Cannes 2018 International Film Festival News

Much has been made, and with some good reason, of the Cannes Film Festival as the last bastion of cinema, a last stand of sorts for the celebration of the pure art form of film in the age of uncertain digital evolution, of streaming video, YouTube videos, and Netflix. The much-publicized querelle with the latter purveyor of on-demand movies has made the Croisette ground zero for a showdown between digital innovators and those who think film should be inextricably tied to its traditions (and its theatrical releases).

What brings silence to the utter frenzy of the famous Palais des Festivals red carpet steps? The sight of 82 actresses and industry women marching up the stairs and then standing in solidarity en masse to bring attention to the disparity to the role of women at the legendary festival since its inception in 1946. Symbolically, 82 women gathered to make a point: this is the number of female directors who have been chosen for the main competition, in contrast to the 1,688 male counterparts in the same time period.

At the Cannes Film Festival, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem walked the red carpet with the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi at the opening night. Their film is Everybody Knows and the real life husband and wife do not play a couple but a couple that once was.

There are four master classes on the Cannes schedule this year, including talks by film icons John Travolta, Christopher Nolan and Gary Oldman. To start, Ryan Coogler kicked things off with an intimate, free-flowing and wide-ranging two-hour conversation with Elvis Mitchell in front of a packed Salle Buñuel.

Two-time nominee and Golden Globe winner Asghar Farhadi is an accomplished cinematic storyteller whose intimate films often revolve around the slow burn of inexorable emotional turmoil. His movies are triumphs of economy whose strength lies precisely in their narrative restraint, and they have garnered worldwide acclaim, not least the jury and screenwriting prizes previously won here in Cannes.

Day two: the weather held, Critics' Week began, and a political statement erupted on the red carpet around the Russian film Leto. A sidebar of drama roiled the Croisette - the seemingly never-ending dispute over the rights of Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, scheduled to close the festival on May 19.

The weather was perfect Riviera spring, the photographers were at the ready, bizarre creatures roamed the Croisette (some of them promoting a new kids' movie) and the Palais des Festivals hosted its first press conference and its first gala screening. The 71st  Cannes Film Festival is officially open.