CANNES CLASSICS 2007 Martin Scorcese Special Guest of the 60th Cannes Festival

Cannes, France (rushprnews) May 4, 2007- Martin Scorsese, with several other directors, will announce during the Festival de Cannes the launch of the World Cinema Foundation, devoted to the preservation and restoration of the masterpieces of world cinema.

Martin Scorsese will give an outstanding Cinema Masterclass for the 60th Festival: following Oliver Stone, Nanni Moretti and Sydney Pollack, he will evoke his work as a director and his passion for the cinema.

On Sunday May 27th, during the closing ceremony, he will present the Caméra d’or prize to the director of the best first film shown at the Festival de Cannes.

Winner of the Palme d’or in 1976 with Taxi Driver and President of the Jury in 1998, this year Martin Scorsese won Best Director and Best Film Oscars for The Departed (Les Infiltrés).

Since 2004, heritage films have been grouped together under the name CANNES CLASSICS. Cannes Classics wishes to put the Festival’s prestige to the service of rediscovered cinema, of restored prints and theatrical or DVD re-releases of the great works of the past.  This programme will be shown at the Buñuel Theatre at the Palais des Festivals, and for some films, repeated at the Cinema de la Plage and in La Licorne Cinema in Cannes.

Cannes Classics 2007 is placed under the patronage of Andrzej Wajda, who is coming to introduce a restored copy of KANAL, winner of the Special Jury Award at Cannes in 1957 (50 years ago!). Jane Fonda will also be in Cannes to pay homage to her father, Henry Fonda, at the screening of Sydney Lumet’s TWELVE ANGRY MEN (1957) on Saturday May 26th.

Cannes Classics 2007 is broken down into…

….three events:

– Birth of the World Cinema Foundation
– John Wayne Centenary
– Laurence Olivier’s Shakespearian films

….four documentaries on filmmaking dedicated to…

– Marlon Brando
– Maurice Pialat
– Pierre Rissient
– Lindsay Anderson

and ten new restored copies.
1. Events

a) Birth of the World Cinema Foundation

Today, saving cinematographic heritage is a subject of particular importance in numerous countries, under the aegis of the International Federation of Film Archives. Every action counts, in particular for films that at times need particular support.  An idea of Martin Scorsese, some film-makers have decided to put together, within the World Cinema Foundation, a non-profit organisation whose objective is to provide financial assistance for the preservation, restoration and broadcasting of films from all over the world, in particular the cinema of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Central Europe.

The World Cinema Foundation will be launched at Cannes during a press conference on 22 May, followed in the next few days by the introduction of three films supported by Walter Salles (Brazil), Cristi Puiu (Romania) and Martin Scorsese (USA). 

TRANSES by Ahmed El Maanouni (Morocco, 1981)
Restored by the Cineteca di Bologna
Introduced by Martin Scorsese

LIMIT by Mario Peixoto (Brazil, 1931)
Restored by the Cinemateca Brasileira, VideoFilmes, the Mario Peixoto Institute, with the participation of Arte France
Introduced by Walter Salles

FOREST OF THE HANGED by Liviu Ciulei (Romania, 1964)
Restored by the National Film Archive of Romania
Introduced by Cristi Puiu

b) John Wayne Centenary

Born on 26 May 1907, John Wayne would have been 100 years old in 2007. Batjac Productions, John Wayne’s production company, managed today by his heirs, proposed to the Festival de Cannes to celebrate this centenary by showing two of John Wayne’s films, out of the hundred or so that he made from the start of the 1920s with John Ford and Raoul Walsh up until The Shootist by Don Siegel in 1976.

HONDO (3D) by John Farrow (USA, 1953)
Film restored by Batjac Productions and Paramount
Introduction by Gretchen Wayne.
Note that the screening will be in the original conditions, i.e., projected in 3D

RIO BRAVO by Howard Hawks (USA, 1959)
Film restored by Warner Bros

c) Laurence Olivier Films William Shakespeare

Laurence Olivier, born on 22 May 1907, died 11 June 1979, devoted a large part of his stage career  to William Shakespeare. When he became a screen actor he also directed three films of three famous works by the English playwright. This Shakespearian trilogy is presented by Granada International as digital screenings

HAMLET (Great Britain, 1948)
The film will be preceded by a Humphrey Jennings short documentary, WORDS FOR BATTLE (Great   Britain, 1941), narrated by Lawrence Olivier (restored by the British Film Institute)
Film restored by Granada International
Presented by Fiona Maxwell

HENRY V (Great Britain, 1944)
Film restored by Granada International
Presented by Fiona Maxwell

HENRY V (Great Britain, 1944)
Film restored by Granada International
Presented by Fiona Maxwell

RICHARD III (Great Britain, 1955)
Film restored by The Criterion Collection
2. Documentaries on Filmmaking

BRANDO. by Leslie Greif and Mimi Freedman  (USA, 2007)
A Greif Company / TCM

MAURICE PIALAT, L’AMOUR EXISTE by Jean-Pierre Devillers, Anne-Marie Faux (France, 2007) A Les Films du Worso

MAN OF CINEMA: PIERRE RISSIENT by Todd McCarthy (USA, 2007)
Deep Focus Productions

NEVER APOLOGIZE: A PERSONAL VISIT WITH LINDSAY ANDERSON by Mike Kaplan (G.B., 2007) A Travis Productions / Circle Associates Ltd.
3. A selection of restored films and new prints

ISRAEL WHY by Claude Lanzmann (Italy-France, 1972)
Restoration: Why Not Productions

BOUND BY CHASTITY RULES by Sang-Ok Shin (South Korea, 1962)
Restoration: Korean Film Archives

MY LAST MISTRESS by Sacha Guitry (France, 1943)
Restoration: Cinémathèque française / Studio Canal

MIKEY AND NICKY by Elaine May (USA, 1976)
New print: Carlotta Films

ESCAPE FROM YESTERDAY by Julien Duvivier (France, 1935)
Restoration: CNC – French Film Archives / SND

SUSPIRIA by Dario Argento (Italy, 1977)
Restoration: Luciano Tovoli / Wildside Films

THE AVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED by Lotte Reiniger (Germany, 1926)
Restoration: Deustches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main

DRACULA by Terence Fisher (England, 1958)
Restoration: British Film Institute / Swashbuckler Films

YO YO by Pierre Etaix
Restoration: Gan Foundation for Cinema

Find all the films and press attaché lists in the Festival Press Kit and all the details online one week before the opening of the Festival.

© GRANADA INTERNATIONAL
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