The 69th Cannes Film Festival opened this morning with a 10am press screening of Woody Allen‘s new star-studded film, “Cafe Society” (our review is here). The film barely over, members of the press started lining up several deep for the press conference, where Allen was joined by his cast, including stars Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg Blake Lively and Corey Stoll and his cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro to answer questions.
Despite the starriness of the panel alongside Allen, it was Stewart who drew a lot of the attention. And the actress was frank but diplomatic in her reply to the inevitable question about why she’d chosen to step onto the director’s set for the first time. Comparing Allen to a band whose style is immediately recognizable she said, “his movies are absolutely particular, and at first I wondered if I’d be able to fit into it.” But as soon as she started filming, Stewart claims she realized she didn’t need to rehearse to achieve the Allen tone of voice, as it felt natural, and so she could continue using her own, more improvisatory approach. And while she appeared flattered when Allen explained that he’d cast Stewart for her ability to be both “cute as a button” and “a sophisticated beauty” she acknowledged her image as a tough girl, saying she didn’t believe “the ‘lovely little lady’ thing was something Allen necessarily saw initially, I had to prove that.”
In reply to an open question to the panel about how much the film’s representation of Hollywood in the 1930s resembled today’s industry, Stewart seemed almost agitatedly determined to get her point across clearly. She insisted that a genuine impulse to make art was her motivation to face the reality of today’s Hollywood, which she referred to as the “most gnarly popularity contest in the world.”
Blake Lively chimed in too, arguing that the difference between the 1930s climate and today’s is the importance of the tabloid press — something both she and Stewart have had ample experience with. The double standard for women and men was confirmed by Corey Stoll, who explained that his relationship with the industry simply did not expose him to the same problems.
All seemed happy to be there, not least Allen himself who defended his refusal to place his films in Competition, saying that taste in art is too subjective to be quantified like that, but immediately reiterated how much he enjoys Cannes for its atmosphere and cinephilia. Asked to comment on the technical aspects of his work, past and present, the director placed Vittorio Storaro (“Apocalypse Now,” “The Last Emperor“), the veteran director of photography he worked with here for the first time, among the pantheon of all the other iconic cinematographers he has worked with. And the admiration is mutual: Storaro described working with great directors as “a chance to really learn how to live” and thanked Allen for having given him “another knowledge in life.” Once again, Allen confirmed that he did not see any difference between analog and digital photography, emphasizing the continued importance of composition; while Storaro suggested that directors should face up to the changes in technology and “use the specific language of the image” to avoid making films that “all look the same.”
Eisenberg, much to his embarrassment, was asked about a script inspired by Allen that he had written at age 16 and was warned off using by the director’s lawyers — all of which was apparently news to Allen, but he seemed quite touched by this evidence of Eisenberg’s longstanding admiration.
And Allen also tackled the thorny issue of his own relationship to fame, surprisingly pointing out the hypocrisy of celebrities who refuse to acknowledge that “the perks far outweigh the downside.” Less believably, he claimed that while he understands that the nature of his own fame, as well as the fact that he does the voice-over narration in “Cafe Society” of Eisenberg’s Bobby in the film, leading many to believe the character is the director’s alter ego in the film, he himself “really [doesn’t] see it.” Which is odd, considering he went on to say that Bobby’s mother and father in the film are the closest characters to his own life, with their Judaism similar to that of his own household growing up.
What does he see himself as, then? Well, aside from being a comedy writer which allows him to face the “sadness and peril and cruelty” of the world, Allen said “I have always thought of myself as romantic” before acknowledging his personal history in oblique fashion by admitting that view “is not necessarily shared by the women in my life.”
Check out the rest of our coverage from the 2016 Cannes Film Festival by clicking here.