[In Fact] The Director Who Declined to Submit Despite Invitation to Cannes Competition... (Part 2)

Stairs That Take Less Than 5 Minutes, Actors Move Slowly
A Strange Film Festival Where Godard and Madonna Coexist
The Highest Judging Criterion Is 'Aesthetic Completeness,' But...

'If you look closely,' information that is good to know is conveyed in a somewhat disorganized manner.

* Continuing from

* Among the venues at the Cannes Film Festival, the place that attracts the most media attention is the wide staircase in front of the festival headquarters. During the festival, at 7 p.m., access by the general public is strictly controlled by security guards. Soon, the glamorous appearances of internationally renowned stars begin. With a solemn expression, they ascend the red carpeted stairs and walk toward the screening rooms. Meanwhile, on both sides of the stairs, photojournalists packed tightly engage in a camera war, pushing and pulling each other to take stunning photos. Although the short distance can be covered in less than five minutes at a normal pace, the actors move slowly, smiling and waving to the photographers and the audience gathered in the square.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

* The procession of stars on the stairs at the Cannes Film Festival is called 'Mont?e des Marches.' Literally translated, it means 'ascending the stairs.' Over time, it has become a ritualistic event centered on the media and is used as a proper noun. It is so popular that it is broadcast live overseas. Not only the stairs but also the Croisette street in front of the festival headquarters is blocked daily by crowds of spectators hoping to catch a glimpse of famous stars. Young women dressed in unusual outfits walking the streets to catch the eyes of passing directors or photographers are not uncommon.

* In 1978, Gilles Jacob, who became the festival director, established the non-competitive section called 'Un Certain Regard' to broadly accept works showing new trends. Simply put, it is a waiting room before entering the competitive section. He judged that it was difficult to discover young and new filmmakers emerging worldwide with the narrow gateway of the competitive section alone. As a result, the Cannes Film Festival was recognized for its unique value as a space where respect for established masters and the currents of newly emerging cinema coexist. It began to surpass Berlin and Venice to become the world's top film festival. In fact, from that time, the Cannes Film Festival became a film celebration where Nouvelle Vague director Jean-Luc Godard and pop star Madonna coexisted, and Hollywood blockbuster star Arnold Schwarzenegger and Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami could walk the red carpet together without awkwardness.

* 'Un Certain Regard' focuses on films that are 'original and different.' It was operated as a non-competitive section but from 1998 began awarding distribution rights in France to the best works to encourage quality directors. Since 2005, a prize of 30,000 euros has been awarded. The source is the Groupama Foundation, established by the French insurance company Groupama in 1987.

* The 'Cannes International Film Festival,' named in 1946, was renamed the 'Cannes Festival' in 2002.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

* The Cannes Film Festival is a proud film festival. It assigns complex press grades and does not allow badges to most media. Its operational policy favors film industry professionals and filmmakers, making it difficult for general audiences to access.

* The press covering the Cannes Film Festival must strictly adhere to a dress code. Even photographers taking pictures on the red carpet must wear black suits.

* The Cannes Film Festival is notorious for its harsh evaluation of artistic quality. At the Lumi?re Theater, where competitive section films are mainly screened, if a film fails to meet audience expectations, boos can be heard for a long time. Former director Gilles Jacob explained the ruthless evaluation by saying, "Cannes has no middle ground. It's either yes or no. Likes and dislikes are clearly divided." For this reason, major Hollywood distributors take careful preparatory steps before submitting or promoting films at Cannes. A representative case of overlooking this is Curtis Hanson's 'L.A. Confidential' (1997). Although it was in the competitive section and spent huge amounts on promotion and marketing, it returned without winning any awards. Ridley Scott's 'Gladiator' (2000) avoided this fate by being invited to the competitive section but not submitted. There are also many success stories. Steven Soderbergh, then a rookie director, won the Palme d'Or with 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape' (1989), quickly gaining worldwide attention, and Quentin Tarantino also surprised the world by winning the same award with 'Pulp Fiction' (1994).

* Even if confident in the artistic quality, there is no way to know whether a film will win in the Cannes competitive section. Officially, aesthetic completeness is the highest criterion, but the standards are more ambiguous and capricious than any other film festival. Cannes' tastes have changed over time. In particular, pure aesthetic idealism, commercial opportunism, and geopolitical politics combine capriciously each time. For example, the Cannes Film Festival did not invite works by German directors to the competitive section for seven years. Italian films were treated similarly.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

* The Cannes Film Festival symbolizes the national cinematic pride of France, which created auteur theory. Naturally, it has a special love for its domestic films. Its insistence on the purity of film art has sparked many debates, as most of the selected films are actually ignored by general audiences. For this reason, criticism often arises about the meaning of making films solely to satisfy a few critics in this era. Nevertheless, the films chosen by Cannes form major agendas in the global film industry and lead aesthetic trends. Newly discovered works and directors also become subjects of worldwide interest.

* Recently, the Cannes Film Festival has promoted the competitive section mainly for art films and auteur films, while using the non-competitive section as a gateway to attract famous Hollywood stars.

* The unofficial section, Critics' Week, was originally an independent film festival established in 1962 by the renowned French critics Georges Sadoul and his colleague Louis Marcorelles. After aligning with the Cannes Film Festival's direction, the French Critics Association selects and screens first or second films by directors. Directors who emerged through this section include Bernardo Bertolucci, Leos Carax, Wong Kar-wai, and Fran?ois Ozon. Critics' Week and Directors' Fortnight are sections unrelated to the Cannes Film Festival's executive committee. However, as the scale and status of Cannes have grown recently, they serve as gateways just before the official sections. They especially provide abundant opportunities for new filmmakers who find it difficult to enter the competitive section.

* Cannes, a small city with a population of 70,000, earns huge tourism revenue thanks to its coastal location and a luxury shopping industry befitting the glamorous image of the film festival. However, the city's infrastructure is inferior to that of Berlin and others, and its development pace is stagnant.

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* Critic Im An-ja was invited as a jury member for the Golden Camera Award at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. He detailed his experiences in his book I Met Korean Cinema. "On May 11, 1994, I flew from Basel and landed at Nice Airport near Cannes after an hour. A limousine sent by the festival was waiting at the exit, so I arrived at the hotel comfortably and quickly. After unpacking, I went back by limousine to Jean-Luc Pass?ck's office to meet other jury members. The Golden Camera Award was a new award created by festival director Gilles Jacob in 1978 and is the second most important award after the Palme d'Or given in the name of the Cannes Film Festival. Each year, it judges only first films among those in each section of the festival. The jury consists of eight members: five representing the French film industry and three foreign critics. In 1994, the French members were Fran?ois Od?, the leading figure in French short films; Georges Pangju, president of the French Film Technology Association; critic Jacques Zimmer; cinephile Jos? Brossard active in Cannes; and Swiss-born French actress Marthe Keller (jury president). The three foreign critics were Mario Dominski, executive director of the Fantasporto Film Festival in Portugal; Dutch critic Hans Berecamp; and myself. The official language of the jury was French. The eight jury members had to select winners from films chosen in five sections: the main competition, Un Certain Regard, Critics' Week, Directors' Fortnight, and French films. In 1994, sixteen films were eligible for the Golden Camera Award: one in the international competition, six in Un Certain Regard, six in Critics' Week, two in Directors' Fortnight, and one French film. Originally, the Golden Camera Award was named after the 16mm camera. However, since 1988, the award category changed, and the best work received 300,000 francs in cash provided by Kodak. Kodak also provided a lounge for directors and jury members of the Golden Camera Award on the third floor of the festival headquarters and cafes on the beach. With the sixteen nominated films, we held four rounds of discussions to select the final winner. The last deliberation was held on May 22, a day before the closing ceremony, in the Carlton Hotel room where Gilles Jacob stayed. The discussion lasted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and was complicated. According to festival rules, we could not leave the hotel room until the discussion ended, so we ate lunch inside. Around 5 p.m., the winning film was finally decided: Pascal Ferran's Coming to Terms with Death was chosen by a 5 to 3 vote. (...) Judging the Golden Camera Award was never an easy task, but the discussions with the jury members were a valuable experience in film criticism. Above all, through the judging process, I was able to understand the structure of various sections of the Cannes Film Festival in detail, which greatly helped me grasp its uniqueness. Additionally, in 1994, besides me, director Shin Sang-ok, a representative of the Korean older generation, was invited as a jury member for the main competition, which became a newsworthy topic among Korean journalists. While Shin Sang-ok was well known in Korea, some reporters wondered, 'Who exactly is Im An-ja?' and many asked how two Koreans were selected as jury members at the same time. After being selected as a Golden Camera Award jury member, I received invitations from many places."

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

* Kim Dong-ho, director of the Gangneung International Film Festival and known as a diplomat of Korean cinema, first visited the Cannes Film Festival on May 8, 1996, ahead of the launch of the Busan International Film Festival. He held a modest luncheon at the French restaurant Gavroche, inviting key film figures to announce the establishment of the Busan Film Festival. Attendees included Max Tessier, Cannes selector; Ulrich Gregor, head of the Berlin Film Festival's Forum section; Simon Field, executive director of the Rotterdam Film Festival; Wouter Barendrecht, head of Cinemart; Serge Losique, executive director of the Montreal Film Festival; Alain Zalado, executive director of the Nantes Film Festival; Klaus Eder, executive director of the Munich Film Festival; and Larry Kardish, film curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, who all wished success and promised to visit Busan. Kim wrote, "I believe the luncheon held on May 11 was an important meeting that foretold the success of the Busan Film Festival," and "Since then, I have visited the Cannes Film Festival every year without fail." At eighty-six years old this year, he still actively participates in Cannes, establishing the French National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) and the Korea-France Film Academy, among other activities.

Reference materials: Kangmi Park, published by Storyhouse, The Birth of International Film Festivals (2013); Sujeong Ahn, published by Myeongin Munhwasa, Red Carpet: Welcome to Film Festival (2014); An-ja Im, published by Bonbooks, I Met Korean Cinema (2014); Dong-ho Kim, published by Munhakdongne, Films, Filmmakers, and Film Festivals (2010), etc.