Page - 212 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

and religious habits (tuxedos and gowns).4 Eager mobs of onlookers – many who would likely never see a single film during the festival – would wait for hours outside the Palais or the Hotel Martinez on the Croisette, craning their necks (and their phones) for a possible glimpse of a celebrity. The red carpet served as a sort of sacred site; only the most faithful and penitent (and prop- erly attired) were allowed to make the brief pilgrimage up the red steps into the massive Grand Théâtre Lumière (and no selfies allowed!). Indeed, there was a liturgy for the in-competition film premieres and galas: only formal evening wear allowed, with the filmmaking team arriving via black vehicles at the bot- tom of the steps in order to be photographed and adored by the teeming wor- shipers. The stars would wait patiently for the right moment in the liturgy, then they would ascend the steps to be greeted by festival director Thierry Frémaux before entering the Grand Théâtre Lumière to a standing ovation. I confess, seeing Tilda Swinton, Isabelle Huppert and Willem Dafoe in the flesh does bring with it a frisson of reverence, as if one has suddenly encountered a sacred or angelic figure. Richard Dyer’s description of celebrities as “heavenly bodies” comes to mind, as does his paradox of the star: these celebrity idols are both ordinary and extraordinary, present yet absent, a tri-fold manifestation of ideol- ogy, social construction and marketed commodity.5 Such is also the paradox of the Festival de Cannes, a gathering which is at-once inclusive and exclusive, high art and consumer entertainment, secular and religious – it is the temple where the pilgrims have put their faith in film itself. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bazin, André, 2009 [1955], The Festival Viewed as a Religious Order, in Porton, Richard (ed.), On Film Festivals (Dekalog3), London: Wallflower Press, 11–19. Dyer, Richard, 2004, Heavenly Bodies. Film Stars and Society, 2nd edition, London: Routledge. Dyer, Richard, 1998, Stars, London: BFI Pub. FILMOGRAPHY A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick, US 2019). Atlantique (Atlantics, Mati Diop, FR/SN 2019). Bacurau (Kleber Mendonça Filho / Juliano Dornelles, BR 2019). For Sama (Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts, UK/US 2019). Frankie (Ira Sachs, US 2019). Gisaengchung (Parasite, Bong Joon-Ho, KR 2019). Les hirondelles de Kaboul (The Swallows of Kabul, Zabou Breitman / Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec, FR 2019). It Must Be Heaven (Elia Suleiman, FR/CA 2019). 4 Bazin 2009. Thanks to Stefanie Knauss for directing me to this essay. 5 See Dyer 1998; Dyer 2004. 212 | Joel Mayward www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 204–213