The 2008 Cannes Film Festival will pay tribute to Warners 85th anniversary by showing Richard Schickel’s PBS documentary, You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros Story, and presenting a Warner film every night under the Cannes Classics section.
Warner had previously noted the Cannes debut of the docu, narrated by longtime WB director Clint Eastwood, during an 85th anniversary party on the lot in February.
Cannes Cinema de la Plage will screen the daily Warner picture, including a Looney Tunes event.
The lineup runs from Mervyn LeRoy’s 1932 I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang through 1971’s Dirty Harry to 1999’s The Matrix.
Unveiling full details of its Cannes Classics 2008 strand, the festival announced that veteran Portuguese helmer Manoel de Oliveira, who turns 100 in December, will be honored.
Cannes will screen Oliveiras first film, Douro, faina fluvial (“Working on the Douro River”), which he made in 1931.
Other docus, alongside You Must Remember This are No Subtitles Necessary: Lazlo and Vilmos, about Hungarian cinematographers Lazslo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond, as well as episodes from producer-director Claude Venturas Gallic TV docu Cinema Cinemas, which ran from 1982 to 1990.
Also, as part of a five-film 1968: 40 Years On mini-retro, Spanish director Carlos Saura will present Peppermint Frappe at Cannes. The film was chosen for the festival’s 1968 edition, which was cancelled because of the unstable political climate in Paris.
Cannes will showcase 9 new or restored prints, including the already announced Technicolor restoration screening of Max Ophuls Lola Montes, which will serve as the Cannes Classic main event.
The World Cinema Foundation, presided over by Martin Scorsese, will present a restored version of three films from developing countries, including Turkish helmer Metin Erksans Dry Summer (1964), which will be introduced by Fatih Akin.
