1996 Cannes Film Festival Diaries
Diary #10 - May 15, Day 7

by Henri Béhar

CANNES -- Jacques Audiard's "Un Heros Trés Discret" ("A Very Discreet Hero") is an intriguing movie. It places its lead character at the end of World War 2 in a Paris that has just been liberated from the German occupation. The remarkably anonymous man has everyone believe he was part of the Resistance. A mental Zelig, if you will, based on several true cases. Director-actor Mathieu Kassovitz ("La Haine") does a great job.

----------------------------------------

There's always a day like this in the midst of the Festival. You check the program -- a film from Romania in competition, others (sidebar) from Lithuania, France and Australia. Knowing you can catch up when they're reprised in Paris immediately after the Festival, you decide to chuck it all and take a rest. We bought eggs, bacon, saucisson, a bit of foie gras and a couple of bottles of wine, whipped up some sort of a picnic, ate on the terrasse of the villa and went to bed at 10.