Festival In Cannes (2001)

Review by All Movie Guide
Henry Jaglom's Festival in Cannes is a thematic cousin of Robert Altman's The Player, but with neither that film's satirical sharpness nor its stature among films about film. In the same way that The Player and Spike Jonze's Adaptation eventually (and intentionally) become prime examples of the forms they're satirizing, Festival in Cannes is a lot like a fledgling festival movie -- small and low budget, but with just enough star power and astute observations to be worthwhile. Chief among those mid-level stars are Ron Silver, ideally cast as a slick producer with infinite resources, and Greta Scacchi, who also appeared in The Player, as the actress-turned-screenwriter he tries to manipulate. Jaglom, an old-school filmmaker born of the maverick 1970s, wants to indict those who come down on the wrong side of the struggle between artistic integrity and the creature comforts of wealth and stardom. However, locating his movie on the banks of the French Riviera, he's inadvertently trivializing his viewpoint by giving the whole experience a sexy, travelogue feel. Festival in Cannes is best when it acts like a documentary, giving its viewers a flavor for Cannes (it was shot during the 1999 festival) while casually capturing the glad-handing and deal-brokering that goes on there, minutely accurate in a way that reflects years of personal experience. Jaglom gets his good ideas a little jumbled, however, when he starts creating strained (and unlikely) romantic relationships between his smartly realized spectrum of festival archetypes. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide