CANNES '08 | Eastwood and Drama

"Conflict is a source of drama," noted Clint Eastwood this morning in Cannes, talking about his new film, "Changeling" (or "The Exchange" as it is also being called), "So stories like this, which have a lot of conflict, are very interesting to me. You wouldn't want to tell a story where everything just worked perfectly or there wouldn't be a reason to tell it." Screening in the Cannes competition, the Hollywood studio picture (starring Angelina Jolie) looks at a scandal that rocked the Los Angeles Police Department in the early 1930s when a local woman challenged the LAPD's version of events involving her missing son. Notably, as the film was screening inside the Palais des Festivals, filmmaker Spike Lee (wearing a Barack Obama t-shirt) was at a nearby press event for his latest film, "Miracle at St. Anna," and questioned Eastwood's decision to not include any African Americans in his recent Iwo Jima films. A journalist who tried to raise the issue with Eastwood at today's press conference was abruptly cut off by the moderator before finishing her question, preventing a potential discussion about the historical accuracy of the lack of diversity on screen in Eastwood's new portrait of Los Angeles in the '20s and '30s.