Short Essay about Cannes Film Festival
Every year, in May, there is a world famous event at the French Rivera, when producers, directors, movie stars and other showbiz celebrities from the US and Europe comes to show their new movies and choose the best among them. This event is known as the Cannes Film Festival or Festival de Cannes in French.
To avoid any confusion, it has to be said that up to 2002 the Festival had a different name, and was known as the International Film Festival or Festival international du film.
The history of the Cannes Film Festival dates back to 1932, when the international cinematographic community sought to set up an alternative to the International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale, founded the same year, but having trouble to deliver a fair judging to the contestants as Italy's then dictator prime minister, Benito Mussolini, had a serious influence on the Festival judges.
The first Festival was planned to be hold in the September of 1939, but could not take place, despite the fact that all the preparation were done: the movies had been selected and the head of the jury had been chosen. This happened due to the tragic circumstances, as September the first, the exact date the Festival was to begin, German tanks invaded Poland and the World War II began.
For long six year, the idea to hold the Cannes Film Festival had to be postponed, so the first time the Promenade de la Croisette saw the movie stars was in 1946, when then French Government with the support of the Americans and British managed to fulfil their ancient dream to give a start to a new international film festival presenting equal possibilities for all contestants.
September 20, 1946 is remembered as a huge date in the post war movie history. With 46 films from sixteen countries competing for the highest prize, the festival became an important event in the cultural life of France. That year, eleven films took the Grand Prix, the main award of the Festival.
The famous Palme d’Or was first introduced by the Festival organizing committee in 1955. The idea of the award came as a tribute to the coat of arms of the City of Cannes, but was abolished in 1964 to return for good in 1975.
At its dawn, the Cannes Film Festival was rather a prestigious secular evet attracting plenty of tourists. However, at the late 60s, the Festival became a significant mark in the schedule of the grand representatives of the industry, a smoothly running machine with the developed infrastructure and planned intrigue.
To a great extent, the Festival is an elitarian happening and the Palm d’Or winners are seldom known to the general public. However, there were some exceptions, when the winners were such popular films as La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini in 1960, "Les Parapluies" de Cherbourg with Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo in 1964, "Un homme et une femme" by Claude Lelouch in 1966 and Apocalypse Now in 1979. There were not many others, with Pulp Fiction as the most famous, but the overall tendency remains: the Cannes Film Festival is more an event for rather a thin stratum of those can appreciate the high art of cinema.
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