1997 Cannes Film Festival Diaries
Cannes-Scan #5

by Jerry (the usher)

Episode 5:

Jai-Pi and Odile and I met at the beach again for a café. Today he was on the subject of film. After all, he calls himself an auteur so naturally he has opinions about everything cinematic.

"Well, of course Hollywood makes the best films. Almost everything else is merde. Well, of course Sergio Leone was one of the great directors of all time, but who else is there in Europe today?

"You Americans are too stupid to recognize your greatest auteurs, it's up to us Europeans to point them out to you. Who am I talking about? Why, Chuck Norris, of course. He's the best auteur working in the cinema today. Brilliant, completely under-appreciated and misunderstood in his own country. To you he's just a 'B' action star, maybe a mediocre actor.

"But he is pursuing the great themes and ideas in his films, and you Americans are completely missing the existential subtext! He has obviously read much of both Eastern and Western philosophy and his films are weaving a new integration of wisdom and entertainment. And his structures are based on classical forms and are a work of art in themselves."

Well, I guess I must have missed something...