Festival in Cannes

Starring:Anouk AimÃ©e, Greta Scacchi, Maximilian Schell, Ron Silver, Zack Norman, Peter Bogdanovich, Jenny Gabrielle, Alex Craig Mann, Camilla Campanale, Kim Kolarich, Rachel Bailit, Vernon Dobtcheff, Pamela Shaw (II), Christian Rallo, J.C. Irondelle, Marya Kazakova, Sabrina Jaglom, Simon Orson Jaglom, Louise Stratten, Robert Shaye
Director: Henry Jaglom
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Filming on location in France during the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, Henry Jaglom goes behind the scenes to explore how movies get made (and unmade). He would know--he's been making them for decades now. In this one, he takes an Altman-meets-Cassavetes approach to his subject. While former actress Alice (Greta Scacchi), for instance, is trying to get her directorial debut off the ground, film icon Millie (Anouk Aimée) is trying to decide between the lead in Alice's indie and a (better-paying) cameo in the new Tom Hanks vehicle. As in The Player, Jaglom focuses on several characters and, as in many Cassavetes pictures, the dialogue feels improvised. If Festival in Cannes is less emotionally involving than 1997's Déjà Vu (arguably his best), it still provides a fine showcase for a talented cast, including Maximilian Schell as Millie's husband and Ron Silver as the producer behind the Hanks project. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews:

Ah what silly creatures we mortals be:A look at the film industry.......2007-05-14

All the world shows up to be seen at the annual Cannes Film Festival.Producers,stars,agents,actors,scriptwriters flock to the French Riviera where "all of the world is a stage" and deals,romances,flattery and bull fly like angels on their wing!

FESTIVAL IN CANNES is another Henry Jaglom written and directed gem, true to his unique style of intertwining scenes with seemingly improvised-like dialogue.Jaglom takes a smart and satirical look at the film industry and how it makes "strange bedfellows" in order to get pictures done.The backdrop is the Cannes Festival itself with all of it's magic and hype.Jaglom wittily uses the poster sign for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DREAM as a tongue-in-cheek reminder that in Cannes people do the craziest of things under the influence of the allure for money,stardom and fame that is created in the mystical fairyland dust of the Film Festival.The players are an actress turned screenplay writer (Greta Scacchi),a high-echelon producer (Ron Silver) a silver-tongued wheeler-dealer entrepreneur (Zack Norman),a naive young starlet (Jenny Gabrielle) and two aging cinema icons,a gorgeous but now playing "mother parts" French actress (Anouk Aimee),and her never-faithful,sometimes ex- husband (Maximilian Schell).They all show their silly and fake faces, and quite frankly make jackasses of themselves as if they were now performing in Shakespeare's farce.That is Jaglom's point:the film industry is always on stage playing a role.

This film is unmistakably Jaglom and for those who know and understand his work will again be delighted at the natural way in which he can tell a story and make actors appear as if they are not acting!

Seeing this film anew made me realize that all of the film posters that were backdrops at the 1999 Cannes Festival(when this film was shot),A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM,ENTRAPMENT,THE WINSLOW BOY to name a few, were all real tanks at the box office.Ah, how fleeting is fame!

midsummer night's mise en abyme.......2006-11-23

Henry Jaglom is a genius - not of a high - but rather - of a lower order -but a genius, nonetheless. He is one of the living masters (if not the master) of the low budget film - not an accolade to be taken lightly - in an age when money, which always has always spoken at least as loudly in the cinematic world as in ours, is reaching hitherto undreamt of decibels. This film - a romantic comedy (I can't quite fathom various reviewers' bemusement over the genre which is to me obvious from the opening frame)is one in a long series of intricate, small is beautiful, masterpieces. While not of the level of some of his best work (see 'Tracks'), the film is well-acted, superbly crafted, deftly realistic. And, when one considers it as an outrageous spoof on the Kevin Kline/Calista Flockhart version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (feted at the Cannes festival)- the billboard advertisement of which forms the centrally repeated backdrop for the action - not unlike the action of the Shakespearean original's merry-go-round romance - played out in this post-modern, rather banal, decadent, and materialistic context - with a low-brow hustler, brilliantly portrayed by Zach Norman, alternately the Pucklike/Bottomlike character of the ensemble - this film is truly hillarious!
But the story does have it's serious side (barely). Anouk Aimee, with one foot seemingly in the grave, shows us once again, what a great actress truly is, and why neither Cannes, nor any other part of the film industry is what it was, in terms of style or substance, back in the days when Montparnasse 19 (in which she co-starred with Cannes' native son, the tragic, enigmatic, Gerard Phillipe) was screening in local theatres. (I can still see her banging on her bedroom door. "Papa! Papa!" - certainly, one of her best scenes) Film Art vs. crass materialism aside, "movie money" proves to be money, nonetheless. But, no matter how fleeting, love will always endure.

If you're a fan of improvisation, this is among the best.......2004-01-20

I'm a Henry Jaglom fan and you probably have to appreciate a quality of his films, or at least be aware of it, to understand this movie. For the most part, the dialogue is improvised. With that said, I'm not surprised that a lot of the reviewers here didn't realize this. You might not get the witty lines of a Woody Allen film (as one reviewer criticized), but it's still interesting--and this is key. Jaglom is primarily concerned with interesting dialogue and situations, not one-liners. The fact that the movie stars Hollywood insiders grants the film with a legitimate knowledge over the subject matter. I found this film both funny at times (a scene between Silver and Norman is classic), and touching at times (primarily the scenes between Silver and Scacchi). I don't like all of Jaglom films because not all of them work, but I found this one quite satisfying. Even if the resolution of the plot isn't completely given, it is, at least, implied.

Undefinable.......2004-01-03

If you look for "Festival in Cannes" at your local video store, chances are that you will find, as I did, that it is catalogued under Comedy, when, in fact, it is not. Nor is it a drama. "Festival in Cannes" cannot really be put into one genre or another, because it really doesn't fit into any one place. Though it shows a very interesting protrayal of Hollywood and the process of getting a movie put together, it can at times drag a little. I began the film wondering when it would end, and ended it hoping for a little more.

The plot is rather jumpy, and doesn't really let us get too close to any of the characters. It mainly focuses on Alice Palmer (Greta Scacchi), an actress who has decided to write and direct a film for the first time. At the Cannes film festival, she meets a sleazy, virtually unknown producer(Zack Norman) who wants to make her dream a reality. The catch: Alice wants the French actress Millie Marquand(Anouk Aimee) to star. However, the producer of another film (Ron Silver), would also like Millie in his film in a cameo appearance. There is also a sidestory in which a young woman(Jenny Gabrielle) is making her first appearance in a film that has become an unexpected hit at Cannes, and is quickly turning her into something she has no wish to become: A star.

Gabrielle's character Blue seemed to have an interesting background, and I felt that her character should have been either more developed, or removed from the film entirely, as it really only seemed to be a confusing diversion from the actual plot of the film. The end doesn't really give you a resolution to any of the conflicts at hand, and left me disappointed. I felt as though I'd been brought to the top of a hill, and then discovered that it just drops off at the end.

But "Festival" does provide an interesting little visit into the world of Hollywood and filmmaking. All the characters, though some were rather ill-developed, seemed like they really could be real people, and I wondered whether writer-director Henry Jaglom had actually based some of the characters on people in the business.

If you're a real movie buff, I'd say give "Festival" a look. But it's really not a movie for everyone, and I'd say it's probably not worth owning, or even watching more than just once.

Characters in search of an author.......2003-09-13

"Festival at Cannes" is worth watching once, not for its plot but for its fine collection of actors. Everyone seems to be having fun portraying a variety of movie industry hacks, producers, and tired-out stars. These several people wander about in the beautiful south of France town, having various intrigues and minor romances. The film has a feminist edge, as many of the women in the film come out strong in comparison with some of the lost, power-mad men. It should be noted that I never actually cared much for any of the characters; the film's major flaw is that it assumes that just because we have a bunch of interesting characters wandering around, we will end up liking one or more of them. The romance between a high powered producer and an aspiring indie director woman seems particularly unlikely, though the relationship between an older director and ex-star actress is touching and interesting. The film doesn't have much of an ending, it just kind of peters out; however, for the setting and talky dialogue, it's worth a look.

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

Attack on Terrorism

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril

North Dallas Forty (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: The Fantasticks

Gladiators Of World War 2 - The Kamikazes