The 54th edition of the so-called “Olympics of Advertising” was kicked off here to-day as the annual Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival began.

View along the Croissette at dusk.

Eleven thousand presumably earnest advertising executives and their promising “up and comers” crowded the Croisette, filled the hotels, registered at the Palais and thronged the various ad hoc “cafes,” set up by the well-heeled agencies, these “cafes” operate from 12 noon to about 9:00p.m. for delegues only, serving drinks and finger food while providing “chic” meeting places replete with jazz singers, etc. (invitation only, of course.) By the way, if you don’t have a pass to at least one of these joints, you feel like a loser – at least I did!

Cafe, turned into full-tilt-boogie party for delegues and their "friends."

The attendant wives meanwhile are shopping on the Rue d’Antibes, being massaged at the Carlton and the Majestic or possibly gazing wistfully at the various available beaches as the weather is somewhat inclement to-day. Oh, as the song goes; “It’s a good life, if you can get it” – and many are getting it to-day!

But, the affairs of the festival are not to be taken lightly – there are many prizes to be won and awarded, deals to be made and insights to be garnered. The hot issues are: media convergence and the, to many, disturbing rise of the digital empires along with the seeming, always-to-be-there Al Gore with his “green” message! However, lest we forget, the gathering is about money – and how to better persuade the consumer to part with it.

I don’t criticize! I was part of a co-industry for many years and have no quarrel with anybody other than the grossly crude and avaricious.

This is a “hip” crowd, particularly among the younger participants; and there are many. Much on display were bra straps under skin-tight tops along with low-riders, “very old” jeans revealing tattoos and thongs at the small of the back – these are the women of course; the young men just look disheveled.

However, one has to smile when you are witness to one of the festival’s many awkward moments as a distinguished and very, well-dressed, mature man who had “executive” and “boss” written all over him experienced a quite full glass of rose wine spilled in his lap as he graciously welcomed a group of much younger associates (underlings?) to his table on the Carlton Terrace – all was a twitter for a minute or two, while the clumsy one stood to one side looking mortified.

The "Lions" take "time out" from their hunting!

But, I overheard much serious talk in the restaurants and lounges to-day as well as reading thoughtful pieces around the “greening” of the advertising message. This community has so welcomed Mr. Gore and what he currently stands for that his appearance has been moved to a larger venue.

After all, we need flush consumers in a sustainable world – and what’s wrong with that other than being an extraordinary challenge!

So I think we should look to another time when cultures, values and senses of spirituality clashed as expressed in the excellent and moving film – “The Mission,” directed by Roland Joffé and starring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons with out of this world music from Ennio Moricone.

Movie Review:

The Mission

Directed by Martin Scorcese — MGM 1980
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pescia, Cathy Moriarity

Set in 1758 in the Spanish and Portugese colonies of south America, the film is based upon actual events and written by the great Robert Bolt ("Lawrence of Arabia" and "Dr. Zhivago"). Once again, the bona fides for “The Mission” are stellar because aside from the outstanding cast, the superb direction of Joffé (just coming off “The Killing Fields”) and the brilliant script by Bolt, underlining it all is one of the greatest film scores ever — by, of course, Ennio Morricone! In addition, this extraordinary film won the Palme d’Or in 1986 at the Cannes Film Festival.

Father Gabriel as head of the Mission of San Carlos, protecting the Guarani from the slavers.

The story, simply put, concerns a clash between Spanish and Portugal “slavers” and the accompanying Spanish plantation interests and the determined opposition to these interests from a group of fiery Jesuits who are appealing to the Papacy to protect their missions, which have become safe havens for the hunted Guarani people — a simple tribe living in a largely inaccessible and remote jungle.

In the course of the film, we see the following aspects of the human dilemma set out in dramatic and, more often that not, emotionally overpowering relief.

The plantation owners and slave traders are front and center demonstrating their ruthless power dedicated to greed and acquisition. Their polar opposites, the childlike and spiritual Guarani people become the “prize” in the inevitable clash. Protecting them with faith and courage are the Jesuits let by Father Gabriel (another flawless performance from Jeremy Irons). And then, there is the Cardinal, in a carefully nuanced performance by the late and great Ray McAnally, who is to adjudicate the dispute — but what appears to be an open and shut case is made complex and difficult by shameless European/Papacy intrigue.

A little bit of Europe in the middle of the South American jungle.

When the difficult decision is regretfully made to allow the plunderers to extend their hunting grounds into the remote jungle; thus placing the Jesuits in the untenable position of opposing the church and its Pope- the stage is set for what we all too often see: the murderous and violent triumph of evil and avarice over goodness and love, and all of this treachery underscored by the haunting music of Ennie Marricone. When I first saw this film in a very large theatre that featured a huge screen and a state-of-the-art sound system, many of the moviegoers (including me) were, quite simply, overcome!

Aside from the very clear and ancient clash of good and evil, we are presented with another thorny question as the slavers and their mercenaries attack the San Carlos mission. Father Gabriel, the head of the Jesuit group, says “If this is a world in which might is right, then it is a world in which I choose not to live.” At this he walks out to face his attackers armed only with his Monstrance and the Sacred Host!

Father Gabriel and his people meeting Portugese onslaught.

But Robert de Niro as Roderigo, the novice Jesuit, who has joined the order to achieve personal redemption, is a warrior and a former mercenary/slaver. He leads a spirited but doomed counter- attack against the wishes of his superior, Father Gabriel.

As the Papal emissary, the cardinal, says at the beginning of his visit, “Little in this world unfolds as we expect”- and so it is with the unfolding of “The Mission.” The Jesuit and Indian cause is palpably just while that of the slavers obviously unjust- but, the church – the church rules in favor of the evil ones.

How can that be, we ask? It is the way of the world, we answer! “The Mission” reminds us of the never-ending struggle between light and dark in a significant and powerful manner.

And so, it comes full circle; Al Gore with his “greening” message is having impact with the advertising industry which is meeting in Cannes – the message being one of the need for a simpler life and more awareness of our society’s despoliation of the natural world while “The Mission” is about the plundering of that world and its inhabitants along with their simple but beautiful sense of spirituality – 250 some years ago!

“The story never changes”. James Lee Burke

A curious note: both films (Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Roland Joffé’s “The Mission”) were screened in the same main theatre at the Palais Du Festivals in Cannes some 21 years apart.