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In
its 39th year, the Critics' Week is seeking to uplift its profile
as a Cannes festival selection. Headed by José Maria Riba, this
parallel selection offers seven features and seven shorts from promising
filmmakers. Of the seven features, six are first films and in competition
for the Camera d'Or (excepting Krampack), six are
world avant-premieres (excepting Good Housekeeping,
also presented at Sundance)
and two are made by women (Les autres filles and Hidden
Whispher). These films are in competition for Critics' Week's
Best Feature and Best Short awards.
Bernardo
Bertolucci is to be the selection's Godfather; he himself was brought
into the limelight as a budding filmmaker in this selection with
Prima Della Rivoluzione (Before the Revolution)
in 1964. Critics' Week will also include a special "encounter" with
Melvin Van Peebles - actor, musician, writer and journalist - who
will present his latest made-in-France film shot in digital format,
Le conte de ventre plein. Among
the other special screenings, Cites de la plaine -
also made in France - is the last film by the late Robert Kramer,
FIPRESCI is presenting Soft Fruit by Christiana Andreef
(Australia), the Critics' Week Forum will present Comme un
aimant by Kamel Saleh and Akhenaton (France) and the European
Coordination of Film Festivals is presenting Italia non é
un paese povero by Joris Ivens.
In
the perspective of social causes, Action Contre la Faim is presenting
the documetary Nouvel ordre mondial...quelque part en Afrique,
while a regional centre for the prevention of AIDS has asked 24
filmmakers to make a "petit film" emotionally treating
the subject of drug addiction. Ten will be presented in the framework
of Critics' Week on 16 May, attended by certain filmmakers and actors:
Guillaume Canet, Chiara Mastroianni, Georges Lautner...
In
view of the fact that 80% of the festival-goers travel via Paris'
Orly Airport, Critics' Week is offering seven short films selected
in 1998 as "entertainment" while waiting for scheduled
flights to leave. The operation intends to provide young filmmakers
a chance to share their films and latest professional projects.
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Claire
Clouzot
Selection Committee Member
Seven
men and one woman -myself- screened 410 feature films for the 39th
International Critic's Week at the Cannes Film Festival. We focused
on first-timers and second-timers. It was exhausting, exciting,
titillating and sometimes very brutal. The world is reflected in
the films we saw and in the films we selected.
If I am to give an overall impression, it is one of chaos, psychological
difficulties, conjugal difficulties. We counted the number of car
accidents: very many. Women are everywhere: before and behind the
camera. The gay world of Spain, New-York and Great Britain invaded
us. On the whole, the seven films (seven films for seven selectors)
reflect this chaos, these couples, these women.
Claire
Clouzot presents each of the seven films
and why the committe selected them.
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Claire
Clouzot
