You're in the Dark

Seámas McSwiney takes his annual trip to Cannes and wonders where its organisers find the stuff that fills their screens.

Outside it's bright sunshine, but inside they're keeping you in the dark. You know nothing. This exquisite ignorance is why you're here. For the unseen. For premieres: virginal films, untainted by previews, critics or hype. At most you've heard of the filmmakers or the actors. Discerning eyes have chosen the films for you and now you get to see for yourself. As the opening credits unspool, you first see the names of the organisations and the people that saw fit to invest in these films, to make them possible: the studio, the sales company, the funding agency, the tv co-producer- they all read the script, heard the pitch and then reached for their cheque book. The actors accepted to be in it and the director did the best he could to make it good. Unfortunately, as is often the case, it isn't really. Very good. Stuff happens and what appeared to have been an interesting idea, for different people and for different reasons, isn't. But they all have an excuse. How can you know with certainty before a film is made that it's going to be bad or merely like most films not up to scratch? You can't. 'Nobody knows anything' is the mantra. Even when a film is finished, shot, edited, mixed and screened, people are rarely unanimous as to its qualities and deficiencies or even, simply, in saying it's worth recommending to your friends.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 93