By Harlan Jacobson, Special for USA Today, May 9, 2005
George Lucas’ Force will provide the big event at Cannes this year, as Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
screen Sunday, four days before it opens in U.S. theaters.
The showing is designed to create more excitement for the opening of the movie, seen as a linchpin film for domestic
box office for the summer, if not the entire year.
The festival, with films from 28 countries, begins Wednesday with French director Dominik (With a Friend Like Harry)
Moll’s Lemmings. Martha Fiennes Chromophobia, starring brother Ralph Fiennes, Penelope Cruz, Ian Holm, Rhys Ifans and
Kristin Scott Thomas, close the festival on May 21. The next day, the Golden Palm is awarded.
Only a few years ago, Cannes and Hollywood concluded they were a bad match, as Hollywood largely refused to risk bad
critical reaction and Cannes chief Gilles Jacob turned down Lucas’ Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
But now Sith is welcome, though it’s not part of the competition, and ushering in a grand time. Its stars – Ewan
McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson and Natalie Portman – are expected to party aboard the Queen Mary II, a ship worthy of a king
of cinema.
Films made by U.S. directors or with American stars are littered throughout the official selections. There’s:
Shane Black’s directorial debut Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, with Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. It’s a murder story set
in Los Angeles.
Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City in its Euro-launch.
Teaser footage from DreamWorks’ claymation Wallace & Grommit – The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which opens stateside Oct. 7.
Cannes always has a glamour factor; such regulars as Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis, Cruz, Chloe Sevigny, Gael Garcia Bernal,
Jessica Lange and Catherine Deneuve are expected again this year. Lots of attention at the festival also can fast-forward a
career, as it has with directors Mike Leigh and Quentin Tarantino and actress Nicole Kidman. And last year, the festival
helped propel Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 into a global event.
This year, a big question is whether middle-aged directors can prove themselves worthy successors to the likes of John
Ford, Howard Hawks, Akira Kurosawa and Francis Ford Coppola before them. Among such directors with Cannes films:
Gus Van Sant, 54, who won the Golden Palm with Elephant two years ago, is back with Last Days, set in Seattle and
suggested by Kurt Cobain’s death.
Jim Jarmusch, 52, (Stranger than Paradise) has Broken Flowers, with Bill Murray taking off on a trip to revisit old
girlfriends.
German director Wim Wenders, 59, whose Sam Shepard-written Paris, Texas won the Golden Palm in 1984, has Don’t Come
Knocking, about an again cowboy star facing personal challenges. It, too, is written by Shepard, who stars alongside
real-life lover Jessica Lange and Eva Marie Saint.
Canadians Atom Egoyan, 45, (The Sweet Hereafter) and David Cronenberg, 62, return. Egoyan has Where the Truth Lies,
starring Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth as a former ’50s comedy team, reminiscent of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, under
suspicion of murder. Cronenberg (Crash) is here with A History of Violence, with Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris
and William Hurt circling each other in the aftermath of a killing at a diner.
Danish badboy Lars von Trier, 49, continues bashing the USA, this time with Manderlay, a follow-up to Dogville about
slavery in the ‘30s. Bryce Dallas Howard replaces Nicole Kidman, who was in Dogville. The film also features Danny Glover,
William Dafoe and Lauren Bacall.
Cannes remains a key influence on the North American and world film scenes. Once again, people will be watching to see
whether the films that jump out at critics will have an impact on the culture-war debates, if not the box office, the way
Fahrenheit 9/11 did in 2004.