Festival In Cannes

For those who like films about people who make films, Henry Jaglom's fictional account of the wheelings and dealings of a group of attendees at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival will be an enjoyable romp. Greta Scacchi plays an actress who has written/is writing a script for an "older woman". She is approached by a fast-talking, wannabe film producer (Zack Norman) who sets up a meeting with the 60-ish Millie Marquand (Anouk Aimée) who is also being wooed by big-time Hollywood producer Rick Yorkin (Ron Silver) who wants her for his new Tom Hanks movie while Millie's husband (Maximilian Schell), an "art-film" director, sits on the sidelines and ponders the Cannes that once was.

Although a far-from-flattering portrait of the world's most prestigious film festival, Festival In Cannes is more of an "observational" comedy in the Woody Allen vein than a true satire, a loosely-plotted ensemble piece with often seemingly-improvised dialogue that casually follows its variously dissatisfied-with-their-lives characters.

Scacchi is, as always, simply engaging as the aspiring first-time director whilst Zack Norman gives an embarrassingly good performance as the two-bit hustler of a producer, albeit an implausible business partner for Scacchi's Jane Campion-esque character. The sycophancy and manipulation is well-caught by Jaglom who cannily uses the real festival to stage his production. Anouk Aimée is less comfortable with the free-wheeling approach and Jenny Gabrielle's ingénue, Blue, is over-exposed.

Whilst we get a decent cameo from Faye Dunaway had Jaglom given us more opportunity for celebrity-spotting this would have increased the film's fun quotient although there may have been good legal reason why this is so. Festival In Cannes is a film that will appeal to film-buffs more than others but it is entertaining nonetheless.

 

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