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Matt Arnoldi reports from the 26th Deauville Festival of American Film To many, Deauville’s Festival of American Film is like a mini-version of Cannes. Like Cannes, it attracts stars in abundance and presents the cream of the Sundance Independent Film Festival at roughly the same time that some of those titles get exposure at both the Venice and the Toronto Film Festivals. Unlike Cannes, at least in recent years, Deauville also attracts major US Studio product, which this year included star-studded screenings of Space Cowboys, Hollow Man, Shaft and Time Code. Homages were paid this year to Clint Eastwood, Susan Sarandon and Samuel L Jackson, all of whom were present (Clint appeared in Venice one day and Deauville the next). Certainly in the case of Clint Eastwood and Susan Sarandon, this was the ultimate accolade – with their careers coming under the spotlight and many of their best films being shown within the programme in front of avid French audiences. Film releases that have so far not seen the light of day in the UK included Steve Buscemi’s harrowing second film Animal Factory an uncompromising look at life in a present-day US prison with a shaven-headed Willem Dafoe playing an old-hand veteran showing new prison rookie Edward Furlong how to stay out of trouble. David Mamet’s new film State and Main boasted a star-studded cast that included the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Pidgeon (Mamet’s wife), Sarah Jessica Parker, Alec Baldwin and William H Macy in a comedy about a small quaint town in Wisconsin that gets over-run by a film crew. It’s got some good moments even if it slightly overstays its welcome. Griffin Dunne's directorial debut Famous is an intelligent tragi-comedy mockumentary about young actors desperate for their 15 minutes of fame. It has moments of intuitive humour as it charts the fortunes of young wannabe's reduced to starring in bit-parts and unmemorable adverts, reminding you that celebrity is a highly-prized treasure for some. All three films have been given headline status at the forthcoming London Film Festival in November, which will also be showing Woody Allen’s new film Small Time Crooks starring Hugh Grant and Tracey Ullman, which turned out to be a welcome surprise film choice at Deauville. Winner of the Grand Prize for an Independent American Film, was Karyn Kusama’s Girlfight, a realistic study of a young woman living in the housing projects of Brooklyn who takes up boxing much to the dismay of her traditional-thinking father. In a tough competition, it beat Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Miguel Arteta’s Chuck and Buck to the top spot. Takeshi Kitano also put in a brief appearance with his new film Brother which starred actor/writer/director Kitano alongside Omar Epps in a story of a yakuza gangster who teams up with a young hustler and soon gets engaged in a violent bout of gang rivalry and warfare. Other films on show included the ‘Fame meets Flashdance’ vehicle Centre Stage, energetically directed by Brit Nicholas Hytner, Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Stephen Frears’ comedy High Fidelity, Edward Norton’s Keeping the Faith, and Keenan Ivory Wayans’ spoof horror comedy Scary Movie. Deauville is a small but chic little town, twinned with Trouville; it's nicely organised as film festivals go, with screenings shared out between the main Cinema Complex and the Casino opposite. Hollywood stars stay in sumptuous comfort in the Hotel Normandie and The Hotel Royal, overlooking beaches that are tastefully decked out with blue, orange and red parasols and deckchairs. It’s a festival that the US stars flock to each year, perhaps because of the idyllic setting that they know awaits them and because it finds a level of calm which would be completely unknown in the frenetic atmosphere of Cannes each May. More on Deauville Festival of American Film
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