By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown To Cannes: Michel Hazanavicius

searchThe ninth in a series of snapshots outlining the nineteen directors in the 67th Palme d’Or Competition.

Background: French; born Paris, France 1967.

Known for / style: The Artist (2011) and the spy parody series OSS 117; working with Jean Dujardin and his wife Bérénice Bejo; comedic capers and light-hearted narratives; a filmography that began in television series and TV movies; writing in addition to directing.

Notable accolades: Aside from the Best Picture Oscar, Hazanavicius’ biggest accolade is assuredly his Best Director Oscar for The Artist at the 84th Academy Awards. At the same ceremony, The Artist took home a total of five trophies out of ten nominated categories, three of which were for Hazanavicius’ work (Best Editing, Best Director, Best Screenplay). The Artist also won the director two BAFTA awards (Director, Screenplay), two Césars (Director, Best Film), and countless other prizes from around the world.

06Previous Cannes appearances: The Artist is the only film Hazanavicius has brought to the Festival, and it was an unexpected (read: late) addition to the Competition. He’s likely attended the Festival a number of times, however, as his wife Bérénice Bejo is a regular on the red carpet.

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: The Search, which stars Bérénice Bejo and Annette Bening. From the IMDb summary: “A woman who works for a non-governmental organization forms a special relationship with a young boy in war-torn Chechnya.” The film is actually a remake of the Academy Award-winning 1948 Fred Zinnemann film of the same name, but wait: Hazanavicius has flipped some of the genders around, though, and updated things to a more contemporary context. Child actor Maksim Emelyanov will play the role that Ivan Jandl won his Juvenile Oscar for.

Could it win the Palme? The major narrative here: could Hazanavicius really follow up his Best Picture Oscar with a Palme d’Or? It’s doubtful at best, especially if the jury wants to share the wealth (or feels that it isn’t prudent to laud the recently lauded). In other words, the odds of back-to-back wins for the biggest prizes in cinema seems incredibly unlikely. His spy spoofs aside, Hazavanicius has only essentially one major contender to his name (The Artist), which went down easy and played into a delicious type of nostalgia. That’s simply not the case this time, and the tone of The Search means the director’s buoyant sense of humor will be completely missing. The film is a must-see (the casting of Bejo and Bening solidifies that), but in terms of Palme prospects, we’re in uncharted territory here.

Why you should care: There’s a lot on the line for Hazanavicius, who faces the tricky task of following up a massive success with something unexpected. What lies in store with this film? Details are scant, despite this being a remake of a known quantity. If The Search is a failure, you can be sure that some critics will be chomping at the bit to call The Artist a fluke. But if Hazanavicius can pull off this drastic departure, we’ll witness the confirmation of a major auteur.

Follow Jake Howell on Twitter: @Jake_Howell

Previous Entries:

Tommy Lee Jones

Atom Egoyan

Bennett Miller

Xavier Dolan

David Cronenberg

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Naomi Kawase

Ken Loach

Michel Hazanavicius

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

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And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

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I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon