Yes, Art Is Welcome, as Is Commerce

When most people ponder the Cannes International Film Festival’s reputation for cinematic discovery, they think of art films--the work of Jane Campion, perhaps, or Steven Soderbergh.

When the world’s more than 2,000 film buyers come to Cannes, by contrast, they think purely about commerce. And while many of them believe the work of auteur directors will sell tickets back home, many others have simpler needs better met by titles like “Spiders 2” or “Turbulence 3” (a hijacking saga on sale here with the tagline: “One killer. Forty hostages. Ten million Internet viewers.”).

“There is such a hunger worldwide for mainstream, well-made action thrillers,” said Carole Curb, president of the Burbank-based Curb Entertainment, which is selling several films here including one about bull-riding and another about a vigilante boxer that she describes as “Rocky” meets “Death Wish.”

Menahem Golan, the veteran producer and chairman of FilmWorld Inc. in Los Angeles, agreed. In just the first few days of the festival, he sold distribution rights to nine smaller territories for a film he hasn’t even cast yet: “Elian: The Gonzales-Boy Story.”

“Look, it is hot news, and people are interested to see the drama behind the news,” Golan said, explaining his decision just a month ago to make the $3-million film dramatizing the furor around Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez. “I have three big stars. One is called Clinton, the other is called Castro. The other is Reno. All the rest will be amateur actors.”

Curb’s and Golan’s films are just a taste of what’s available in the Cannes Market, the festival’s official film trading place, which has drawn a record 5,600 participants from 63 countries this year. Housed mainly in the gleaming new Riviera building overlooking the Bay of Cannes, the market offers everything from American studio fare to New Zealand indies, from documentaries (there are 43 for sale this year) to erotic adult flicks (buyers may choose among 52).

Up for sale are TF1 International’s “Under Suspicion,” starring Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman, and Filmax International’s “Arachnid,” a Spanish sci-fi flick starring no one you’ve ever heard of. International rights to Miramax’s “Bounce,” starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck, are on the block, as are those for a Bo Derek picture called “Horror 101” from Taurus Entertainment.

Selling Films That Haven’t Been Shot Yet

And several companies here are selling films that have not yet even been made, hawking concepts seemingly on the strength of their titles alone--Trimark Pictures’ “Blood Surf 2,” for example, and Nu Image’s “Panic,” “Disaster” and “Tank.”

“The market began in 1959, as mostly a trade show for French films. As it grew, even until the end of the ‘80s, the festival was a little embarrassed by the commercial activity,” said the Cannes Market’s executive director Jerome Paillard. “But 10 years ago, the festival really changed its mind.”

What drove festival organizers to see things differently? Money, says Paillard, who estimates that of the $100 million that the festival generates for the city of Cannes each year, 70% to 80% of the revenue comes from participants in the film market who not only must pay a registration fee, but also book hotel rooms, eat out, throw huge parties and shop.

For those who sell films, the market can be a surreal experience, where the cultural differences between countries are played out in cinematic terms.

“The French buyers come in and discuss the theory of film directing with you. Then you have someone from India come in, fast-forwarding to find the sex scenes,” said Reiko Bradley, senior vice president for international sales at Filmtown. “One moment, you have to be sophisticated. The next moment, you’re reduced to counting sex scenes in your thriller.”

Bradley is selling international rights to writer-director David Mamet’s upcoming “State and Main,” which will be released in the U.S. later this year by Fine Line Features. On its face, the film’s story line--about a Hollywood movie production that takes over a quaint New England town--is not an easy sell abroad, where spoofs of Hollywood don’t usually fly. But Mamet is well loved in Europe, so sales have been brisk, Bradley said.

A tougher sell is “Poolhall Junkies,” a Christopher Walken film in pre-production whose hip, billiard room setting is unfamiliar to most Europeans, Bradley said.

“The Brits get it. But the Italians and French don’t,” she said, explaining why Filmtown has dummied up a trailer for the as yet unmade film to try to make pool look cool. She added wryly: “So far I don’t have Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts [in the film], so it takes a little bit more patience and work.”

Alison Thompson of the Sales Co. in London has a different problem. She’s selling rights to director Ken Loach’s “Bread and Roses,” about a labor uprising by Los Angeles’ mostly Latino immigrant janitors. Loach is revered in Europe, and the film’s subject matter has resonance here, where Yugoslavian and Romanian refugees have flooded in. But U.S. rights have proved tougher to sell.

“Every art-house distributor in North America has at some point handled a Loach movie and lost a load,” Thompson said, though she maintained that “Bread and Roses” has “the potential to open up the American audience for Loach.”

Titles Can Be a Real Problem

Even a film’s title can be a marketing challenge. Richard Holmes, a British producer, is here with his film “Dead Babies,” based on the Martin Amis novel of the same name. Holmes calls the edgy comedy “an Agatha Christie style murder weekend gone bananas, fueled by sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.” But he’s not expecting any foreign distributor to embrace the title.

“Since Amis is a Brit, we had to use that title in the U.K. or we would have been crucified,” Holmes said of the novel, which was released in the U.S. under the title “Dark Secrets.” But Holmes is happy for buyers to change the movie’s name.

“Our last film here, ‘Waking Ned Devine,’ was released in France under the title ‘The Old Foxes.’ And the one before that, ‘Shooting Fish,’ in Greek literally meant ejaculation,” he said, laughing. What did the Greeks use as a title? “I have no idea. But not that.”

Golan, meanwhile, has a straightforward title, but an as yet unresolved story, given that Elian Gonzalez’s immigration status remains unclear. Sitting in his market booth in a T-shirt that promoted the film, Golan didn’t seem fazed by his lack of an ending.

“I have a scene between Clinton and Elian--this didn’t happen yet, but I’m creating it--when Elian is asking him, ‘With all your big affairs, what’s going to happen to me?’ My movie’s point of view is the boy’s point of view,” Golan said, noting that he has thus far sold rights to distribute “Elian” in Brazil, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Malaysia, Poland, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

“That’s quite an achievement,” he boasted, admitting that many of the major European territories were waiting to see if he’d get enough momentum going in Cannes to actually make the film. “I am not a big, major company. But they know I will deliver. When the film is ready, everyone will want to buy it.”