Cannes diary: Meet the opening act

The 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival started, as usual, with an eye-grabbing opening ceremony and a remarkable but nonetheless subtle attention to security, reinforced after the terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels and Berlin.

The festival this year will be guided by the talent and beauty of two world-renowned Italian actresses: Monica Bellucci, who presented the opening ceremony and will also guide the closing ceremony, and Claudia Cardinale, image and symbol of this year’s festival poster. The poster’s image, which portrays Cardinale as she dances on a red carpet, has been criticised by many because of the photo retouching that has slimmed down the actress’ waist. Those debates were quickly put aside thanks to Cardinale’s intervention, who invited everyone to enjoy cinema rather than waste time in pointless polemics.

Whichever the quality of the films, for the next 12 days movies will take centre stage. Almost 250 films have been selected in the various sections and sidebars of the festival, among which 20 will compete for the Palme d’Or and 18 for the Un Certain Regard prize.

The international jury will be presided by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and will comprise US-actress Jessica Chastain, Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, South Korean producer and director Park Chan-Wook, French actress and director Agnes Jaoui, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, French musician Gabriel Yared, American superstar actor Will Smith and Maren Ade, German director.

And speaking of cinema, the opening film was Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts. The least that can be expected from a film with great talents behind it is to foster the curiosity of critics and the audience. But films with great talents do not necessarily translate into great films. Names such as the gifted and beautiful Marion Cotillard or Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Louis Garrel were not enough to give Desplechin’s film a much-needed push forward.

Esmael, who is not an Arabic character despite his name, is played by Amalric. He is a director going through the toughest part of his latest artistic endeavour. Esmael is writing an international spy story. Despite the fact that Desplechin gives some hints to the matter of Islamic fundamentalism through the character of an Imam during a scene that takes place in a caucasic region, it is unclear at which time the events of the film take place. It is a sequence of confused intrigues and passages going from real and imagined life which have turned the film into an intricate labyrinth with no exit.

Desplechin tried to write a modern fairy tale with comedic undertones by trying to break down barriers between different historical times and even between life and death. But the result is a great mess, a Daedalus, which by coincidence is the name of the fictional character written by Esmael and played by Louis Garrel.

The festival selection started on the wrong foot, but the hope is that the great names of the selected directors will be able to give us great viewing experiences worthy of the Cannes Film Festival.

— Erfan Rashid is an Iraq-born journalist and film critic based in Italy. He’s the former director of Arabic Programmes at the Dubai International Film Festival