My Cannes 2009 - V

Epilogue

The most interesting film in Cannes - from the point of view of symbolism, metaphor and all-round significance - was very short and concise; was seen by all the Cannes audiences but will not be seen outside the festival; and featured no stars, indeed it contains no actors nor any dialogue.

What fascinating work is this? Of course, it's the festival trailer.

A CGI work sans actors and words, it nevertheless conveys perfectly an attitude, moral philosophy, and hegemonic aesthetic all in one, and all in the space of about a minute.

The film (and it deserves this moniker more that some of the other rubbish on display) begins UNDERWATER. To a music soundtrack that mimics Bernard Herrman's score for Hitchcock's Vertigo, the "camera" ascends the red carpet stairway whose correspondance with reality is all too real since the audience (at least in the Grand Palais) has just walked up the real version of these steps. We surface - presumably on the Bay of Cannes - water all around but still those stairs and that crazy compelling music lead us onwards and upwards. The stairs go higher and soon we are in the clouds (good weather, no rain, no thunder, no lightning) and keep going until we are in OUTER SPACE! Yes we are in Star Wars territory; there is no frontier, just twinkling stars. Suddenly a huge sign flips up in front of us, it says in gold, and surrounded by gold palms, "Festival de Cannes."

This film contains not just an apotheosis fantasy (that confirms the semiotics of the tribute ritual I described in My Cannes 2009 - 1), but also an evolutionary myth that in its simplest form suggests that cinema has evolved much like life itself. It moves from the basic form (fish) from water, to surface (ok there isn't actually land in this movie but which film really has its feet on the ground anyway?), all the way up to the stars where "heaven" is the Cannes film festival.

To paraphrase, you have died and gone to Cannes. The trouble with Cannes-as-heaven is: would you really want to spend eternity with these people, let alone these films?