Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2008 > May > 14 > Entry
Penn spices up news media conference
CANNES, France — The annual news conference of the Cannes jury, which will decide the top prizes at the end of the 61st festival this year, is usually a dull affair. But jury president Sean Penn spiced things up Wednesday.
He attacked the “inane supidity” of President Bush, said he was encouraged by the kind of support that Democratic hopeful Barack Obama was generating. But he also warned that, if elected, Obama would have to become “a greater man than he’s ever been” to keep people from becoming disillusioned.
As usual, the media raised questions about whether favoritism, personal politics and cultural biases would play a role in this year’s jury deliberations.
Penn, of course, has been the target of bloggers who contend that he has a conflict of interest because his friend, director Clint Eastwood, has “Changeling” in competition for the Palme d’Or this year. Penn won a best actor Oscar for his role in the Eastwood-directed “Mystic River.”
Penn said such notions were insulting and that the jury would listen to the hearts and minds of this year’s films. He also joked that Eastwood has directed and starred in scores of movies, but that “the bastard only offered me one.”
Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron got a laugh when he dryly responded to the same question of bias. “I’m rooting for the Mexican movies,” he said.
Other members of this year’s jury are: German actress Alexandra Maria Lara, French director Rachid Bouchareb, American actress Natalie Portman, Iranian director Marjane Satrapi, Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Italian actor Sergio Castellitto and French actress Jeanne Balibar.
Penn got another laugh when he was reminded that he once said he was averse to movie awards and that he wouldn’t want to be on a Cannes jury because he would have to stay “wise and sober for 12 days.”
Said Penn: “How many days here do I have left?”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.