The film festival Michael Caine boycotted for 50 years: “I’m not going all that way for nothing”
Attending film festivals is part of the job for actors and filmmakers who are either premiering or promoting their latest production, but it isn’t obligatory. Michael Caine has always been an ardent supporter of cinema, not that it stopped him from boycotting one of the most prestigious events on the calendar for the better part of half a century.
Caine was famously absent when he won his first Academy Award for Hannah and Her Sisters because he was on the other side of the world making a lot of money for a very bad movie, which justified his decision to miss the Oscars because Jaws: The Revenge bought his mother a lovely house.
However, his decision to skip another marquee gala was based entirely on spite, with Caine refusing to show up in person after being snubbed. As mentioned, there’s no requirement for the stars to show up in force at every awards show, festival, or premiere, but it was still odd for someone of Caine’s calibre to hold a grudge for that long when his love of the art form remained unyielding.
His first trip to Cannes came in 1966 when he showed support for Lewis Gilbert’s Alfie, his breakthrough performance and first major leading role. The movie was nominated for the Palme d’Or and won the ‘Jury Prize’, but Caine’s central turn was completely overlooked. After that, he decided he’d had enough.
The Ipcress File and Mona Lisa would screen in competition in the years to come, while Hannah and Her Sisters and The Romantic Englishwoman premiered on the Croisette without being in the running for trophies. However, the running theme was that Caine was never present in person.
It would be 49 years before the two-time Oscar winner made his triumphant return to Cannes with Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth. The dramedy was shortlisted for the Palme d’Or, and this time, Caine was happy to finally end his self-imposed exile to take his seat among the audience for the world premiere.
When he was asked why he’d finally opted to show his face again, his response was typically sly. “I was here with a film called Alfie. It won a prize, and I didn’t,” he explained. “So I never came back. I’m not going all that way for nothing.”
That’s fair enough to a certain extent, but only if everyone overlooks the number of times Caine showed his face at the Oscars when he wasn’t even nominated. There’s also the fact that he spent a large part of his career living in the United Kingdom, which is a lot closer to Cannes than Hollywood. Legends tend to do what they want, though, and for Caine, it meant the festival was never a pressing concern.
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