Wednesday. May 29, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY ,olao~ M , 29 94TEMCIA ALaeFv Yanks and opulence at Page Five . Cannes Film Festival By IRA MONDRY Special To The Daily CANNES -The Cannes Film Festival is to cinema what the Kentucky Derby is to horse racing. The film groupies, ci'eia aficionadoes and people who just lik2 to be where the action is all de- scend upon this usually calm town on the French Riviera each May, convert- ing it into a madhoose for the two weeks of the festival. Opulence is readily apparent: men in toxedoes and women in fancy gowns throw 100-franc notes around as if they were paper (which, of course, they are). The young people here, coning from all over the world, can be divided into two groups. The first group consists of the descendants of the Beautiful People, attired in the height of fashion-though modish, of course. They sit around sip- ping champagne and looking blase. The second group is composed of the freaks of the globe, wearing jeans and an immensely popular American col- lege T-shirt. A woman clad in an Ohio State T-shirt thought that Woody Hayes was a poetry professor, while a man wearing a U of M shirt did not know where the Ding was and, in fact could barely speak English. Although only three films entered in the competition are shown each day, oth- er movies are shown continuously at five different locations throughout the city. Many of these are porno flicks such as Deep Throat (en presence de Linda Lovelace) and Tango, a killer of a film about nymphomaniac nuns. Woody Al- len's Sleeper ("Woody et les Robots") had its European premier at a midnight showing. Allen's film was well received, in )arlicular the ragtime music. The big- gest laugh came wheni DeGaulle was referred to as a "great French Chef". TIis year's festival could have easily been dubbed "The American Film Fes- tiVA", as the U. S. entries dominated the jury's awards. Le Grand Prix went to The Conversation, with Jack Nichol- son chosen best actor for his role in The Last Detail. A Russian filmr entered in the compe- tition consisted of an adaptation of Iluckleberry Finn. The film was in Rus- sian with French subtitles, and although I could not understand a word of Rus- sian, I was fascinated by the character Jim's attempt to speak Russian with a black dialect. The French were not shut out. Al- though perhaps the best movie shown at Cannes this year was Lancelot du Lac by Robert Bresson, a beautiful adapta- tion of The Knights of the Round Ta- ble. It was not entered in the compe- tition, however. Marie Nat won best ac- tress in Les Violons du Bal, a film con- cerning a Jewish woman in France dur- ing the Nazi occupation. The Prix du Scenario (best story) went to yet another American film, The Sugarland Express, Thieves Like Us, a movie directed by Robert Altman and which received wide critical ac- claim in the U. S., did not fare well with the jury. Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, set in New York's Little Italy, a film rejected by the committee, play- ed outside the competition and proved itself the equal of any of the entries. FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS (left to right) Marie Nat, Jack Nicholson and Francis Coppola display their Golden Palm awards at the awards presentation last Friday. Marie Nat of France was named best actress for her role in "Les Violons du Bal," a film about the Nazi occupation of France. American actor Jack Nicholson won the award for best actor for his role as a troubled sailor in "The Last Detail." American director Francis Coppola took top honors for his film "The Conversation" (see below for review). 'Conversation': Plot plus sensitivity By IRA MONDRY Special To The Daily CANNES - The Conversation, an American entry in the Cannes Film Fes- tival which won le Grand Prix, is both , complex and interesting movie. As Fran- cis Ford Coppola, the producer, director, and writer of the film says it is actually "two movies in one." Conversation is a suspenseful thriller in which the viewer becomes deeply in- volved in the plot. At the same time it is an intense, detailed character analy- sis of a professional "bugger," played by Gene Hackman, who undergoes tre- mendous changes throughout the course of the film. The greatness of the film lies in its ability to tread the fine line between these two aspects and combine them into a cohesive whole. At the start of the movie, Harry Caul (liackman) is the best bugger on the West Coast. He is not concerned with the morality of what he is doing; rather, Caul is just a man doing his job. Much of the early part of the film is spent detailing Harry's character. We find that he is a shy, withdrawn person who is an absolute loner. For $15,000 he contracts to record a conversation of two people walking in a small park, which he does in a master- ful way by using three high-powered microphones. It is only after the callousness of his fellow professionals is shown to him at a convention for buggers that Harry really begins to think about his job. He remem- bers that he once recorded three people and several days later they mysteriously were killed. At the time he accepted no blame, as he did not know the pur- pose of his mission, but now he begins to doubt his innocence. This leads Harry to' inspect the purpose of his latest assign- ment, which he concludes may also lead to death. Harry has possession of the tapes on which the important information is con- tained. (Ironically similar to Nixon's po- sition.) However, they are stolen from him by the man who commissioned him for the job (Robert Duvall), when he suspects that Harry may hold onto them. Harry tries to prevent the murder which he knows will occur, but is unsuccessful. The movie ends in a half-fantasy scene in which Harry, realizing that his own room has been bugged, destroys every- thing in it in a vain attempt to locate the device. Coppola, whpse credentials include di- recting The Godfather, producing Amer- ican Graffiti, and the dubious achieve- ment of writingthe screenplay for The Great Gatsby, acknowledges three main inspirations for The Conversation. The first was a talk he had about five years ago where he learned about powerful microphones which could record over great distances and filter out unwanted noises. The second influence was Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, on which the char- acter of Harry Caul is based, at least in his isolation. The third, and most important influ- ence is Antonioni's Blow Up, in which David Hemmings inadvertently photo- graphs a murder and has the evidence stolen. Coppola wanted to make this movie five years ago, (the part of Harry Caul was originally intended for Marlon Bran- do), way before Watergate became a household word, yet it naturally seems particularly relevant today. Coppola says that he wants to be a political film- maker, but not an obvious one like God- ard. As he says, "I want to make subtle films about the human, underlying prin- ciples of t-.litical and social events. If a movie is too obvious only those who agree with its principles will go see it, and nothing will be gained. "If a movie is entertaining and forces people to think they may learn some- thing in the process of watching it. Film can reach so many people and so can be such a powerful element. In that way it can become political," he adds. The Conversation is such a film; en- terLaining, subtle and thought-provoking. If he can make more movies of this cali- ber, Coppola will become an even more important director and thus have the power to affect many people in the pro- cess. . Gene Hackman bugging a toilet