Cannes, France — "Ah, Cannes," the cabdriver at the Nice Airport said, worry in his voice, when he heard his passenger's destination. "The festival, is it going to be OK?"
That's what it had come to this year for the celebrated Festival de Cannes: anticipation about the films to come has to compete with anxiety about the possible actions of les intermittents, a potent coalition of part-time show business employees so furious about a change in their unemployment benefits they've wreaked havoc at cultural events across France. With a new motto of "KO-Cannes," les intermittents had everyone wondering if the local daily Nice-Matin would prove prescient with its banner headline proclaiming "Battle of Cannes."
Late Tuesday, on the eve of the festival, those fears seemed to subside after festival organizers reached a deal with workers.
All of which is a relief because the festival, opening tonight with Pedro Almodovar's "Bad Education," looks to be one of the most interesting of recent years.
Artistic director Thierry Fremaux, in his first year in full charge of the selection, has placed heavy emphasis on Asian films and on works by directors new to the official competition as opposed to simply showing the latest work by an anointed few.
Six of the 18 films competing this year come from Asia, and a full 12 are by filmmakers who've never contended for the Palme d'Or before, such as Argentina's Lucrecia Martel, here with "La Nina Santa," Britain's Stephen Hopkins ("The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" with Geoffrey Rush in the title role) and Brazil's Walter Salles and his Che Guevera-themed Sundance hit, "The Motorcycle Diaries." As festival president Gilles Jacob said when the list was announced, "Audiences won't put up with boring auteur cinema anymore."
That doesn't mean that all Cannes veterans have been heartlessly exiled.
Emir Kusturica, a two-time Palme winner, is back with "Life Is a Miracle," Michael Moore has returned with his already controversial political documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," as is the less divisive, more green star of "Shrek 2," which joins "Innocence," a new anime from "Ghost in the Shell's" Mamoru Oshii, as fellow cartoons in competition.
More and more, however, Cannes is using its Out of Competition category the way Sundance uses its Premiers section, to take account of films by directors either too well known or too commercial to put in the race for the Palme.
