The Cannes Film Festival was established in 1939 and gradually
became one of the most prestigious film competitions around the
globe. Being well known for a strong artistic and independent
temperament, each year it attracts the attention of a large number
of filmmakers from all over the world. As a country introduced to
the film industry in the late 19th century, China is no
exception.
History
The Cannes International Film Festival began in the summer of
1939. Owing to World War II and financial difficulties, it
stagnated for some time and didn't become a yearly event until
1969. The first time a film made in China embraced Cannes was in
1959 when Slut and Saint (Dangfu Yu Shengnu)
directed by the Taiwan-based drama patriarch Tian Chen made its
debut. The movie depicting the legendary experiences of a woman
during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
(1937-1945) became China's first attempt to compete for the
prestigious Palme d'Or for Best Film.
In the 1960s, Li Han-Hsiang (Li Hanxiang in Chinese) was the
most frequent visitor to Cannes from China. Among three of his
films competing at the film festival, Tchien Gnu You Houn
(1960), Yang Kwei Fei (1962) and La Reine
Diabolique (1963), Yang Kwei Fei snatched the Grand
Prix de la Commission Supérieure Technique du??Cinéma
Fran?ais (Best Interior Photography and Color Prize) thanks to its
sumptuously decorated palace scenes and beautiful costumes. It was
also the first Chinese-language film to win a prize at Cannes.
In 1975, a Chinese Kung-fu film, directed by new
martial arts representative Hu Jinquan, took the limelight at the
festival. Sha Nu, an outsider grabbed the Technical Jury
Prize, only inferior to the Palme d'Or and the Grand Jury Prize.
More or less, this "extraordinary" filmic experience reminds people
of another film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Best
Foreign Language Film, 2002 Oscar Academy Awards) filmed by Taiwan
director An Lee in 2001. Sha Nu was to efficiently promote
Chinese martial arts to the world.
The Taiwan-based director Bai Jingrui made Cannes know that
China's films were not all about martial arts. His film Girl
Friend, or Nu Peng You (1974) transformed foreign
misunderstanding of China's films equal to action and costume drama
at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival.
Films from the mainland went to Cannes for the first time since
the founding of New China, in 1979. Director Xie Tieli brought a
film he made 16 years before called, The Early Spring
(1963), portraying an increasingly open Chinese world on film.
After that, many films participated in the varied exhibitions at
the film festival, such as Uproar in Heaven (animation
1961, 1964), Nezha Conquers the Dragon King (animation
1979), and The Little Street (1981). It wasn't until 1983
that the organizing committee selected Cen Fan's The True Story
of Ah Q (1983) as one of the feature films in competition.
Intimate contact with Cannes
The so-called fifth generation of Chinese directors made the
world look up and watch Chinese film in a totally new and different
light. It can be argued that mainland film was inferior to that of
Hong Kong and Taiwan in both outline and cinematography in the
early 1980s. However, by the late 1980s, the first group of film
graduates after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) helped Chinese
film to take on an entirely different look through use of the
techniques and styles of Western cinematography along side the
original "Chinese" narrative.
Once talking of the relationship between Cannes and China, it is
impossible then to neglect the well-known director, Chen Kaige.
Chen appeared in Cannes for the first time in 1987. Before that, he
gained a reputation with Yellow Earth (1986) and The
Big Parade (1986). He competed with the controversial King
of the Children (1987). Despite failing to win a prize, his
unique cinematography, totally different from anything seen in
Chinese film before, surprised festival critics. Apart from its
impressionistic landscape, the plot catered to Cannes' tastes with
a grim realist dark movie.
Thereafter, Chen made Life on a String (1990) but was
again rejected by Cannes judges as it was considered surprisingly
mediocre. But soon Cannes became cordially to Chen again and in May
1993, Chen Kaige snatched the Golden Palm (Palme d'Or) with the
epic Farewell My Concubine (1993) and the film became a
milestone for Chinese-language film. However, Temptress
Moon (1996) and The Emperor and the Assassin (1999)
frustrated Chen after he reached the zenith of his career in the
early 1990s.
Zhang Yimou, another prominent fifth generation director, has
produced a mixed reaction at Cannes. As a "professional
award-winner", the cold reception he received repeatedly at Cannes
really embarrassed him while he had three films competing at the
Festival. The first was Ju Dou (1990), and he returned
crestfallen. The second, To Live (1994), missed the Palme
d'Or but won the Grand Jury Prize and the Best Actor Award as
compensation. In 1995 Zhang's highly anticipated Shanghai
Triad (1995) won only the Technical Grand Prize. His
"intimacy" with Cannes finally drew to an end when he "fell out"
with the organizing committee for Not One Less (1999).
Perhaps only at Cannes could it have been possible that comedy
clown actor Ge You be nominated and win the Best Actor Award. It
expressed the different values of the festival. At Cannes,
good-looking Hollywood superstars and the heavily invested scenes
are meaningless. The fact that Ge You won the award made many
filmmakers take for granted that they had learned what to do next.
They followed his trace, but apparently learned nothing. One
important thing they might have forgotten was that for Cannes,
individuality is top priority.
Compared with the ordinary looking Ge You, the most popular
Chinese actress at Cannes, Gong Li, is a beauty. Although not
winning any award of her own, Gong still captured many foreign
hearts for her five competition films. In 1997, together with the
Malaysian film star Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li served as a jury member,
becoming one of the few major league film actresses in the history
of Cannes to do so. Chinese actress and frequent visitor to Cannes,
Hong Kong-based superstar Maggie Cheung, (lead in In the Mood
for Love (2000)) is an actress who has refused to join in the
star-studded film celebrations at the festival.
Besides, Hong Kong-based Wong Kar-Wai (director of Happy
Together (1997) and In the Mood for Love (2000)) as
well as Taiwan-based Hou Hsiao-hsien (director of Millennium
Mambo (2001) and A City of Sadness (1989)) and Edward
Yang (director of Yi Yi (2000) and Duli Shidai (1994)) all
have their own place in the history of the Cannes Film Festival.
Through Cannes, they have grown gradually popular with filmgoers
all over the world.
What is it about Cannes that fascinates filmmakers from various
countries? Is it for its avant-garde and original nature? It seems
likely that it may have a similar impact on the next generation of
Chinese directors even more. Following Cannes introduces the future
greats in the world of film. Today, more and more young and
independent Chinese directors, display their remarkable filmic
skill and talent for story telling at Cannes, including Lou Ye
(Suzhou River (2000) and Purple Butterfly
(2003)), Jia Zhangke (Unknown Pleasures (2002)), Jiang Wen
(Devils on the Doorstep (2000)), and so on.
On the extensive stage that Cannes offers, no effort is spared
in showing the world a more real and vivid China.
(China.org.cn by Li Xiao and Daragh Moller, December 21,
2003)