The Directors' Fortnight celebrated its 40th anniversary. This year's three special screenings had a more or less direct connection to the Fortnight's 40th anniversary. There was the 35mm restoration of Robert Kramer and John Douglas's masterpiece Milestones, a beacon of American independent cinema in the 70s, as well as the two latest films by Jean-Marie Straub, Le Genou d'Artemide and Itinéraire de Jean Bricard, both made after the death of his wife and collaborator Danièle Huillet. And, of course, there was Olivier Jahan's 40X15, produced by MK2TV and France 4, which related the birth of the Fortnight and described the ins and outs of the profession of programmer.This year's somewhat special selection wouldn't have been what it was without the opening film from a master of world cinema who had been silent for 17 years: Four Nights with Anna (Cztery noce z Anna) by Jerzy Skolimowski. Jim Jarmusch and Skolimowski were in a way the benign godfathers of this 40th edition.
