Yesterday, at the Cannes Film Festival, was the day of a great star of world cinema: Clint Eastwood, who presented his Masterclass to a large audience of critics, journalists and filmmakers.
He refused to speak in depth about politics and he summarised his position by saying: “Today, we’re killing ourselves with political correctness; we’ve really lost our sense of humour.”
Many people expected him to speak about US President Donald Trump, but he avoided many questions before they were even asked: “Donald Trump is my friend, but I’m here to talk about cinema.”
Eastwood, who was President of the Jury in 1994, came to Cannes four days ago. On May 20 he was at the Debussy Theatre to present the restored copy of Unforgiven, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary at the Festival. On the 21st, he inaugurated the 70th anniversary Masterclass with a discussion in the company of American critic Kenneth Turan in the Bunuel screening room. The legendary actor and director freely commented on his films, childhood and beginnings. Several standing ovations electrified the room.
Talking about his childhood, Eastwood said: “As a kid, I already loved westerns. My idols at the time? Gary Cooper, John Stewart, John Wayne,” adding “I was born during the Depression and my parents were starving, but as kids, we really didn’t notice. My sister and I were always given enough.”
On the number of takes during the shooting of his films he said: “I like to do a first take to see what happens on the faces of my actors. If everything works after the first take, everybody becomes caught up in this positive dynamic, and it really helps with the rest of the shooting”.
Talking about his passion for directing he said: “Cinema is completely emotional; it’s not intellectual at all. An example: I like playing golf, but I don’t want to have to play golf. It’s the same with directing”.
The director’s filmography has been a firm fixture at Cannes over the past few decades. His first appearance was in 1985 with Pale Rider, followed by Bird (1988), White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), Absolute Power (1997), Mystic River (2003) and Chengeling in 2008, with the latter earning him the Special Jury Prize at the 61st edition of the Festival. The director was President of the Feature Film Jury in 1994, and also attended the festival in 2008, when Manoel de Oliveira was awarded his Palme d’Or.
— Erfan Rashid is an Iraq-born journalist and film critic based in Italy. He’s the former director of Arabic Programmes at the Dubai International Film Festival
