Cannes Film Festival Turns 60

Krauts on the Côte d'Azur

By Wolfgang Höbel

The Cannes Film Festival has promised an ambitious round of stars and films for its 60th anniversary. Even Germans might be in evidence this year.

No matter how hot it is on the Côte d'Azur this year, for Michael Moore it promises to be a little hotter. The American filmmaker has been invited to Cannes to show his new documentary, "Sicko," which criticizes the American health-care system. But a few smart-aleck cogniscenti have promised to show up and embarrass him -- because they have a new low opinion of him as a sick liar.

European movie critics have been in an uproar lately over a Canadian exposé-film called "Manufacturing Dissent," which is meant to show Moore up as a trickster. In any case the film's indignation at the fact that a notorious demagogue like Moore uses demagogic methods for his films -- instead of holding a simple mirror up to nature -- is so naïve and sanctimonious that it might even amuse Moore to watch it.

In any case, the point of the 60th Cannes Film Festival, according to its organizers, is to put everyone in a good mood. Cool innovations (something fresh from the Internet), more stars than ever (Brangelina, obviously) and the fruits of an "outstandingly sumptuous" new year in cinema have been promised for the big anniversary by the festival's chief organizer, Thierry Frémaux. And the opening film is expected to charm the Festival Palace on Wednesday with a cocktail of sex and pop glamor from the Hong Kong-born director Wong Kar-wai. "My Blueberry Nights" will debut the singer Norah Jones, 28, in her first film role.

The opening gala will be moderated by a German -- a bright-eyed globetrotter named Diane Kruger. But she's not the only reason for Germans to be proud; in fact this year they might have to lay aside their usual complaints that France is acting sniffy about German film. Last year, okay, Cannes did snub Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who in the meantime has won a Best Foreign Film Oscar for "The Lives of Others." (So did the Berlin Film Festival, by the way.) But never mind. This year Fatih Akin, 33, has brought a German film to the main feature-film category.

"The Edge of Heaven," Akin's film, will compete with big-caliber movies like "Promise Me This" by the Bosnian Emir Kusturica, "Import Export" by the angry Austrian Ulrich Seidl, and "Une vieille maitresse" by the French porno-nag Catherine Breillat. Not one of the 22 films is from Africa, but six come from the United States, including Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park," the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men," and Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" (one half of the two-film feature with Robert Rodriguez called "Grindhouse").

And what is Akin all about? Once again, the Turkish-German director takes migration as his theme in "The Edge of Heaven." A young woman in the movie lives, for example, illegally in Germany and a German professor with a Turkish background finds himself in a vicious love triangle when he falls hopelessly in love with his father's lady friend.

A number of German contributions to the film series held in parallel to the main competition likewise don't shy away from emotionally trying themes. Jan Bonny, a young director of just 28, submitted his debut film "Gegenüber" ("Counterparts"), which depicts the disastrous marriage of a policeman. Robert Thalheim, 32, tells the story of a young German who does his civil service year at the Auschwitz memorial site in his film "And Along Come Tourists." Thalheim insists that the film isn't autobiographical, though he too did his civil service year -- required in Germany for those who elect not to do military service -- in Auschwitz.

But it's not just the promising new directors who made it to Cannes from Germany this year. A couple of old standbys are also represented. Volker Schlöndorff, 68, will present his film "Ulzhan" at the festival, though it is not part of the main competition. It tells the story of a Frenchman who struggles to adapt after emigrating to Kazakhstan. And Wim Wenders, 61, also threw his hat in the ring this year by contributing to a series of three-minute mini-films made especially for Cannes' 60th birthday. The series, called "To Each His Own Cinema," includes contributions on the wonders of film from such greats as Roman Polanski, Michael Cimino and Claude Lelouch.

Such a birthday gift may sound a bit like self-adulation. But in reality, the entire anniversary party seems to be driven by concern over the future of film. The question looming over the project can easily be deciphered: In the golden age of Internet downloads, will people still be interested in watching movies inside dark theaters? Or will the pleasures of holding hands with your date and scarfing down obscene amounts of popcorn while staring up at the big screen soon be a part of the past? An artist, Michael Moore has said, only needs to pose the right questions.