Kevin Smith Salma Hayek Ben Affleck Ben & Salma

…Spike Lee used Cannes to re-spin his film into a potentially hot summer movie; Harvey Weinstein, meanwhile, needed to transform his religious hot potato Dogma into a marketable picture. After the executives at Disney, Miramax’s parent company, got wind of the content of Kevin Smith’s raucous Catholic farce, Harvey and brother Bob were forced to buy back the film for $14 million (a higher figure than the movie’s actual $10 million price tag). “Disney was too clear a target,” Harvey says. “I bought the movie, so we took Disney out of the equation. Whatever protests there are, artists have to be able to express themselves.”

The Weinsteins wanted the cachet of getting their picture into the competition, but Jacob balked, so they settled for an official out-of-competition slot. (Harvey Weinstein believes that Jacob favored American movies with French backing, such as Lynch’s The Straight Story and Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, both of which were financed by Canal Plus.) “I just needed the critics to go out there and say, “There’s nothing blasphemous going on here. Its not like the Clerks guy is thumbing his nose at the church for two hours,”‘ says Smith. “It is far from [Miramax release] Priest. I can understand somebody being outraged that you portray the local reverend as a guy who cruises for ass and goes down on dudes in the sacristy. But there’s nothing in this movie that’s like that.” There are, however, a couple of gun-toting fallen angels, played by charismatic rising stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who go on a bloody killing spree. Ripe material for misinterpretation, to say the least. But after weathering three U.S. test screenings of Dogma (where audience members included Universal head Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Lions Gate Films chief Jeff Sackman, whose company Cinepix Film Properties used to release Miramax films in Canada), Weinstein, who had become increasingly agitated over the prospects of a Priest, or even a Last Temptation of Christ-level hailstorm, which could threaten his company and his family, got himself back into festival form when he hit the Riviera. He charmed Roger Ebert at the packed American Pavilion. At his annual AMFAR Cinema Against AIDS benefit, he brought Dogma stars Affleck and Salma Hayek onto the auction stage for the audience – and for the photographers. “Wasn’t it brave of Ben and Matt to play those bad guys?” he asked, working the room. Weinstein wisely saved the Dogma press screening for the end of the festival, when the punchy American press would welcome a little diversion. Outside the theater after the screening, Weinstein had the media eating out of his hand. Later, he tracked down Smith and said, “Nobody’s upset. Everyone thinks the movie’s very faithful.” Smith replied, “Welcome to the club.” For all his complaints about this out-of-touch, hopelessly arcane film festival, Weinstein got what he came to Cannes for: critical support and credibility for his orphan film. At press time, Smith was whittling Dogma down to under two hours, and Lions Gate was expected to close a deal to buy it…