Raquel Welch presents a prize to Orson Welles for Chimes at Midnight at the Cannes Film Festival, on May 20, 1966. (AP photo)
Netflix has been banned from competing at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, but expectations are high that Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind will be shown there as a Official Selection Special Screening and not part of the competition.
Festival chief Theirry Fremaux told The Hollywood Reporter that Netflix offerings may be shown, but will not be eligible for the prestigious Palme d’Or because the “intransigence of their own model is now the opposite of ours.”
Cannes’ new rules back France’s theater owners and the Media Chronology Law, which blocks films released in French theaters from playing on SVOD platforms for three years ― a practice that flies in the face of the Netflix business model.
Netflix tried unsuccessfully in 2017 to secure temporary permits to screen its films for less than a week in France, but ran afoul of the chronology law.
With that in mind, Deadline noted that The Other Side of the Wind “looks more like a Special Screening, perhaps under the aegis of Cannes Classics.”
IndieWire opined that “Wind could be the highest profile get for the venerable Cannes Classics section.”
“A spot in Cannes Classics would be one of the hottest tickets of the festival,” Awards Watch predicted.
France’s Ecran Noir agreed, “The Other Side of the Wind opening Cannes Classics would have a certain class.”
It is unknown whether Special Selections will be announced on April 12 when the lineup for the May 8-19 festival is revealed.
Jean-Pierre Haeck, who conducted the Michel Legrand score for the film, added fuel to the fire when he told the French newspaper La Meuse last week, “I don’t want to reveal a secret, but it’s already intended for a great position at a certain place where you climb steps on a red carpet.”
Cannes holds a special place in Welles history.
His Othello received the Grand Prix in 1952, while Chimes at Midnight won prizes there 14 years later. Welles took home best actor honors at Cannes for his performance in Richard Fleischer’s Compulsion in 1959.
Since Welles’ passing in October 1985, Cannes has screened revivals of Citizen Kane and The Lady from Shanghai, a restored Othello and footage from his unfinished Don Quixote.
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