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As the yanks prepare for their annual September Normandy invasion, Matt Arnoldi casts a glance over the 28th Deauville Festival of American Film Whilst critics and filmmakers flock to Venice, on the coastline of Normandy, the 2002 Deauville Festival of American Film (30 August – 8th September 2002) will be getting underway. This year, independent American filmmakers will be competing for the first time for a new trophy, "The Flame of Deauville", a striking gold and silver baton designed by Parisian jeweller Fred Crée. Among those trying to win it, will be Rose Troche with her new film, a study of materialism, entitled The Safety of Objects starring Glenn Close and Dermot Mulroney, Mark Romanek with his offbeat suburban story One Hour Photo (top right), starring Robin Williams and Connie Nielsen, Charles Herman-Wurmfeld’s Kissing Jessica Stein (top, 2nd from right), has already opened to good reviews in the UK and possibly the thriller Emmett’s Mark directed by Keith Snyder and starring Scott Wolf, Tim Roth and Gabriel Byrne will be up with the front-runners. The most keenly awaited among the competition entries has to be Sonny, in which Nic Cage makes his debut as a producer and director. Written by John Carlen, an all-star cast includes the likes of Brenda Blethyn, American Beauty Mena Suvari, Harry Dean Stanton and James Franco. An all-French Jury gets to choose the winners. Led by President Pierre Lescure, it includes the likes of Chantal Akerman, Irene Jacob, actor Jean-Marc Barr and the Roberto Succo director Cedric Kahn. The most popular section at Deauville is always the Premieres which this year includes Michael Caton-Jones’ new film City by the Sea, Rob Cohen’s high octane spy-charged XXX, blockbusters like Road to Perdition, K-19 The Widowmaker, Signs, Insomnia, Simone, Windtalkers and The Bourne Identity (top, 2nd from right), and particularly interesting, City of Ghosts (top left), Matt Dillon’s directorial debut, which is also co-written by him and in which Matt plays a leading role alongside Gerard Depardieu, James Caan and Natascha McElhone. The Premieres are supported by a Panorama section which this year includes Gus Van Sant’s new film Gerry starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck which received mixed reviews at Sundance, CQ directed by another of the Coppola clan, Roman Coppola, and The Laramie Project, a study of a small town’s reaction to a murder, directed by Moises Kaufman and starring Christina Ricci, Laura Linney, Summer Phoenix and Steve Buscemi. The stars also turn out in force at Deauville. Perhaps its the sea air, the French cooking certainly Deauville offers a more relaxed approach in comparison with festivals like Cannes, Venice and even London. The likes of Sam Mendes, Tom Hanks, Steven Soderbergh, Edward Burns and Christopher Nolan will be given VIP treatment over the first weekend leaving the way clear for Ellen Burstyn, Matt Dillon and Harrison Ford to enjoy personal tributes later in the week. They are going to be joined at the end by action aficionados Sylvester Stallone and Rob Cohen. Bravest of all has to be filmmaker and playwright Neil LaBute who will be giving a Cinema Lesson open to the general public in the middle of the festival week. His film Possession starring Gwyneth Paltrow also appears in the Premiere section. The festival opens this year with comedy romance I’m with Lucy directed by Joy Sherman starring Monica Potter and David Boreanaz and closes with The Banger Sisters directed by Bob Dolma and starring Susan Sarandon, Geoffrey Rush and Goldie Hawn. All in all, Deauville promises to be another lively affair, worthy of its classy sponsors Cognac, Ernest Gallo and Moet et Chandon. More on Deauville Festival of American Film
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