The weekend belonged to women – onscreen and off. Amy, the documentary on the late, great Amy Winehouse moved festival goers to tears at a midnight screening Saturday night. Only those who expected to see a pure music doc were slightly disappointed. The celebrity worshiping Cannes got a very strong dose of the dark side of fame while watching this sad story of a sensitive artist being destroyed by it. In an interview from 2003 she says: “I don’t think I’m going to be at all famous. I don’t think I can handle it. I’ll probably go mad.” It took director Asif Kapadia several years to make the doc after Winehouse’s death in 2011. There are audio interviews with Winehouse’s closest friends and family; her parents, her managers and her bodyguard. Kapadia also got access to personal never-before-seen videos of Winehouse.
The other film premiering Saturday was Natalie Portman’s directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness, about Israeli author Amos Oz’s childhood in which she also plays Amos’ mother. The audience’s reaction was equally strong and positive. Portman displays a gentle touch in her directing. She clearly knows what she is doing, having been on film sets since the tender age of 12. It took her 10 years to bring the story to the screen. “Mike Nichols gave me very strong encouragement throughout the process before he passed.” she told us. And she showed the finished version to her Black Swan-director Darren Aronofski.
Carol, the third film drawing unanimous rave reviews was directed by a man, Todd Haynes. But its story about a lesbian love affair during the 1950s stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara who give haunting performances as the lovers.
Off-screen the focus on women and female empowerment could not have been stronger at a festival that got slammed last year for not showing any films directed by women and only two produced by them. At an event hosted by U.N. Women’s He For She campaign, actresses Salma Hayek, Parker Posey, and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan were joined by producers Christine Vachon and Elizabeth Karlsen, both credited on Carol. Hayek had especially strong words for an industry that is light-years behind on gender equality: “The film industry for the longest time only saw us in romantic comedies, not as a powerful economic force. Which shows incredible ignorance.” She said. And it is not just Hollywood, Raj Bachchan chimed in: “It’s the same everywhere around the globe. We keep coming back to reiterating the same preconceived ideas.” But it wasn’t always the case, remembered Posey: “I loved watching Turner Classics from the 40s where the female characters were witty and three dimensional. Right now we are at war, we live in very masculine times.” Hayek then told tales from behind-the-scenes male driven Hollywood: “I lost out on jobs because A-list actors have casting approval. I never did. Men don’t know what we want to see. When women don’t direct and write and tell our own stories, we stop going to the movies and start watching them on TV.” But she refuses to see women as victims, saying that economy is power and if 50 percent of sold tickets go to women – or not – that sends a strong message. It’s all about the money, stupid. “And I’m grateful to gay men. If it weren’t for Tennessee Williams and Pedro Almodovar, it’d be worse.”
The female theme continued into Sunday night when‚ Women in Motion’ honored Jane Fonda for her unique and outstanding contribution to the film industry, and producer Megan Ellison and Olivia de Havilland, the first woman to be appointed President of the jury of the Festival de Cannes in 1965, 50 years ago. Fonda and Ellison were on hand to receive their awards from Pierre Lescure, President of the Festival de Cannes, Thierry Frémaux, first director and Salma Hayek’s husband François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO of Kering, the company that sponsors Women in Motion’. The 98-year-old De Havilland will not travel to Cannes from her home in Paris.
Elisabeth Sereda

Natalie Portman spoke to HFPA journalists in Cannes Sunday