Spielberg at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival where he presented his E.T.
Steven Spielberg has been named jury president for the 2013 Cannes International Film Festival. Collider says, “As arguably the most important American filmmaker working today, Spielberg is an ideal candidate.”
The director remarked, “My admiration for the steadfast mission of the Festival to champion the international language of movies is second to none. The most prestigious of its kind, the festival has always established the motion picture as a cross cultural and generational medium.”
Sammy,
‘Mainstream’ doesn’t have to mean crap. Just as art-house or indie does not always mean good.
Spielberg was an independent filmmaker, but his films were also successful. With that, comes the money and backing to make big productions etc…
Still doesn’t take away from a true auteur’s work. That’s one of the problems I have with Spielberg detractors (not referring to you)- it’s almost as if they disdain the fact that he has the bad taste to appeal to large masses. A.I., Munich etc….are still great, challenging films. When you start judging the movie based on whether its mainstream or ‘art house’ or how much it cost to make it….than you’re not looking at the film, but the window-dressing. That’s why the art house crowd in general….seems shallow and smug to me.
For instance, Terry Gilliam was always one of Spielberg detractors, sneers at the sentiment and ‘manipulations’ etc….Yet, I haven’t seen anything Gilliam has done that has ignited my imagination as much as a Minority Report, A.I., or nothing that has blown me away like Lincoln or Munich. And when he attempts to be big or thematic, he does that one with Robin WIlliams and Jeff Bridges – full of sentiment and emotional manipulation.
(Now I’m going to get all the Gilliam fans on my case)
Let’s not categorize films as mainstream or art-house. Films that are good or films that are bad. Studio system is simply not working towards a director’s favor in the long term. You ultimately end up being their gun men.
He seems to have lost the verve of Sugar Land Express and the joy of ET.
“Mainstream” is the big studios. They are part of this entire system we are currently in. They don’t ask questions. They don’t want people think.
Then A.I., Munich, Minority Report and Lincoln are art-house films, not mainstream.
“Mainstream” is the big studios. They are part of this entire system we are currently in. They don’t ask questions. They don’t want people think.
Well, that system has produced The Social Network, Black Swan, Gran Torino, Lincoln….
”Mainstream” just means a shit load of people like it.
@Tero – The biggest problem for the American filmakers is that they tend to be part of that big Hollywood system after some time and after doing some good arthouse work. Spielberg is just one example. Now think about David Fincher. He is talented and made very good arthouse movies and now he is in the process of being an ordinary Hollywood mainstream director just like Spielberg, Eastwood, Ron Howard etc. Next victim will probably (and sadly) be Darren Aronofsky. It is maybe money or the glamour of Hollywood but I don’t understand. Of course there are names like David Lynch and Terry Malick whom I respect everytime and successfully command their entire careers for the good of cinema.
“Ang Lee is now the ONLY filmmaker with two Academy Awards for Directing, two BAFTAs for Directing, two Globes for Directing, two DGA awards, two Golden Lions, and two Golden Bears.” That is an imcomplete statement. You should add a little bit more. Ang Lee also won two BAFTAs for BP and two Globes for BP.
“You mean she’s saying we all think alike?”
Well, for awhile there, some of you were starting to look alike. Now Liv Ullman has the hots for Chastain. I think I must be having a stroke.
I’d go bi for Jessica Chastain
KT does make a good point. Late last year, some were even accusing Life of Pi camp of not campaigning hard enough. Whatever they did–let the work speak for itself ala Mo’Nique or went stealth–kudos to Pi. Would love to see and AD writeup on that.
Okay, things about to get ugly again!
I don’t know how to get the icon, but I think this one wins: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/fashion-articles/jessica-chastain-amanda-seyfried-oscars-diary-2013#slide-5
Wow, you’ve gotten hotter Vince, almost as hot as me!
You mean she’s saying we all think alike?
In quick succession: 1,2,3…
No Rufus,
They’re all pretty much the same. Kind of like when you listen to a sports radio show and all the callers use terms like ‘high motor’….
It’s a certain lingo that has the stench of groupthink. Its the regurgitation of a herdlike mantra.
I remember a while back Yvette thought I was crazy when I said Spielberg and the Lincoln camp were overcampaigning and ruining their chances to win. I will say props to Ang Lee/20th Century Fox for keeping a classy campaign, not resorting to calling up politicians to endorse the film or guilting people into voting for a snubbed director or running smear campaigns against much more worthy competition. I’m not trying to show disdain toward Spielberg. Just wanted to paint his different background from his contemporaries and expressed hope that he works the festival circuit again, like Ang Lee has successfully done (two Golden Bears and two Golden Lion!!).
Yvette accuses us of groupthink, and yet all of our comments about Spielberg are markedly different from each other.
Hmm.
I just named five films of a director I called my faves and then you call me a pseudo film critic and say I hold him in disdain. Because he’s the king of schmaltz? Are we not allowed to hold opinions of an artist’s strengths as well as their weaknesses?
Is English your first language? You’re not the first commenter I’ve presented this question. i simply don’t know how to communicate with you, yvette. Maybe its me. Perhaps I can get some tips from others. Otherwise I give up.
Vince,
Calm the fuck down.
I was actually responding to your favorable mention of Minority Report in agreement – and used Scott as an example to the point you made about his apparently excessive Oscar nominations….so it was a bad example.
Ok.
But you get my point. Maybe you don’t.
But this irrational, pseudo-film-critic disdain toward Spielberg, as expressed by you and KT, Rufus etc…is pretentious and frankly, dumb and just reeks of groupthink.
Isn’t it on hold because the visual effects are too demanding and with today’s technology the movie would become too expensive to make? So, they just decided to wait. Not sure what the truth is, but I heard something like this.
rufussondheim,
Robopocolypse hasn’t been filmed yet. Spielberg has decided to rewrite the script so it’s on hold. Spielberg as President of the Cannes jury is exciting news. Looking forward to finding out who the jurors are this year.
On a side note, why haven’t I seen any trailers for Spielberg’s Robopocolypse yet? Wasn’t it supposed to be released in April?
Sorry, Gustava, my intern went home for the day and I just can’t recall the password for the extensive cross-referenced database I’ve had my interns amass over the years. Luckily, it’s easy to find free labor to make such a database in case some absurdly idiotic commenter challenges my one-off sarcastic remark.
I’m sure, tomorrow, I will have the evidence you so plainly deserve.
I just realized that most of the Cannes jury presidents are straight white males. Is this insignificant?
Yvette, you made a claim that minority report would have gotten more Oscar attention if it had been directed by Ridley Scott. I then cited two sci-fi films Scott made post-alien that received a total of three nods, one of them the same amount as report.
Now, suddenly, I’m a Scott fan. Your method of arguing is irrational.
Fav Spielberg: duel, jaws, ET, color purple, minority report.
Fav R. Scott: alien, blade runner, Thelma & Louise.
What ever consistency they have is lost on me as neither one has made a film in the last ten years I’d watch more than once.
Obviously, Spielberg is an icon and Titan in the industry and have immense respect for the man. And, as a previous poster said, he is a great businessman. That is no lie. But as an artist … Great is not the adjective which comes to mind. He’s certainly great at schmaltz. I’ll give him that.
But I applaud him as Cannes choice. Cannes offers the edgiest selections of the year. Maybe it will awaken something in him artistically.
Maybe Sasha will get her picture with him.
Sammy, not sure if Scorsese and Lee are good examples. Both (continuously) make 100M+ movies for masses and that – if something – can be called mainstream. Lee’s latest cost 120M, Scorsese’s latest 170M and Spielberg’s 65M.
Tero: I didn’t mention Schindler’s List (or Lincoln) because it doesn’t belong in the same category as the films I mentioned, that came up short at the awards and as films. Certainly a deserving winner! I’d argue that some of the ones I mentioned before, the Saving Private Ryans and Amistads, have the “stuff” there but just needed more exacting editing, and a stronger sense of direction and voice.
Yeah, in that moment when Scorsese won, Spielberg came off as a little obnoxious, though he looked happy for Marty. I just rewatched it…pushing aside Lucas and Coppola, being front and center and making sure he was the one to bestow the honor. I’m not sure how close Spielberg and Scorsese are, but the funny thing about the former is he always aligns himself with the great directors. He had contact with David Lean (Empire of the Sun), Stanley Kubrick (A.I.)—maybe it’s his way of trying to be seen as in their ranks? I think Spielberg’s problem is he is someone who needs validation and acceptance. He and Scorsese came from totally different backgrounds and were associated with wildly different cultures in the 70s and 80s, Scorsese being more a part of the music, party, sex and drug atmospheres. Spielberg, for better or worse, has always played to the Hollywood system for the majority of his career, and in many instances lost his own, singular voice as an artist in the process of engineering films for box office and manipulating audiences—what Sammy says as “too mainstream.” Interestingly, over the last decade, Scorsese has played to this system more than he has ever done in his career, in what some might see as his hunt for Oscar recognition. In turn, he has received the most widespread acceptance of his current and past work than ever before. And then there are people like Kathryn Bigelow, who has continued to offer uncompromised vision and remained a staunch advocate for independent filmmaking, who I’m not sure has ever gone mainstream and then Oscar found her when she of all people least expected it. Interesting to think about, the careers of directors.
I have no problem with Spielberg and I think he is a great film genius but he went too mainstream unlike say Scorsese or Lee. Spielberg became very rich and nowadays he is almost a serious businessman running a company so we cannot expect him to do some arthouse work for us the cinephiles.
Probably.
Show me evidence.
Probably.
Some dope up there wrote Spielberg wouldn’t be capable of spotting new talent. Other suggested he would never like a film by artsy auteur Steve McQueen.
Well, well, well…
My question:
Has any other Jury President ever been met with such condescending and downright disdainful questions by commenters?
Vince,
And we could argue that Spielberg has been the more consistent (critically-acclaimed) director for a longer period of time.
Unless you think G.I. Jane, Hannibal are comparable to Munich, Schindler’s List or Minority Report.
“I know it absolutely burns Spielberg that Scorsese is more revered and called America’s greatest living filmmaker, and that none of his films were cited in Sight and Sound’s top 100 greatest films.”
You possess interesting facts. They might just be closet friends. I sure remember his “shit!” face when they opened the envelope and Marty finally won the Oscar.
What it comes to Sight & Sound, I think he absolutely deserves a place to have 2 or 3 films there, but it surely is crowded. World is full of great films.
You do know, KT, that even if it really burns him that he lost for E.T. (I would be pretty pissed as well), he DID win Best Picture for Schindler’s List – a film you fail to even mention while listing many others. Anyway, it’s going to be one of the best-looking Blu-ray releases of 2013, and nothing will change that fact.
You can also add two NYFCC directing awards to give a nod to critics awards.
“Ang Lee is now the ONLY filmmaker with two Academy Awards for Directing, two BAFTAs for Directing, two Globes for Directing, two DGA awards, two Golden Lions, and two Golden Bears.”
Wow! I did not know that. You just made my day, KT.
Wow, KT
had to tweet that
From the interviews I’ve seen with Spielberg, he has a knowledgeable appreciation for great films, right down to specifying particular shots and moments. He chooses to film in his own style, that’s all.
As far as him liking McQueen’s work, that’s as much a matter of taste for him as it is for us. McQueen’s style bothers some, but he can do no wrong, in my book. Is Spielberg a closet fan – you never know. He’ll never make a film like Shame, but that doesn’t mean he can’t see the artistic value in it.
reading the reactions to the news on French websites makes me lose faith in humanity, the commenters are even more cynical and bitter than your average AD reader: “Spielberg has ruined cinema, spielberg is too commercial, too American, too cheesy, even too Jewish” and of course the usual “the cannes film festival is a useless waste of taxpayer money, the presented films are boring and pseudo-intellectual, it’s disgusting to display that much wealth and luxury, it’s always foreigners who win prizes”. They also complain that we honor an American while Americans would never honor a Frenchman/French cinema, well I guess The Artist and Amour never happened…
I for one would LOVE to see Spielberg begin submitting his films to festivals *in competition* again. I don’t think he’s done this since Sugarland, could be wrong. Ang Lee is now the ONLY filmmaker with two Academy Awards for Directing, two BAFTAs for Directing, two Globes for Directing, two DGA awards, two Golden Lions, and two Golden Bears. Maybe Spielberg presiding over the Cannes jury is a sign he will begin targeting the festivals instead of avoiding them. I would LOVE to see him tackle a genre or subject that would CHALLENGE him. Go after the Palme D’Or, one of the highest honors for a filmmaker, even if you come up short. Do something vastly different that will surprise film and critics circles in a good way, and quit chasing Oscar! It’s really sad for me that Spielberg has no conception, even when he’s reminded by interviewers, that the really great films, the ones considered masterpieces that hold up for many many years are NOT the films that win at the Academy Awards. You have been chasing Oscar for years after E.T. lost (the one loss he has openly admitted utterly burned him), and in most instances (Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, Munich, and War Horse) this showed and the film came up short in one way or another. You have played to the Hollywood system most of your career (unlike the Martin Scorseses and Kathryn Bigelows and Paul Thomas Andersons), and along the way you lost your own, singular voice that was so welcome, so unique as an artist while in the process of engineering films for box office and manipulating audiences. I know it absolutely burns Spielberg that Scorsese is more revered and called America’s greatest living filmmaker, and that none of his films were cited in Sight and Sound’s top 100 greatest films. Oscar is not the answer and you are better than its validation(!!)—Lincoln was definitely a step in the right direction and a fantastic effort all around. Now move on, and I think pursing the festival circuit and continuing your Tony Kushner collaboration might bring Spielberg more fulfillment than he might think.
one can like and admire art one has no inclination to do oneself…… Spielberg being the one.
Not just for the flashing lights and fame..
The legend lives on..
OT: And this!
http://kellymcgehee.com/KELLY_MCGEHEE_PRODUCTION_DESIGNER_WEBSITE_2013/STILLS_ELEANOR_RIGBY_HIS.html
Director Bong Joon-ho has history at Cannes so I wouldn’t rule out SNOWPIERCER as a long shot for competition, but as Tero said it may be “too genre”
OT: I can’t wait for this!!
http://thefilmstage.com/news/first-look-tilda-swinton-goes-bald-for-bong-joon-hos-snowpiercer/
@rufussondheim –
I agree that it’s difficult to imagine Spielberg liking anything by Steve McQueen. But then again, to me, McQueen is 50/50. Great film with Hunger, terrible film with Shame. So, he might have good reason not to like a McQueen film. I’m not sure McQueen is the best litmus test.
@Bryce Forestieri –
Spielberg might like Bergman, but I feel he can accept someone who has an established body of work, who might be considered an auteur. I am not as certain he can spot such talent at its infancy.
…or fantasy-like. Whatever. Usually “genre films” are out of competition at Cannes.
Spielberg has great taste in film and he – being a busy man as he is – finds time to watch a lot. Now, he’s available for the first time, but Cannes has been asking him for decades.
Anyone coming out with a scifi film could benefit a little, me thinks.
That’s good news, although him being jury president isn’t guarantee of the best films winning; I mean when Tarantino was JP of the two biggest film festivals in the world, the winners were Fahrenheit 9/11 and a movie by his ex-girlfriend and close friend…
Plus who can’t love the good ol’ boy responsible for THE WHITE SQUALL <3<3<3
Tom Cruise had the same amount of Oscar nods as Brad Pitt. Or, should he have gotten one for jumping on Oprah’s couch?
Minority Report is one of my favorite Spielberg films. However, you’re smoking the good stuff if you think Oscar would have recognized it had it been a Ridley Scott film. After Scott’s landmark Alien film–which took mainstream audiences somewhere they had never been before–Oscar just, you know, openly embraced Blade Runner and Prometheus.
How many Spielberg films have been showered with nominations? Do I really have to look it up? Eleven? Or am I being too generous?
Rufus,
Your ‘issues’ with Spielberg as a filmmaker have nothing to do with how he might judge other filmmakers. He appreciates true art.
And Bryce,
I agree about Minority Report. Its that question again: ‘If it had been a Ridley Scott film, it would have been an Oscar contender….just like if it had been Pitt in the lead role, it would have been a Best Actor contender. He got got a great, edgy performance out of Cruise and it had so many elements that touched on our relationship to crime and punishment, vigilanteism etc…
And it criminally ignored.
I love this interview. MINORITY REPORT was such underrated masterpiece. Almost as good as A.I.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.06/spielberg_pr.html
Are there instances when the technology at your disposal forced you to alter, for better or worse, the way you planned to tell a story?
“The great example is Jaws. I was completely hampered initially by the failure of the mechanical shark to work on cue and on time. And yet that failure in technology allowed me to be more Hitchcockian. In showing the water, yet not showing anything under the water or anything on the surface of the water, I was able to create terror based on what we didn’t see. For lack of a better shark, it was a better picture. Otherwise, it would have been a movie with a hundred extra shark shots. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a film that I didn’t feel limited on at all, but it took a lot more individual creativity by matte artists and visual effects supervisors to get UFOs to look like UFOs, to get the mothership to look spectacular. It was a lot harder in those days. You earned your stripes by being inventive, by creating illusions. In the 1970s, matte painting was like French impressionism. When I saw my first matte painting in Close Encounters by Matthew Yuricich, I said, “This isn’t done yet. Where are all the details?” And he said, “No, no, no – matte paintings are always impressionistic.” Today, however, all matte paintings done on the computer are photo-realistic. So the pure art of fooling the eye, of misleading the eye, of controlling where the viewer looks and how much the viewer gets to see, those days are gone. That also makes me sad.”
What a great choice by Cannes. Spielberg will know what to choose and why he is choosing it unlike that idiot Moretti who went like “AMOUR because the actors were good or some shit”
I’m glad at least somebody appreciates him.
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/02/beardo_on_the_c.php
Off topic but this what I remember reading. I can’t find Spielberg’s quote.
http://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/volume-3-issue-8-winter-2008/tributaries-of-surprise/
Jeff Wells is gonna be PIIIIIIIISSSSSEEEDDDD!!!
“I can’t see Spielberg liking anything by Steve McQueen”
I disagree. For instance Spielberg got along very well with Bergman and he admired him greatly. I’m sure there’s plenty of examples of Spielberg enjoying McQueen-like fare. Plus 12 YEARS A SLAVE is both “important” and American.
I can’t see Spielberg liking anything by Steve McQueen. Maybe that’s just me, but they seem at the opposite ends of filmmaking. Spielberg oversimplifies everything for the viewer while McQueen forces the viewer to work to understand his impressionistic take on the story and charcters.
What an improvement from last year’s hack to one the key names in cinema of the last half century. is it mid-March or not until April that we get a line-up. It’s naive to expect they include as many American titles again but I hope ONLY GOD FORGIVES and TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE are locks by now. Actually I can see someone like Spielberg going all in for TWELVE YEARS.
I hear the drums echoing tonight but she hears only whispers of some quiet conversaaation…. With shades and beard, in his prime […] somehow reminds me of D. Paich. : )
—
Good for him. Spielberg is one of my all-time favorite directors.
Wondering what job description of Jury President is all about besides what we believe to be the obvious. [no sacarsm]
Maybe he should have taken Lincoln to Cannes…
They might have appreciated it.
Comment
This is cool news. Has Spielberg done the Cannes jury previously? For some reason I want to say yes.
tero, there are also free amateur accreditations for students and movie clubs, but it might be available to French citizens only. nevertheless, there are plenty of other things to do in cannes during the festival and also the rest of the year, mainly beach and parties, hence all the napping during japanese, iranian and mexican movies, heck i even slept during james grey’s “we own the night” field chase scene 😉 i know, i know right, what am i doing on a blog for hardcore cinephiles?
Without press accreditation it’s quite pointless to go. It’s a very closed festival. Flights to Nice could be as cheap as 60€ from where I live, everything else would be very expensive.
I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, my friend has an apartment I could use in Cannes. Some year I will go.
451 mi by car according to google maps. been there once in 2007. did a lot of napping… but i’d rather be in cali right now it’s freezing here, there’s even snow on the riviera:
http://www.nicematin.com/nice/video-de-nouvelles-chutes-de-neige-sur-nice-et-sa-region.1155774.html
this is what la croisette looked like under snow in 2010:
http://www.nicematin.com/diaporama/la-cote-dazur-sous-la-neige.56998.html?idx=32#top-diapo
Can he award himself? because it’s high time he should win smth shiny.
aha! thanks again for reminding me about this. I got distracted and forgot. Big news!
How far are you from Cannes, Christophe? Have you ever attended?
Schindler’s List Blu-ray March 5