Fifty years ago, the Cannes film festival collapsed as filmmakers withdrew their work in a wave of protest. We’ve compiled a selection of films slated to play at the canceled festival, as well as a new introduction by film historian Dudley Andrew.
In this 2018 piece, film historian Dudley Andrew explains the situation which lead to the cancellation of the Cannes Film Festival in 1968.
Directed by Carlos Saura • 1967 • Spain
Carlos Saura's PEPPERMINT FRAPPE was made in the mid-1960s, when Franco's fascist regime was still ruling Spain, and the movie is very much an allegory about its own era -- a rigidly conservative middle-aged man finds himself hopelessly enamored of his bes...
Directed by Jan Němec • 1966 • Czechoslovakia
In Jan Němec's surreal fable, a picnic is rudely transformed into a lesson in political hierarchy when a handful of mysterious authority figures show up. This allegory about oppression and conformity was banned in its home country but became an inter...
Directed by Miloš Forman • 1967 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Jan Vostrcil, Josef Šebánek, František Reinstein
A milestone of the Czech New Wave, Miloš Forman’s first color film THE FIREMEN’S BALL is both a dazzling comedy and a provocative political satire. A hilarious saga of good intentions confo...