Cannes 2011: Gus Van Sant's Restless to Open Un Certain Regard

You have to love a film festival that would give Van Sant’s Elephant their top award. ¬†Could you get any farther away from the Oscar race if you tried? The Oscars are about money, power and popularity. Don’t ever let anyone tell you any different. ¬†It is we who gaze upon them that expect more from them. ¬†Fests like Toronto and Telluride are platforms for the Oscar race. ¬†In some respects, any film fest that happens before Oscar season does seem to have some influence in which films are selected. ¬†Last year’s The King’s Speech did well at the fests, skipped the critics awards entirely, and then won over the guilds by majority vote — as in, thousands of people voting. ¬†So, in many ways, Oscar’s Best Picture can be seen as somewhere between an audience award (a la Toronto) and the People’s Choice Awards (if you slap on a British accent and fancier clothes).

The Palme d’or, and the Cannes Film Fest, is one of the few major film fests where the Oscar race is as trivial and unimportant as McDonald’s fast food is to their diet: sure, it’s ubiquitous and unavoidable, but it will never be mistaken for actual food.

Take it for what it is.

That means it’s much harder, if not impossible, to start an Oscar campaign in May at Cannes. ¬†Only one or two films that started there even made it to nominations at all: Inside Job, which won Best Documentary, and Blue Valentine, which earned a nod for Michelle Williams. ¬†But the other films, Robin Hood, Fair Game, Wall Street 2 — nada, zip, niente. This is not the fault of the films of their marketers: it is simply the nature of a very fickle beast, ¬†one that has short term memory. ¬†Films will resonate over time or they won’t; winning awards seems to have no influence.

Moreover, I can tell you that many of the films shown at Cannes are so above and beyond most of the stuff we see here it is mind boggling. ¬†But since we’re in the business of films making money, and Americans are being dumbed down steadily, Cialis ad by Cialis ad, our tastes have become far more conservative here in 2011 than they ever were.

At any rate, Van Sant’s Restless opens Un Certain Regard on May 12. ¬†It’s about two teens,¬†¬†Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hooper.

Un Certain Regard chooses close to twenty films each year for its official selection.
The president of the jury, Emir Kusturica, will present the Prize Un Certain Regard on May 21.

I feel grateful for the Cannes film fest and that I’m lucky enough to cover it. ¬†It is an education unto itself. ¬†Sure, it isn’t perfect – what is? But after last year’s horror show, I’m really looking forward to opening a few doors and breathing in some fresh air.

Vive la difference.