The Palme d’Or has been handed to Ken Loach for I, Daniel Blake, drawing the festival to a close. But what lessons can we take from the whole 12-day circus? Matthew Anderson offers some thoughts.
1. Terrorism has given France the jitters
A squad of bored-looking soldiers with enormous guns was on hand to greet excited festival-goers touching down at Nice Airport, an ominous sign that this year security would be both tight and tiresome.
France’s official terror threat level is still ‘extremely high’ following the November attacks on Paris, and France’s interior ministry and the festival’s organisers were taking no risks.
A few weeks beforehand, they simulated a terrorist atrocity in a drill that tested the responses of police, military, firefighters and medical staff. The dramatic scenes would not have looked out of place in a Hollywood action blockbuster.
Thank goodness the festival itself passed off without incident: bag searches, security wands and confiscated liquids were the worst we had to deal with.
AFP, Reuters
2. A shadow still hangs over Woody Allen
There was however, one incendiary device lobbed in the festival’s direction when, writing in the Hollywood Reporter, Woody Allen’s estranged son Ronan Farrow once again raised allegations of sexual abuse against the film-maker by his daughter Dylan.
There was a conspiracy of silence and a culture of acquiescence from the media, he claimed.
Allen’s latest film Cafe Society was the festival’s curtain-raiser and at the opening ceremony, MC Laurent Lafitte addressed a joke to the 79-year-old director: “It’s very nice that you’ve been shooting so many movies in Europe, even if you are not being convicted for rape in the US.”
The comment caused a minor sensation among journalists gagging for some controversy, but the general consensus was that it was simply ill-advised and in poor taste.
It’s very difficult to be funny about rape – and we shall return to this subject later.
Read the full article here
AFP, Reuters
