The official 2016 Cannes Film Festival poster shows the stairs of the Casa Malaparte location in Capri from Godard’s film about filmmaking: “Contempt (“le Mépris”). It’s a wonderful film, from the seven-something minute long second scene of Brigitte Bardot’s bottom, sprawled out in glorious anamorphic Franscop, to Jack Palance as the unforgettable producerJeremy Prokosh, who hurls a film can like an Olympic discus. It’s also ironic–reflecting Godard’s contempt for the Hollywood system while at the same time celebrating it.
Cannes is often full of ironies. Julia Roberts ascended the red carpet barefoot, men are climbing with bowties untied, and….mon died…everyone is taking selfies everywhere on the hallowed steps, despite the stern warnings “Les photos et <selfies> sont interdis.”
There are other winds of change here at Cannes. Internet downloading, movies on demand, streaming services, existential debates about cinemas themselves–mon dieu.
Pierre Andurand, President of Angenieux (above) announced that the company was supporting “We Do It Together,” a nonprofit film production company created to finance and produce films, documentaries, TV and other forms of mediadedicated to the empowerment of women.
Their first feature film will be “Together Now” – a series of seven shorts pairing a female director with an actress to tell an interesting story. The goal of the film is to empower women creatively in front of and behind the camera–hopefully closing the gender gap in a male-dominated industry.