By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --France's Cannes Film Festival, arguably the world's most prestigious film festival and cinema's largest annual gathering, has postponed its 73rd edition due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Organizers of the French Riviera festival, scheduled to take place May 12-23, said Thursday that they are considering moving the festival to the end of June or the beginning of July.
"Several hypotheses are being studied to preserve the festival, the main one of which would be a simple postponement," the festival said in a statement. "As soon as the development of the French and international health situation will allow us to assess the real possibility, we will make our decision known."
Organizers had been extremely reluctant to cancel Cannes. For weeks, its organizers deflected questions and tried to push through its selection process. But as the pandemic spread through France, it became all but inevitable that a massive gathering like Cannes would be canceled. On Saturday, France's Prime Minister Édouard Philippe ordered the closure of all restaurants, cafes and cinemas in France to increase social distancing and combat the virus.
Other major film festivals, including South by Southwest and the Tribeca Film Festival, have already been scuttled. But some hope held out that Cannes, taking place closer to summer, might yet survive.
Cannes has greater ramifications for the film industry, which annually convenes on the Cote d'Azur not just for the festival's gala screenings but for the world's largest movie market. Every year, countless production and distribution deals are hatched in Cannes. Film executives fly in from all over the world and gather at the Marche du Film in the basement of Cannes' hub, the Palais. Every country with a film industry erects a pavilion at Cannes' international village.
The postponement is also especially painful for Cannes since it's coming off a particularly successful 2019 edition. Though recent years have seen intensified criticism of the festival's gender inclusivity and increased competition from other festivals like the Venice Film Festival, the 2019 Cannes featured the eventual Oscar best picture winner, Bong Joon Ho's "Parasite," as well as Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood," Pedro Almdovar's acclaimed "Pain & Glory" and Celine Sciamma's celebrated French drama "Portrait of a Lady on Fire." "Parasite" won Cannes' Palme d'Or before its Oscar victory.
But the international flavor of Cannes has worked against it this year. Because of the global spread of the novel coronavirus, even a virus-free France would have difficulty drawing — and keeping healthy — filmmakers, executives and press from around the world.
Cannes, founded in 1939 while Europe was on the cusp of war, has been altered by tumult before. It began as an alternative to the Venice Film Festival, which then had become under the sway of Benito Mussolini. Its inaugural festival was canceled after its opening gala, the premiere of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." The next day, Germany invaded Poland.
Cannes also came to a stop, famously, in 1968. Then, filmmakers including Jean Luc-Godard, François Truffaut, Louis Malle and Roman Polanski took to the stage of the Palais to declare the festival over in solidarity with the student and labor strike coursing through France.
This time, Cannes hopes to stave off cancellation and return in the summer. The festival concluded its announcement: "A très bientôt" — "See you very soon."
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More