Cannes 2009. The poster.

I love cinema. I love watching films. And so I love film festivals. In the US there's the Oscar ceremony. In Europe there's the Festival De Cannes. This year (May 13-24) the Festival caught my attention before even starting because of the official poster.

The official poster : The official poster of the 62nd Festival de Cannes is inspired by a photogram of l’Avventura (1960), the timeless masterpiece of that master of film, Michelangelo Antonioni. The poster was created by Annick Durban.

To my mind, it is incredibly beautiful and captivating. At first glance, you can't see much, just a female silhouette. You can't see neither her face nor her smile, you don't know what colour of eyes she has or how big her nose is. Nevertheless you don't mind it. What you can really see is a alluring woman in a gorgeous black dress looking out of the window. On the official webiste you can read "A mysterious female silhouette, caught in mid-movement, seems to be opening a window onto the magic of cinema and invites us into a dream." The female "protagonist" looks sooooo charming, sexy and... intelligent. Everything is soo classy about her: the outfit, the hairdo, even the posture. She's Grace Kelly and Marilyn Monroe mixed together.

And I think this is what cinema should be about. It creates impressions, it welcomes us to the world of dreams. Of course there are good films and bad films; films that we're going to remember forever, and those ones we forget after a few days. And this is how you recognize the good cinema. Something always remains. It could be a particualr scene, a shoot, maybe an actor. What is important is the class and style. And you can't learn it by attending a school (to name at least one, one of the most prestigious school in the world is the Lee Straberg Theatre and Film Institue in NY and Los Angeles). No. You just have it or you don't. As a film director, an actor, a choreographer, set designer etc. Whatever. You can't measure the quality, just like you can't measure the style and charm something or somebody possesses.

Maybe this seems quite radical what I have just said and maybe many of you will not share the same opinion. Never mind, I just had to express myself, get it off my chest.