Cannes Fest 1957: Wyler’s ‘Friendly Persuasion’ Over Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’??
Friendly Persuasion, William Wyler’s mainstream Western, starring Gary Cooper as a Quaker whose finds his pacifist beliefs challenged with the onset of the American Civil War, is an amicably watchable slice of mainstream Hollywood entertainment.
But the competition line up for the 10th Cannes fest showcased at least three cinematic classics: Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria and Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped, not to mention the superb European dramas, Jules Dassin’s He Who Must Die, and Andrzej Wajda’s Kanal.
The jury, under French writer André Maurois, may have wanted a Hollywood movie. Or perhaps Maurois was using the prize as a way to honor Michael Wilson, the blacklisted screenwriter who had his name stripped off Friendly Persuasion after he refused to name names.
The Seventh Seal is an indelible part of the world cinema cannon. Friendly Persuasion is just an honorable, well-meaning, well-acted feature, which does not even qualify as one of Wyler’s best pictures (The Best Years of Our Lives, Ben-Hur).
