The Cannes Film Festival

Today Cannes features films from Quentin Tarantino, Alain Resnais, Jean-Michel Bernard, and Joseph Losey, among others.  But what some of us non-Cannesophiles might not know is that the illustrious film festival promotes collaborative learning through masterclasses and lectures with seasoned filmmakers, cast, and crew members.  Yesterday’s masterclass welcomed two-time winners of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.  Brothers and filmmaking partners from Belgium, they discussed their artistic choices, how they work together on a film, and the ways in which their vision has changed over the years.  Their desire to show audiences the raw, often painful stories of those on the margins has led to casting unknown actors found from ads they place in newspapers.  The motivation: a film that is uncluttered by the presence of a recognizable Hollywood star.  Their 2008 release, Le Silence de Lorna (The Silence of Lorna), won Best Screenplay at Cannes last year.

Yesterday also featured another such learning opportunity when the entire crew of Broken Embraces spoke about their work on the film.  Director Pedro Almodóvar expressed the importance of flexibility in communicating with actors in order to give good direction and also cited the influence of “strong women” in his upbringing as a motivating force behind the large number of women in his films.  Penelope Cruz was also on hand to discuss the intricacies of her role and the boldness of the film.  Broken Embraces tells the story of an ex-film director who goes blind after a car accident and writes screenplays under a pseudonym while yearning for a film career again.  Oscillating between the present and 1994, the film engages in love affairs, voyeurism, and mise en abyme, and never slows down.

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