Sarah Polley's big prize
May 16, 2007 04:30 AM
Peter Howell

Sarah Polley has a problem many women would consider to be a pleasure.

She must decide which posh frock to wear tonight on the red carpet
outside the Palais des Festivals for the world premiere of Wong
Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights, at the start of the 60th Cannes Film
Festival.

"It's going to be one of two dresses by (Toronto designer) Wayne
Clark, but I'm not sure which one yet," Polley told the Star
yesterday, sitting for an interview in the lobby of her Riviera
waterfront hotel.

"I really love Canadian designers. The truth is, though, I'm not good
at this kind of thing."

It's no small concern for the 28-year-old Toronto actor and director,
who is otherwise used to people gawking at her, having been in the
public eye since age 4.

As part of the nine-member competition jury this year at Cannes, the
sole North American on the panel, she's charged with helping to select
which of 22 films will receive the fabled Palme d'Or and other prizes
11 days from now.

Which means she's required to appear considerably fancier than the
jeans, T-shirt and no-makeup look she was sporting yesterday afternoon
after arriving here from Toronto, attire that natural beauty Polley is
much more comfortable wearing.

This is her fourth trip to Cannes and her most demanding. She'll have
to dress up every night for the better part of two weeks, not just for
the night of a single premiere, as when she made her first visit here
at the age of 17 for Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter at the
festival's 50th anniversary.

It's putting it mildly to say that Polley has never enjoyed the
glamorous side of her chosen profession, which lately has added
screenwriter and director to her resumé for her well-received helming
debut Away From Her.

"It's not in me to be walking up a red carpet and posing, but I've
found a way to have a good time with it now," she said, tucking into a
salad Niçoise.

"It's an odd thing, because I feel here if you wear the same thing
twice you actually are making a statement. I don't really know what
that statement is. But at the same time, am I going to buy 14 ball
gowns? I don't think so.

"I've brought a few dresses that I really love, mostly by Canadian
designers."

She calls the dress dilemma "a small price to pay" for being on the
festival jury, an honour that brings forth a rush of superlatives.

"It's the best job on Earth. The idea that you actually get to go to a
film festival and enjoy it! I've never even considered that," she said.

"I usually go to film festivals and for two days do interviews in
hotel rooms. The idea of actually getting to see what's at the Cannes
Film Festival is really appealing to me. This feels like it will be my
first time experiencing Cannes, even though it's my fourth time here."

Many actors have dreams of winning an Oscar, but not Polley. For her,
being on the Cannes jury is a much grander prize.

"I guess everybody has one moment in their life where they really want
something with sheer crazy excitement that makes no sense and is
really over the top. This is totally my moment."

She was scheduled to have a get-acquainted dinner last night with the
other eight members of the jury, led by British director Stephen
Frears (The Queen).

The others are Hong Kong actor Maggie Cheung, Australian actor Toni
Collette, Portuguese actor/director Maria de Medeiros, French actor
Michel Piccolo, Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, Italian
director Marco Bellocchio and Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk.

Polley has met just one of them before: she and de Medeiros were both
in the movie My Life Without Me. Polley is looking forward to meeting
Sissako, whose most recent film Bamako she describes as one of her
all-time favourites.

The jurors are tasked with watching an eclectic slate of international
cinema, which this year is dominated by American film. Included are
world premieres by Joel and Ethan Cohen (No Country for Old Men),
Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Gus Van Sant
(Paranoid Park), James Gray (We Own the Night), and European premieres
by Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof) and David Fincher (Zodiac).

Polley could have gained a head start by seeing Zodiac and Death Proof
in Toronto before coming here, the latter as part of the Grindhouse
double bill (the Tarantino portion was severed for Cannes competition
purposes and for European release).

Both films opened weeks ago in North America. But movie buff Polley
deliberately avoiding seeing them, to avoid tainting her perceptions
while on the Cannes jury.

"I felt they should all be viewed in the same context. Also, I didn't
want them to fade from my memory. I really want to be aware of
watching the films."

She's also grateful there are no Canadian movies in the competition,
so she can be completely objective. (Quebecer Denys Arcand's new film
The Age of Ignorance will close the fest May 27, and the closing-night
film isn't in the competition.)

If it sounds as if Polley is taking her juror's job a tad too
seriously, have no fear. She vows to try to have some fun while in
Cannes, as much as her 22-movie schedule will allow her.

"I'm going to try to find a balance," Polley said, smiling at the
adventure that awaits her. "I don't think I'm going to be the person
coming home at 5 in the morning, caked in their own vomit.

"I'll be somewhere between that and the bespectacled woman with the
tight little bun!"


http://www.thestar.com/article/214231