American cinema has always been prominent in the Cannes Festival’s programming, thanks to Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux, president and programming director respectively, both of whom give our cinema ample screen time (the festival will take place May 11-May 22. Italy’s Nanni Moretti will be president of the jury). Last year, Cannes was the launchpad for two American productions, The Artist, which went on to win the Oscar, and Tree

Screen Comment. Thank you for accepting to be interviewed for Screen Comment. I’d like you to talk to us about this 64th Cannes Film Festival, of course, but also about what cinema (and the Cannes Film Festival) mean to you. There is no career in the field more prestigious than yours. You are the General Delegate of the Festival and the Director of the Lumière Institute in Lyon. A few years ago, you even declined the position of Director of the Cinémathèque Française, the foremost film institution in the world. You were introduced to what in France is called the Seventh Art at a young age and from then on you never strayed far. Even your graduate dissertation is about cinema. In other words, one can say that you have almost always lived cinema and breathed cinema. Still, if you could see yourself having had a different career, what would it be (beside coach for the OL—the Lyon soccer team)?

Thierry Frémaux. I would have liked to be a writer and a gardener, both at the same time, actually. And I would also have liked to win the Tour de France.

Spotlight on this year's Cannes Selection and who the Palme winner will be. What's playing out in the jurors' hotel suite as I type these words is anyone's guess. How Robert De Niro will steer his jury is hard to tell. When Tim Burton was at the helm last year, people guessing "Uncle Boonmee" by Apichatpong Weerasethakul wouldn't have been too far off. Burton responds to dream-like, fantasy-related content, and the bewitching but slow movie by the Thai filmmaker was right up his alley. And "Boonmee" did win in the end. But De Niro? "Taxi driver," along with "Easy Rider," was one of the best-known movies out of the first independent cinema surge. Since then the "Meet the Parents" actor has usually worked with large, well-heeled movie productions. At the same time, he and Jane Rosenthal started Tribeca Film Festival which tends to showcase little-known filmmakers.

The buzz on the street has Lars Von Trier winning for "Melancholia." That's unlikely, considering what took place earlier this week (see our News article). I don't think De Niro would hand him the Palme given the Danish director's outrageous comments during the film's press conference.

I caught up with legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve at […]

At the 59th Cannes Film Festival I stood outside the press conference for Shortbus, by John Cameron Mitchell. Two large plasmas hung on each side of the foyer area leading to the conference room and journalists started huddling around the screens to watch the proceedings. Inside, Mitchell, who was flanked by his producer and the cast patiently fielded questions from the press, his usual good-humored snarl displayed prominently.