Stuck in Cannes

The Cannes International Film Festival is cinema’s most absurd three-ring circus, split among the exalted lineup of film screenings, the crass commercialism of a global sales market, and a hyperbolic seaside party scene. “Love that Uber now has helicopters,” Paris Hilton tweeted, snapping selfies in an UberChopper, one of the festival’s silliest publicity stunts. Like many of the .001 Percenters, she was only in town for the red carpets—where stars from the older generation (Michael Caine, Jane Fonda) rubbed shoulders with those (Tom Hardy, Rooney Mara) trying to replace them.

Beneath the glamorous surface, the festival was struggling to stay current. Everyone at Cannes, which ended May 24, was fretting about a digital world that’s abandoning film, particularly the 35mm sort released in theaters. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, upstaged a day of screenings when he gave the week’s most prominent address. Introduced by festival director Thierry Frémaux as “the future,” Sarandos explained that Netflix’s high-end move into content production wouldn’t harm cinemas. “We aren’t anti-theater, we’re pro-movie,” he said, describing plans to release a sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, four new Adam Sandler films, and Beasts of No Nation, a potential Oscar contender directed by Cary Fukunaga that was purchased for $12 million. Some of these movies will land simultaneously in theaters and on Netflix, which Sarandos insisted wouldn’t harm ticket sales: “It’s on us to make movies that are so great theater owners will also book them, even though they’re on Netflix.”