part of the Indian delegation on the festival's opening day. Led by the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, the delegation includes the names of actor-producer R Madhavan, Akshay Kumar, music composer AR Rahman, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Pooja Hegde and Nayanthara along with CBFC Chief Prasoon Joshi, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and music composer Ricky Rej amongst others.

Deepika Padukone proved to be one of the show stoppers of the evening as she walked the Red Carpet as a member of the competition jury of the film festival. Other jury members walking with her included: Vincent Lindon Competition Jury President, actors Rebecca Hall, Noomi Rapace,and directors Asghar Faradi, Jeff Nichols and Joachim Trier

Back this year are the big Hollywood movies. Playing out of Competition are Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (from Warner Bros), Joseph Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) and George Miller's Three Thousand Years Of Longing (MGM has US rights). The presence of 'exceptional tribute' recipient Tom Cruise, in particular, will broaden global media attention.

This year's Competition offers 16 films directed by men, four by women and one by a male-female team, and includes titles from former Palme d'Or winners Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ruben Ostlund, Cristian Mungiu and the Dardenne brothers as well as former grand prize recipients Park Chan-wook and David Cronenberg who are symbol of Cannes' collision of auteur credentials and Hollywood glamour.

Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux has included titles from both Ukraine (Sergei Loznitsa's The Natural History Of Destruction and Maksim Nakonechnyi's Butterfly Vision) and Russia (Kirill Serebrennikov's Tchaikovsky's Wife) in official selection, and makes no apologies for the latter choice. Serebrennikov, a dissident now living in exile in Europe, was previously unable to attend Cannes due to a travel ban, and will this year make his first appearance, accompanying his third film.

A landmark decision at this year's Cannes Film Festival is that TikTok, which is 6 years old, has hooked up with the venerable fest, now celebrating its 75th anniversary. How is it that Cannes — which, in years past, notoriously banned social-media posting from its famous red-carpeted steps — is now welcoming TikTok as one of its elite sponsors? For the festival, the partnership is aimed at pulling Cannes forward into the 21st century and attracting younger film fans. For TikTok, which boasts more than 1 billion monthly users worldwide, pairing with the Cannes Film Festival is an effort to show filmmakers that the app can be a welcome step towards expanding the outreach initiative to the younger audience.

According to Cannes Film Festival head Thierry Frémaux, the TikTok collab is part of the fest's desire to diversify its audience. "We're looking forward to sharing the most exciting and inspiring moments from the festival and seeing the festival reimagined through the lens of TikTok creators and its community," he said. As can be seen, the 75th Cannes Film has its eyes firmly focussed on the future.

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