This is the chronicle of a
long-lived love story, that between the
Cannes Film Festival and controversial documentary director
Michael Moore. Today at the Press preview Moore's new film
Sicko (see
previous post on the film) triggered a long applause on the foreground of its ending titles
rolling on screen. Since
Bowling for Columbine (which was the first non-fiction film screened at the Festival in 40-plus years) Cannes has been Moore's best stage, and Moore has used it to full advantage, moving his circus of controversy and commotion all the way to the French Riviera. Already in 2004
Fahrenheit 9/11 shook the jury led by
Tarantino that year, who decided to award the Golden Palm to the film (only another documentary in the history of the Festival ever got so far, it was
The Silent World by the famed French oceanographer
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and a young
Louis Malle), and it generated an unprecedented trail of political commotion for its release right before the U.S. 2004 elections. Three years later, Moore arrives to Cannes with an army of
lawyers fully armed for the battle. In the press conference the
Canadian director
announced that he was forced to bring in Cannes a copy of the film, fearing that the original (which is hidden in a safe place) would be confiscated by American
authorities, and continued to say that on Tuesday he might be arrested, because
"that is the deadline for the ultimatum the Bush administration declared" for his entering Cuba without permission.
With
Sicko the director touches the delicate note of privatised Health Care System in the United States (the HMO is a powerful political lobby in U.S.) and it gives it the
Michael Moore treatment, that is to say he puts in the picture a few willingly
provocative twists and turns, that this time are summarised in a trip to Cuba to supply the needed
medical treatments to those 9/11 volunteers, who saw the
HMOs denying them cures to their serious
illnesses caused by the toxic wastes of Ground Zero. The aim was to bring the 9/11 heroes to the American territory of
Guantanamo to have them get the same excellent care and treatments
Guantanamo terrorists get; not succeeding in his effort, Moore got side-tracked into going to a Cuban public hospital, where (arguably, i dare say) the care is shown to be of better standards than the American one. In one precise blow Moore did what Moore is best at: igniting the fuse of controversy.
On the critics' side, besides any comments on the merits of the film and the obvious political battles, one must note that Moore does not get much
sympathy from the very non-fiction community he belongs to, many directors (among which the founding fathers of non-fiction
filmmaking) feel outraged by his improper use of the non-fiction tools to push his own personal goals and political ideas. A few indicators of this tendency are to be found in Moore's habit to always appear in his own work (in fact he even figures in all of his film posters) as main carrier of the narrative, interviewer and voice-over, which defies all laws of good non-fiction practice. Cannes might love "
troublemaker" Moore, but his informed peers are critical of his "
un-orthodox" methods; besides, I dare any journalist, on and off La
Croisette, to not have
doubt that bringing up the story of the Governmental treats almost 20 days after the
letter informing Moore of the investigation was issued, might be a smart
"publicity" stunt to promote the film among distributors and avoid it to be confiscated (just like it happened with
Fahrenheit 9/11).
Forgetting all comments and
doubts, the truth of the matter is that
Michael Moore is an awfully good filmmaker, who's able to twist and bend the boundaries of documentary to his own will. Even though criticism is correct in ditching his work as one-sided, nevertheless watching his films is still a good (and effective) cinematic experience. All is left to do is to wait and see if also
Sicko will make it to the Cinemas.
related links: Moore's website - CNN article praising Sicko - Entertainment Weekly interview on Sicko - video interview to Jacques Cousteau in Cannes 1956
Toronto's Hot Docs Festival pays tribute to the work of Jennifer Baichwal, director of the beautiful Manufactured Landscapes, which as national premiere at IO, ISABELLA IFW 2007 stirred the admiration of Italian audiences. The Canadian director enters the crew of the many excellent Canadian non-fiction filmmakers (Mark Achbar, Peter Winthonick, etc.) that in recent years brought us wonderful pieces of work. With each new film Baichwal has expanded her considerable skills as a filmmaker, with Manufactured Landscapes (2006) widely considered among the finest international documentaries of 2007. 
