The Jury

With the competition in full swing, the Jury is now sworn to secrecy. At a press conference, journalists badgered the jury members seeking reactions to the fact that Lucas' film Star Wars is opening on May 19th in the States and not at Cannes. It was simply not selected by the Festival programmers. David Cronenberg claimed the question ridiculous and Barbara Hendricks pointed out that the real war not so far away was more important than the film. Yet the massive marketing campaign for Star Wars, the first episode, has already become a phenomenon and will come out on 2,500 screens. Rumor has it that an epidemic will hit Americans that day. Massive numbers are intending to call in sick.

Actor Jeff Goldblum is by far the tallest member of the jury (more than 6 feet tall) and therefore typically stands out in the crowd. Staying at the Majestic Hotel, he is all smiles for the fans. For his daily morning workout during the festival, he intends to frequent the new Fitness Center (250m2) recently opened in a new wing of the hotel.

Heading the biggest film festival of the year demands an immense film background and the ability to be diplomatic. Because for Gilles Jacob the job requires that he comfort those directors whose films were not selected so they do not become discouraged. The festival programmers see more than 500 films in order to make their selection, which is a hefty movie schedule for one year. World movie production is somewhere around 2000 films per year and according to Gilles Jacob, only about 5% are really "good" films.

Films in Competition

Pola X by Leos Carax brought Catherine Deneuve and Guillaume Depardieu (son of Gerard) up the Palais steps for the official screening. The film is labeled a melodrama roughly based on Herman Melville's Pierre, or the Ambiguities and is Carax' fourth feature film after an eight year absence. He is one of those mysterious directors known as a loner with a tendency for the excessive. According to the morning press, the film lived up to the director's reputation.

The second film in competition was the Israeli entry, Kadosh (Sacred) by Amos Gitai. Also a melodrama that completes the director's trilogy of films exploring Israeli cities and examining the Hasidic lifestyle and mindsets coupled with a bit of feminism.

The Market is Open

It was party time at the International Film Market in an optimistic kick off celebrating a record number of films to be presented: 1.250! The party was frequented by the business hobnobs who were quite taken aback by the shockingly poor food fare: watermelon and doughnuts followed by spaghetti around 2am for the stragglers, set to a staid little cover band.

Singing crossovers

Dave Stewart took off time from the upcoming Eurythmics reunion yesterday to field auestions about his directing debut, Honest, for Pandora Cinema. In fact is will not stop there as he also already has backing for the next two films to follow: Love is a Drug and Juggernaut. Honest is set in the 1960's and marks the acting debut of popsters All Saints, as three cockney sisters with a taste for crime. "We rob a jeweller's and it goes horribly wrong. We end up getting a lot of gangsters after us, so it's a constant chase throughout the film," Nicole Appleton (middle) told Moving Pictures.