NEW YORK (AP) – There will be no selfies on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival this year, but, rest assured, there will be every other type of image-making at the French Riviera extravaganza.
Photographers will form flashing gauntlets through which many of the top stars and filmmakers in movies will stream on their way to premiering hotly anticipated films on screens that are less theaters than movie cathedrals.
Nowhere are films and filmmakers taken more seriously or superficially than at Cannes, the Cote d’Azur capital of cinema, which kicks off its 68th annual edition Wednesday.
“It’s a circus,” says Todd Haynes, (“Mildred Pierce,” ”I’m Not There”), who will premiere his 1950s lesbian melodrama “Carol,” starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. “It’s a mad beast like nothing else. Nothing compares to Cannes, in my experience. It’s an extremely important place.”
At this year’s festival, Haynes is one of two American filmmakers among the illustrious films in competition for the Palme d’Or. The Cannes top honor has occasionally gone to American directors (Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino), including this year’s jury heads: Joel and Ethan Coen. (They won in 1991 for “Barton Fink.”) The other American in competition is also a former Palme winner: Gus Van Sant (2003 for “Elephant”), who will bring “The Sea of Trees,” a drama about suicide and survival starring Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe.