| BREAKING NEWS : Stephen Frears article in latest 'Sight and Sound' magazine |
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| Friday, 15 June 2007 | |
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p24 The hardest issue to deal with was the American films. Someone should have told the Coen brothers' producers not to put their film into competition. It was ridiculous. You're judging films that are made for audiences against films that are not. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What a truly shocking and disgraceful comment from Frears - one that reflects very badly not only on the man himself, but also on the Cannes organisers who made him president of this year's jury. Surely the point of Cannes competition is to reward the best films around* at any given time, regardless of where, how, by whom or for whom they were made. Apparently not. Frears goes on to say: When a film of mine gets invited to a festival, there's a moment when we ask ourselves, "Is this good for the film?" And the question is "What if it loses?" But the Coens' film will do really well, so it's not a problem. I was more interested in the American cinema than the rest of the jury were. I gave them a bollocking at one time about that. What a pity that nobody was able to give Frears himself a "bollocking" for his attitude towards No Country For Old Men - a film which he clearly holds in some esteem. His view that it shouldn't have been in competition recalls what happened in 2005, when (according to reliable reports) a similar position was held by almost all jurors regarding David Cronenberg's masterpiece A History of Violence which, like No Country For Old Men, left the Croisette empty-handed. And Frears' standpoint seems even more bizarre considering the fact that six of the Coens' previous films have been in competition at Cannes before, with Barton Fink, Fargo and The Man Who Wasn't There all winning Best Director (Barton Fink also won the Palme d'Or) and The Ladykillers' Irma P Hall taking the Jury Prize: surely at least some of these titles were made "for audiences". And in what way are films such as Persepolis, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - widely regarded as 'crowdpleasers' by most critics, and garlanded with prizes by Frears' jury - "not" made for these mysterious "audiences." It's all very baffling - and troubling, calling into question a prize-giving system that becomes more and more absurd the more one learns about its internal machinations. Perhaps the best thing for all concerned would have been if Frears had maintained a steely omerta and resisted the urge to "explain" himself in print. Then again, sometimes it is better to know, after all. Neil Young 15th June 2007 the July 2007 issue of Sight and Sound is on sale now * I can't make any comment about the merits of No Country For Old Men because I haven't seen it yet. Its reception among Cannes attendees last month was nothing short of rapturous - with many commentators hailing a triumphant "return to form" for the brothers (personally, I thought their previous film, The Ladykillers was one of their very best works). Sight and Sound - elsewhere in the July edition - comparing it to "the likes of John Ford and Clint Eastwood" and remarking that it "has the quality of the best US cinema of the 1970s." Frears may be interested to learn that Palme d'Or winners of that 'golden decade' included Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, M*A*S*H and Jerry Schatzberg's Scarecrow. |
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