The French love and pamper their dogs! And probably this national characteristic manifests itself most in Cannes – this most pampered of places.

Click thumbnails for more photos!

The Report from Cannes this week will consist mostly of photographs taken by our official photographer – the indefatigable Margaret Konopacki!

I love dogs also – I have Jake, a red Queensland heeler, who is my constant companion when on the ranch in Arizona. I have always loved dogs in movies – I was the right age to cry at the original “Lassie, Come Home” in 1943 with Roddy McDowall, and the very young Elizabeth Taylor. I still love the presence of Little Joey’s dog in “Shane” with each screening. (I regularly watch this movie as it has some kind of mystical and mythical strangehold on my consciousness)

Enjoy the great photos and plan to screen “Lassie Come Home,” a magnificent 1943 Technicolor film directed by Fred M. Wilcox and the satirical "Best in Show," directed by Christopher Guest.

Photo essay of the dogs in Cannes by Margaret Konopacki.

Movie Review:

Lassie Come Home

Directed by Fred M. Wilcox — MGM 1943
Starring: Roddy McDowell, Donald Crisp, Elizabeth Taylor

In Bosley Crowther’s New York Times’ very favorable review of “Lassie Come Home” in 1943, he writes:

Lassie meets young Joe at 4:00 each day as school gets out.

In watching this excellent movie the other day, as Crowther warned, I experienced a very strong emotional reaction to this wonderful tale of a dog’s devotion and love for his young master. Tears came to my eyes as Lassie, the beautiful and indomitable collie, struggles to return to Yorkshire from Scotland – an arduous journey of hundreds of miles across difficult and dangerous terrain. Young Joe (played well by the very young Roddy McDowell) sees Lassie sold to a local, dog-breeding aristocrat due to the tough times experienced by his family as the story is set in 1937, just prior to World War II and during the extreme, economic difficulties of the Great Depression.

Lassie begins her impossible journey from Scotland to Yorkshire.

Sam Carraclough (played with stoic determination by Donald Crisp) is forced to let Lassie – a magnificent dog – be sold so that he, as an unemployed man, can feed his family.

It’s a simple story, based upon a popular novel by Yorshireman Eric Knight who, incidentally, was killed in action during WWII – the film is dedicated to his memory. It is also filmed simply in what was still a relatively new Technicolor so that its “look” is gorgeous.

But the tale is dominated by the great dog Lassie who “tugs at our heartstrings” as he pursues his valiant journey to reunite with young Joe Carraclough.

When my tears flowed (again, as I assume that I also cried as a seven year old), I first thought that it was just a nostalgic reaction but after reading Bosley Crowther’s review I realized that “Lassie Come Home” speaks to adults as well – then, as now.

There is something of a mystical relationship between dogs and humans that is endearing and powerful. I know that my relationship with my dog Jake is profound in ways that I can neither speak to or even understand!

Reunited with young Joe.

As a parent who loved to introduce my then-small children to the excitement and mysteries of movies that had thrilled me, I can, unreservedly, recommend “Lassie Come Home” for any family. The fact that this movie is almost 70 years old has no impact on its enjoyment.

So rent it from Netflix or buy it from Amazon; you might want to buy because your children will want to see it again and again – of that, I am confident!

A note: Elizabeth Taylor at 11 years old has a small but important part which will lead soon to her breakthrough role in “National Velvet" — a whole-family horse story revolving around Englands great Steeplechase Race. It was released the following year – 1944.

Movie Review:

Best in Show

Directed by Christopher Guest — Warner Bros 2000
Starring: Christopher Guest, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean

“Best in Show” is one of a series of “mockumentaries” conceived of and directed by Christopher Guest. Among other entries in this satirical series are “Waiting for Guffman” (the world of theatre) and “A Mighty Wind” (the world of folksinging). A dictionary definition of satire:

So, if “Lassie Come Home” is the story of a loyal and courageous dog, “Best in Show” is the story of a number of “loopy” dog-owners at the annual Mayflower Dog Show in Philadelphia. Largely improvised, but written in outline by Guest and Levy, this clever satire pokes fun at the “dog people” – not too many belly-laughs but much smiling in reaction to the crazy antics of these addled human beings who place so much of their lives and its appreciation in the accomplishments of their spoiled and neurotic dogs. 

Fighting with the pet store clerk.

However, it must be noted that it is the dogs that appear “normal” as compared to their owners.

Poodle in the show ring.

Done in a straightforward, documentary manner with interviews spoken straight to the camera, it spoofs all the things sacred to dog shows including a hilarious turn from Fred Willard as a dopey TV commentator.

The commentators’ dialogue is hilarious!

Thus the two films speak to different audiences and have been made decades apart but both appeal to that mysterious link between humans and their dogs and which is demonstrated so obviously in the people of France and their love of dogs!