Cannes Diaries: The 2014 Cannes Fest, which opens May 14, is my 30th consecutive festival.
It’s a time to reflect about my adventures (and misadventures), memories (selective, of course), and personal experiences of a festival that’s only a few years older than I am.
It’s also the only film event that I have attended without interruption for three decades. (Sundance Film Fest, which was founded by Robert Redford a year later, comes second, with 18-year attendance).
The first time I went to Cannes as a film critic was in 1984, shortly after getting my Ph.D. at Columbia University. I was there for the festival’s 37th edition, which took place May 11-23, 1984.
Since then, I have come a long way, baby. Or have I? I began my Cannes adventures (which are still going on) by arriving in town without accommodations and with a tuxedo that I rented the day before. I ended up staying at a one-star hotel (near the noisy train station). Since then I have moved up the ranks to renting apartments and staying mostly in 3-star hotels.
To be honest, for 12 years, 1995-2007, I had the privilege of staying at one of the Croisette’s best hotels, the 5-star Hotel Martinez, where my longtime companion, Rob Remley, was placed by his company at the time, New Line Cinema.
The 1984 festival opened with Fort Saganne, directed by Alain Corneau and closed with The Bounty, directed by Roger Donaldson. This was the third version of The Mutiny on the Bounty, starring the young and handsome (and uncontroversial) Mel Gibson.
The big winner was Wim Wenders, Paris, Texas, starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, and the fabulous Nastasja Kinski.
It was the first time that I met in person Helen Mirren, who won Best Actress for Cal, before she became a famous international Oscar-winner star.
It was the first time I saw a film by Lars von Trier, who was still modest, decidedly not an enfant terrible or provocateur yet.
It was the first time that I made a prediction that Leon Carax will become a cult director, after seeing his lovely film, Boy Meets Girl (which would become the first panel of a trilogy)
It was the first time I met in person Dirk Bogarde, who was president of the jury, but was too embarrassed to say how much I admired his films. The closest I got to a personal talk was by saying that I plan to write a biography of the openly gay director George Cukor, hoping that he would reveal something about his own gay life. Years later I interviewed him for my book, George Cukor, Master of Elegance, which came out by William Morrow in 1993. A true gentleman, Bogarde claimed that he remembered our brief encounter in 1984, but I knew that he did not. Why should he recall a twentysomething film critic?
Main Competition (in alphabetical order)
Another Country by Marek Kanievska
Bayan ko: Kapit sa patalim by Lino Brocka
The Bounty by Roger Donaldson
Cal by Pat O’Connor
Dges game utenebia by Lana Gogoberidze
Enrico IV by Marco Bellocchio
Forbrydelsens element by Lars von Trier
Ghare Baire by Satyajit Ray
La pirat by Jacques Doillon
Los santos inocentes by Mario Camus
Napló gyermekeimnek by Márta Mészáros
Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders
Quilombo by Carlos Diegues
Success Is the Best Revenge by Jerzy Skolimowski
Taxidi stin Kythera by Theodoros Angelopoulos
Un dimanche à la campagne by Bertrand Tavernier
Under the Volcano by John Huston
Vigil by Vincent Ward
Where the Green Ants Dream by Werner Herzog
Un Certain Regard
Abel Gance et son Napoléon by Nelly Kaplan
Cóndores no entierran todos los días by Francisco Norden
De grens by Leon de Winter
De weg naar Bresson by Leo De Boer, Jurriën Rood
El Norte by Gregory Nava
Feroz by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón
Khandhar by Mrinal Sen
Le jour S… by Jean Pierre Lefebvre
Le tartuffe by Gérard Depardieu
Man of Flowers by Paul Cox
Mária-nap by Judit Elek
Yeoin janhoksa moulleya moulleya by Doo-yong Lee
Un poeta nel Cinema: Andreij Tarkovskij by Donatella Baglivo
Where Is Parsifal? by Henri Helman
Films out of competition
Beat Street by Stan Lathan
Broadway Danny Rose by Woody Allen
Choose Me by Alan Rudolph
Efter repetitionen by Ingmar Bergman
Fort Saganne by Alain Corneau
Once Upon a Time in America by Sergio Leone
Short Film Competition
Ajtó by Mária Horváth
Bottom’s Dream by John Canemaker
Le Cheval de fer by Gérald Frydman and Pierre Levie
Orpheus and Eurydice by Lesley Keen
Points by Dan Collins
Ett Ru by Mats Olof Olsson
Het Scheppen van een ko by Paul Driessen
Le Spectacle by Gilles Chevallier
Tchouma by David Takaichvili
Tip Top by Paul Driessen
Jury Members
Dirk Bogarde (U.K.) (president)
Franco Cristaldi (Italy)
Michel Deville (France)
Stanley Donen (USA)
Istvan Dosai (Hungary) (Cinématographie official)
Arne Hestenes (Norway) (journalist)
Isabelle Huppert (France)
Ennio Morricone (Italy)
Jorge Semprún (Spain)
Vadim Yusov (Soviet Union)
Camera d’Or Jury
Mehmet Basutcu (Turkey)
José Luis Guarner (Spain)
Bernard Jubard (France)
Michel Jullien (France)
Samuel Lachize (France) (critic)
Serge Leroy (France)
Fee Vaillant (West Germany)
Awards
Palme d’Or: Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders
Grand Prix: Napló gyermekeimnek by Márta Mészáros
Actor: Francisco Rabal and Alfredo Landa for Los santos inocentes (Ex aequo)
Actress: Helen Mirren for Cal
Director: Bertrand Tavernier for Un dimanche à la campagne
Screenplay: Theodoros Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra and Thanassis Valtinos for Taxidi stin Kythera
Artistic Contribution: Peter Biziou (cinematographer) for Another Country
Technical Grand Prize: Forbrydelsens element by Lars von Trier
Short Film Palme d’Or:
Le Cheval de fer by Gérald Frydman and Pierre Levie
Tchouma by David Takaichvili
Caméra d’Or: Stranger Than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch
Perspectives du Cinéma Award: Liberté, la nuit by Philippe Garrel
Other Prizes
FIPRESCI Prize:
Memórias do Cárcere by Nelson Pereira dos Santos
Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders
Taxidi stin Kythera by Theodoros Angelopoulos
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury: Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Special Mention: Los santos inocentesby Mario Camus
Award of the Youth:
Foreign Film: Epílogo by Gonzalo Suárez
French Film: Boy Meets Girl by Leos Carax
