THERE WERE sighs of relief as Ridley Scott's Robin Hoodopened the Cannes Film Festival last night, writes DONALD CLARKE in Cannes
Not since 1968, when angry Maoists actually brought events to a halt, had the festival looked in so much peril. At the beginning of this week, the Icelandic ash cloud made it all the way to the south of France and caused the closure of Nice airport.
Meanwhile, an unseasonal typhoon hammered the Côte d’Azur’s famous beaches. The notion of Cannes without visiting celebrities and directors would have been too much to stomach.
In the event, the volcanic dust cleared for just long enough to allow Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, stars of the film, to make their way to the premiere at the Palais des Festivals.
Scott, now 72, was unable to attend as he is recovering from knee-replacement surgery. The usual array of photographers and bellowers were on hand to generate atmosphere.
“Truly, doctor’s orders are the only thing that could keep me from being there,” Sir Ridley, director of Alien and Blade Runner, said from his hospital bed.
Scott's film proved to be an eccentric choice for the opening film (and not just because it opened yesterday in cinemas throughout the world). From a script by Brian Helgeland, writer of LA Confidential, this version of Robin Hood is extraordinarily unkind about the French.
It begins with a siege, during which the French army pours boiling oil on English soldiers and goes on to show the Gallic characters plotting against the English crown, arranging illegal assassinations and, ultimately, behaving in a distinctly cowardly fashion. Premiering Robin Hoodat Cannes was, you might argue, akin to premiering Lord of the Ringsin Mordor.
Distinctly short on the myth's traditional merry elements, Scott's Robin Hoodattempts, with modest success, to merge the story of its hero with that of the conflict surrounding the signing of Magna Carta.
Reunited with his director from the more successful Gladiator,Crowe grunts and growls with great enthusiasm, but the film never manages to reconcile that more sober strand with its responsibility to deliver hearty thrills.
Running until May 23rd, the 2010 festival already looks a degree less flashy than last year’s.
Later this week, Oliver Stone brings Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,sequel to that iconic 1980s drama, to La Croisette, but the list of films in competition – although packed with work by masters – is a somewhat sober one.
Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, two previous winners of the Palme d'Or, the event's top prize, will attend with new pictures entitled, respectively, Another Yearand Route Irish.
The hugely respected Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, winner in 1996 for Taste of Cherry, makes his first advance into European cinema with Certified Copy. Other significant figures showing new work in competition include Bertrand Tavernier, Takeshi Kitano and Alejandro González Iñárritu.
There are no Irish films competing for the Palme d’Or, but two pictures with domestic connections will screen in prestigious sidebar events.
Showing in the Director's Fortnight, Alicia Duffy's All Good Childrenis an intriguing co-production between Ireland, Belgium, France and Britain.
Appearing in the "Un Certain Regard" section, Chatroom,directed by Japanese horror master Hideo Nakata, brings a controversial play by Enda Walsh, respected Cork writer, to the screen.
All eyes still glance nervously towards Iceland.
Film critic Donald Clarke is reporting from the Cannes Film Festival all week