Cannes Film Festival / UGC Cinemas :: France :: 2009
After the Champagne sipping, backslapping and air kissing is all over on the picturesque Mediterranean and the film producers, sellers, models, journalists, actors, and wannabes have all returned to their respective polluted metropolises, the audience is once again left in bewilderment. Surely this is all about us in some way or another? When do we get to see Haneke’s masterpiece?
Cinema loving France, including yours truly, is feeling the chill once again. UGC, Europe’s largest cinema operator, announced that the winner of the 62nd Festival de Cannes, The White Ribbon, will be screened as of the 21st October 2009. In case you missed that, that is in five months time! This may be slightly faster than after previous festivals (remember l’Enfant?) but seriously, is that the best they can do? All the buzz of the moment will be distant whispers by the time the audience gets back from a long hot summer. Every year has a winner, surely some planning is possible?
One of the beauties of cinema is its power to share- a million copies of the same film can be made and watched all around the world at the same time. We live in a digital era where if a member of the public gets their hands on a copy, it can be distributed through an internet peer to peer system and be available worldwide instantly. The professional bodies of film producers, distributors and buyers are nowhere near such efficiency. They need to learn a lesson from the world’s teenagers to get their distribution in order. Reading raving reviews of new film is exciting, but considerably less so if you are left outside staring at the poster.
Posted by Jt 
