MUMBAI: Cannes Classics, the montage of heritage films that are screened every year at the Cannes film festival since 2004, will see the likes of Andrzej Wajda and Jane Fonda presenting restored classics at the fest.
Cannes Classics will put the Festival’s prestige to the service of rediscovered cinema, of restored prints and theatrical or DVD re-releases of the great works of the past. This programme will be shown at the Buñuel Theatre at the Palais des Festivals, and for some films, repeated at the Cinema de la Plage and in La Licorne Cinema in Cannes.
Cannes Classics 2007 is placed under the patronage of Andrzej Wajda, who is coming to introduce a restored copy of Kanal, winner of the Special Jury Award at Cannes in 1957. Jane Fonda will also be in Cannes to pay homage to her father, Henry Fonda, at the screening of Sydney Lumet’s Twelve Angry Men (1957) on 26 May 2007.
Cannes Classics 2007 is broken down into three events: Birth of the World Cinema Foundation, John Wayne Centenary, Laurence Olivier’s Shakespearian films, four documentaries on filmmaking dedicated to Marlon Brando, Maurice Pialat, Pierre Rissient and Lindsay Anderson, and 10 new restored copies.
The World Cinema Foundation will be launched at Cannes during a press conference on 22 May, followed in the next few days by the introduction of three films supported by Walter Salles (Brazil), Cristi Puiu (Romania) and Martin Scorsese (USA).
Batjac Productions, John Wayne’s production company, managed today by Gretchen Wayne, has proposed to the Festival de Cannes to show two of John Wayne’s films including Hondo (3D) by John Farrow (USA, 1953) and Rio Bravo by Howard Hawks (USA, 1959).
Among the Laurence Olivier films to be showcased are Hamlet (Great Britain, 1948), Words for Battle (Great Britain, 1941), Henry V (Great Britain, 1944) and Richard III (Great Britain, 1955).
Among the documentaries on filmmaking that will be screened are Brando, by Leslie Greif and Mimi Freedman (USA, 2007), Maurice Pialat, L’amour Existe by Jean-Pierre Devillers, Anne-Marie Faux (France, 2007), Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient by Todd McCarthy (USA, 2007) and Never Apologize: A Personal visit with Lindsay Anderson by Mike Kaplan (
G.B., 2007).
A selection of restored films and new prints will also be aired during the program.
