The Cannes Jury Press Conference

by Lisa Nesselson

The Cannes Film Festival seems to be a mighty flush operation for the moment, but a terrific option for product placement occurred to me when, threes time in the course of asking Jury Prez Francis Coppola a question, an Argentine journalist referred to the Fest's top honor as the "Palm Dior".

Jean Cocteau designed the distinctive palm frond that adorns the coveted award (the Golden Palm, or Palme d'Or, pronounced "palm door" in English, as if someone had installed a nice wooden slab with a knob in the middle of your hand), but the fashion house of Dior could certainly find a tasteful way to get into the act should the need ever arise.

Even the most cynical critics present got choked up when jury member Krzysztof Piesiewicz -- the Polish screenwriter (and Solidarity speechwriter) who worked intimately with the late, truly great director Krzysztof Kieslowski ("The Decalog", "The Double Life of Veronique", the "Three Colors" trilogy: "Blue", "White", "Red") -- was asked what is likely to become of the three scripts-in-progress (pegged to themes of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory) the two colleagues had more or less completed when Kieslowski died of a heart attack on March 13th in Warsaw, at age 54. Although Piesiewicz spoke in Polish which was translated by an interpreter into French and subsequently translated into English, not a nuance was lost. The room was rapt as a deliberate, obviously moved Piesiewicz said that he would "hate to see the work go to waste" but that what's certain is that "Kieslowski's cinema is done forever, it's wrapped. If the three scripts we were working on are made by another director, they will be new, different films. Kieslowski's way with emotions was unique. If new films are made from the material, they may turn out to be beautiful, but they will not be the films that Kieslowski would have made. That, we have lost forever. But I would not like to see the scripts go unutilized."

Depending on the scripts and how quickly they are made -- IF they are made -- we may see the equivalent of an undiscovered Shakespeare sonnet bestowed upon us like an unexpected gift from the past, or we may be subjected to the celluloid equivalent of The Beatles' "Free as a Bird." As unconditional fans of the 10-part "Decalog" know, the 11th commandment is "Thou Shalt Not Raise Thy Expectations."