Cannes hopes to brighten up France – Stewart, Cotillard: queens of Cannes 2016

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(From left): Lana Condor, Carolina Bartczak, Olivia Munn, Jennifer Lawrence, Sophie Turner and Alexandra Shipp pose for photographers upon arrival at the screening of the film ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ at a central London cinema, London on May 9. (AP)
(From left): Lana Condor, Carolina Bartczak, Olivia Munn, Jennifer Lawrence, Sophie Turner and Alexandra Shipp pose for photographers upon arrival at the screening of the film ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ at a central London cinema, London on May 9. (AP)

NEW YORK, May 10, (Agencies): The first time Jodie Foster came to the Cannes Film Festival, she did so as a co-star in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and as a wide-eyed 13-year-old, soaking in the spectacle. “Taxi Driver” would go on to win the festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or.

“It was kind of like Mr. Toad’s wild ride. It was very surreal,” says Foster, who returns this year with her hostage thriller “Money Monster.” “I remember the red-carpeted steps. I remember all the ladies on the beach. I remember an amazing dinner up in the mountains there with (Bernardo) Bertolucci and Gerard Depardieu. It’s a great place for this very exotic, spontaneous slumber party.”

The Cote d’Azur extravaganza of cinema and celebrity, which kicks off Wednesday, can be an eye-opening “slumber party” for newcomers and veterans alike. As the world’s pre-eminent film festival, it’s a seaside treasure trove of cinematic splendor — a chic French Riviera oasis that for a week and a half gathers a significant portion of the movies’ most revered filmmakers, biggest stars and striving dealmakers.

But for all its elevated regard, Cannes — first begun as a kind of United Nations for film in the wake of World War II — is also tethered to world events. This year’s festival, the 69th edition, comes six months after the November terror attacks in central Paris that killed 130. France remains in a state of emergency.

Security

Last month, police staged a security exercise in which gunmen stormed the festival’s Palais, the hallowed heart of Cannes. The images from the drill sent shivers through cinephiles accustomed to seeing stars regally ascend the palace steps, not masked men. Festival president Pierre Lescure has said that this year “the maximum” has been done to balance security and ensure “that the festival remains a place of freedom.”

Though this year’s program is, as always, full of socially minded films, it opens on a light note with Woody Allen’s latest, “Cafe Society” a comedy about 1930s Hollywood. Also providing welcome escapism will be the upcoming Ryan Gosling-Russell Crowe comedy “The Nice Guys” and Steven Spielberg’s Roald Dahl adaptation “The BFG” starring Mark Rylance as the tale’s friendly giant.

The famed, 56-year-old stage actor will make his first trip to Cannes at a much different station in life than Foster did.

“I’ve always noted it on some of my favorite films, like ‘Rashomon’ on the little DVD box,” says Rylance, referring to the festival’s golden palm logo. “The things that interest me out of the festival are not so much these big films that go there now. But they’ve often been the first sighting of someone like a Kurosawa or many, many others who have emerged from the obscurity into the light, so to speak.”

This year, new voices will have to be loud enough to rise above a battery of international heavyweights. Cannes’ main slate of “in competition” films vying for the Palme includes Asghar Farhadi (“The Salesman”), Ken Loach (“I, Daniel Blake”), Olivier Assayas (“Personal Shopper”), Pedro Almodovar (“Julieta”), Park Chan-Wook (“The Handmaiden”) and Jim Jarmusch (“Patterson”), who’ll also debut his documentary on Iggy Pop and the Stooges, “Gimme Danger.”

Chooses

George Miller, whose “Mad Max: Fury Road” played at the festival last year, will lead the jury that chooses the Palme winner.

But there’s younger blood, too, including Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan and Jeff Nichols, both of whom have had films in competition before. Possible Oscar contenders often announce themselves at Cannes, where films from “Pulp Fiction” to “The Artist” have debuted. This year, Nichols’ “Loving” slated for release in November, may be the most likely future awards season contender.

Nichols, the 37-year-old Arkansas native whose films include “Mud” and “Midnight Special” says his film is his most mature yet. It’s about Mildred and Richard Loving, who were sentenced to prison for their interracial marriage in 1950s Virginia.

“It’s an important film and I don’t say that lightly. I don’t think movies are very important a lot of the time,” says Nichols. “I felt in control of the process so much. We just had this control. It feels like the steadiest hand of a movie.”

Just how much Cannes, rigid in its formal traditions and red-carpet protocol, will bend to the times is one of this year’s biggest questions. It has drawn annual criticism for failing to celebrate female filmmakers more fully. This year, the 21 films in competition include three directed by women. That’s a very slight increase from two last year. (The festival overall has a better percentage of female filmmakers, including “Citizenfour” director Laura Poitras. She will premiere “Risk” her Julian Assange documentary.)

Meanwhile, there will be no shortage of movie star royalty at the Cannes film festival, but the true queens of this year’s red carpet will be “Twilight” megastar turned indie darling Kristen Stewart and French film siren Marion Cotillard.

Both actresses are sweeping into the French resort town with two films in the official selection.

Cotillard, 40, who has become a transatlantic celebrity with an Oscar and several Hollywood blockbusters under her belt, will appear in two films in the running for the top prize, the Palme d’Or.

In “From the Land of the Moon”, set just after World War II, Cotillard stars as a woman caught in an unhappy marriage who falls in love again. She also stars in “It’s Only the End of the World” by French Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan, about a writer who returns home to tell his family he is dying.

While Cotillard was the first French actress since 1960 to win America’s highest acting award in 2008, Kristen Stewart became the first American actress ever to win France’s equivalent, the Cesar, in 2015, for her supporting role in “Clouds of Sils Maria”

Stewart, 26, became a celebrity icon for an entire generation as Bella in the blockbuster vampire romance-thriller trilogy “Twilight” but has gained a reputation for taking on passion projects, sometimes for little pay.

“I take part in successful productions to facilitate the existence of more modest films,” she told France’s Le Monde magazine.

This year she appears in the out-of-competition opening film, Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society”, about a young couple who fall in love in 1930s Hollywood.

She is also starring in “Personal Shopper”, a ghost story set in the Paris fashion world which is in the running for the Palme d’Or, teaming up again with “Sils Maria” director, France’s Olivier Assayas.

Stewart, a Los Angeles native, was first discovered by a talent scout who spotted her in a school play at the age of eight.

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