In 1938, French Minister of National Education Jean Zay got the idea to start an international film festival. This decision was mainly due to the Venice Film Festival’s bias towards fascism and the Nazi regime at the time. With support from the US and England, Zay chose the city of Cannes to host this new festival. Unfortunately, 1939 was when the Nazis invaded France, and it seemed that the festival was no more. Thankfully, the festival relaunched in 1946, and the Cannes International Film Festival was born on September 20, 1946. In 1959, the Marché du Film (Film Market) was founded for studios to buy and sell to foreign markets. Since Troma’s birth in the early 1970s, Lloyd Kaufman and his team have traveled to Cannes to promote their movies. To show their fans what the festival is like, Troma produced the 2002 documentary All The Love You Cannes!
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Synopsis
In 2001, Lloyd Kaufman and his team visited the Cannes Film Festival to try and promote their films. In particular, they were looking to drive up hype for Terror Firmer and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. While filming the goings-on at Cannes, Lloyd provides advice and insight for those who want to attend and save money. Since the major studios spend millions of dollars promoting their movies, Troma has to go above and beyond for attention. For example, the team put on parades where they make tons of noise, hand out leaflets, and frolic half-naked. Unfortunately, the Troma team runs afoul of the hotel security and local police because of their shenanigans. Most of the blame is laid at Doug Sakmann, who’s shown getting drunk and getting himself into tons of trouble. Also, a small dog from Warner Bros. tries to start some beef with Troma.
Review
All The Love You Cannes! is an entertaining and insightful look at Cannes and the studio system in general. Much like the making-of documentaries they’ve made, this one also shows how chaotic working for Troma can be. The documentary shows the struggles Troma has to go through to get people to notice them. We’re shown the 40+ staff sleeping in an apartment made for four people, getting into drunken fights, and hassling cops. We also see some internal trouble from the Troma team, including some Tromettes being sexually harassed by locals. As mentioned above, Doug Sakmann is given most of the blame since he’s the one charged with running things. It doesn’t help that he performs stunts like stumbling around spewing blood and running outside in a Kabukiman costume. It’s the kind of pure insanity you’d expect from Troma.
Something is endearing about these renegades going up against the bigwigs as chaotic as everything is. Troma has always been a champion of independent cinema, and they feel that the big corporations have taken over. In addition to providing sound advice, Lloyd also shows how pure showmanship can win people over to your side. Admittedly, there are times where things get so chaotic that it’s hard to follow along with what’s happening. Plus, there’s not much information about Cannes’ history, which would’ve helped add further context to the narrative being presented. Even though the documentary is almost twenty years old, many of the topics discussed are still relevant today. Also, given some of the recent things Lloyd has said about Cannes, it might’ve gotten even worse. Overall, All The Love You Cannes! is one of the most eye-opening documentaries that any aspiring filmmaker can watch.
Buy All The Love You Cannes! from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3s7Lxa4.
