Jury Press Conference

"We are all in sync that we've got to feel confident that the filmmaker of that film is conscious of the times in which he or she lives." - Sean Penn on deciding the Palm D'Or winner


The jury press conference is the big press conference that kicks off the festival, and it happened today at 2:30, with the full jury in attendance. The directors and actors on the panel had fun answering multiple questions about whether their biases will affect their decision making and what they're looking for in a winning film. These questions seemed to make Sean Penn look even more tortured than he did at the beginning of the conference, but he loosened up after he was allowed to smoke (for "medical reasons"). He seemed to get the brunt of most of the questions, and Natalie Portman was virtually silent.


Alfonso Cuaron, Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman, Rachid Bouchareb, Sean Penn
The conference started off with an explanation of the Jury's Choice award, which is a new addition to the festival this year. Sean Penn explained the selection, Third Wave, by saying that it reflects the current political climate, in which necessary change won't come from politicians, but from people. "It's the closest thing I've seen on film to saying what is the purpose of life," he gushed, "I thought that at this time in film if that wasn't important, nothing was. I think it is a very important film and fascinating to watch." It was interesting to see how he and Marjane Satrapi disagreed on the criterion for choosing a winner; Satrapi called purely political films "leaflets" that would be read and tossed away, while Sean viewed a film's participation in political debates as an important determinant of its quality.

Then came the avalanche of questions directed to Sean about how his biases, particularly the fact that he has worked with Clint Eastwood - who directed The Changeling - would influence his vote. "We will be influenced by our cultural backgrounds, but we will try not to be biased because of them," he explained. "We have to listen to the heart of a film." And, after the cigarette, "If Clint Eastwood deserves it, we're going to fuck well award him."

Like the Blindness conference, this one was completely mad, and since I didn't really know what you would ask a jury, I didn't say anything. It was much more packed, with journalists crammed into every corner and sitting on the floor, and the videographers spilling down the stairs despite the protestations of security personell about fire regulations.

I'm going to haul all of my gear back to my hotel room and try to understand Waiting for Godot. Tomorrow I will attempt to get into the Leonara and Kung Fu Panda press conferences, which will involve me missing the first screenings of both films. I'll try to catch them in the afternoon.

Sidenote: The guy next to me has ring tones of the music that plays over studio logos when films open for each company. It's a bit disorienting, hearing the fox music about every five minutes.

Update: The apolitical Entre les Murs, by Laurent Cantet, has taken the Palm D'Or. Looks like Satrapi won!