SPIKE LEE — BLACKKKLANSMAN CANNES PRESS CONFERENCE

71 FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DU FILM DE CANNES — POSTER

One of the many things I love about Cannes is the beautiful poster art the festival's artists consistently come up with. Ah yes, the romantic fantasy of Cinema. Is there anything finer?

JESSICA CHASTAIN WHITELADYSPLAINS THE 2017 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

OH NO SHE DI'ENT. OH YES SHE DI'ID.

Jessica Chastain Dumps On All Films In Competition At Cannes

Jump to 04:08 to watch Jessica Chastain whiteladysplain how poorly female characters were represented in the films-in-competition this year at Cannes. Sadly, Ms. Chastain is unable to articulate specific examples from the specific films she is calling out. As a result, no one has any idea what she's talking about. When Chastain talks about seeing female characters she "recognizes," it begs the question of who exactly who she imagines — white women shopping at Whole Foods while talking obnoxiously on their cell phones perhaps. We'll never know because Chastain can't be bothered to elucidate such details. Chastain's dubious intention seems to draw attention to herself, rather than to the matter at hand as evidenced by the fact that she ignores the work of the the two women filmmakers who won awards for films in competition. (Lynne Ramsey and Sofia Coppola). It just doesn't pass the BS detector test as the expression on female interpreter's expression sitting behind Chastain evinces. 

That Chastain's buzzkill remarks come during a year when two women filmmakers were recognized with awards — Lynne Ramsey took home the Best Script Award for "You Were Never Really Here," and Sofia Coppola won the Best Director Award for "The Beguiled" — further blunts her overgeneralized point. Perhaps it would have served her better to celebrate the female filmmakers whose (ostensibly) ethical artistic efforts stood in opposition to depictions of women characters Chastain disapproved of in the unnamed films that she cast aspersions on. Chastain speaks with (remedial) Trumpian simplicity. 

A little preparation for making her point might have served her better. When taken in the context of the daggers being shot at her by Pedro Almodovar's translator, it seems that such whiteladysplaining isn't everyone's cup of tea. And I'll take Vera Farmiga, as an actress, over Jessica Chastain any day of the week. You really wanna talk about female filmmakers working at the height of their craft; have you seen "Bates Motel," which Farmiga produced and acted in? Take at look at "Bates Motel," Ms. Chastain, and witness a female actor and filmmaker running veritable circles around you. But you (Ms.  Chastain) would easily find an excuse to not acknowledge Ms. Farmiga's fine work I'm sure. Viewers don't want to be talked down to, babied, or pandered to. To earn respect is to give respect. Jessica Chastain fails miserably in this regard. 

Fortunately, Agnes Jaoui took over the baton to reduce the issue to meeting the criteria of the Bechtel Test — wherein in two female characters discuss something other than a male. Admittedly, that's setting the bar pretty low. Will Smith pitched in to clean up Chastain's mess by noting that having a couple of black folks (filmmakers in competition) "wouldn't be a bad thing either." Smith may fill the shoes of a boisterous American abroad, but he nevertheless presented a suave and worldly representative of Global Culture,  as opposed to Jessica Chastain who came across as an entitled ditz with an axe to grind. Cheers to Will Smith as a responsible envoy of cinematic culture to Chastain's Trumpian version of truth.