The Cannes Film Festival poster this year pays tribute to The Truman Show, released in 1998. It was helmed by Peter Weir and headlined by Jim Carrey – as the man who spent his entire life without a clue about a 24×7 reality show on him. The poster was released on Tuesday, and this is one of the big celebrations marking the Festival, whose 75th edition this year runs from May 17 to 28 on the lovely French Riviera.
The poster captures a moment from the climax of the movie where Truman Burbank escapes from the set of the show, discovering that the sky is a painted wall with a staircase leading to the exit. We see him touch the wall, which features 75 in white, signifying the Festival’s anniversary.
A Festival statement says, “Peter Weir’s The Truman Show is a modern reflection of Plato’s cave and the decisive scene urges viewers to not only experience the border between reality and its representation but to ponder over the power of fiction, between manipulation and catharsis. Just as Truman escapes falsehood as he rises, the Festival, with its famous ascending red carpet, offers viewers the truth of the artists when they enter the theatre.
“Just as the unforgettable Truman embodied by the one-and-only Jim Carrey, whose fingers brush his horizon, the Festival de Cannes takes the extreme nature of the world in its stride in order to grasp it again. The climate crisis, humanitarian disasters, and armed conflicts… the reasons for concerns are numerous. As in 1939 (the first edition which had to be cancelled when Hitler invaded Poland) and in 1946 (when the Festival’s “first” edition got off to a proper start after World War II ended in 1945), the Festival is once again asserting its strong conviction that art and cinema are where contemplation and the renewal of society unravel.”
Michael Hazanavicius’ Z or Final Cut, a zombie comedy, will set Cannes rolling with a Competition basket that will have 18 movies, including those from directors such as James Gray, David Cronenberg, Park Chan-wook, Kelly Reichardt and Claire Denis. Out of Competition, the Festival will see the premieres of buzzy films, such as Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, and Top Gun: Maverick (with Tom Cruise) among others.
Indian documentary All That Breathes by Shaunak Sen will be part of the Special Screenings. This will mark the return of the country to Cannes after many years.
