Get to know the whole story of the Festival de Cannes before the big night of July 6th!

In a new initiative by the Festival de Cannes, all viewers and cinema fans can watch previews on its website of two documentaries selected for Cannes Classics. The films will subsequently be broadcast on their respective channels.

They are: Morceaux de Cannes (Pieces of Cannes), a documentary by Emmanuel Barnault, created from the archives of the INA (French National Audiovisual Institute), which reveals famous and previously unseen images from the Festival’s history.

And, secondly: Olivia de Havilland, l’insoumise (The Rebellious Olivia de Havilland) by Daphné Baiwir, a sensitive portrait dedicated to a glorious figure from the golden age of Hollywood, who also challenged the treatment of actresses. In addition, and most importantly, she became the first woman president of the Festival Jury in 1965

Olivia de Havilland, l’insoumise
by Daphné Baiwir

(2021, 56min, France)

From a British background, born in Japan, having grown up and made a career in the United States and then settled in France, Olivia de Havilland was the most international of Hollywood stars. She also changed the face of Hollywood and its studios, with her court victory against Jack Warner when she was barely 26 years old. Her win allowed all actors who were suspended from employment while they fought during the Second World War to renegotiate their contracts. This “De Havilland law” allowed the obligations binding actors under contract to be relaxed. She won two best actress Oscars: in 1947, for To Each His Own by Mitchell Leisen and in 1950, for William Wyler’s The Heiress.
In 1965, she became the first female president of the Festival de Cannes Jury, 20 years after it was created.
This outstanding film by Daphné Baiwir portrays the actress as the exceptional woman that was Olivia de Havilland: her struggles, her distinguished acting, her wonderful interviews, the risks she took in her career as well as her choices in life. It takes us back to an idea of cinema which becomes a little more distant every year, but which also grows stronger as time passes. Olivia de Havilland passed away in Paris on July 26^th 2020. This film is a most beautiful way to honor her memory.

Morceaux de Cannes
by Emmanuel Barnault

(2020, 52min, France)

When it comes to the Festival de Cannes, we think we’ve seen, read and heard it all: from sequins and backstage gossip to scandals and censorship. And yet, Morceaux de Cannes (Pieces of Cannes) by Emmanuel Barnault, a leading expert on Italian and French cinema, convinces us otherwise. The third-most important event on the planet (after the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup) only gives up its secrets sparingly, as his film shows. The result of dedicated research in the archives of the INA (National Institute of Audiovisual), this 52-minute film, free of interviews or voice-overs, links together a series of rare and sometimes previously unknown sequences. Placed end to end, they tell a surprising story of the Festival, full of warmth and originality. On the beach, on the corner of a street, in a restaurant or in the intimacy of a hotel room, these forgotten archives gather the greatest filmmakers, actors and actresses of the last seventy years, from Jean Cocteau to David Lynch, to create an anthology of the history of the Festival. The best way to wait patiently until the opening of the 74^th edition!