Chaz Ebert recounts her Chaz Ebert recounts her expertise on the 2025 Cannes Movie Competition, from mobile phone utilization to panels to chats with critics and correspondents additionally attending the fest. Topics interviewed embody composer Baptiste Charvet, professors Nate Kohn and Eric Pierson; actors Nicholas and Pamela Visitor; Mill Valley Movie Competition Director Mark Fishkin, and movie critic and professor Zbigniew Banas.
We additionally give out this 12 months’s inaugural FECK/CANNES Award, to Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Simply an Accident.”
Watch the video and browse the transcript beneath.
Chaz:
Welcome again to Cannes 2025. I’m Chaz Ebert. As I screened dozens of films this 12 months in Cannes, I’ve been reminded of what my late husband, Roger Ebert, mentioned is essentially the most noble issues films can do: make us really feel empathy for others by placing us of their sneakers. For that motive, I’m saying the inaugural FECK/Cannes Award. As it’s possible you’ll know, final 12 months I wrote a e-book entitled It’s Time to Give a FECK. F.E.C.Ok. elevating humanity by forgiveness, empathy, compassion, and kindness.
The FECK Cannes award will honor the movie that the majority exemplifies these qualities, and the winner this 12 months is “It Was Simply an Accident” from Iranian director Jafar Panahi. The story revolves round a person who believes he has discovered a former army official who had tortured him prior to now. He kidnaps the person off the road and plans to kill him, however begins to have doubts that he has the precise particular person.
He enlists the assistance of numerous different people who had additionally been tortured to try to determine the particular person he captured. The movie presents a wide range of attainable outcomes, together with ethical and moral selections that every character should make. I discovered this movie fascinating in the best way that it teased forwards and backwards with these very ideas.
The alternatives they needed to make concerned implications of homicide and self-righteous revenge, but in addition very a lot handled issues about forgiveness, empathy, compassion, and kindness. Mr. Panahi himself was imprisoned in Iran and below home arrest for the films he made that the regime thought of an affront to the federal government, however his restrictions on journey have been solely lately lifted to permit him to return to Cannes.
So there’s a studied depth within the movie that makes it worthy of this 12 months’s FECK Cannes award. We’ll be saying the total awards, which can be hosted in Chicago subsequent April. However for additional data on find out how to submit nominations, please go to giveafeck.com.
After all, the Cannes Movie Competition is many issues. It’s the films, the pink carpet, the prizes.
However the extra I come to Cannes, and I’ve been attending for almost 40 years, I’ve realized that the temper in Cannes can also be set by the music and the folks we meet. This 12 months I received an opportunity to take a seat down and chat with achieved music composer Baptiste Charvet. He’s a buddy from Paris who composes scores for each tv and movie.
Chaz:
It’s not usually that we get to introduce a composer right here at Cannes, however as we speak we now have Mr. Baptiste Charvetand he composes for tv and for films and, and in any other case. And I’d like to only welcome you right here.
Baptiste Charvet:
Thanks very a lot.
Chaz;
Thanks. And truly, you may be welcoming me since you, in spite of everything, you’re the one who from France. I’m from Chicago.
Baptiste:
Truly. I wish to welcome you in France and in Cannes. After all.
Chaz:
All proper. Inform us just a little bit about your your background.
Baptiste:
Okay. So my background is I’m a classical pianist, composer, and my household, all people is a musician. And my nice nice grandmother is now a really well-known composer. Feminine composer. Oh, sure. Her identify is Mel Bonis. She’s as she’s as well-known as, Debussy or Fahey. These days it’s it’s it’s loopy fantastic. Yeah. So I’ve to maintain up.
Chaz:
Oh, fantastic. And is she nonetheless with us or?
Baptiste:
Oh, no.
Like my nice nice nice nice nice nice. Sure. And so, so that is my, blood, background, bloodline background. And so I’ve studied piano for, 20 years, classical piano for 20 years. And I’m, self, the way you say that?
Chaz:
Self-taught.
Baptiste:
Self-taught music.
Chaz:
Composer. I didn’t know that.
Baptiste:
I all the time had music in my head. And I’m very fortunate. I all the time with computer systems, synthesizers and piano and guitars. I’ve all the time been in a position to obtain what I’ve in my head.
From the pinnacle to the musicians.
Chaz:
You recognize, there’s a movie right here.
Baptiste:
“The Historical past of Sound.”
Chaz:
“The Historical past of Sound.” Oliver Hermanus, I feel. And the the protagonist in that one noticed colours, music and colours when he heard music or sound. How do you’re employed? What’s your course of?
Baptiste:
So when it’s for an artist. Sure. Okay. So with artist is I ship, first draft of music and also you write, we attempt to, Okay. I really like what you what you wrote. Now let let me adapt. And we go like that right here. That I adapt. And on the finish, we now have a tune we love collectively.
Chaz:
I really like that. Who’re a few of your different influences? From the previous?
Baptiste:
So in classical music, it will be Debussy. This that is my favourite, favourite ever. Composers.
Chaz:
Which one of many halls right here is at Cannes is known as Claude Debussy.
Baptiste:
After all. Sure, in fact. And, within the music within the movie business, I’ve to confess, I really like, Hans Zimmer because the starting.
Chaz:
Oh, Hans Zimmer. Sure.
Baptiste:
I do know it’s a heavy music, however the themes are all the time lovely. And he invented a method of composing. And even the French man, George Delerue has completed superb music, clips, and I’ve to return again to American John Williams, in fact.
I imply, you recognize each, each music he has composed, it was excellent.
Chaz:
Properly, thanks for serving to to boost the consciousness of the world!
Baptiste:
Thanks.
Chaz:
Please keep optimistic.
Baptiste:
I’ll do this for positive.
Chaz:
Merci beaucoup
Professor Nate Kohn from the College of Georgia in Athens and Physician Eric Pierson from San Diego College each convey their college college students to Cannes. They’re additionally good buddies of the Ebert Fest movie competition, held yearly in April in Champaign, Illinois, at the side of the College of Illinois. They stopped by the Resort Splendid to speak about their actions in Cannes.
You recognize one factor about coming to Cannes for therefore a few years, when my late husband Roger did it, he mentioned, top-of-the-line issues to do is to introduce the subsequent era to it. And I feel we now have the 2 gents with me as we speak who do this fantastically. We have now Professor Nate Kohn from the College of Georgia in Athens, and we now have Professor Eric Pierson from the College of San Diego.
Welcome, Nate and Eric.
Nate:
Thanks. Good to be right here.
Chaz:
Why come to Cannes? There are such a lot of movie festivals, and I’ve to inform our viewers, as a result of I’m very pleased with you each have been at Ebert Fest, the Roger Ebert Movie Competition in Champaign, Illinois, from the very starting, which was, I feel, 26 years in the past. And, you recognize, there are such a lot of different movie festivals on the earth.
Why do you retain coming again to the Cannes Movie Competition?
Nate:
As a result of it’s, one of many oldest, most prestigious and most worldwide movie festivals. I convey 30 college students right here yearly. I’ve been doing it for 23 years, I feel. And it’s a very long time. And, what I discover is that they uncover that america just isn’t the middle of the world, that there exist relationships between nations that don’t undergo america. They learn the way tales are instructed, by completely different cultures in several methods.
And it simply turns them into cosmopolitans, which, they weren’t after they, initially got here right here.
Chaz:
That’s nice.
Eric:
Yeah. And I’ll piggyback on that. The worldwide really feel of the competition, the place you the place you do start to know that there they’re fantastic tales being instructed outdoors of the US and, and and also you as an individual all in favour of a movie, you must strive to determine find out how to avail yourselves of these tales as a result of there’s simply there’s simply plenty of the world that you just don’t get to discover personally, however you possibly can discover by movie. And that’s one of many the reason why I maintain coming again. It’s an exquisite expertise. And and I’m positive Nate would agree with me. You can not replicate this within the classroom. It’s important to be right here.
Chaz:
So while you come to Cannes, it’s actually the whole lot of the expertise in your college students. However additionally it is a movie competition. Was there a movie this 12 months whether or not it’s in competitors or a sidebar that basically stood out for both you or your college students?
Nate:
Properly, my college students, had an attention-grabbing response to “Nouvelle Obscure”, the Richard Linklater image. Richard Linklater allowed them to see the movie. It’s onerous to get into see movies, you recognize? And, they have been type of reluctant to go, however they, they went and so they simply fell in love with the image.
Chaz:
You recognize, what I did too. It’s so a lot enjoyable. And I believed what concerning the audacity of Richard Linklater making a movie in French, bringing it to Cannes concerning the French New Wave. However your college students cherished it, too.
Nate:
They cherished it. They usually mentioned, the place can we see “Breathless”? So, it opens up an entire world to them. Sure. Of, you recognize, the the French New Wave. So now they’re going to hunt out the movies by Godard and Truffaut and Agnes Varda.
Chaz:
I find it irresistible.
Eric:
So, some college students mentioned, you recognize, that they they needed me to see, Eddington.
Chaz:
Oh, Ari Aster.
Eric”
Sure. And so I, I went to see it and I’ll say that one of many barometers for judging a movie for me is how lengthy it bangs round in your head after you’ve seen it.
And this movie remains to be banging round in my head. And I noticed it, like, three days in the past, so, so I’m nonetheless attempting to course of it, so I’m not fairly positive the place I’m but.
Chaz:
So let me let you know the most important shock for me about rester. I had an opportunity to take a seat down and discuss to him as a result of I cherished “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” and a few of his different movies. I believed he was an older Swede. I didn’t know he was a younger American director. And in order that was a nice shock.
But in addition, I imply, he’s very good. And the factor about this, it was the pandemic, however the worry and the worry that exist in our nation as we speak, after the election, the newest elections, presidential elections actually resonated for me in Eddington.
Nate:
The attention-grabbing factor is for my college students, Ari Aster is God. I imply, they love Midsommar and I imply…
Chaz:
Even Bo is afraid.
Nate:
Yeah. In order that they have been actually wanting to see this film, and, it’s stunned them.
Chaz:
Okay, I’m going to ask. Simply going again in your thoughts through the years, is there a selected incident or specific film that stood out for you in your Cannes expertise?
Nate:
I’ve received a pair in my head, initially, to speak to you. And also you bear in mind it nicely I’m positive. It was the dedication of the Roger Ebert Theater on the American Pavilion. Martin Scorsese, he was there.
Chaz:
Convention Middle
Nate.
Convention middle. Sure. Martin Scorsese, he was there. I went with Paul Cox. I introduced him to it. He was not nicely on the time, however he made the hassle to return, and I, I sat subsequent to the Thierry Fremaux, the competition director, and it was simply a rare occasion to be there with these these individuals who have been honoring Roger with with the theater.
The opposite was it was a extra less complicated time just a few years earlier than, once I first began bringing college students to the competition. Roger got here to speak to the scholars on the American Pavilion, and he sat there, and he spent he spent over an hour simply, answering their questions, speaking to them. And, I’ve I’ve a nonetheless {photograph} of him doing that, and, you recognize it’s {a photograph} I treasure.
I do not forget that second.
Chaz:
You recognize what? It’s simply fantastic to have you ever each right here as we speak. Thanks.
Eric and Nate:
Thanks a lot.
Chaz:s
I’m additionally personally touched by the very human tales. Pamela and Nicholas Visitor, fantastic actors and producers from LA, sadly have been victims of the LA fires that destroyed their residence and so a lot of their belongings.
I’ve the pleasure of reintroducing two company that we’ve had earlier than. Pamela and Nicholas Visitor. They’re filmmakers. Pamela can also be a casting director.
And in addition, I’ll allow you to introduce a few of the different belongings you do, however I simply need you to assist me welcome them. And I really like to speak to you about your expertise right here in Cannes. I need to discuss to you first about one thing very private. You have been affected, you reside in Los Angeles space. You have been affected by the fires there.
They appear devastating. Are you able to inform us just a bit bit about what that have was like for you?
Pamela Visitor:
Properly, I used to be residence and we had an house on the cliff within the Palisades, proper, trying on the ocean every single day, which we discovered very uplifting and galvanizing to be there. And anyway, I’ve been lately producing our daughter’s movie that we’re additionally in. Nick likes to say we play her dad and mom. We inform everybody he’s very pleased with the truth that not solely is he actually her father, however he performs your father.
Anyway, so, I used to be engaged on the pc on the film. Liz and Nick have been off. She was serving to him do an audition in Hollywood. And I used to be sitting there on the laptop and received the phrase that there was a fireplace, you recognize, a kind of alerts. However there’s all the time alerts on the market. Sure, Malibu is burning. Topanga is burning. It occurs on a regular basis. And it simply occurred like two weeks earlier than or one thing anyway. And so I didn’t take it critically. After which I needed to get out now, you recognize, go. That is horrible. And so we had a automotive within the storage. Fortunately. And I used to be in a position to drive away, nevertheless it took me 4 hours to get to Westwood, which is generally 20 minutes.
Chaz:
Due to all of the visitors?
Pamela:
Bumper to bumper folks attempting to get away. Sure. And as I turned a nook onto Temescal to go right down to the seashore, the hearth was actually proper right here on the opposite facet of the street.
Chaz:
You can see it. Might you’re feeling it?
Pamela:
Sure. And I turned and snapped an image. As a result of I used to be in denial. I used to be like, it was essentially the most weird expertise. I used to be not afraid. I didn’t take something. I didn’t take it critically. I simply hopped out and did what they have been telling us. So it was very unusual. And it continues to be very unusual as a result of all the things is gone.
Nicholas Visitor:
The actually necessary sentimental and all the things, plenty of stuff.
Pamela:
…that meant quite a bit to us, was in that house.
Chaz:
I actually considered you in the course of the fires as a result of, I could have instructed you this once I was 4 or 5 years previous. I used to be in, my gown was on hearth. I used to be within the hospital for months. I needed to be dunked in, some resolution or one thing. Thankfully,there’s virtually no hint of it on my pores and skin wherever.
However I bear in mind Santa Claus came around me, and I bear in mind standing there on my large crib like factor, and he checked out my eyes and he mentioned, little lady, you could have the wisest, saddest eyes I’ve ever seen. Santa Claus telling me this once I was like 4 or 5 years previous and he mentioned, what would you like for Christmas?
I mentioned, I don’t, I need nothing. Give it to all the opposite youngsters. So once I take into consideration hearth, I take into consideration that. And I understand how like, devastating it may be.
Nicholas:
Properly, one factor that occurred, by the best way, proper after that is that we have been instructed the place to go. All of the individuals who had misplaced their locations. And it was it occurred to be at a spot known as the West Facet Pavilion. So FEMA was there and all these different organizations and everybody there, I, I don’t assume I’ve ever skilled that a lot heat and kindness in my complete life.
They have been simply unbelievable. I imply, I received goosebumps the entire time. I’ve been impressed since I’ve been right here as a result of I really like, as you recognize, being a global setting, I’m instantly happier as quickly as I get right here.
Chaz:
And, yeah, I, I hate to interrupt this. You have been on a really good roll, however I do know you additionally do voices. Are you able to do some accents?
Nicholas:
I feel, for instance, once I first was right here, it was very troublesome as a result of folks have been talking in like, metaphors. You say metaphor, this type of factor. And, I’ve to confess, it was troubling once I mentioned, are they attempting to confuse me? Have you learnt what I imply?
Chaz:
You didn’t know the which means.
NIcholas:
No. So I had I virtually left gone. I used to be now, however I imply, it’s simply enjoyable, truly. Movie is sort of a circle. So it continues. It goes spherical and spherical. So you’re feeling such as you’re caught, you recognize, like on a carousel. And it’s not stopping you, you recognize? You recognize. No, thanks. So anyway, that makes me glad.
As a result of they’re all right here. All of those persons are right here.
Chaz:
Yeah. After you allow, can what do you foresee for the long run? In movie andl in life?
Nicholas:
I used to be simply going to say, I imply, this specific Cannes was significantly extraordinary as a result of we have been right here to be supportive of our daughter’s first film. You recognize, we have been actors in it. However, I imply, it was simply all about her. And that feels so nice to not I imply, simply to be in that state of supporting, you recognize, her profession.
Pamela:
And I’m additionally working as a casting director on a brand new venture. It’s the it’s a studying of a screenplay known as The Most Harmful E book, which is concerning the writing and banning of James Joyce’s Ulysses by Donald Margulies. It’s a full blown screenplay, however we’re doing a studying in Los Angeles of it to draw, you recognize, curiosity and, you recognize, no matter.
Chaz:
So I really like seeing the three of you as a household, as a result of we now have a lot on this world that divides us as we speak that once I see one thing the place it’s being held collectively by love and goodwill, that’s simply so lovely.
Nicholas:
So we’re lucky.
Pamela:
We’re lucky. Yeah. Thanks.
Chaz:
Thanks.
Cannes continues to push the boundaries of movie and leisure with the immersive competitors that options digital actuality, AI, and different forms of new applied sciences. 16 works from 9 nations have been a part of the official choice, and the Greatest Immersive Work award went to “From Mud”, created by Michel Van Der Aa, for recognizing a creation that pushed the boundaries of storytelling, artwork, area and viewers engagement.
Many right here in Cannes are representing different movie festivals from world wide, and so they come to see movies they could want to convey residence. A kind of folks is the founding father of the Mill Valley Movie Competition in California. He’s been coming to Cannes for almost 40 years, and he talked to us about why Cannes is so necessary.
Mark Fishkin:
Everyone knows these are difficult instances to say the least, and it’s troublesome to stay optimistic. However I feel for a lot of causes, private causes that aren’t simply private to me, however everybody having kids and grandchildren and the hope that you really want for the long run. Nevertheless it does come to me that I and I do know not all people, as I discussed earlier than, believes this, however I do actually assume that movie might be essentially the most highly effective affect.
We talked about empathy, however actually the tales which are being instructed. And that’s what’s actually is exclusive about Cannes and festivals. I imagine basically, they’re coping with actually present up to date points which are frequent to all of us, and to have that dialogue and to have the ability to have a look at what’s taking place world wide when you recognize all the things that we see in america, not all the things, however most issues, it’s only a sound chunk.
And to have the ability to dig in and and discover these points in a really private method, that basically, for me, that movie does higher than some other medium is de facto does give me hope.
Chaz:
I additionally sat down with Zbigniew Banas, one other Chicago movie critic, who has been coming to Cannes for many years, and he shares with us what brings him again 12 months after 12 months.
I’m very glad to current Zbigniew Banas. He’s a movie critic, a journalist, and he teaches Polish movie historical past in Chicago. And what I need to discuss to him about is he’s been to Cannes over 35 instances, and I feel that he has a beneficial perception to share with us.
That is the and I’ve to let you know, it’s the primary time I ever known as you a nickname as a result of I all the time love saying your full identify.
Zbigniew:
Properly, right here we’re on this worldwide crowd, in Cannes. So I’m going by my Polish identify and I mix proper in.
Chaz:
What are a few of the issues that made an impression on you coming to the competition through the years?
Zbigniew:
It’s about assembly folks. As I mentioned, for me, since I’m Polish, I’ve all the time been related to Polish cinema. The very first 12 months needed to do with assembly Kieslowski, who was right here with “A Brief Movie about Killing”, then with “The Double Lifetime of Véronique.” Then with “Three Colours: Pink.” And never solely did we turn out to be very pleasant right here, to a degree at which I’d later go to him on the set when he was capturing “White”, in Warsaw.
I even grew to become his interpreter right here at Cannes on just a few events, and it was a really particular relationship. Then, sadly, he handed away, within the mid Nineteen Nineties. Nevertheless it all needed to do with Cannes. And, you recognize, the 12 months that “Pulp Fiction” gained the Palme d’Or. All of us have been, nicely no less than the Polish group right here, we have been hoping that “Three Colours: Pink” would win.
it was the identical 12 months. And that was, you recognize, within the operating till the very, very finish, solely to be overwhelmed by “Pulp Fiction.” What can I say?
Chaz:
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the way forward for movie?
Zbigniew:
I’m reasonably optimistic. The demise of cinema has been pronounced on a number of events earlier than, and by some means cinema has survived. There are lots of people who love films. Like to see films on the massive display, particularly. So I’m not nervous. So far as cinema is anxious, for the subsequent 5, ten, 15 years. Ask me the identical query in 20 years after which who is aware of
what the reply goes to be. Nevertheless, it appears to me that the golden period of movie festivals is, on its method down. It’s waning down. And by some means all of the offers that Cannes was so well-known for now are completed by way of, emails. You recognize, screeners are despatched. So not as many individuals really feel compelled to return bodily to Cannes.
And the competition remains to be enjoying a vital function, extra so than some other single competition on the earth. Nevertheless it’s that side of the way forward for the cinema that I’m much less optimistic about. However for now, every single day we will come right here within the anticipation of watching one of the best new films and assembly previous buddies, and seeing the ability of cinema nonetheless to unite folks, to inform us the sorts of tales that make us surprise each, you recognize, esthetically, intellectually, but in addition emotionally, concerning the horizons that we might by no means in any other case have the ability to cross.
And that’s a sense you could’t get wherever else.
Chaz:
Oh, I really like that. I really like that reply a lot. Properly, let me ask for us each to carry on to that modicum of optimism. Properly thanks.
Zbigniew:
It’s all we now have left…apart from the films.
Chaz:
The films, there’s all the time the films.
Zbigniew:
Precisely.
Chaz:
That’s all for Cannes for this 12 months. You recognize what? It was a terrific competition with fantastic movies, nice climate, and most significantly, fantastic folks from all around the world to go to and discuss with. Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us this 12 months. We will’t wait to return again in 2026, and we hope you’ll be a part of us then. Till then, au revoir.
Chaz Ebert recounts her Chaz Ebert recounts her expertise on the 2025 Cannes Movie Competition, from mobile phone utilization to panels to chats with critics and correspondents additionally attending the fest. Topics interviewed embody composer Baptiste Charvet, professors Nate Kohn and Eric Pierson; actors Nicholas and Pamela Visitor; Mill Valley Movie Competition Director Mark Fishkin, and movie critic and professor Zbigniew Banas.
We additionally give out this 12 months’s inaugural FECK/CANNES Award, to Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Simply an Accident.”
Watch the video and browse the transcript beneath.
Chaz:
Welcome again to Cannes 2025. I’m Chaz Ebert. As I screened dozens of films this 12 months in Cannes, I’ve been reminded of what my late husband, Roger Ebert, mentioned is essentially the most noble issues films can do: make us really feel empathy for others by placing us of their sneakers. For that motive, I’m saying the inaugural FECK/Cannes Award. As it’s possible you’ll know, final 12 months I wrote a e-book entitled It’s Time to Give a FECK. F.E.C.Ok. elevating humanity by forgiveness, empathy, compassion, and kindness.
The FECK Cannes award will honor the movie that the majority exemplifies these qualities, and the winner this 12 months is “It Was Simply an Accident” from Iranian director Jafar Panahi. The story revolves round a person who believes he has discovered a former army official who had tortured him prior to now. He kidnaps the person off the road and plans to kill him, however begins to have doubts that he has the precise particular person.
He enlists the assistance of numerous different people who had additionally been tortured to try to determine the particular person he captured. The movie presents a wide range of attainable outcomes, together with ethical and moral selections that every character should make. I discovered this movie fascinating in the best way that it teased forwards and backwards with these very ideas.
The alternatives they needed to make concerned implications of homicide and self-righteous revenge, but in addition very a lot handled issues about forgiveness, empathy, compassion, and kindness. Mr. Panahi himself was imprisoned in Iran and below home arrest for the films he made that the regime thought of an affront to the federal government, however his restrictions on journey have been solely lately lifted to permit him to return to Cannes.
So there’s a studied depth within the movie that makes it worthy of this 12 months’s FECK Cannes award. We’ll be saying the total awards, which can be hosted in Chicago subsequent April. However for additional data on find out how to submit nominations, please go to giveafeck.com.
After all, the Cannes Movie Competition is many issues. It’s the films, the pink carpet, the prizes.
However the extra I come to Cannes, and I’ve been attending for almost 40 years, I’ve realized that the temper in Cannes can also be set by the music and the folks we meet. This 12 months I received an opportunity to take a seat down and chat with achieved music composer Baptiste Charvet. He’s a buddy from Paris who composes scores for each tv and movie.
Chaz:
It’s not usually that we get to introduce a composer right here at Cannes, however as we speak we now have Mr. Baptiste Charvetand he composes for tv and for films and, and in any other case. And I’d like to only welcome you right here.
Baptiste Charvet:
Thanks very a lot.
Chaz;
Thanks. And truly, you may be welcoming me since you, in spite of everything, you’re the one who from France. I’m from Chicago.
Baptiste:
Truly. I wish to welcome you in France and in Cannes. After all.
Chaz:
All proper. Inform us just a little bit about your your background.
Baptiste:
Okay. So my background is I’m a classical pianist, composer, and my household, all people is a musician. And my nice nice grandmother is now a really well-known composer. Feminine composer. Oh, sure. Her identify is Mel Bonis. She’s as she’s as well-known as, Debussy or Fahey. These days it’s it’s it’s loopy fantastic. Yeah. So I’ve to maintain up.
Chaz:
Oh, fantastic. And is she nonetheless with us or?
Baptiste:
Oh, no.
Like my nice nice nice nice nice nice. Sure. And so, so that is my, blood, background, bloodline background. And so I’ve studied piano for, 20 years, classical piano for 20 years. And I’m, self, the way you say that?
Chaz:
Self-taught.
Baptiste:
Self-taught music.
Chaz:
Composer. I didn’t know that.
Baptiste:
I all the time had music in my head. And I’m very fortunate. I all the time with computer systems, synthesizers and piano and guitars. I’ve all the time been in a position to obtain what I’ve in my head.
From the pinnacle to the musicians.
Chaz:
You recognize, there’s a movie right here.
Baptiste:
“The Historical past of Sound.”
Chaz:
“The Historical past of Sound.” Oliver Hermanus, I feel. And the the protagonist in that one noticed colours, music and colours when he heard music or sound. How do you’re employed? What’s your course of?
Baptiste:
So when it’s for an artist. Sure. Okay. So with artist is I ship, first draft of music and also you write, we attempt to, Okay. I really like what you what you wrote. Now let let me adapt. And we go like that right here. That I adapt. And on the finish, we now have a tune we love collectively.
Chaz:
I really like that. Who’re a few of your different influences? From the previous?
Baptiste:
So in classical music, it will be Debussy. This that is my favourite, favourite ever. Composers.
Chaz:
Which one of many halls right here is at Cannes is known as Claude Debussy.
Baptiste:
After all. Sure, in fact. And, within the music within the movie business, I’ve to confess, I really like, Hans Zimmer because the starting.
Chaz:
Oh, Hans Zimmer. Sure.
Baptiste:
I do know it’s a heavy music, however the themes are all the time lovely. And he invented a method of composing. And even the French man, George Delerue has completed superb music, clips, and I’ve to return again to American John Williams, in fact.
I imply, you recognize each, each music he has composed, it was excellent.
Chaz:
Properly, thanks for serving to to boost the consciousness of the world!
Baptiste:
Thanks.
Chaz:
Please keep optimistic.
Baptiste:
I’ll do this for positive.
Chaz:
Merci beaucoup
Professor Nate Kohn from the College of Georgia in Athens and Physician Eric Pierson from San Diego College each convey their college college students to Cannes. They’re additionally good buddies of the Ebert Fest movie competition, held yearly in April in Champaign, Illinois, at the side of the College of Illinois. They stopped by the Resort Splendid to speak about their actions in Cannes.
You recognize one factor about coming to Cannes for therefore a few years, when my late husband Roger did it, he mentioned, top-of-the-line issues to do is to introduce the subsequent era to it. And I feel we now have the 2 gents with me as we speak who do this fantastically. We have now Professor Nate Kohn from the College of Georgia in Athens, and we now have Professor Eric Pierson from the College of San Diego.
Welcome, Nate and Eric.
Nate:
Thanks. Good to be right here.
Chaz:
Why come to Cannes? There are such a lot of movie festivals, and I’ve to inform our viewers, as a result of I’m very pleased with you each have been at Ebert Fest, the Roger Ebert Movie Competition in Champaign, Illinois, from the very starting, which was, I feel, 26 years in the past. And, you recognize, there are such a lot of different movie festivals on the earth.
Why do you retain coming again to the Cannes Movie Competition?
Nate:
As a result of it’s, one of many oldest, most prestigious and most worldwide movie festivals. I convey 30 college students right here yearly. I’ve been doing it for 23 years, I feel. And it’s a very long time. And, what I discover is that they uncover that america just isn’t the middle of the world, that there exist relationships between nations that don’t undergo america. They learn the way tales are instructed, by completely different cultures in several methods.
And it simply turns them into cosmopolitans, which, they weren’t after they, initially got here right here.
Chaz:
That’s nice.
Eric:
Yeah. And I’ll piggyback on that. The worldwide really feel of the competition, the place you the place you do start to know that there they’re fantastic tales being instructed outdoors of the US and, and and also you as an individual all in favour of a movie, you must strive to determine find out how to avail yourselves of these tales as a result of there’s simply there’s simply plenty of the world that you just don’t get to discover personally, however you possibly can discover by movie. And that’s one of many the reason why I maintain coming again. It’s an exquisite expertise. And and I’m positive Nate would agree with me. You can not replicate this within the classroom. It’s important to be right here.
Chaz:
So while you come to Cannes, it’s actually the whole lot of the expertise in your college students. However additionally it is a movie competition. Was there a movie this 12 months whether or not it’s in competitors or a sidebar that basically stood out for both you or your college students?
Nate:
Properly, my college students, had an attention-grabbing response to “Nouvelle Obscure”, the Richard Linklater image. Richard Linklater allowed them to see the movie. It’s onerous to get into see movies, you recognize? And, they have been type of reluctant to go, however they, they went and so they simply fell in love with the image.
Chaz:
You recognize, what I did too. It’s so a lot enjoyable. And I believed what concerning the audacity of Richard Linklater making a movie in French, bringing it to Cannes concerning the French New Wave. However your college students cherished it, too.
Nate:
They cherished it. They usually mentioned, the place can we see “Breathless”? So, it opens up an entire world to them. Sure. Of, you recognize, the the French New Wave. So now they’re going to hunt out the movies by Godard and Truffaut and Agnes Varda.
Chaz:
I find it irresistible.
Eric:
So, some college students mentioned, you recognize, that they they needed me to see, Eddington.
Chaz:
Oh, Ari Aster.
Eric”
Sure. And so I, I went to see it and I’ll say that one of many barometers for judging a movie for me is how lengthy it bangs round in your head after you’ve seen it.
And this movie remains to be banging round in my head. And I noticed it, like, three days in the past, so, so I’m nonetheless attempting to course of it, so I’m not fairly positive the place I’m but.
Chaz:
So let me let you know the most important shock for me about rester. I had an opportunity to take a seat down and discuss to him as a result of I cherished “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” and a few of his different movies. I believed he was an older Swede. I didn’t know he was a younger American director. And in order that was a nice shock.
But in addition, I imply, he’s very good. And the factor about this, it was the pandemic, however the worry and the worry that exist in our nation as we speak, after the election, the newest elections, presidential elections actually resonated for me in Eddington.
Nate:
The attention-grabbing factor is for my college students, Ari Aster is God. I imply, they love Midsommar and I imply…
Chaz:
Even Bo is afraid.
Nate:
Yeah. In order that they have been actually wanting to see this film, and, it’s stunned them.
Chaz:
Okay, I’m going to ask. Simply going again in your thoughts through the years, is there a selected incident or specific film that stood out for you in your Cannes expertise?
Nate:
I’ve received a pair in my head, initially, to speak to you. And also you bear in mind it nicely I’m positive. It was the dedication of the Roger Ebert Theater on the American Pavilion. Martin Scorsese, he was there.
Chaz:
Convention Middle
Nate.
Convention middle. Sure. Martin Scorsese, he was there. I went with Paul Cox. I introduced him to it. He was not nicely on the time, however he made the hassle to return, and I, I sat subsequent to the Thierry Fremaux, the competition director, and it was simply a rare occasion to be there with these these individuals who have been honoring Roger with with the theater.
The opposite was it was a extra less complicated time just a few years earlier than, once I first began bringing college students to the competition. Roger got here to speak to the scholars on the American Pavilion, and he sat there, and he spent he spent over an hour simply, answering their questions, speaking to them. And, I’ve I’ve a nonetheless {photograph} of him doing that, and, you recognize it’s {a photograph} I treasure.
I do not forget that second.
Chaz:
You recognize what? It’s simply fantastic to have you ever each right here as we speak. Thanks.
Eric and Nate:
Thanks a lot.
Chaz:s
I’m additionally personally touched by the very human tales. Pamela and Nicholas Visitor, fantastic actors and producers from LA, sadly have been victims of the LA fires that destroyed their residence and so a lot of their belongings.
I’ve the pleasure of reintroducing two company that we’ve had earlier than. Pamela and Nicholas Visitor. They’re filmmakers. Pamela can also be a casting director.
And in addition, I’ll allow you to introduce a few of the different belongings you do, however I simply need you to assist me welcome them. And I really like to speak to you about your expertise right here in Cannes. I need to discuss to you first about one thing very private. You have been affected, you reside in Los Angeles space. You have been affected by the fires there.
They appear devastating. Are you able to inform us just a bit bit about what that have was like for you?
Pamela Visitor:
Properly, I used to be residence and we had an house on the cliff within the Palisades, proper, trying on the ocean every single day, which we discovered very uplifting and galvanizing to be there. And anyway, I’ve been lately producing our daughter’s movie that we’re additionally in. Nick likes to say we play her dad and mom. We inform everybody he’s very pleased with the truth that not solely is he actually her father, however he performs your father.
Anyway, so, I used to be engaged on the pc on the film. Liz and Nick have been off. She was serving to him do an audition in Hollywood. And I used to be sitting there on the laptop and received the phrase that there was a fireplace, you recognize, a kind of alerts. However there’s all the time alerts on the market. Sure, Malibu is burning. Topanga is burning. It occurs on a regular basis. And it simply occurred like two weeks earlier than or one thing anyway. And so I didn’t take it critically. After which I needed to get out now, you recognize, go. That is horrible. And so we had a automotive within the storage. Fortunately. And I used to be in a position to drive away, nevertheless it took me 4 hours to get to Westwood, which is generally 20 minutes.
Chaz:
Due to all of the visitors?
Pamela:
Bumper to bumper folks attempting to get away. Sure. And as I turned a nook onto Temescal to go right down to the seashore, the hearth was actually proper right here on the opposite facet of the street.
Chaz:
You can see it. Might you’re feeling it?
Pamela:
Sure. And I turned and snapped an image. As a result of I used to be in denial. I used to be like, it was essentially the most weird expertise. I used to be not afraid. I didn’t take something. I didn’t take it critically. I simply hopped out and did what they have been telling us. So it was very unusual. And it continues to be very unusual as a result of all the things is gone.
Nicholas Visitor:
The actually necessary sentimental and all the things, plenty of stuff.
Pamela:
…that meant quite a bit to us, was in that house.
Chaz:
I actually considered you in the course of the fires as a result of, I could have instructed you this once I was 4 or 5 years previous. I used to be in, my gown was on hearth. I used to be within the hospital for months. I needed to be dunked in, some resolution or one thing. Thankfully,there’s virtually no hint of it on my pores and skin wherever.
However I bear in mind Santa Claus came around me, and I bear in mind standing there on my large crib like factor, and he checked out my eyes and he mentioned, little lady, you could have the wisest, saddest eyes I’ve ever seen. Santa Claus telling me this once I was like 4 or 5 years previous and he mentioned, what would you like for Christmas?
I mentioned, I don’t, I need nothing. Give it to all the opposite youngsters. So once I take into consideration hearth, I take into consideration that. And I understand how like, devastating it may be.
Nicholas:
Properly, one factor that occurred, by the best way, proper after that is that we have been instructed the place to go. All of the individuals who had misplaced their locations. And it was it occurred to be at a spot known as the West Facet Pavilion. So FEMA was there and all these different organizations and everybody there, I, I don’t assume I’ve ever skilled that a lot heat and kindness in my complete life.
They have been simply unbelievable. I imply, I received goosebumps the entire time. I’ve been impressed since I’ve been right here as a result of I really like, as you recognize, being a global setting, I’m instantly happier as quickly as I get right here.
Chaz:
And, yeah, I, I hate to interrupt this. You have been on a really good roll, however I do know you additionally do voices. Are you able to do some accents?
Nicholas:
I feel, for instance, once I first was right here, it was very troublesome as a result of folks have been talking in like, metaphors. You say metaphor, this type of factor. And, I’ve to confess, it was troubling once I mentioned, are they attempting to confuse me? Have you learnt what I imply?
Chaz:
You didn’t know the which means.
NIcholas:
No. So I had I virtually left gone. I used to be now, however I imply, it’s simply enjoyable, truly. Movie is sort of a circle. So it continues. It goes spherical and spherical. So you’re feeling such as you’re caught, you recognize, like on a carousel. And it’s not stopping you, you recognize? You recognize. No, thanks. So anyway, that makes me glad.
As a result of they’re all right here. All of those persons are right here.
Chaz:
Yeah. After you allow, can what do you foresee for the long run? In movie andl in life?
Nicholas:
I used to be simply going to say, I imply, this specific Cannes was significantly extraordinary as a result of we have been right here to be supportive of our daughter’s first film. You recognize, we have been actors in it. However, I imply, it was simply all about her. And that feels so nice to not I imply, simply to be in that state of supporting, you recognize, her profession.
Pamela:
And I’m additionally working as a casting director on a brand new venture. It’s the it’s a studying of a screenplay known as The Most Harmful E book, which is concerning the writing and banning of James Joyce’s Ulysses by Donald Margulies. It’s a full blown screenplay, however we’re doing a studying in Los Angeles of it to draw, you recognize, curiosity and, you recognize, no matter.
Chaz:
So I really like seeing the three of you as a household, as a result of we now have a lot on this world that divides us as we speak that once I see one thing the place it’s being held collectively by love and goodwill, that’s simply so lovely.
Nicholas:
So we’re lucky.
Pamela:
We’re lucky. Yeah. Thanks.
Chaz:
Thanks.
Cannes continues to push the boundaries of movie and leisure with the immersive competitors that options digital actuality, AI, and different forms of new applied sciences. 16 works from 9 nations have been a part of the official choice, and the Greatest Immersive Work award went to “From Mud”, created by Michel Van Der Aa, for recognizing a creation that pushed the boundaries of storytelling, artwork, area and viewers engagement.
Many right here in Cannes are representing different movie festivals from world wide, and so they come to see movies they could want to convey residence. A kind of folks is the founding father of the Mill Valley Movie Competition in California. He’s been coming to Cannes for almost 40 years, and he talked to us about why Cannes is so necessary.
Mark Fishkin:
Everyone knows these are difficult instances to say the least, and it’s troublesome to stay optimistic. However I feel for a lot of causes, private causes that aren’t simply private to me, however everybody having kids and grandchildren and the hope that you really want for the long run. Nevertheless it does come to me that I and I do know not all people, as I discussed earlier than, believes this, however I do actually assume that movie might be essentially the most highly effective affect.
We talked about empathy, however actually the tales which are being instructed. And that’s what’s actually is exclusive about Cannes and festivals. I imagine basically, they’re coping with actually present up to date points which are frequent to all of us, and to have that dialogue and to have the ability to have a look at what’s taking place world wide when you recognize all the things that we see in america, not all the things, however most issues, it’s only a sound chunk.
And to have the ability to dig in and and discover these points in a really private method, that basically, for me, that movie does higher than some other medium is de facto does give me hope.
Chaz:
I additionally sat down with Zbigniew Banas, one other Chicago movie critic, who has been coming to Cannes for many years, and he shares with us what brings him again 12 months after 12 months.
I’m very glad to current Zbigniew Banas. He’s a movie critic, a journalist, and he teaches Polish movie historical past in Chicago. And what I need to discuss to him about is he’s been to Cannes over 35 instances, and I feel that he has a beneficial perception to share with us.
That is the and I’ve to let you know, it’s the primary time I ever known as you a nickname as a result of I all the time love saying your full identify.
Zbigniew:
Properly, right here we’re on this worldwide crowd, in Cannes. So I’m going by my Polish identify and I mix proper in.
Chaz:
What are a few of the issues that made an impression on you coming to the competition through the years?
Zbigniew:
It’s about assembly folks. As I mentioned, for me, since I’m Polish, I’ve all the time been related to Polish cinema. The very first 12 months needed to do with assembly Kieslowski, who was right here with “A Brief Movie about Killing”, then with “The Double Lifetime of Véronique.” Then with “Three Colours: Pink.” And never solely did we turn out to be very pleasant right here, to a degree at which I’d later go to him on the set when he was capturing “White”, in Warsaw.
I even grew to become his interpreter right here at Cannes on just a few events, and it was a really particular relationship. Then, sadly, he handed away, within the mid Nineteen Nineties. Nevertheless it all needed to do with Cannes. And, you recognize, the 12 months that “Pulp Fiction” gained the Palme d’Or. All of us have been, nicely no less than the Polish group right here, we have been hoping that “Three Colours: Pink” would win.
it was the identical 12 months. And that was, you recognize, within the operating till the very, very finish, solely to be overwhelmed by “Pulp Fiction.” What can I say?
Chaz:
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the way forward for movie?
Zbigniew:
I’m reasonably optimistic. The demise of cinema has been pronounced on a number of events earlier than, and by some means cinema has survived. There are lots of people who love films. Like to see films on the massive display, particularly. So I’m not nervous. So far as cinema is anxious, for the subsequent 5, ten, 15 years. Ask me the identical query in 20 years after which who is aware of
what the reply goes to be. Nevertheless, it appears to me that the golden period of movie festivals is, on its method down. It’s waning down. And by some means all of the offers that Cannes was so well-known for now are completed by way of, emails. You recognize, screeners are despatched. So not as many individuals really feel compelled to return bodily to Cannes.
And the competition remains to be enjoying a vital function, extra so than some other single competition on the earth. Nevertheless it’s that side of the way forward for the cinema that I’m much less optimistic about. However for now, every single day we will come right here within the anticipation of watching one of the best new films and assembly previous buddies, and seeing the ability of cinema nonetheless to unite folks, to inform us the sorts of tales that make us surprise each, you recognize, esthetically, intellectually, but in addition emotionally, concerning the horizons that we might by no means in any other case have the ability to cross.
And that’s a sense you could’t get wherever else.
Chaz:
Oh, I really like that. I really like that reply a lot. Properly, let me ask for us each to carry on to that modicum of optimism. Properly thanks.
Zbigniew:
It’s all we now have left…apart from the films.
Chaz:
The films, there’s all the time the films.
Zbigniew:
Precisely.
Chaz:
That’s all for Cannes for this 12 months. You recognize what? It was a terrific competition with fantastic movies, nice climate, and most significantly, fantastic folks from all around the world to go to and discuss with. Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us this 12 months. We will’t wait to return again in 2026, and we hope you’ll be a part of us then. Till then, au revoir.
