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May 22, 2011
Director Malick wins Palme d'Or at Cannes for 'Tree of Life'
CANNES, France — Austin director Terrence Malick became the first Texan ever to win the top prize, the Palme d’Or, at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, for his ambitious, cosmic “The Tree of Life.”
The movie, which centers on a family in 1950s Waco, includes about a 20-minute segment that focuses on the birth of the universe and has been called a Texan “2001,” a reference to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Malick, who does not make public appearances, did not show up at the Palais to accept the award, but two of his producers did. “He remains notoriously, infamously shy but quite humble,” said producer Bill Pohlad.
When the movie premiered Monday, it received a mixed reaction from the press, but support for the film, which was made in Smithville and Austin, has been growing in recent days. It stars Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn.
Penn also starred in Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s “This Must Be the Place,” but it was shut out of the major awards.
The festival was one of the strongest in decades. And several critically praised films didn’t get any awards. One of the biggest surprises was the absence of any honors for Aki Kaurismaki, whose “Le Havre” was one of the critics’ favorites.
Two movies shared the grand prize, or the second-place award. “The Kid With the Bike,” by Belgium’s Dardenne brothers, shared the prize with Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” an operatic but soporific look at a Turkish crime.
Best actress was a suprise. It went to Kirsten Dunst, the star of Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia.” Dunst seemed shocked Sunday night, and said, “Wow, what a week it’s been,” a reference to the furor over Danish director’s controversial remarks about Hitler during a Cannes press conference. Von Trier was later labeled “persona non grata” by festival organizers, but his movie remained in competition.
Best actor went to Jean Dujardin, who played a fading but charming silent film star in “The Artist.”
Best director went to Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn for “Drive,” starring Ryan Gosling.
Best screenplay went to Joseph Cedar of Israel for his drama about Talmudic scholarship, “Footnote.”
“Polisse,” a French police procedural from director Maiwenn, won the jury prize, or third prize. And Pablo Giorgelli won the Camera d’Or for his first film, “Las Acacias.”
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May 21, 2011
Update on Malick in Cannes
CANNES, France — Austin director Terrence Malick is not expected to show up to receive any awards for “The Tree of Life” during the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.
That’s the word from Bob Berney, a Malick friend who was the head of Apparition, one of the early backers of “The Tree of Life.” Berney left Apparition a few years ago and is heading up Film District’s efforts in Cannes. Film District is the U.S. distributor for Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive,” which could challenge “The Tree of Life” for the Palme d’Or.
Berney, who has talked with Malick while in Cannes, says that Malick showed up at the end of the red-carpet screening of “Tree” but that he asked that he not be photographed. So when he entered the theater during a standing ovation, the spotlight inside the theaters was redirected from his movements, Berney says. Malick requested that no photos be taken, and the festival complied.
Berney says Malick also told him that he would not attend a press conference after the Sunday awards, even if he wins the Palme d’Or.
Berney was one of the few people to see Malick’s early cut of “The Tree of Life,” which had a running time of three hours and 15 minutes. The re-edited movie runs a little more than two hours.
Berney, who’s one of the most likable men in the film business, is well-known to Texas film critics, especially those in Dallas and Fort Worth. He ran the Inwood Theatre in Dallas for many years before moving to L.A. and setting up a distribution company. Dallas’ Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner now own the Inwood, as well as several other arthouses throughout the nation.
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Handicapping the acting awards in Cannes
CANNES, France — It’s always risky to predict what the Cannes jury will do, but it seems clear that the race for best actor and actress has a few frontrunners.
The awards will be handed out Sunday, along with the Palme d’Or.
Among actors, Ryan Gosling of Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” seems like an early favorite. As a stunt driver — and a driver of getaway cars — Gosling exudes the notion of a slow-burning guy who could explode at any moment. And since “Drive” is a genre film, that explosion is inevitable.
But his best acting comes in scenes with a mother and child whom he meets. He falls in love with both the mom and the kid, yet he does so without almost any dialogue. Instead, he simply shares sly smiles and grinning looks.
It’s a tour de force, showing the duality of the character who is at once a romantic and also a psychotic.
Brad Pitt could easily nab the best actor award for his role as a gruff, rather mean dad in Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.” Pitt tackles the role with bravery, and nearly all critics have praised his performance.
Sean Penn, always a Cannes favorites, also could nab the award for his role in “This Must Be the Place,” directed by Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino.
Some critics argue that Penn, in the role of an aging rock star, has basically relied on a stunt in character creation. The stunt? Lots of long black hair, heavy makeup and lipstick, a la Robert Smith of The Cure.
But Penn manages to bring lots of shadings to his character, and it seems a bit dismissive to consider his acting as a stunt. He’s undoubtedly one of America’s most talented actors.
Then there’s the European contingent, led by Michel Piccoli in “Habemus Papam,” otherwise known as “We Have a Pope.”
Piccoli plays a priest who is the newly elected pope, but isn’t at all sure that he’s really the right guy. So he goes to a psychiatrist to help sort out his feelings.
Piccoli’s career goes all the way back to Jean Renoir, Jean-Luc Godard and Luis Bunuel. He was in Godar’s “Contempt,” Bunuel’s “Diary of a Chambermaid” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Topaz.” So it would not be out of the question for him to get the best actor award this year, after an outstanding career dating back to Renoir’s “Only the French Can” in 1954.
Among the women, Tilda Swinton is the standout for her role in “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” She’s absolutely brilliant, portraying a lonely woman who has become an outcast because of the horrible crime her son has committed. Her peformance in the movie, directed by Scotland’s Lynne Ramsey, is mesmerizing.
The jury, however, may want to honor Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” without honoring the director himself, especially since he made scandalous remarks about Hitler during a Cannes press conference, which led to his being declared persona non grata by the festival.
If that’s the case, then Kirsten Dunst could nab the actress award for playing a depressed newlywed who eventually musters the courage to face what could be the end of the world.
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May 19, 2011
Austin's Jeff Nichols wins Critics' Week in Cannes
Austin’s Jeff Nichols, the director of “Take Shelter,” won the Grand Prize of the 50th annual Critics’ Week, a prestigious sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival.
Nichols also won the SACD Screenwriting Award for “Take Shelter,” which stars Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. Chastain also stars in Austin director Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” which is competing for the Palme d’Or at the festival.
“These two awards are the highlight of my career to date,” Nichols said Friday. “It was an honor to be included in Critic’s Week with these films and a thrill to be singled out among them.”
Nichols has been highly visible on the Cannes circuit this week, conducting numerous interviews with representatives of the international press over the past few days. Earlier this week, he and Chastain were the center of attention, attracting dozens of journalists.
Nichols says that he wants “Take Shelter” to be seen as a story about the importance of communication in marriage. But he also says that he wanted to wrap this idea in the thriller genre. Hence, we get a movie about a working-class man, played by Shannon, who has nightmares about an impending natural disaster that threatens his family.
Before he took “Take Shelter” to the Sundance Film Festival in January, Nichols sold the North America, Latin America, Australian and New Zealand distribution rights to Sony Pictures Classics. After Sundance, FilmNation Entertainment acquired the remaining international rights to the movie.
For more on Nichols’ win, stay tuned to the Austin Movie blog for updates from our man in Cannes, Statesman movies editor Charles Ealy.
Writer and director Jeff Nichols poses for a portrait at the premiere of “Take Shelter” during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on Monday, Jan. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)
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Von Treir saga at Cannes
CANNES, France — Danish director Lars von Trier, whose “Melancholia” is considered one of the Cannes Film Festival’s standouts this year, will not be able to come back to the festival to accept any prizes, should he win.
Festival directors said Thursday that von Trier was declared “persona non grata” after he made joking but insensitive comments about sympathizing with HItler during a press conference Wednesday. Von Trier issued an apology late Wednesday, but it apparently did not satisfy Cannes.
Here’s today’s statement from the board: “The Festival de Cannes provides artists from around the world with an exceptional forum to present their works and defend freedom of expression and creation. The Festival’s Board of Directors, which held an extraordinary meeting this Thursday 19 May 2011, profoundly regrets that this forum has been used by Lars von Trier to express comments that are unacceptable, intolerable, and contrary to the ideals of humanity and generosity that preside over the very existence of the Festival.
“The Board of Directors firmly condemns these comments and declares Lars von Trier a persona non grata at the Festival de Cannes, with effect immediately.”
Von Trier has been a provocateur for decades. Two years ago, he shocked Cannes audiences with his highly sexual look at a dysfunctional marriage, “Antichrist.”
His new movie, “Melancholia,” focuses on a planet of the same name that is headed toward a collision with Earth — and the effects of the impending disaster on a highly secluded, multi-millionaire household.
- Related: Von Trier sticks foot in mouth
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May 18, 2011
Three more Cannes standouts
In what is shaping up as the tightest race for the Palme d’Or in years, three more movies have joined “The Artist” and “The Tree of Life” on the critically acclaimed list.
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the Belgian filmmakers who have won two Palmes already, have brought yet another touching drama to Cannes, “The Kid With a Bike.”
Cecile de France and Thomas Doret star in this tale of a kind-hearted hairdresser who tries to help a boy who has been abandoned by his father.
At first, the boy named Cyril can’t believe that his father has truly left him, and he strikes out in rage at nearly everyone around him at a children’s home. But when he meets Samantha, the hairdresser, the two establish a connection.
As with most Dardenne movies, the plot is not complicated. It simply explores characters and their motivations, never descending into sentimentality but illuminating social problems.
Aki Kaurismaki of Finland crafts another small-scale but big-hearted tale in “Le Havre.”
It centers on a quirky shoeshiner, Marcel Marx (Andre Wilms), and his straight-faced but loving wife Arletty (Kati Outinen). At first, it appears that Marcel is nothing more than a scoundrel, stealing baguettes from the neighborhood grocer and defying other shopkeepers who don’t want him on their sidewalks.
But when Marcel comes across a young African boy who has entered France illegally and is the subject of a police hunt, he becomes much more than a mild-mannered loser. He takes the kid into his home, and the neighborhood rallies around his efforts to get the child to his immigrant mother in England.
“La Havre” is full on gentle wit, which is a Kaurismaki trademark. But it’s also subversive of state authority and of people who would seek to punish a child. In the Screen International ratings, it has the highest score of any competition film so far.
Then there’s the controversial “Melancholia,” from Lars von Trier of Denmark. It’s nearly as ambitious as “The Tree of Life,” with all of its celestial ponderings. But where director Terrence Malick searches for meaning in the stars, von Trier sees the heavens as a metaphor for human anxieties.
In “Melancholia,” anxiety is represented by a planet 10 times the size of Earth, which is headed in our direction. Scientists predict that it will miss Earth, but as it keeps getting closer, the lives of a family at an exclusive estate become increasingly strained.
Kirsten Dunst stars, along with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland and “True Blue” vampire Alexander Skarsgard.
Von Trier uses startling images to portray what could be the end of the world. And he does this in the context of an extended wedding scene that begins the movie.
Visually, it’s breathtaking. Thematically, it’s more problematic. But if you look at the movie as a metaphor for depression, then you’re probably seeing it the way von Trier intended.
Three more highly anticipated movies are still to come in Cannes. They are Pedro Almodovar’s “The Skin I Live In,” starring Antonio Banderas; Paolo Sorrentino’s “This Must Be the Place,” starring Sean Penn; and Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive,” starring Ryan Gosling.
From left, actors Brady Corbet, Louisa Krause, producer Antonio Campos, producer Josh Mond, actress Elizabeth Olsen and director Sean Durkin pose during a photo call for The Kid With a Bike , at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
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Von Trier sticks foot in mouth
CANNES, France - Every experienced journalist at the Cannes Film Festival knows that you can’t take Danish director Lars von Trier seriously at a press conference. But his comments on Wednesday, after the screening of “Melancholia,” startled most of the press.
When asked about his family’s German roots and his interest in German Romanticism, von Trier replied:
“For a long time, I thought I was a Jew, and I was happy to be a Jew. … But then I found out I was actually a Nazi. My family were German. And that also gave me some pleasure. What can I say? I understand Hitler … I sympathize with him a bit.”
He later tried to clarify his remarks, amid frowns from “Melancholia” star Kirsten Dunst. “I’m not against Jews … In fact, I’m very much in favor of them. All Jews. Well, Israel is a pain in the ass.”
Before falling into the politically inappropriate routine about Nazis, von Trier was basically playing the comic throughout the press conference.
He said “there’s quite a big possibility” that his new movie “might not be worth seeing. ” And he joked that Dunst enjoyed her nude scene in “Melancholia.” “Now she wants more,” he said, speculating that he and she would make another movie, a three- to four-hour porn film with “lots of uncomfortable sex.” Dunst just shook her head.
Von Trier also riffed about his long-standing battle with depression, and said that he got along with Dunst because “she has some knowledge of depression.”
Then he turned to Dunst and said: “I am very happy that you’re mentally disturbed.”
He also ribbed actor Udo Kier, who has a supporting role in the movie as a put-upon wedding planner. “I typecast him as a homosexual,” von Trier said. Then he turned to Keir and said: “Your performance is fantastic. I don’t know where you get it from.”
Director Lars Von Trier poses for portraits after an interview with the Associated Press promoting the film Melancholia at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
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May 17, 2011
Mel and 'The Beaver'
CANNES, France — Jodie Foster and Austin screenwriter Kyle Killen brought “The Beaver” to Cannes on Tuesday, but the star of the movie, Mel Gibson, did not show up with them at the press conference.
Gibson did, however, plan to walk the red carpet for the Tuesday night screening, which is open to the public.
“He’ll be here,” Foster said. “He won’t be talking.”
Foster was referring to media speculation as to whether Gibson would attend the Cannes Film Festival and possibly answer questions about his recent trouble-filled past, including anti-Semitic remarks and the verbal abuse of his ex-wife.
In “The Beaver,” Gibson stars as a man who chooses to communicate through a beaver puppet, mainly because he’s going through a personal crisis.
- Review: “Beaver” simplifies a complicated tale
- Interview: Jodie Foster again delves into crisis of spirit with “Beaver”
From left, producer Keith Redmon, director Jodie Foster and screenwriter Kyle Killen pose during a photo call for The Beaver at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
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May 16, 2011
A Cannes capsule review: 'The Tree of Life'
Terrence Malick’s artistic ambition knows no bounds, and “The Tree of Life” shows just how grand his ambition is. The Austin director delves into the meaning of existence; the seemingly unjust early deaths of relatives; the eternal question of why we are who we are. And he does all of this by flashing back to the birth of the universe and the eventual development of life on Earth.
Malick, of course, does not provide definitive answers in “The Tree of Life.” Instead, he says that only love gives us the possibility of happiness.
This notion is explicitly stated in a voiceover provided by Jessica Chastain, who plays the mother of a family in Waco in the 1950s. “The only way to be happy is to love,” she says. “Without love, your life will flash by.”
“The Tree of Life” is a meditative, philosophical experience, unlike any other movie that has come before. It represents Malick’s crowning achievement as a director, even though it is sure to inspire widely varying opinions among critics and moviegoers.
Brad Pitt and Chastain anchor the film as the parents of three sons in a bucolic setting with tree-lined streets. Neighborhood kids roam the streets freely, riding their bicycles and kicking tin cans. They even play in the DDT that is being sprayed to kill mosquitoes, with a truck sporting the sign, “Waco Sanitation Department.”
Before we meet the family in any extended fashion, however, we’re treated to Malick’s vision of the Big Bang and the subsequent evolution of Earth, the dinosaurs and mankind.
The special effects, overseen by a team of specialists who came to Austin and had previously worked on such films as “Matrix Reloaded” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” will most likely astound most viewers.
Once we return to the family, we see the births of the three children, with images of babies and the mother emerging into the world through water, reflecting the earlier focus on single-cell organisms that sprang from the primordial ooze.
And nearly all the images in “The Tree of Life” relate to periodic scenes of the cosmos, tying the family that we’re watching into the idea of a universal family, albeit one plagued by troubles that would make even Job sigh.
Pitt plays a rather hard-nosed father who represents nature. He’ll do what’s necessary to survive and acts as an oppressive influence on the family. As Pitt said at a press conference Monday after the movie’s premiere in Cannes, he’ll fight to survive, as nature would require.
His wife, played by Chastain, represents the idea of grace — a spiritual reference that Malick comes back to time and again. As Chastain says in an early voiceover: “There are two ways of life: the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose the one to follow.”
While Pitt bullies his sons, Chastain nurtures them, giving them selfless love and introducing them to what she sees as the world’s wonders.
Both actors take great risks, but Pitt takes the greatest. He comes off as unlikable, and it’s a risky role for any star. Chastain, meanwhile, manages to embody the qualities of what some people would call the ultimate Earth Mother.
The life of the family is turned upside down within the first few minutes of the film, when Chastain receives a telegram informing her that a son is dead. But by using a nonlinear storytelling structure, Malick does not let us know which son has died. Nor does he ever explicitly say.
It is, however, clear that the oldest son, Jack, survives. Malick goes back in forth in time, not only to the birth of the cosmos, but also to the adult Jack, played by Sean Penn, who is struggling to come to terms with the duality of his parents.
“The Tree of Life,” in short, is heady. It’s philosophical. Its images are awe-inspiring. And Malick strives to create a universal experience devoid of didacticism and loaded with questions.
It remains to be seen how the Cannes jury will react when considering it for the Palme d’Or. But “The Tree of Life” ranks as a unique experience that will linger long beyond Cannes.
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'The Tree of Life' in Cannes: The music
CANNES, France — Sound is always a key component of any Terrence Malick movie. And sound plays a huge role in “The Tree of Life.”
The most obvious Malick touch is the use of voiceovers, and in “The Tree of Life,” Jessica Chastain, who plays the mother of a 1950s Waco family, provides the narration.
In fact, Chastain was doing voiceover work months after the shooting schedule in Smithville had ended, doing some of it from Northern California, while visiting her parents for Thanksgiving.
But an even bigger part of the sound of “The Tree of Life” comes from its music. Much of it sounds like religious chorales, and this perhaps led some critics to the conclusion that the movie was overtly religious. But it seems rather clear that Malick was aiming to create a spiritual aura, not an overtly religious one. Then again, if one assumes that a movie is an experience, as Malick does, then one can assume that a religious interpretation would be equally valid.
Alexandre Desplat was in charge of the score, which has the overall resonance of a requiem. Desplat’s previous credits include “The King’s Speech” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
Malick also contributed to the score, having chosen from the works of 19th-Century French Romantic Hector Berlioz and 20th-Century Hungarian Gyorgy Ligeti, who worked on “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
An extensive list of musical credits provided to the press in Cannes on Monday included the following: “Symphony No. 1” by Gustav Mahler; “Approaching,” by Arsenije Jovanovich; “Berlioz: 7. Domine Jesu Christe”; “Hymn to Dionysus,” by Gustav Holst; “Brahms: 2 Andante moderato”; “Symphony No. 3,” by Henryk Gorecki; and “Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major K. 545,” by Mozart.
The overall mood produced by this music is meditative, reflecting the theme of “The Tree of Life,” which is the search for meaning. And the catalyst for that search, in the case of the movie, is the premature death of a son.
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'The Tree of Life': Cannes reaction
CANNES, France — Critical reaction to Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” will be dramatically divided between jeers and cheers, as the Monday morning press screening at the Cannes Film Festival showed.
Loud hoots and whistles signifying disapproval were immediately heard as the credits began to roll, but others applauded enthusiastically.
Such reaction is not unexpected. The movie heads into dangerous territory, trying to meld the life of a 1950s family in Texas with the history of the universe. It’s all part of Malick’s philosophy, of course, including the notion that we’re all part of a giant mystery that goes on an on. And in Malick’s vision, that life — or at least the spirit of that life — will continue, even after the universe eventually implodes.
Writing an early review for The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy says that Malick brandishes “an ambition it’s likely no film, including this one, could entirely fulfill.” But he contends that “The Tree of Life” is still “a singular work, an impressionistic metaphysical inquiry into mankind’s place in the grand scheme of things that releases waves of insights amidst its narrative imprecisions.” McCarthy nevertheless proclaims it to be “an exceptional and major film.”
Other members of the press, however, appeared to be irritated that Malick did not show up for the press conference immediately following Monday’s screening.
Henri Behar, the moderator for the panel on behalf of the festival, began the discussion by raising that very issue, asking why Malick wasn’t present. No one gave an authoritative answer, but producer Sarah Green (who also worked on Jeff Nichols’ “Take Shelter”) said that Malick “is very shy.”
Chaz Ebert, the wife of Roger Ebert, again raised the question later in the press conference, and wondered whether Malick had given instructions to them on what to say to the press.
Producer Bill Pohlad said that Malick wasn’t the type of person to tell people what to do, and that such a notion went against the spirit of collaboration that had been present during the making of “The Tree of Life.” But he didn’t explain why Malick wasn’t present.
The simple fact of the matter, however, is that Malick has a philosophy about filmmaking, and part of it goes back to the ideas of Martin Heidegger and Andre Bazin, the latter of whom advocated that film should be an experience that does not need to be explained, and that by trying to explain the experience, you’re attempting to alter or manipulate it.
Fox Searchlight, presumably with the approval of Malick, issued the following statement in the press notes for the film, illuminating that argument, without specifically addressing Malick’s absence.
“Though a strand of specific themes weaves through all of Malick’s films — the contrast of innocence and violence, nature and spirit, stark reality and transcendent beauty — there is something else that unites them: They aren’t so much films as a person watches but experiences a person inhabits.”
Actors Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain attend a press conference for The Tree of Life , at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
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Making 'The Tree of Life': The story behind it
While “The Tree of Life” shares many of the themes and concerns that have popped up in all of Terrence Malick’s movies, it differs in one big respect. It features lots of digital footage, in addition to the usual scenes shot with natural light.
Malick went down the digital path because he needed special effects to help tell the story. In particular, he wanted to create an intimate story about a Texas family in the 1950s, but he wanted to put that story, which involves the death of a son, in a spiritual context. So, after the opening scenes depicting a telegram announcing the death, Malick takes us back to the literal beginning of time.
To do so, Malick tried to imagine the birth of the universe during the Big Bang 14 billion years ago, and the visuals are stunning, unlike anything Malick has done before.
He then proceeds to show the formation of Earth 4.5 billion years ago, then the emergence of single-celled life forms, followed by the rise of the dinosaurs - and their decline after the impact of an asteroid hitting Earth.
For the special effects, Malick consulted Douglas Trumbull, who worked with Stanley Kubrick to create outer space in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Trumbull came to Austin and created a laboratory dubbed the Skunkworks. While there, Trumbull experimented with all sorts of ideas, including pouring milk through a funnel and shooting it with a high-speed camera, then using lighting and speed to make it look cosmic and epic.
The experiments and shooting of special effects took more than a year, according to notes provided to the press after a screening at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.
Trumbull was joined in Austin by Dan Glass, who has worked on such films as “Matrix Reloaded” and “Batman Begins.” Glass helped create the dinosaurs, which do look natural, despite the challenges, in part because they are superimposed over real Earth scenery. (In this case, that scenery appears to be the Lower Colorado outside Smithville, believe it or not. And in a deliberate not the circle of life, the 1950s family plays in the same river.)
All of this occurred after extensive consultation with Andrew H. Knoll, the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard, and with John Horner, a paleontologist at Montana State University.
If all of this sounds painstaking, it apparently was, and it accounts for some of the delays in bringing “The Tree of Life” to the big screen.
One other tidbit emerged Monday to illustrate Malick’s meticulous approach. He and his team spent more than a year in search of three boys to play the three sons in the movie. During that time, producers met with more than 10,000 boys. After winnowing the candidate down to about 12, the team brought them to Austin for further discussions before settling on the three, none of whom had any previous acting experience.
The three boys are played by Hunter McCracken, the eldest son Jack; Laramie Eppler, the idle son R.L.; and Tye Sheridan, the youngest brother, Steve.
The vast majority of the movie includes many scenes that will be recognizable to Central Texas. Those scenes include the Texas Capitol, Barton Springs Pool, Hamilton Pool, the lower Colorado, downtown Smithville (primarily Main Street), and the quaint homes of that town just east of Austin.
Other scenes, primarily those depicting one of the grown sons (Sean Penn) wandering in search of meaning, were shot in the canyons of Utah.
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May 15, 2011
Early tidbit about "The Tree of Life"
Jessica Chastain, one of the stars of “The Tree of Life,” says that the works of Thomas a Kempis are part of the philosophical underpinning of Terrence Malick’s new movie.
Chastain made the comments Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, where she is appearing in Austin director Jeff Nichols’ “Take Shelter” as well as Austin director Malick’s “Tree of Life.” “The Tree of Life” premieres Monday in Cannes.
For those unfamiliar with Thomas a Kempis, he was a Medieval monk of the 15th century, and is credited with writing “The Imitation of Christ,” a well-known Christian devotional book.
The monk was born in Germany around 1380 and died in 1471.
The information from Chastain appears to confirm an early French review that “The Tree of Life” will have subtle, if not explicit, Christian references. A key part of the monk’s writing is below, taken from justus.anglican.org. See the ending.
When God bestows Spiritual comfort, receive it with a grateful
heart; but remember that it comes of God's free gift, and not
of your own merit. Do not be proud, nor over joyful, nor
foolishly presumptuous; rather, be the more humble for this
gift, more cautious, and more prudent in all your doings, for
this hour will pass, and temptation will follow it. When
comfort is withdrawn, do not immediately despair, but humbly
and patiently await the will of Heaven; for God is able to
restore you to a consolation even richer than before. This is
nothing new or strange to those who know the ways of God, for
the great Saints and Prophets of old often experienced these
changes. ...Indeed, the temptation that precedes is often a
sign of comfort to follow. For heavenly comfort is promised to
those who have been tried and tempted."To him who overcomes,"
says God, "I will give to eat of the Tree of Life."
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Jessica Chastain in Cannes
CANNES, France — Jessica Chastain is about to become the most famous actress that you don’t know.
She’s the belle of the ball at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, starring in Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” and Jeff Nichols’ “Take Shelter.”
And while acknowledging that Malick is one of the world’s great artistic directors, she predicts that Nichols will have a similarly long and distinguished career.
“There are a lot of similarities between the two directors,” she said during an interview Sunday. “Both have distinct voices, both are artists, both use lots of nature in the movies, and both live outside of Hollywood and New York.” Chastain, however, declines to point out that both live in Austin. When pressed on the matter, she says that she doesn’t want to say where Malick lives but prefers to protect his privacy, even though it’s a matter of public record.
Both movies also share a producer: Sarah Green. And Green introduced Chastain to Nichols after working with her on “The Tree of Life.”
Chastain would not say whether Malick will show up for Monday’s premiere of “The Tree of Life.” Malick is apparently in Cannes, and might walk the red carpet. But everyone associated with the movie is keeping mum.
In “Take Shelter,” Chastain plays Samantha, the wife of Curtis (Michael Shannon), who is beset by very realistic nightmares involving natural disasters. Curtis becomes convinced that his family is in danger and builds an elaborate bomb shelter in his back yard. But Curtis doesn’t explain his paranoia to his wife until late in the movie.
In “The Tree of Life,” Chastain plays the wife of Brad Pitt’s character — and the voice of love and acceptance in opposition to her husband’s hard-nosed approach to life.
Chastain said that while the two directors share many similarities, their on-set approach was dramatically different, primarily because Nichols was facing a low-budget quick shoot while Malick had a more leisurely pace.
In fact, months after the shooting, Malick called up Chastain and asked whether she would go to a sound booth and do voiceover work for the film. “He sent me about 40 pages of script, and it was beautiful,” she said. But the phone call for the voiceover work came during a Thanksgiving weekend, while Chastain was visiting her parents in Northern California.
“When I was recording the voiceovers, no one knew who I was while I was doing it,” she says. But she realizes that’s about to change.
Besides “Take Shelter” and “The Tree of Life,” Chastain is also starring in three other upcoming movies. Two of them, in fact, are with Sam Worthington, the star of “Avatar.”
“I haven’t done any franchise movies, so my life hasn’t changed that much,” she says. “But you can tell what happens when you’re in that kind of movie,” she says, based on watching Worthington.
She made “The Debt” with Worthington and Helen Mirren before the release of “Avatar.” In “The Debt,” which is scheduled for release this summer, Chastain plays an Israeli Mossad agent sent of a mission to capture a Nazi surgeon.
But she is also starring with Worthington in “The Fields,” a psychological thriller. And during that filming, she says, she would eat dinner with Worthington and realize that “every eye in the restaurant was on him. I can’t imagine being in that position.”
Chastain also recently wrapped up work on “The Help,” based on the best-selling Kathryn Stockett novel about an insecure Southern lady who doesn’t fit in with the society dames in 1960s Jackson, Miss.
And she says that, for a change, she’s actually in an amusing role. “After seeing it, my agent came up to me and said, ‘Jessica, you’re actually funny!’ “
“The Help” is scheduled to open in August.
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"The Artist" at Cannes: A remarkable achievement
Cannes isn’t known for its lighthearted fare. But “The Artist” has to be one of the warmest, uplifting, brilliantly conceived movies to play here in the past decade.
Director Michel Hazanavicius has created something that will make American audiences marvel: He has re-created Hollywood of the 1920s, as an homage to film history. Although the director and his stars are French, “The Artist” was shot in California and has a thoroughly American look and feel.
And how did this director do it? Well, he shot it in black and white, and he made it silent. Yep, you read that right. A silent movie in Cannes.
As with the great silent movies, the score plays a major part. And Ludovic Bource makes the most of it by blending original tunes with those of the greats.
Jean Dujardin stars as a famous silent actor whose life turns upside down with the advent of the talkies. Berenice Bejo, the wife of the director, plays the ingenue who leads the way to the motion picture revolution. (The director, it should be noted, shot the scenes in real-life Hollywood spots, including Mary Pickford’s home.)
Director of photography Guillaume Schiffman creates gorgeous black-and-white scenes. And director Hazanavicius shows a remarkable ability to weave in humor and pathos amid a budding romance.
John Goodman, James Cromwell and Penelope Ann Miller stand out in the supporting cast.
But the biggest point to make about “The Artist” is this: It should reinvigorate interest in the classic silent movies of Hollywood. It’s just a bit odd that the French had to lead the way.
(Note: “The Artist” has been picked up by the Weinstein Co. for distribution in the U.S. It was a late entry in the festival competition, but it’s sure to be one of the frontrunners.)
From left, actors Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo and director Michel Hazanavicius pose during a photo call for The Artist, at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
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"Footnote" review: A Cannes surprise
Joseph Cedar’s “Footnote” ranks as one of the best surprises of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
It had little buzz before its screening, and Israeli movies tend to focus on the long-standing conflicts with its neighbors in the region. This one, however, doesn’t even mention the conflicts.
Instead, it narrows its focus to Talmudic studies, and those who practice the extreme diligence of philology. It consists of comparing and collecting manuscripts and going over every word in an effort to re-create a true representation of Talmudic texts.
No one does this more meticulously than Eliezer Shkolnik, played by Israeli humorist Shlomo Bar Aba. Yet, after more than 30 years of research, his main claim to fame is being credited in a footnote by one of the most famous Talmudic scholars, Yaacov Nachum Epstein.
The Jerusalem School in Israel follows the tradition of textual reconstruction, but some see it as a bland pursuit.
And that’s the source of the movie’s conflict. Shkolnik’s son, Uriel, played brilliantly by Lior Ashkenazi, is a Talmudic studies superstar, abandoning some of the painstaking research and interweaves the text in a greater picture of ideological struggles and editing trends of what was once primarily an oral record.
Eliezer resents his son and disdains all the honors that are being bestowed upon him. In fact, he disdains all awards — until he finally gets one himself.
Cedar weaves through the conflict with cinematic ease and lowkey humor. He quick cuts between father and son when outlining their careers. And the face of the father reflects simultaneously his stubborn nature — and his complete confidence in his academic pursuits.
The battle between father and son might seem minor to people not familiar with Talmudic studies. And that might hamper the appeal of “Footnote” in some markets around the world. But the movie is more universal than it seems. Academic battles occur around the world, at nearly every university, and “Footnote” brings those intellectual conflicts to life in an amusing way.
It probably won’t win any major prizes, especially since expectations are so high for the movies in the coming week, including new ones by Terrence Malick, Lars von Trier and Pedro Almodovar. But “Footnote” deserves its due.
Actors from left, Yuval Scharf, Shlomo Bar-Aba, Alma Zak and Lior Ashkenazi pose during a photo call for Footnote at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
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May 13, 2011
Tim League of Drafthouse Films announces new movie in Cannes
Tim League of Drafthouse Films announced Friday that he’ll team up with Timpson Films and Magnet Releasing to produce a 26-chapter feature film showcasing different directorial visions of death.
The movie, to be called “The ABCs of Death,” will begin production in June and is expected to be completed in January 2012.
League said 25 directors have already joined the project, and that the 26th director will be chosen as part of a competition. Each director will be assigned a letter in the alphabet that will be used as a “springboard for a short story of death.”
League, who appeared on a panel at the American Pavilion Friday afternoon, said he envisioned each short devoted to each letter of the alphabet to be about five minutes long, ending up with movie of a little more than two hours.
Confirmed directors include:
Banjong Pisanthanakun (“Shutter,” “Alone”)
Angela Bettis (“Roman”)
Adrian Garcia Bogliano (“Cold Sweat”)
Jason Eisener (“Hobo With A Shotgun”)
Ernesto Diaz Espinoza (“Mirageman”)
Bruno Forzani and Héléne Cattet (“Amer”)
Gadi Harel (“DeadGirl”)
Thomas Malling (“Norwegian Ninja”)
Yoshihiro Nishimura (“Tokyo Gore Police;” “Frankenstein Girl Vs. Vampire
Girl”)
Simon Rumley (“The Living and the Dead;” “Red, White and Blue”)
Tak Sakaguchi and Yuji Shimomura (“Yakuza Weapon”)
Marcel Sarmiento (“DeadGirl”)
Srdjan Spasojevic (“A Serbian Film”)
Timo Tjahjanto (“Macabre”)
Andrew Traucki (“Black Water,” “The Reef”)
Nacho Vigalando (“TimeCrimes”)
Jake West (“Doghouse,” “Evil Aliens”)
Ti West (“The House of the Devil,” “The Innkeepers”)
Ben Wheatley (“Down Terrace,” “Kill List”)
Adam Wingard (“Pop Skull,” “A Horrible Way To Die”)
League said that the project stems from his getting to know numerous filmmakers over the past seven years through his helming of Fantastic Fest.
“This project was inspired by my young sons being introduced to the world through their ABCs books,” said co-producer Ant Timpson. “The idea of subverting that format to reveal a study in all the dastardly and humorous ways a person can leave this world appealed on multiple levels.
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May 12, 2011
'Restless' premiere
Gus Van Sant, who’s one of the Cannes Film Festival’s favorite U.S. directors, goes way off track with his latest, “Restless,” which premiered Thursday at the festival.
It features a paint-by-the-numbers melodramatic screenplay and a syrupy style that will test the patience of most cinephiles. It might, however, find support among young people who haven’t seen this kind of sap before. But it’s doubtful.
Here’s the setup. Enoch (Henry Hopper) is obsessed with death. His mother and father are dead, and in his spare time, he sneaks into the funerals of people he doesn’t know, just to look around. This is his idea of a good time.
At one of the funerals, he meets a young girl, Annabel (Mia Wasikowska), who is mourning one of the children who died in the cancer ward where she works. She makes goo-goo eyes at Enoch during the funeral and starts stalking him.
After initially rejecting Annabel’s advances, Enoch warms up to her quirkiness. But Enoch doesn’t know that Annabel has only three months to live. She has been working at the cancer ward because she herself has cancer.
Enoch and Annabel visit the grave of Enoch’s parents, where they carry on fanciful conversations with the dead. Enoch also has a best friend, a young Japanese guy who goes around dressed like a Japanese soldier. But the Japanese guy is really a ghost, and no one can see him but Enoch.
Enoch deals with the news of Annabel’s impending demise with what the press notes describe as “irreverent abandon.” I’ll leave it to you to figure out the last hour of the plot. Suffice it to say: You’ve seen this before.
“Restless” was the opening night film for Un Certain Regard, an official sidebar to the main competition selection. It doesn’t belong there. And it doesn’t really belong in Cannes.
Director Gus Van Sant takes a photo during a photo call for Restless, at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
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"Polisse" premiere at Cannes
Maiwenn’s “Polisse” wrapped up the trio of dark movies by women on Thursday evening.
“Polisse” deals with the lives of co-workers of a child protection unit of a police department. And while they feel that they’re making a difference in the world, the cases that they face take an emotional toll.
There’s a never-ending cast of pedophiles making their way through the department: a father who molests his daughter; a Muslim who’s trying to force his young daughter into an unwanted marriage; a band of crooks who are forcing their children into prostitution; a gymnastics coach who’s fondling one of his students; a young girl who willingly performs oral sex on several guys in the hopes of getting her stolen smartphone back. It’s a mixture of horror — and in the last case, appalling black humor.
Director Maiwenn plays Melissa, a wealthy but independent photographer who is assigned to document the workers’ lives. But in the process, she begins to fall for one of the child abuse investigators, Fred (Joeystarr). And in case you’re wondering, this is one of those hip French movies with actors who go by only one name.
Many of the cases reflect the multicultural makeup of today’s France. That’s especially true when a female Muslim investigator confronts a Muslim father who treats his daughter a sexual pawn. The movie sometimes borders on melodrama, but the documentary-style feature proves effective in relaying the ups and downs of workers trying to protect kids.
The movie is reminiscent of “The Class,” a French film about a group of school kids. It took home the Palme d’Or, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if “Polisse” followed in its footsteps. But it’s still early, with 17 more competition titles to come.
Director Maiwenn Le Besco gestures as she speaks during a press conference for Polisse, at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
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Women make a splash in Cannes
CANNES, France - Four women have films in competition for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and it’s making the race much more interesting than usual.
In last year’s lackluster affair, no female directors were in competition. But this year’s lineup includes Scottish director Lynne Ramsey, with “We Need to Talk About Kevin”; Australian director Julia Leigh, with “Sleeping Beauty”; French director Maiwenn’s “Polisse”; and Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s “Hanezu No Tsuki.”
And in a big change of pace, the first three movies to screen for the competition were directed by Leigh, Ramsey and Maiwenn.
Of those, “We Need to Talk About Kevin” stands out. It stars Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller in an unusual adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s best-selling novel of the same name.
Early press buzz focused on how Ramsey would handle the key moment when a mother (Swinton) realizes that her son (Miller) has gone on a killing spree with a bow and arrow at an American high school. But the movie isn’t really about that. Instead, it focuses on the tragic relationship between a mother and son who have never bonded.
“Generally speaking, when a son is violent, it’s usually viewed as the mom’s fault,” Swinton said at a press conference following the Thursday screening. But Swinton noted that it’s really a horror story about family relationships. “Even more frightening than giving birth to an alien violence is the idea of giving birth to her own violence,” she said, referring her character, named Eva.
In the movie, Swinton temporarily gives up a promising writing and traveling career to give birth to a son who constantly screams at her and seems to be in a tug of war. As the kid turns 7, he is still wearing diapers and using his refusal to be potty-trained as a weapon. He infuriates his mother, but the father tries to pretend that nothing is wrong.
As the kid grows up, the tensions mount, and the son takes out some of his rage on a much younger sister, as well as on the mother.
Ramsey avoids showing the eventual killing spree at the school and maintains the viewpoint of the mother throughout. And this strategy produces a haunting portrait of guilt, sacrifice - and eventually, the chance of redemption.
The movie will probably produce a divisive reaction among critics. But it looks like an early contender for the Palme d’Or.
“Sleeping Beauty,” which screened Wednesday night, was equally divisive but for different reasons.
Leigh’s first movie deals with a young college student who sells her body, but she is never awake for what happens. She enters a mansion, drinks a mixture of drugs, then is placed naked in a bed. Various old men then enter the room and act out various scenes. One is tender with her body. Another is sadistic. And another tries to cradle her like a baby.
Predictably, such scenes cause uneasiness for the viewer. But Leigh says she sees the character Lucy, played by Emily Browning, as being possessed by “radical passivity.” To set up this passivity, Leigh uses an early scene to show Lucy in a bar, where she lets the flip of a coin to determine her sexual partner for the evening.
Lucy’s only close friend is an odd duck named Birdmann, a recovering addict who seems on the verge of suicide. And Lucy seems driven to people who embrace death, as if she were sleep-walking through life, waiting to either wake up or die.
The press screening at the Palais on Wednesday evening ended with almost near silence, just a bit of applause and at least one whistle of derision. Outside the theater, however, critics gathered, trying to dissect various scenes. And even if the movie did not inspire immediate admiration, it at least started a debate that is sure to rage throughout Cannes in the coming days.
That’s part of what makes Cannes so interesting. People from around the world actually argue about art.
Coming up tonight: Maiwenn’s “Polisse,” which focuses on a female photographer’s relationship with the policemen in the Juvenile Protection Unit.
From left, actresses Rachel Blake, Emily Browning and director Julia Leigh pose during a photo call for Sleeping Beauty, at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Jonathan Short)
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May 11, 2011
'Midnight in Paris' opens Cannes
CANNES, France - Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” kicked off the Cannes Film Festival on a lighthearted note Wednesday.
It’s one of Allen’s more amusing efforts of the last few years, but like most of his later films, it lacks the existentially tortured protagonist and any larger philosophical debate.
Instead, it’s an homage to Paris — a romp through the city’s intellectual and artistic history.
Dallas native Owen Wilson plays Gil, a screenwriter who has accompanied his wife-to-be and his prospective in-laws on a trip to Paris. The in-laws pose big problems for Gil, especially since they’re Tea Party Republicans who disdain anything French.
Wilson’s Gil, meanwhile, romanticizes Paris as a city that could inspire him to complete a long-gestating novel, much to the dismay of his fiancée (Rachel McAdams), who wants him to continue his lucrative screenwriting job in Hollywood.
To explain the plot would be to spoil a surprise, and the notes distributed before Wednesday’s screening scrupulously avoided giving away any plot details. Wilson’s character, however, wants to experience all of the city’s charms and begins to take solo walks at midnight.
At a press conference after the screening, Allen praised Wilson as the perfect person for the role. The director apparently thinks the former University of Texas student represents laid-back, West Coast beach boys, as he told reporters Wednesday.
Wilson looked mildly amused during Allen’s comments but said nothing to contradict the director.
Allen said that he didn’t know where his story was headed when he first came up with the title, “Midnight in Paris.” He just wanted the film to reflect the Paris he had seen as a young adult attending the movies.
“It’s the Manhattan I don’t see around me, but I recognize it from the movies.” Allen said.
“Midnight” opens with a warmly tinted montage of the some of the most famous Parisian scenes. And as luck would have it, Allen said, part of that montage was filmed during a rainy day, which the directors considers part of Paris’ magic.
Allen pointed out that nearly all the colors in “Midnight” are autumnal, a visual style that he thinks is far more appealing cinematically because of the colors’ warmth. There are no blues in “Midnight,” he said.
He also said that he cast the French first lady, Carla Bruni, in a minor role as a museum guide after having dinner with her and her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy. He said that she has seen the movie and was pleased with the portrayal. “She came in and did her part very gracefully.”
The Sarkozys are not expected at the red-carpet premiere tonight. The French press has been speculating for the last couple of days that the first lady is unexpectedly pregnant with twins.
Coming up tonight: “Sleeping Beauty,” Julia Leigh’s potentially controversial tale of a narcoleptic prostitute.
Director Woody Allen, left, actors Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams pose during a photo call for Midnight in Paris, at the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
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'Midnight in Paris' opens Cannes
CANNES, France - Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” kicked off the Cannes Film Festival on a lighthearted note Wednesday.
It’s one of Allen’s more amusing efforts of the last few years, but like most of his later films, it lacks the existentially tortured protagonist and any larger philosophical debate.
Instead, it’s an homage to Paris — a romp through the city’s intellectual and artistic history.
Dallas native Owen Wilson plays Gil, a screenwriter who has accompanied his wife-to-be and his prospective in-laws on a trip to Paris. The in-laws pose big problems for Gil, especially since they’re Tea Party Republicans who disdain anything French.
Wilson’s Gil, meanwhile, romanticizes Paris as a city that could inspire him to complete a long-gestating novel, much to the dismay of his fiancée (Rachel McAdams), who wants him to continue his lucrative screenwriting job in Hollywood.
To explain the plot would be to spoil a surprise, and the notes distributed before Wednesday’s screening scrupulously avoided giving away any plot details. Wilson’s character, however, wants to experience all of the city’s charms and begins to take solo walks at midnight.
At a press conference after the screening, Allen praised Wilson as the perfect person for the role. The director apparently thinks the former University of Texas student represents laid-back, West Coast beach boys, as he told reporters Wednesday.
Wilson looked mildly amused during Allen’s comments but said nothing to contradict the director.
Allen said that he didn’t know where his story was headed when he first came up with the title, “Midnight in Paris.” He just wanted the film to reflect the Paris he had seen as a young adult attending the movies.
“It’s the Manhattan I don’t see around me, but I recognize it from the movies.” Allen said.
“Midnight” opens with a warmly tinted montage of the some of the most famous Parisian scenes. And as luck would have it, Allen said, part of that montage was filmed during a rainy day, which the directors considers part of Paris’ magic.
Allen pointed out that nearly all the colors in “Midnight” are autumnal, a visual style that he thinks is far more appealing cinematically because of the colors’ warmth. There are no blues in “Midnight,” he said.
He also said that he cast the French first lady, Carla Bruni, in a minor role as a museum guide after having dinner with her and her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy. He said that she has seen the movie and was pleased with the portrayal. “She came in and did her part very gracefully.”
The Sarkozys are not expected at the red-carpet premiere tonight. The French press has been speculating for the last couple of days that the first lady is unexpectedly pregnant with twins.
Coming up tonight: “Sleeping Beauty,” Julia Leigh’s potentially controversial tale of a narcoleptic prostitute.
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April 25, 2011
Special screening of Kyle Henry short
Former Austin director Kyle Henry has been selected as the only American to screen a short film in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at Cannes this year. And Austin audiences can get a sneak peek of the film at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Alamo Ritz.
Henry, who now lives in Chicago, will be presenting “Fourplay: Tampa,” one of four shorts that will make up a feature-length film. All of the shorts deal with sexual intimacy.
Directors’ Fortnight was begun in the late 1960s, after prominent directors began to complain about the lack of edgy, independent cinema in the main Cannes Film Festival. Since then, the official Cannes selection has changed quite a bit and includes some of the most avant garde cinema in the world. But the Directors’ Fortnight still stands as a alternative for smaller filmmakers.
The Saturday fundraiser, hosted by Rebecca Havemeyer, is being presented by the Austin Film Society and the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, where “San Francisco,” one of the four shorts that will make up the film, premiered in 2009.
“Tampa” stars Jose Villareal and Stanley Roy, and focuses on a gay incident in a public mall bathroom. The short is described as an adults-only farce. It was written by Carlos Trevino and financed by Michael Stipe’s C-Hundred Film Corp.
Tickets $20 for public, $15 for AGLIFF and AFS members. Go here to purchase.
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April 18, 2011
Nichols' film in Cannes Critics' Week
Austin director Jeff Nichols will be screening his new movie, “Take Shelter,” in the Critics’ Week sidebar at this year’s Cannes Film Festival
Critics’ Week, which is held in conjunction with the main festival, is one of the oldest sidebars in Cannes. Nichols’ film, which received favorable reviews at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, will screen in competition.
Houston’s Jonathan Caouette, the director of “Tarnation,” will have a special screening for his new movie, “Walk Away Renee,” in Critics’ Week.
The lineup:
Feature films
- “Las Acacias,” directed by Pablo Giorgelli
- “Ave,” directed by Konstantin Bojanov
- “17 Filles,” directed by Delphine & Muriel Coulin
- “The Slut (Hanotenet),” directed by Hagar Ben Asher
- “Snowtown (Les Crimes de Snowtown),” directed by Justin Kurzel
- “Sauna on Moon,” directed by Zou Peng
- “Take Shelter,” directed by Jeff Nichols
Special screenings
- “La Guerre est declaree,” directed by Valérie Donzelli
- “Pourquoi tu pleures?,” directed by Katia Lewcowicz
- “Walk away Renee,” directed by Jonathan Caouette
- “My Little Princess,” directed by Eva Ionesco
“It’s not censorship at all. There’s a program that’s giving state money as an incentive to filmmaking and there was criteria put in the statute for that money. That criteria states that anything that shows an inaccurate portrayal of actual events (in Texas) and comes down to that narrow definition.”
After reading the “Waco” script, “I did some fact checking and I feel very confident in the checking I did. I talked to people, law enforcement and journalists, who were actually involved in the whole incident. This was not something that was done lightly at all. We’ve been given this incentive program and we have to live within its constraints. This project steps outside an accurate portrayal of those events.”
Hudgins declined to elaborate about what’s inaccurate, though he did say that the people he talked to said the script was off-base. “My job is to define if things are not accurately portrayed. They’re purporting to be a factual film about Texas and they don’t meet the mark. Living within the structure of the statute, I have to make this decision.”
“I would love to have not had to make this call, because I realize the direct cost to Texas in jobs and income. That’s what makes the decision so difficult. I’m here to promote as much production activity in the state as possible, but I also have to live within the confines of the statute.”
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April 14, 2011
Cannes lineup announced for 2011
Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” will screen in competition for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The announcement in Paris on Thursday ends months of speculation about whether the Austin director’s film, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, would screen in Cannes.
The big question now is: Will Malick show up for the traditional press conference that follows the press screening at the Palais? Malick does not give interviews, and he is not accustomed to taking questions about any of his movies from a crowd of international critics. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in mid-May, when the festival kicks off.
Other films in the official selection are:
“Midnight in Paris,” directed by Woody Allen, the opening-night film that will screen out of competition.
And then there are the competition films, featuring some of the most noted directors from around the world:
“The Skin That I Inhabit,” Pedro Almodovar
“L’Apollonide,” Betrand Bonello
“Foot Note,” Joseph Cedar
“Paterre,” Alain Cavalier
“Once Upon A Time In Anatolia,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan
“The Kid With The Bike,” the Dardenne Brothers
“Le Havre,” Aki Kaurismaki
“Hanezu no Tsuki,” Naomi Kawase
“Sleeping Beauty,” Julia Leigh
“La Source de Femmes,” Radu Mihaileanu
“Polisse,” Maîwenn Le Besco
“Harakiri,” Takashi Miike
“We Have a Pope,” Nanni Moretti
“Melancholia,” Lars von Trier
“Michael,” Markus Schleinzer
“This Must Be the Place,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Drive,” Nicholas Winding Refn
“We Need To Talk About Kevin,” Lynne Ramsay
Un Certain Regard:
“Restless,” Gus Van Sant
“Martha Marcy May Marlene,” Sean Durkin
“The Hunter,” Bazur Bakuradze
“Halt auf freier Strecke,” Andreas Dresen
“Skoonheid,” Oliver Hermanus
“Hors Satan,” Bruno Dumont
“Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro,” Robert Guédiguian
“The Days He Arrives,” Hong Sang-Soo
“Bonsai,” Christian Jimenez
“Tatsumi,” Erik Khoo
“En maintenant, on va ou?” Nadine Labaki
“Ariang,” Kim Ki Duk
“Loverboy,” Catalin Mitulescu,
“Toomelah,” Ivan Sen
“Yellow Sea,” Na Hong-Jin
“Miss Bala,” Gerardo Naranjo,
“L’exercice de l’Etat,” Pierre Schoeller,
“Oslo, August 31st,” Joachim Trier
“Travailler fatigue,” Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra
Out of Competition:
“The Beaver,” Jodie Foster
“The Artist,” Michel Hazanavicius
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” Rob Marshall
“La Conquete,” Xavier Durringer
“Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom Of Doom,” Jennifer Yuh
Special Screenings:
“Labrador,” Frederikke Aspock
“Le maître des forges de l’enfer,” Rithy Panh
“Un documentaire sur Michel Petrucciani,” Michael Radford
“Tous au Larzac,” Christian Rouaud
Midnight Screenings
“Wu Xia,” Peter Chan Ho-sun
“Dias de gracia,” Everardo Gout
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May 23, 2010
"Uncle Boonmee" wins top prize in Cannes
The Cannes Film Festival delivered another shocker Sunday night, awarding the Palme d’Or to Thailand’s “Uncle Boonmee Recalls His Past Lives.”
The film, which didn’t screen until late Thursday night, won over the critically praised “Another Year,” directed by Briton Mike Leigh, and “Of Gods and Men,” directed by Xavier Beauvois of France. The latter, which focuses on a group of French monks who were beheaded in Algeria in the 1990s, took the second prize, the grand prix.
“Uncle Boonmee,” directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, is best described as experimental, dealing with a dying man who believes in reincarnation and imagines his past lives, including that of a buffalo and a princess.
Best actor was split between Javier Bardem of “Biutiful” and Elio Germano of the Italian family drama “Our Life.” Best actress went to Juliette Binoche of “Certified Copy,” directed by Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami. In accepting the award, Binoche noted that Iranian director Jafar Panahir was unable to fill his role as a member of the Cannes jury because he has been jailed by Iranian authorities.
Other awards: Best director: Mathieu Almaric, of France, for “On Tour.” Best screenplay: Lee Chang-Dong of South Korean, for “Poetry.” Prix du jury: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun of Chad, for “A Screaming Man.” Camera d’Or: “Ano Bisiesto,” directed by Michael Rowe of Mexico.
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May 22, 2010
Riot police in Cannes
French riot police thronged the Croisette this weekend during the premiere of the Algerian epic “Outside the Law.”
People attending the Cannes Film Festival were subjected to thorough bag searches and confiscations of liquids as police with shields lined the streets, trying to prevent about 1,000 protesters from reaching the screening at the Palais. The protesters waved French flags and sang the national anthem.
The dispute erupted because of the movie’s portrayal of events in Algeria in 1945, during French rule of the northern African nation. In particular, French rightists objected to the portrayal of what the movie deems to be a massacre of peaceful Algerian demonstrators in 1945 in the city of Setif.
The event in the movie is crucial in the radicalization of three Algerian brothers, all of whom end up in Paris in the late 1940s and 1950s, two of whom become leaders in the fight for independence.
Director Rachid Bouchareb has created what amounts to an epic “Gone With the Wind”-style tale for Algeria. And France comes off as looking very bad, seizing land, gunning down civilians and persecuting Muslim resistance leaders, who are considered to be terrorists.
Asked about the protests Friday, Bouchareb said he realized that tensions about French relations with Algeria run deep, but that he didn’t mean to incite violence with his film and that the reactions in Cannes were exaggerated.
Algeria eventually gained independence from France in 1962. But it was hard-fought and signaled the end of the French empire. The movie includes historic footage of Charles DeGaulle, proclaiming that the colonization of Algeria was crucial to maintaining a French bloc of power against the rising influence of the United States and the Soviet Union.
“Outside the Law” is expected to be a leading contender for the Palme d’Or when the prizes are announced Sunday.
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May 21, 2010
Misery finds a lot of company in Cannes films
Despite the glamorous setting of the French Riviera, the movies that played at this year’s Cannes Film Festival portrayed a world that has hit rock bottom.
A washed-up movie promoter takes a group of New Burlesque stars to seedy French towns in Mathieu Almaric’s “On Tour.” A group of monks in Algeria are beheaded in Xavier Beauvois’ “Of Gods and Men.” A low-level Barcelona fixer learns he’s dying of cancer and ends up accidentally gassing a group of Chinese immigrants in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful.” A nanny is brutalized in Im Sangsoo’s “The Housemaid.” Hundreds of hoodlums are systematically executed in Takeshi Kitano’s “Outrage.” A grandmother tries to figure out how to respond to news that her grandson has been involved in a gang rape in Lee Chang-don’s “Poetry.” And an alcoholic woman watches her life pass by in Mike Leigh’s “Another Year.”
All of these movies are competing for the Palme d’Or, which will be awarded Sunday, May 23. But even movies screening outside the official competition had dark implications.
A marriage unravels in Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine,” starring Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. A nurse for terminal patients in an Hungarian hospital gorges on cream puffs in complete boredom as she watches a wall of heart monitors in “Pal Adrienn.” The world faces unimaginable apocalyptic dangers in Lucy Walker’s nuclear arms documentary “Countdown to Zero.” And if the world really comes to an end, we might all be so poor that we don’t even care, according to Charles Ferguson’s riveting Wall Street documentary, “Inside Job.”
Of all the movies screening at this year’s festival, “Inside Job” has to be the most outrageous, provocative and disturbing.
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"Boxing Gym" premiere in Cannes
Frederick Wiseman unveiled his new documentary, “Boxing Gym,” on Thursday, with opening and closing shots of the Austin skyline and an extended look at life inside Richard Lord’s boxing gym on North Lamar.
Wiseman sees Lord’s Boxing Gym as a melting pot, with people from all walks of life training there. They include video game guru Richard Garriott, as well as doctors, accountants, plumbers attorneys, graduate students and young mothers.
Initital reports indicated that the movie was shot in 2008, but most of the events discussed in the film are from 2007. So it’s still not clear. Wiseman was not available for an interview, having arrived the night before the premiere and leaving the morning after. But Garriott talks about the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, as do other people training at the gym.
But the discussion of the Virginia Tech shootings is important in the context of the overall framing of Wiseman’s documentary. Throughout Wiseman’s career, he has focused on various aspects of violence in his documentaries. In “Law and Order” and “Juvenile Court,” for instance, he focuses on state efforts to confine and punish violent offenders. His documentary “Primate” focuses on scientific research aimed at controlling violent behavior. And “State Legislature” describes the creation of laws aimed at violent behavior.
With “Boxing Gym,” Wiseman focuses on what he calls “the controlled expression of one form of violence.” And Wiseman seems fascinated by the scenes on display at Lord’s gym. Violence is being absorbed and controlled by a rigorous work ethic, and trainers seem to redirect their clients’ frustrations in various workouts.
The director interjects humor throughout the movie. While boxers work out with punching bags, weights and even sledge hammers, Wiseman turns his camera toward a blissful baby lying nearby, watching his mother train.
In the gym, women are as welcome as men. And Lord says he sees the place as a community, a place where parents can bring their kids, who he says will be fascinated by the scenery.
The gym is in no way a yuppie affair. The floors are concrete, with plywood and stray pieces of carpet held in place by tape. Boxing posters plaster the walls. And fluorescent lights glare from exposed warehouse ceilings.
Talking is kept to a minimum. Instead, Wiseman focuses on the body movements, especially the feet, as everyday folks go through their workouts. And that’s appropriate. Wiseman is also fascinated by the ballet of the body, as he showed in his documentaries “Ballet” and “La Danse.”
“Boxing Gym,” in other words, becomes sort of a distillation of Wiseman’s interesting body of work.
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May 20, 2010
A jam-packed Thursday in Cannes
Director Doug Liman’s new thriller, “Fair Game,” made its debut in Cannes on Thursday morning, and it was generally well-received.
The movie features standout performances by Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame Wilson and Sean Penn as her rebellious husband, Joe Wilson.
Valerie Plame was a CIA undercover operative dealing in weapons research before the latest Iraq war. And she had evidence that the so-called aluminum tubes that were being used as evidence by the Bush administration to justify the war were not actually suitable in the construction of elements of mass destruction.
Her husband, a former ambassador in the Clinton administration, also ends up traveling to Niger, where he is assigned to investigate claims that the African nation was a conduit for so-called yellowcake uranium that could help Iraq build nuclear weapons. He found no such evidence.
When the Bush administration justified going to war with Iraq, however, it cited evidence that the husband and wife knew was overstated, if not downright misleading. And the husband had the gall to write an article about the falsehoods. That sent Scooter Libby and Karl Rove on the attack, trying to make the two Wilsons the target of an inquiry.
They outed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent, and the whole affair threatened to tear the Wilson family apart. (The now live in Santa Fe, N.M., and the movie is based on their two books.)
Liman, whose previous efforts include “Mr and Mrs. Smith” and “Jumper,” has finally found a vehicle that is not only entertaining but also meaningful, as he put it at a press conference following the screening.
Watts also was effusive in her praise of Valerie Plame Wilson, saying she was one of the strongest, bravest women she had ever met. And she welcomed the chance to play a woman who isn’t psychotic, “ever since I did that David Lynch movie,” a reference to “Mulholland Dr.”
After the press conference, I met David Robert Mitchell, the director of “The Myth of the American Sleepover,” at the American Pavilion.
His movie, which was a hit at the recent South by Southwest, focuses on a group of teenagers on the last summer night before school begins. And in a way, it’s an homage to Mitchell’s hometown of Detroit, or rather its suburbs. In “The Myth,” Detroit is indeed a great place to grow up, and Mitchell insisted Thursday that most people don’t realize the tranquility and beauty of the Detroit suburbs.
Of the many movies playing in Cannes, this is one of the few that doesn’t focus on death and destruction. Instead, it presents a rather chaste, innocent picture of teen life, with kids struggling to figure out relationships and romance.
After “The Myth” interview, it was off to the Carlton Beach to talk to director Stephen Frears, whose “Tamara Drewe” is one of the few comedies playing this year in Cannes.
Frears was accompanied by two of his stars, Dominic Cooper and Luke Evans, both of whom are known as the next big British hunks.
Cooper plays a self-absorbed rock star who seduces Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) in Dorsett, in the English countryside. But it’s clear that she’s really destined to be with a local handyman, Andy Cobb, played by Luke Evans.
Of the two, Cooper is the most famous, having been in “Mamma Mia!,” “The Duchess,” “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” and “From Hell.” But that’s about to change. Evans is currently filming the big-budget “Immortals” in Montreal. And he’s also in Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood.”
Both Cooper and Evans are incredibly photogenic and buff. And Evans said he was headed out for a fashion shoot later in the day for the Italian version of “Vanity Fair” magazine. Frears also held court, cracking wise about his movie history, which includes “My Beautiful Laundrette,” “Prick Up Your Ears,” “Dangerous Liaisons” and “The Grifters.”
He said he really didn’t see the comedic “Tamara Drewe” as a departure from his recent films, including “The Queen.”
“I just film what is on the page,” he said, “and if I like a script, I go with it.”
When asked whether he sees himself as an artist or a craftsman, Frears didn’t hesitate. “It’s a craft,” he said. “That’s the way I was raised. You have a job and you do it.”
Coming up Thursday evening, a screening of “Boxing Gym,” the documentary about Lord’s Gym in Austin.
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May 19, 2010
Jagger rocks Cannes
Mick Jagger rocked the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, bounding from a limousine into the Palais Stephanie for the premiere of the new documentary “Stones in Exile.”
Hundreds of photographers and onlookers blocked the street near the theater, proving once again that rock stars are bigger than movie stars.
The new documentary, directed by Stephen Kijak, details the flight of the Rolling Stones to southern France in 1971, in part to escape the high taxes in Britain.
As everyone knows, the six-month stay at the villa Nellcote in Villefrance-sur-mer led to the creation of one of history’s classic albums, “Exile on Main St.” The documentary details the rowdy recording sessions in the basement of the villa rented by Keith Richards. And as the movie shows, Richards was the guiding force for the musical creation, even though he was drinking and doing drugs almost nonstop.
Jagger, who introduced the film before a packed audience, said that the Rolling Stones were “young, good-looking and stupid” at the time. “Now, we’re just stupid.”
During the stay in France, Jagger married Bianca in St. Tropez, and footage of that event is included. Also prominent are various other musicians who joined the Stones, including saxophonist Bobby Keys, who drawls some of the funniest lines about scantily clad women, drinking and the lifestyle of rockers.
All of the recordings took place in the basement of Nellcote, which was actually a series of rooms, none of them suitable for jam sessions. Technical problems proliferated. Lights went out. Gear malfunctioned. And the Stones, who worked 12-hour stretches, were so strung out after recording sessions that an intruder was able to enter the mansion and steal several guitars as well as Keys’ sax, without being noticed.
The movie is fairly linear, with various musicians and iconic director Martin Scorsese talking about the importance of the album on rock music. The same people close the movie with their reflections.
In between, we get to see never-released footage of the recording sessions as well as details about the private lives of the group. We meet Fat Jacques, the chef at the villa. And we see details of the use of drugs and alcohol. But somehow it all led to a creative explosion, a blend of rock, blues and country music.
After the screening, Jagger described the album as a “scrawny, gutsy piece of work” that wasn’t immediately embraced by critics. But he said that critics need time to digest a new album, and that the acclaim eventually came. Part of the acceptance was spurred by the arena tours that the Stones did after the album was released in 1972, he said.
Jagger was asked about the Stones’ rivalry with the Beatles at the time, but he rightly pointed out that the two groups weren’t really all that similar. The Beatles did big concerts, but they were briefer affairs than those of the Stones, and those concerts didn’t continue in the 70s.
Keith Richards, meanwhile, has one of the best lines in the film. “Mick is rock. And I am roll.”
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May 18, 2010
A Tuesday in Cannes
The competition for the Palme d’Or is heating up with two screenings early this week of French director Xavier Beauvois’ “Of Gods & Men” and Abbas Kiarastomi’s romance “Certified Copy.”
Of the two, “Of Gods & Men” carries the most heft. Set in Algeria in the 1990s, it tells of Cistercian Trappist monks who must decide whether to leave their monastery after terrorists issued an ultimatum that all foreigners must leave.
The movie, told from the monastic point of view, traces the monks’ decisions to stay, in an attempt to forge bonds with Muslims and be true to their faith. And as most people know, since this is based on a true story, the monks are eventually kidnapped, with their heads found on a road near Medea.
The exact circumstances of the monks’ death are still undetermined, but Beauvois takes a highly controlled and contemplative approach to the tale.
More fluffy but enjoyable is “Certified Copy,” which deals with the romance in Tuscany between a French art gallery owner (Juliette Binoche) and an English author (William Shimell). In real life, of course, Shimell is an opera singer.
It’s quite a departure for the Iranian director, whose previous work includes “A Taste of Cherry,” “Life and Nothing More,” “Through the Olive Trees” and ‘Where Is My Friend’s House?” This is his first production outside of Iran.
Also screening Tuesday outside of competition was “Blue Valentine,” the American film from director Derek Cianfrance. The marital drama, which won accolades at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, was screening in the Un Certain Regard sidebar.
It’s a heartbreaker, going back and forth in time, telling the story of how a man (Ryan Gosling) and a woman (Michelle Williams) met, became married and have a child. The bleak circumstances of the marriage are contrasted with the romantic days of their youth. And the film remarkably fails to take sides.
Both Gosling and Williams give outstanding performances, but Gosling is the biggest surprise. As the father, his interactions with the child are charming and wistful. But it’s clear at the beginning that this family will be torn apart.
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May 17, 2010
Early betting on the Palme d'Or
It’s still early, but it looks as though Mike Leigh’s “Another Year” is the leading contender for the Palme d’Or, halfway through the competition. No other movie comes close.
The movie, based on Leigh’s well-known British realism, is hard to describe. The press notes, which are geared toward promoting the movie, end with a sentence that describes how everyone at the dinner table is getting ready for a trip, but that Mary is not. Instead, she “faces the sad emptiness of her passing life.”
Folks, this kind of summary will not attract crowds in the U.S. But the movie will undoubtedly make it to the U.S., with Oscar-worthy performances throughout the cast, especially for the wonderful Lesley Manville, who plays Mary.
Other contenders so far seem to be Alejandro Ganzalez Inarritu’s “Biutiful,” starring Javier Bardem as a man who has two months to live and has to figure out a way to make sure that his two kids will be okay.
He lives in Barcelona, and that great Spanish city has never looked so ugly. Bardem plays a smalltime hood who pays off police and tries to help illegal immigrants find jobs. But in the midst of dealing with an alcoholic, estranged wife and trying to juggle the demands of venal criminality, he remains first and foremost a father.
Bardem is excellent, as one would expect. But the overarching despair, including the accidental fatal gassing of two dozen Asian immigrants under his care, raises the depression quotient a bit much.
Bertrand Tavernier, meanwhile, has created a beautiful, romantic epic in “The Princess of Montpensier.” As far as French costume dramas go, this one is by far the best in years. But traditional films rarely catch the eye of the jury in Cannes. So its prospects are doubtful.
Takeshi Kitano’s “Outrage” was viewed as something of a violent disappointment, although it will undoubtedly do fine at the box office. “The Housemaid” is stylish but cold. “On Tour” is witty but too lowbrow for Cannes tastes. And “Chongquing Blues” has put many people to sleep.
The next week, however, might hold a few surprises. Coming up are Abbas Kiarastomi’s “Certified Copy,” Ken Loach’s “Route Irish” (a late addition to the competition), Doug Liman’s “Fair Game” and several others.
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May 16, 2010
A Sunday in Cannes
The Cannes Film Festival has to have one of the most unusual lineups in its history this year. A day at the movies in Cannes can be quite bizarre, simply because of the range of genres in the official selection.
Sunday started off rather normally, with a screening of the competition film, “The Princess of Montpensier,” directed by the French master Bertrand Tavernier. It’s set in 1562, amid the wars between Catholics and Protestants. And it deals with two star-crossed lovers. The girl Marie, played by Melanie Theirry, is in love with Henri (Gaspard Ulliel), an impetuous soldier. But she’s promised to the Prince of Montpensier (Gregorie Leprince-Ringuet).
The marriage doesn’t go smoothly, and when Henri arrives with the king’s brother for a visit, their old passsions are rekindled. It’s a thoroughly traditional costume drama, sumptuously filmed and reminiscent of “Madame Bovary” by Flaubert.
But the rest of the day was far from traditional. Next up was “Adrienn Pal,” which follows the recent Eastern European traditions of slow, long takes that border on boredom but actually have a point. Directed by Agnes Kocsis, it focuses on a obese woman who works in a hospital ward where all the patients are terminally ill. She wears ill-fitting clogs with wooden soles, and when she clomps down a corridor, it’s like the clanging of the death knell.
When she’s not tending to bedsores and changing diapers, she’s eating cream-filled pastries, chocolate, and just about anything else available. We watch her eat and eat and eat, and go to the bathroom. Increasingly lonely, she becomes obsessed with finding her childhood friend, Adrienn Pal, who moved away in the fourth grade. And her quest takes her across Hungary, leading her to meet a surprising cast of characters, all of whom have conflicting stories about the past.
It’s the kind of arthouse film that rarely makes it to the U.S. but gets attention in Cannes in part because of its empathic nature and in part because of its realistic, almost documentary-like style.
“Adrienn Pal” was followed by director David Berbeek’s Dutch drama, “R U There.” Dutch actor Stijn Koomen stars as Jitze, a world-champion video game player who travels the world to compete in tournaments. While in Taiwan, he begins to have shoulder pains and asks a woman whom he thinks is a prostitute for a massage. Although not a prostitute, she still massages his shoulder and begins to break down a wall that Jitze has put up around himself. He’s been living in the game world for so long that he has forgotten how to touch other human beings. And Verbeek handles this tale of becoming human again with compassion and nuances.
Nothing was nuanced about Sunday night’s last film, “Outrage,” directed by Japanese action guru Takeshi Kitano. It’s a tortured tale of fights to the death among various yakuza families, all of whom are being manipulated by “the chairman.” The only question becomes which man will be left standing. (If you think that phrase is sexist, well, let’s just say that the women in these kinds of movies never survive). Very few men survive either.
Kitano’s movies are all about the inventive nature of killing someone else. Dental drills, check. Chopped-off fingers, a matter of course. Multiple gunshots wounds to the head, fairly routine. But Kitano comes up with several new methods, each time with a foreshadowing, such as “Stick out your tongue.” You know it’s gonna be bad.
“Outrage” is in competition for the Palme d’Or. And it will probably be one of the most controversial entries this year. Reviews will be wildly at odds. But “Outrage” is assured of a U.S. release. It’s that kind of market.
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May 15, 2010
Fantastic Fest alert at Cannes
Austin’s Fantastic Fest will undoubtedly show one of the films that premiered in Cannes on Saturday. It’s Gregg Araki’s “Kaboom.”
I ran into the Alamo honcho Tim League, who oversees Fantastic Fest, at the American Pavilion on Saturday, shortly after the premiere of “Kaboom,” and told him about its wild premise. He laughed and said I was the third person who had told him about “Kaboom.” So he’s planning to see it tomorrow.
The film stars Thomas Dekker as a college student who’s apparently the “chosen son,” who will lead the new world after the apocalypse. But he’s not your average chosen one. He sleeps around, lusts after his hunky roommate, and has random sex on beaches. He also begins to have visions that people wearing animal masks are running around campus and killing people.
It’s pretty wild. And by the end of the movie, it’s clear that you’re watching a scathing satire of apocalyptic films. In other words, it’s right up Fantastic Fest’s alley.
League said he was also headed out to see yet another Fantastic Fest contender. It’s called “Rubber.” It stars a used tire, which has developed a consciousness and becomes a serial killer. Sounds like yet another spoof, this time on Stephen King’s “Christine.”
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The new Mike Leigh: Oh yes
British director Mike Leigh is known for his social realism, exploring the everyday lives of middle- and working-class lives. His new movie, “Another Year,” which premiered Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival, is a real heartbreaker.
Lesley Manville, a longtime Leigh collaborator, forms the emotionally messy core of the movie in her role as Mary, a secretary who is twice divorced and descending into alcoholism and self-delusion.
Her best friend is a colleague, Gerri (played by the incomparable Ruth Sheen), who is the model of emotional stability, with a longtime husband, Tom, (played by yet another longtime Leigh collaborator, Jim Broadbent).
Mary acts as though she’s still “a looker,” dressing provocatively for her age and drinking way too much wine. Everytime a man looks at her, she seems to develop romantic delusions, only to see them dashed. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and it’s being always being bruised by the strangers she bumps into.
So she sets her sights on an inappropriate, potential lover, the son of her best friend, Joe, played by Oliver Maltman. She practically throws herself at him, and is devastated when he eventually shows up at his parents’ home with a new girlfriend.
And when a man who is finally her age arrives at one of these dinners, she thinks he’s way beneath her. He, too, has a drinking problem and wears a T-shirt that says “Think less, drink more.”
As Mary, Manville is a quivering mess. And it’s hard to think of a more heartbreaking portrait of vulnerability in recent cinema. But as you might have guessed by now, this tale will not break any box-office records. It’s a shame. Manville’s portrait is Oscar-worthy.
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The new Woody. Oh-oh.
I wrote my first professional newspaper movie review back in the late 1970s in Omaha. It was for “Annie Hall,” and I remember scribbling in my notebook throughout the Woody Allen classic, trying to remember all the brilliant one-liners.
So it gives me no pleasure to report that Woody’s latest, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” is a bore. I wrote down only one quote during Saturday’s world premiere. Its a good one, but it doesn’t even approach the humor of “Annie Hall.”
Here’s the setup: An older woman (Gemma Jones) has been dumped by husband (Anthony Hopkins) and she falls for another man, a widower who believes in the afterlife and wants his dead wife’s approval during a seance. The only problem: He can’t get up the nerve to ask if it’s okay to love again.
So the older woman is lamenting the lack of commitment and says of her new love: “He’s left me for another woman, a dead one. They’re often the stiffest competition.”
If only the rest of the movie were so funny. The movie centers on two couples who are splitting: Jones and Hopkins and their daughter, Naomi Watts, and her husband, a struggling writer Josh Brolin. Other people come in and out of the tale, including Freida Pinto and Antonio Banderas, but they’re little more than window-dressing distractions.
It used to seem that Woody loved his characters but reveled in the foibles. This time, it’s hard to love anyone in the movie. They’re all awful narcissists. And it makes you wonder whether Woody has stopped exploring neuroses and become a complete misanthrope.
For more than a decade, Woody has been a hit-and-miss director. “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Match Point” seem to stand out among his later movies. But his new one simply doesn’t measure up. It’s sad to see a director who has made so many great movies end up dawdling in such dreary dreck.
P.S. As for the “I hate hippies guy,” who commented here, I wasn’t stoned for Annie Hall or for this new movie. Weird to dismiss an entire generation. But hey, whatever.
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May 14, 2010
Gekko rides again
Oliver Stone says his dad was a broker. Producer Ed Pressman says his stepfather was a broker. So you’d expect their new movie, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” to have at least a bit of financial sophistication.
Think again. The details barely reach the level of Economics 101.
The movie, which premiered Friday at the Cannes Film Festival, begins with Michael Douglas reprising his role as Gordon Gekko, the insider trading convict who finally gets out of prison, looking disheveled and lonely. His only relative, his daughter (played by Carey Mulligan), is a do-gooder who runs a nonprofit website, and she wants nothing to do with dear old dad.
But she’s living with Wall Street trader Jacob, played by Shia LaBeouf of “Transformers” fame. It’s 2008, on the eve of the most recent financial meltdown, and Jacob’s firm is heavily leveraged because of his mentor, the head of the brokerage (Frank Langella).
Jacob also admires Gordon, and he wants to reunite dad and daughter. So he eventually ends up in Gordon’s apartment and begins receiving “wisdom” from the old pro. Gordon talks about the tulip crisis in Holland during the 1600s, when people were spending exorbitant amounts for bulbs, and how the market eventually crashed. Jacob listens raptly. But the only problem is that anyone who doesn’t know about the 1600s tulip bubble in Holland would never make it as a freshman economics major, much less end up at a major New York brokerage.
Implausibilities mount, but logic has never been one of Stone’s strong suits, at least in the last few years.
What about the drama, you ask? Stone is billing it as a story of family, of fathers. If the movie has a strong point, it’s keeping viewers guessing as to whether Gekko will ever be a decent man. The question is answered at the end, which won’t be given away here.
To Stone’s credit, he has assembled a fine cast, including Josh Brolin as a mean banker who destroys Jacob’s mentor and incurs Jacob’s wrath. As the daughter, Mulligan doesn’t make much of an impression. She’s a fine actress, but is rather passive here, running away from dad every time she sees him and shedding a lot of tears. LaBeouf is credible as the young Turk of Wall Street, and Brolin is probably one of our most underrated actors. It’s also great to see Douglas back on the big screen, reprising his Oscar-winning role.
But Stone uses so many gimmicks that the story keeps getting interrupted. Cameos include Charlie Sheen, who was in the first movie. And we also get to see a bit of Sylvia Miles, and a bit more of Susan Sarandon as the over-leveraged real estate agent and mom of LaBeouf. Never one to be shy, Stone has several scenes featuring himself.
But in the final irony, this movie, which is supposedly about the failures of greed and capitalism, is saturated with product placements. It’s about as credible as the real Wall Street.
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May 13, 2010
Musings about Day 2 in Cannes
With the exception of “Robin Hood,” the first few movies to screen at this year’s festival will play only to small arthouse crowds in the States. And their distribution in the States is far from assured.
Mathieu Almaric’s “Tournee” will probably make it to Texas in a year or so. And it has a little bit of cult appeal, primarily because of the bawdiness of the New Burlesque stars that it features.
And because of his critical standing, Manoel de Oliveira will probably see his latest movie, “The Strange Case of Angelica,” have a small run in the States.
Another possibility for U.S. distribution is “The Housemaid,” a starkly cold Korean film about the brutality shown by a rich family toward their maid. Im Sangsoo directs the film, which has one of the most unusual endings ever seen in Cannes. So far, it’s the shocker.
But big buzz is building around several movies that still haven’t screened. At the top of the list is director Charles Ferguson’s Wall Street documentary, “Inside Job.” The film is one of the few American entries in the official Cannes selection, although it’s not in competition for the Palme d’Or. But Ferguson’s film apparently has a very sharp edge in dealing with the causes of the recent financial meltdown, indicting not only Wall Street but also politicians and academia.
“Inside Job” screens Saturday, a day after Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” And “Wall Street,” of course, is also poised to pounce on the financial industry. In the sequel, Shia Labeouf stars as Jake Moore, the generational successor to Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), who finally gets out of prison. Stone rarely pulls his punches. So it looks like Wall Street is going to get an even worse reputation, if that’s possible. Like “Inside Job,” the new “Wall Street” is not competing for the Palme d’Or.
Associated Press photo: Actress Julie Atlas Muz, left, and actress Kitten on the Keys, right, arrive for the screening of ” Tournee”, at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 13, 2010.
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A Portuguese master at Cannes
At 101, Portuguese auteur Manoel de Oliveira debuted his latest effort Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival: “The Strange Case of Angelica.”
The idea for the screenplay was hatched in 1952, Oliveira says. But when you live to 101, what’s the hurry?
The story deals with a Jewish photographer, played by Ricardo Trepa, who gets an odd assignment to photograph a young woman from a wealthy family who has just died, only days after her wedding. The family wants a few final photos, especially since she seems to have a smile on her face.
When the photographer focuses on the corpse, however, he sees her come to life in his lens — although no one else in the room does. And he becomes obsessed, thinking that he has been chosen to see her spirit, when no one else can.
Oliveira is a subtle filmmaker, capturing the daily routines of a Portuguese village with wit and irony. He never looks down at his characters, even though he manages to capture their provincialism.
A recurring theme relates to the cultivation of olive trees. And it’s not a minor point, since Oliveira’s name means olive trees.
But it’s clear that Oliveira is musing about death, and possible life afterward. Such thoughtfulness won’t be a big box office draw in America. But it will resonate with the arthouse crowd.
Associated Press photo: Director Manoel de Oliveira poses for photographers during a photo call for “The Strange Case of Angelica”, at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 13, 2010.
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It's a go for "Waco"
The controversial movie “Waco” will begin production in two months in Louisiana, Emilio Ferrari of Entertainment 7 said Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival.
The news comes a year after a dispute erupted in Cannes over whether the movie would qualify for state incentives. At the time, Bob Hudgins of the Texas Film Commission said that Entertainment 7, the production company, need not apply for incentives because they would not be approved, citing what he called inaccuracies in the script about the government raid on the David Koresh compound near Waco.
Ferrari received the news about the Texas incentives during the festival last year and strongly rejected the contention of script inaccuracies.
On Thursday, Ferrari said that Kurt Russell has been cast to play Byron Sage, the key FBI agent at the siege of the Branch Davidian compound, which left 54 adults and 21 children dead.
Sage was one of the key sources for the Texas Film Commission’s determination that the script was inaccurate.
Other cast members include Adrien Brody as Koresh’s right-hand man, Steve Schneider, and Sharon Stone as Judy Schneider, his wife. The role of Koresh has not been cast yet, Ferrari said.
Exact locations in Louisiana for the filming have not been determined, Ferrari said. He added that the movie still faced “an uphill battle.” But he insisted that it would be made and would begin shooting this summer.
Entertainment 7 has declined to release the script for the movie. But the dispute about its inaccuracies centers, in part, on whether the government caused the deadly fire at the compound.
Photo: Actor Kurt Russell arrives at the Paramount Theatre for the Austin premiere of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s movie, “Grindhouse” on March 28, 2007. Photo by Brian K. Diggs AMERICAN-STATESMAN.
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May 12, 2010
North American grumbling in Cannes
Lots of grumbling from North American critics this year in Cannes.
The reason? Only one movie from the U.S. is in the official competition. It’s Doug Liman’s “Fair Game,” starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. For those who are wondering, that puts the U.S. on the same level with Chad, which also has a movie in competition.
The Chad movie is called “Un Homme Qui Crie.” In English, that translates to “A Screaming Man.” I’m not in the mood for screaming men.
Don’t get me wrong. Cannes is all about world cinema. And the movie from Chad, directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, might be wonderful. But the esoteric nature of this year’s competition films leaves a lot of question marks for critics who want to write about movies that will actually play in the States.
That’s led to an increased interest this year in the Directors Fortnight and Critics Week screenings. They have more U.S. films. And they include stars that you actually might have heard of. So there’s a bit of concern about relevance if critics focus only on competition films, as usual.
More than one critic approached me this year, welcoming me like a survivor of the national newspaper economic crisis. And to a person, they said the same thing. “This might be my last year.” These weren’t minor critics. They include major Canadian and U.S. representatives as well as some of the most respected writers about film who teach at the world’s top-flight universities.
To make matters worse, nearly every North American who has shown up this year had a travel nightmare. Some crossed the North Pole to avoid the ash cloud. Some arrived via a route over Africa’s Congo. But missed connections were the norm. Kate Beckinsale, one of the jurors for the Palme d’Or, even said she missed the traditional jury dinner last night because her flight was delayed.
Various trade publications, meanwhile, are reporting a notable drop in companies showing their films at the official market, where wheeler dealers congregate.
We’ll see what happens. Cannes always has naysayers. But the fact is this: Everyone who is here should be grateful. It might not be the best situation. But whining is verboten.
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Almaric's new movie
Mathieu Almaric, who’s probably the best actor from France these days, also proved Wednesday night that he’s one of the best directors at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
His new movie, “Tournee,” which translates as “On Tour” in English, crackles with hipster sensibilities, detailing the troubled tour of a group of New Burlesque strip teasers who travel through France.
Although the movie is fictional, it features a group of real-life strippers from the U.S., all of whom are throwbacks, with platinum hair and fan dances. Almaric plays the washed-up promoter who promises to show them France. As it turns out, however, he has lots of history, and his prospects for ever arranging a performance in Paris are limited.
The performers end up in a series of questionable hotels, and their tour is far from cool. They tend to get overly excited about the smallest things, including the routine delivery of pizza. But they oddly inspire nearly everyone who attends their show. They insist that they’re in control and that they’ll perform as they see fit. Hence, the feminism.
Almaric has made a name for himself by portraying dysfunction. He was the troubled son of Catherine Deneuve in “A Christmas Tale.” He was the dying, mute patient in “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” But most people probably know him as the bad guy in the last Bond movie, “Quantum of Solace.”
Here, he’s a loner who has lots of enemies in Paris and even fewer friends among his family. His wife has breast cancer. His two sons don’t really know him. And he’s betting his future on a bunch of U.S. strippers.
The setup might sound a bit odd. But Almaric, as both lead actor and director, makes the most of the situation. His plight oddly mirrors the vulnerability and neediness of the people he’s trying to promote.
The movie is reminiscent of one of my favorite films from my childhood: Joanne Woodward in “The Stripper.” I still can’t understand why that sweet, vulnerable movie hasn’t gained more of a cult following. I think Amalric’s new flick might renew interest in what I consider to be an American classic. If not, then Almaric’s movie will stand on its own.
Associated Press photo: Actress Mimi Le Meaux, left, actor and director Mathieu Amalric, center, and actress Dirty Martini, right, pose during a photo call for “Tournee”, at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 13, 2010.
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Berney departure to affect "Tree of Life"?
While the international press was buzzing about “Robin Hood” Wednesday, the U.S. press was more intrigued by a behind-the-scenes drama: the departure of Bob Berney from Apparition.
This might seem like inside baseball to Texas audiences, but it isn’t. Before heading to Hollywood, Berney owned and managed the Inwood arthouse theater in Dallas. And his company is handling the upcoming release of Austin director Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life,” filmed in Central Texas.
Berney founded Apparition and has been a key player on the arthouse movie circuit for more than a decade. And it’s not clear how his sudden departure, which was announced as he was en route to Cannes, will affect Malick’s film.
“Tree of Life,” starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, was widely rumored to be headed to Cannes this year, but it apparently was not completed in time, robbing the movie of a high-profile international debut.
Berney’s previous projects include “The Runaways,” the Joan Jett biographical film that grossed about $3.5 million in the States, much less than expected. Other films include “Black Dynamite,” which grossed a mere $242,000, and “The Boondock Saints,” which grossed about $10.3 million.
He was also responsible for “Bright Star” and “Young Victoria,” which did respectable business for costume arthouse flicks. In the U.S., “Bright Star” nabbed about $4.4 million, while “Victoria” grossed $11 million.
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Robin Hood opens Cannes
Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” opened the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, but it was definitely a hobbled kickoff.
Director Scott didn’t show up, because he recently underwent knee replacement surgery and is still recuperating. A statement was read on his behalf, expressing his regrets.
But stars Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett met the press after a Wednesday morning screening. Crowe was eloquent and game, explaining why this “Robin Hood” was different from all the previous versions. And Blanchett primarily watched Crowe in amusement, occasionally interrupting with a witty quip.
It’s obvious that Scott and Crowe are hoping that the “Robin Hood” movie will lead to a franchise, since the new movie deals with the origins, or “the motivations,” as Crowe put it, of the Nottingham bandit who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.
But an informal survey of critical opinion after the Wednesday premiere indicated that the reception for “Robin Hood” was mixed. And if that sentiment translates to the box office, then this new beginning for “Robin Hood” may also be its end.
In person, Crowe is quite garrulous and intelligent, belying the bad-boy image of a pub brawler. He argued that previous versions of “Robin Hood” were lacking because they did not explain the hero’s motivations. In the new version, those motivations become clear. First, Crowe said, Robin Hood falls in love “with a chick,” played by Blanchett. Then he discovers the legacy of his father, who was executed when Robin was a child because of his egalitarian beliefs.
But many critics thought it was a long wind-up to the epic battle at the end, as the French attempt to invade England.
That brought up yet another jab at the press conference, when a reporter asked why this movie was chosen to open the Cannes Film Festival since it was anti-French.
Crowe quipped that he didn’t really see it as anti-French, and he pointed out that a French cook shoots the fatal arrow into the king of England, Richard the Lionheart. He said he was sure the French would find that amusing.
Associated press photo: Actor Russell Crowe, left, and Danielle Spencer arrive at the premiere for the film ” Robin Hood”, at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 12, 2010.
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April 28, 2010
Stones doc in Cannes
A new documentary about the making of the classic Rolling Stones album “Exile on Main Street” will make its premiere in Cannes on May 19 as part of the Directors Fortnight.
The documentary is directed by Stephen Kijak, whose previous efforts include “Scott Walker: 30 Century Man.”
The new documentary shows Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and other band members as they begin to record the classic 1972 album in the south of France and move on to L.A. for final mixing.
It’s based on previously unseen footage, and the Stones asked Kijak to tell the story of the album’s creation.
A DVD of the doc will be released in June. And a special re-issue of “Exile on Main Street” will be released May 18 in the States. It will incude 10 tracks originally recorded during the “Exile” era but only recently discovered. The new tracks include “Plundered My Soul” and “Pass the Wine.”
Jagger will be at the festival for a Q&A with the director. Should be quite the scene.
To see a trailer, click http://bit.ly/d9kfF0
Associated press photo: From left, musicians Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones attend a special screening of their new documentary ” Stones In Exile” at The Museum of Modern Art, Tuesday, May 11, 2010 in New York.
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April 23, 2010
"Tree of Life" not in Cannes
It’s official. Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” will not compete for the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
That’s the word from the festival today, which said it had completed the official lineup with the following two:
“Chongqing Blues,” from Chinese film director Wang Xiashuai, and “Tender Son — The Frankenstein Project,” directed by Kornel Mundruczo of Hungary.
No mention of Malick.
In the Un Certain Regard sidebar, the festival added:
“Carancho,” from Argentinian director Pablo Trapero and “I Wish I Knew” by Jia Zhang Ke of China.
“The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu,” directed by Andrei Ujica of Romania, will show out of competition.
Other additions include “Carlos,” directed by Olivier Assayas; “Countdown to Zero,” directed by Lucy Walker of the U.S.; and “5XFavela,” five short films from Brazilian directors.
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April 20, 2010
"Lord's Gym" movie to screen in Cannes
Veteran Massachusetts documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman will present his documentary about Austin’s Lord’s Gym at this year’s Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors Fortnight.
Wiseman, whose previous efforts include “High School” and “La Danse,” shot the documentary, called “Boxing Gym,” quietly in Austin in 2008.
As many Austinites know, Lord’s Gym, on Lamar, is legendary. Richard Lord began his full-time training career here in 1990, after winning the 1979 and 1980 Golden Glove Championships.
The gym also trains women, and Lord arranged the first all-women boxing match sanctioned by United States Amateur Boxing in 1993.
Details about the documentary have not been made public. But the women’s angle is likely to be included and might be what attracted Wiseman’s interest. We’ll see.
The Directors Fortnight in Cannes is a sidebar to the official selection. It typically focuses on new, up-and-coming directors, and was established after demonstrations rocked the festival in the late 1960s, when some auteurs thought Cannes was becoming too mainstream.
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April 15, 2010
Cannes announces 2010 lineup
The Cannes Film Festival announced its official lineup today in Paris, and it’s still not clear whether Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life,” long rumored to be a highlight, will screen.
The festival’s Thierry Fremaux said that he had seen an early version of “Tree of Life” a few months ago — and that he was still hoping that it would be completed in time. But Malick has a reputation for long edits, and it’s not at all clear that the Austinite’s movie will be completed by May 12, when “Robin Hood” opens the fest. Whatever the case, four competition slots are still open, so if it actually is completed in time, there’s a spot for it.
U.S. films are getting sparse attention at the 2010 fest. Only one American film made the competition — Doug Liman’s “Fair Game,” a political thriller loosely based on the Valerie Plame affair with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.
Besides “Robin Hood,” two other American films will be part of the official selection but screening out of competition. They are Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” and Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”
Competition films include Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Biutiful,” Abbas Kiarostami’s “Certified Copy,” Daniele Luchetti’s “La Nostra Vita,” Bertrand Tavernier’s “La Princesse de Montpensier,” Xavier Beauvois’ “Of Gods and Men,” Takeshi Kitano’s “Outrage” and Mathieu Amalric’s “Tournee.”
Gregg Araki’s “Kaboom” will screen out of competition in a midnight slot. And Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine” will represent the U.S. in the Un Certain Regard sidebar.
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May 24, 2009
'Ribbon' takes the prize at Cannes
CANNES, France - Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon,” a searing look at pre-World War I life in a small German town just before World War I, won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, on Sunday.
Haneke, who was born in Germany and lives in Austria, dissected the emotional and physical abuse of children who eventually grew up to be part of the Third Reich.
“The White Ribbon” was a critical favorite, as was the winner of the Grand Prix, Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet.” The French movie detailed the transformation of a small-time crook into a major gangster during his six-year prison stay.
Charlotte Gainsbourg won best actress for the highly controversial “Antichrist,” directed by Lars Von Trier and accused of being misogynistic by some critics. It’s an erotic nightmare from the Danish director and includes a scene of genital mutilation.
Best actor went to Christoph Waltz, the persnickety Nazi linguist in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.” It was a career-making role for the little-known Austrian star, and he thanked Tarantino, saying he “gave me my vocation back.”
Alain Resnais, the legendary French director, won a special jury prize for his lifetime achievement and his new movie, “Wild Grass.”
Two critical favorites were shut out of the awards: “Looking for Eric,” the heart-warming Ken Loach tale of a British postman who’s inspired to get his life back by former soccer star Eric Cantona; and “Bright Star,” the love story between poet John Keats and a seamstress, directed by Jane Campion of New Zealand.
Other winners:
Best director, Brillante Mendoza for the critically reviled “Kinatay,” featuring the rape and dismemberment of a female hostage. Roger Ebert said it was worse than “The Brown Bunny,” which he has long considered to be the worst film ever in competition.
Best screenplay: Mei Feng for “Spring Fever,” directed by Lou Ye of China
Jury prize: “Fish Tank” by Andrea Arnold of Britain and “Thirst” by Park Chan-Wook of South Korea
Best short film: “Arena,” directed by Joao Salaviza of Portugal
Camera d’Or, for best first film: “Samson and Delilah,” directed by Warwick Thornton of Australia.
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May 22, 2009
Update on Friday in Cannes
This year’s Cannes Film Festival has been way above average, but on Friday, two days before the major awards, the movies took a turn for the worse.
See the earlier post about an 8:30 a.m. screening of “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” the last film of Heath Ledger. Not good.
Then comes “Enter the Void,” from Argentine/French director Gaspar Noe. In 2002, the director brought “Irreversible” to Cannes. And critics who walked out early (of which there were many) missed the movie’s touching, sympathetic ending, which made up for the brutality that preceded it (at least in my opinion).
So I was determined to stay through his latest movie as well. I sat through psychedelic visions of nothing but pulsing whiteness, yellowness, redness, blueness, presumably watching the action on screen from a young man who has been fatally shot to death in Tokyo but whose soul is still hovering over his loving sister.
Most critics stayed this time, and endured a journey an aborted fetus. We also watched the poor lead actress, Paz de la Huerta, in one topless scene after another. (She plays a Tokyo stripper, and even when she’s not stripping, she’s often topless, if not fully nude.)
And I could help but imagine how she felt during the gala screening. She and Noe and the rest of the cast and crew were sitting two rows away from me, in a packed audience of about 2,000.
Will Noe pull this movie out of the bag? Will he redeem the banality, the brutality, the drug-induced visions, the extended periods of nothingness? As it turns out, not really.
I suppose the last part of the movie can be seen as redemption, the never-ending quest for life. But did I really have to go inside a woman to witness the sex act and the fertilization of an egg? Noe apparently thinks so. Adventuresome moviegoers might be intrigued by such things. And I think artists should push boundaries. No problem there. See an earlier post about Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist.” But this one isn’t worth the effort. And as a fan of “Irreversible,” that’s a huge letdown.
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Imaginarium troubles
There’s no easy way of saying this: The last movie of Heath Ledger simply doesn’t work.
Director Terry Gilliam brought “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” to Cannes on Friday, playing outside of the main competition. And as everyone knows, Ledger died halfway through the filming, more than a year ago.
Gilliam said his first reaction was to shut the film down. “I didn’t see how we could finish it, and that to do anything else wouldn’t be respectful.” But friends urged him to continue, and he got an idea. In the movie, Ledger’s character Tony goes through a magic mirror three times. So Gilliam thought it might make sense if the character’s appearance changed each time.
So what you get is a Ledger performance, interspersed with performances by three of his friends: Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Johnny Depp.
But the gimmick doesn’t work. It’s jarring, and the rest of the characters in the movie have to pretend to notice his changed appearance. So you get such comments as “you don’t look like Tony,” or something to that effect.
Even if Ledger had lived to complete the movie, it’s still doubtful that “The Imaginarium” would hold up. The story is too loosely constructed, with gaping holes filled with beautiful but meaningless imagery.
Gilliam saw the movie as an adventure through imagination, opening with an ancient wagon that’s traveling through the streets of modern-day London. The wagon contains Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), his assistant (Verne Troyer, aka Mini-Me); his daughter (Lily Cole); and a young man who’s part of the magic act (Andrew Garfield.)
Ledger’s character comes in to the mix when the wagon stops on a bridge and the characters spot a body hanging from underneath it. It’s Ledger. And they rescue him and take him in. Ledger’s character, however, is clearly a con man and has swindled some crooks out of money through a charity for children.
He becomes a master hawker, getting people to enter Doctor Parnassus’ magic mirror, where they will be greeted by their imaginations, both good and bad. And each one must make a final choice. One gives them a fresh life. The other kills them.
As it turns out, Parnassus is thousands of years old, having made a pact with the devil for immortality. But during one of his bets with the devil, played by Tom Waits, he ends up have to turn his daughter over to the devil, once she’s 16. Her birthday is approaching. And therein lies what should be the climax. But the movie meanders, and different threads are never tied up.
In his last performance, Ledger exudes energy and vitality. So it’s sad to watch, knowing what we do. The closing credits say the movie is dedicated to Ledger and his friends. And Gilliam was teary-eyed when talking about Ledger after the movie’s screening Friday. His intent may have been noble. But good intentions don’t make a movie good.
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May 20, 2009
Tarantino does the Cannes-Cannes
Quentin Tarantino bounded into the Cannes pressroom Wednesday morning, looking exultant after the premiere screening of his new movie, “Inglourious Basterds.”
Proclaiming that Cannes is the “Cinema Olympics”, Tarantino brought along stars Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, Mike Myers, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Bruhl, Eli Roth and Melanie Laurent. All looked jubilant, although Tarantino said none of them had seen the film yet and that the red-carpet premiere tonight would be their big moment.
What they’ll see is a Jewish revenge fantasy version of World War II, where Hitler and his henchmen get their comeuppance in a French cinema. Talk about the power of movies. And the source of the comeuppance is highly flammable nitrate film.
Pitt stars as the leader of the “Basterds,” a Tennessean who’s part Apache and urges his Jewish troops to scalp the Nazis. They literally do.
But the movie opens with an extended scene featuring the excellent Christoph Waltz, who plays the brutal but brilliant Nazi Col. Landa. As part of the occupying forces of France, he’s known as the “Jew Hunter,” and he descends on a bucolic dairy farm where several Jewish people are hiding. The tension between the Nazi and the farm owner is one of those brilliant set pieces that distinguish a Tarantino film.
In fact, the movie is presented in “chapters,” and most of them turn out to be set pieces, leading to the ultimate showdown at the cinema.
“My characters change the outcome of the war,” Tarantino said. “That didn’t happen because my characters didn’t exist. I created them.”
Eli Roth, possibly best known as the director of the torture porn flick “Hostel,” said he regarded “Inglourious Basterds” as “kosher porn.” He said it was “something I’ve dreamed about doing since I was a child.” He plays the Jewish Bear, a Basterd who beats Nazis to death with a bat.
Of the big finale, Tarantino said he loved the idea that “the power of cinema” could bring down the Third Reich.
Pitt and Tarantino said they had been “sniffing around each other” for a long time, and that the character of the Basterd leader Lt. Aldo Raine was a perfect fit. Pitt said that Tarantino came to his home in Europe late last summer to pitch the role, and that he realized he had taken the job after he woke up and saw five empty wine bottles and “some sort of smoking apparatus.”
Tarantino added that he had been giving Pitt longing looks across the rooms of various venues for many years. Pitt responded, “He had me at hello.”
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May 19, 2009
Von Trier etc.
Lars Von Trier managed to joke his way through a hostile press conference a day after the premiere of “Antichrist” in Cannes.
A reporter for London’s Daily Mail asked the first question in a bombastic, hostile tone, saying that the Danish director had to explain his movie to the press, and that he shouldn’t keep dodging the question.
Von Trier said bluntly that he didn’t need to explain himself or his movie to anyone. He said he felt like he was bringing his movie to Cannes and that the press were his guests. And he said he doesn’t explain himself to guests.
“Antichrist,” as you’ve probably heard, is the most controversial movie at this year’s festival. And lots of press people like to puff and huff at what they deem offensive. There is plenty of room to take offense in the latest effort from the enfant terrible of Danish cinema. Genital mutilations. Hardcore sex shots.
But in Von Trier’s defense, the movie came from a dream he had when he was deeply depressed. And to change that dream would be to lie, he argued. He also said it was up to critics to see the film references he was making, mentioning such greats as Tarkovsky and Bergman, both of whom never really liked his films, he joked.
He went on to say that he hoped people would understand that he was “the greatest living film director,” and that everyone else was overrated. Unbelievably, the TV press in Europe reported this as if it weren’t a joke. But it was. He wasn’t being arrogant. He was just being Von Trier.
“Antichrist” will have great difficulty finding a release in many countries because of its content. And the hostility in Cannes won’t help. But the opening scenes of “Antichrist,” as a child falls from a window while his parents are making love, has to rank as one of the most mesmerizing of recent years. And yes, there’s a film reference there, too. “Don’t Look Now.”
Regular audiences may not flock to “Antichrist,” but if you’re reading this blog and care about movies, you’ll want to go. You may not like it. But it’s quite the experience.
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Loach and Cannes
Ken Loach isn’t known for feel-good movies. The naturalistic British director won the Palme d’Or a couple of years ago for the wrenching Irish film, “The Wind That Shakes the Barley.”
But this year, his competition entry, “Looking for Eric,” can’t help but make you smile.
It deals with a working-class postman whose life is in a shambles, and when his son gets mixed up with a mobster, he has to come up with a plan. So he turns to his idol, the former soccer great Eric Cantona. Cantona pops up regularly in the movie as a imaginary friend, and the press in Cannes went wild for him.
Nearly every question at a press conference was directed to the Manchester United soccer idol. But Loach got a few. The man who plays Eric the postman, Steve Evets, got no questions at all.
Apparently, he gets no respect in real life either.
At any rate, the movie is sure to make it to U.S. arthouses, which rarely get such feel-good movies from Loach. It has a “Full Monty” feel, without the nudity, of course.
Working-class people triumph, and lives get turned around. It should be a Palme d’Or contender.
The big screening tomorrow (Wednesday) is Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.”
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The Majestic is expanding
The grand dame of Cannes hotels, the Majestic, has announced that it will be expanding. It plans to build several more suites on the ground floor and have them ready by next year’s festival.
The going price for a one-night stay: about $44,000.
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Pattinson in Cannes
An upcoming post about the sneak peek at “New Moon,” the latest in the “Twilight” saga, is part of a publicity blitz for the film before its release later this year.
Robert Pattinson, who plays the good vampire, was in Cannes today, doing select interviews. Crowds of teenage girls were huddling outside the venue, trying to get a glimpse of the star.
Most of his time was spent in front of TV cameras, a key strategy of for the company, Summit Entertainment. Most American print reporters were apparently not invited to the event, but a Canadian friend, Jay Stone, who attended, said the discussion focused mostly on the vampire saga, and what would be happening in the new movie. He said most of the people doing interviews were from Germany and other European countries.
No big news, just a big blitz in Cannes.
Pattinson also was in town to promote another Summit project, “Remember Me,” in which he’ll star. It’s an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s story “Bel Ami,” and is scheduled for release next year. Summit is selling the rights to the film in Cannes, before shooting begins.
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May 18, 2009
Latest word on 'Waco' flap
If you’ve read our Charles Ealy’s report from Cannes that suggests an “unnamed senator” in Texas vetoed the script for the film “Waco,” we have an update.
(First, you can read that blog entry HERE.)
Turns out the decision not to give tax breaks to the planned movie about the Waco/David Koresh incident was made exclusively by Bob Hudgins, director of the Texas Film Commission.
We spoke to Hudgins today, and here’s some of what he said:
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The Carlton Hotel gets gaudy
The Carlton Hotel is normally one of the most glamorous spots on earth. But when the Cannes Film Festival gets under way, the Carlton gets gaudy.
Today, Disney rolled out the red carpet for the upcoming movie “A Christmas Carol,” starring Jim Carrey. It’s scheduled for release this fall.
I’m told that Disney lured journalists with one of the most elaborate spreads of food ever staged in Cannes. But I didn’t go, since it interfered with the press conference for Antichrist, directed by Lars Von Trier. Movies over food. Guess I’m a fool. But you can expect to see lots of blurbs about the Carrey movie from those who partook.
At any rate, this photo shows the Carlton on Monday. The white stuff in the front is fake snow that was sprayed in front of the hotel for the event. I dropped by and saw lots of cleaning staff trying the get the stuff out of the lobby with vacuum cleaners. Poor people. Not something I’d want to do, while others are feasting.
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Charles Ealy on NPR's 'All Things Considered'
Statesman film writer/editor Charles Ealy is in the south of France snapping photos and filing blogs and stories from the Cannes Film Festival. He’s also doing a little radio duty. I will leave the details to NPR.
On the first full weekend of the Cannes Film Festival, Rebecca Roberts checks in with Charles Ealy, an editor with the Austin (Texas) American Statesman, who travels to southern France every year for the festival. Ealy talks about several movies showing there, including Heath Ledger’s last film, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. The movie was finished with Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell playing Ledger’s character in dream sequences. Its director is Terry Gilliam, a Monty Python grad who is known for huge, out-of-control flicks that people think are brilliant or messes or often both.
Listen to Ealy’s smooth, Alabama drawl here.
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May 17, 2009
"Waco": a political dispute erupts
Entertainment 7 representatives said Sunday that their new $30 million action movie “Waco” would not be filmed in Texas after all because of what they called politics.
Emilio Ferrari and Tara Wood, the two executives for the company who are in Cannes this week, said Sunday that they wanted to bring “Waco” to Texas and thought they had the support of the Texas Film Commission in getting recently approved incentives.
But “we were told in the last couple of days that the Texas Film Commission was backing out” of recommending incentives because of opposition from an unnamed state senator, Ferrari said.
Ferrari said he heard that a senator was objecting to the movie’s getting any incentives because it might make Texas “look bad.” But Ferrari said the movie is not political and does not point fingers. “I’m a moviemaker, and I’m not political. I’ve never even voted,” Ferrari said.
The movie deals with the raid on the David Koresh compound outside of Waco. Wood said that the film would focus on miscommunication with federal agencies coordinating the standoff and eventual assault, but that Texas figures are not portrayed negatively. “The incident could have happened anywhere in the country, and is not Texas-specific,” Ferrari said.
When asked if there were still a possibility that the movie would be filmed in Texas, Ferrari had a flat “no.” He said he didn’t know where the movie would be shot now, but that he and his partners were considering Louisiana, where they would get about $6 million in tax breaks.
So far, the Texas Film Commission hasn’t commented on a blog written earlier here, where I asked for information. But more will be coming this week probably, and the Texas Film Commission hopefully will comment and give us another perspective. Stay tuned.
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Antichrist in Cannes
It’s not often that you leave a movie and feel like you’ve just experience a moment in cinematic history.
“Antichrist,” which premiered Sunday night at the Cannes Film Festival, made me feel that way. Director Lars Von Trier has made a movie that looks like it will be more controversial than anything he’s ever done, and that’s saying quite a bit. I can’t imagine how he’ll deal with the press tomorrow. At the end of the screening, half of the room was applauding and the other half was booing.
The movie’s violence has an emotional impact that hasn’t been seen since Gaspar Noe’s “Irreversible,” which premiered here a few years ago.
That’s because you care about the characters, long before the violence comes. The movie deals with a couple who lose their child in a tragic accident. And the death has a devastating psychological effect on the mother, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg.
The father, played by William Dafoe, is a therapist who tries to help her through the loss. And they end up retreating to a cabin in a lush forest, where all sorts of strange visions — and strange actions — occur.
Since you’re emotionally invested in the characters, the violence that comes later is all the more shocking. It makes scenes from “Hostel,” one of the so-called gore porn movies, seem tame.
It would be a disservice to describe the violence, which would qualify for the one of the hardest NC-17 ratings ever. Let’s just say that it involves sex and sexual organs.
Critics will be debating whether these images were justified by the story, but part of the point is apparently to shock. Cinematic precedents exist, of course, but the explicitness of these scenes take “Antichrist” way beyond what’s come before. Luis Bunuel’s “Chien Andalou” looks tame in comparison. And one scene evokes memories of Ingmar Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers,” although much more graphic.
At the end of the movie, Von Trier says it’s dedicated to Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, which elicited howls from some critics. But the dedication makes sense, if you’re familiar with one of the last of his movies that deals with a witch. I’m writing from memory here and can’t switch to IMDB without breaking the blog connection, but the movie, as I remember, was called “Offret” and it won about 4 awards in Cannes when it played many years ago.
I’m sorry I’m talking in code. But you’ll have to see this movie to believe it. And it makes me wonder under what circumstances it will be released in the U.S. Then again, Von Trier has always been a provacateur and may not care about such mundane matters.
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Race for the Palme
As the first weekend of the Cannes Film Festival winds down, it looks as though there’s a clear, early leader for the Palme d’Or.
Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” is almost flawless filmmaking, tracking the experiences of a 19-year-old Arab-French kid who’s thrown in prison for six years for unspecified crimes.
The highly structured prison environment mirrors that on the outside, with the rising numbers of Arabs causing tensions among the old-liner criminals, especially the Corsican Mafia. And Malik, being of multiracial heritage, doesn’t seem to fit in any group.
He ends up working as the errand boy for the Corsicans, simply because they’re the first to make a move on him. But he keeps his mouth shut and quickly learns hows to survive. An early battle with razor blades has to be one of the most shockingly real sequences to be put on film in a long time.
As a rising criminal, Malik, as played by newcomer Tahar Rahim, is haunted by his conscience. As Audiard said Saturday, he’s not a sociopath. He’s just trying to get out of prison alive.
Rahim, who was trained in acting at a university and went on to appear in plays in Paris and had a brief stint on a French TV series, has a natural gift of showing his inner thoughts. The looks on his face are pitch-perfect. And the way he carries himself suits the Malik character perfectly.
The only other movie that appears to be in competition with “A Prophet” at this point appears to be Jane Campion’s “Bright Star,” a look at the romance between poet John Keats and seamstress Fanny Brawne.
But the festival is only halfway over, with a lot of big names still to show up on the Croisette.
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May 15, 2009
'Taking Woodstock' rocks
If you’re planning your summer movie-going, take a note of this weekend. Aug. 15-18. That will be the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, and it’s also when director Ang Lee’s new comedy, ‘Taking Woodstock,’ will open in the States.
It’s yet another uplifting movie from Cannes, which isn’t usually known for its uplift and is more associated with edgy violence, sexuality and cutting-edge filmmaking.
Make no mistake. ‘Taking Woodstock’ isn’t a rehash of the music from the fantastic festival of 1969. Instead, it’s the story of the people behind the festival, mainly Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) and his dysfunctional parents who run a dilapidated motel in the Catskills. When Tiber hears that a neighboring town has rejected having the music festival, he tells the organizers that his little burg would be the perfect place. And he puts the organizers in touch with dairy farmer Max Yasgur.
Most of the movie deals with the Tiber family dynamics. Elliot is a closeted gay who has not come out to his parents and has returned from Greenwich Village to help them run the motel for the summer. Henry Goodman plays his father Jake, and the wonderfully maddening Imelda Staunton plays his Russian Jewish immigrant mother, who is full of bossiness, as well as fear and loathing.
When Elliot starts the process that turns into one of the biggest free-love events of all time, the maelstrom of hippiedom transforms not only Elliot but also his parents. And it speaks to the power of a movement that has long since been in hibernation in America, regrettably.
Liev Schreiber has a great role as a cross-dressing former Marine who signs up to do security for Elliot and his family during the hippie invasion. And one of the greatest lines comes when Elliot asks him about his seemingly blossoming relationship with his parents. In particular, Elliot wants to know if his dad knows what kind of person has become his new friend. To which Schreiber’s character replies, “I know what I am, so that makes it easier for everyone.” Truer words never spoken.
The only sour note comes early, when a local Vietnam veteran played by Emile Hirsch starts having flashbacks. The scene seems false, and I’m not sure why, since Hirsch is a fine actor. But the rest of “Taking Woodstock” is a joy, although it might leave you wishing that those days had never ended. (Yes, I was a hippie, and I played the Woodstock album over and over in my teens.) It made me downright melancholic, but in a good way.
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A "Precious" moment; no really, no sarcasm
One of the best films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival isn’t even in the official competition.
It’s called “Precious,” directed by Lee Daniels, and it previously played at Sundance, which might explain its absence from the competition in Cannes. (The French want premieres, and don’t take festival leftovers for the competish.)
Still, it’s a fine movie, full of moving moments and excellent performances, mainly from Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe. Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, “Precious” tells the harrowing story of a Harlem teen-ager who finally learns to read after being sent to an alternative school. The regular school kicked her out because she was pregnant with her second child. And it won’t be giving away anything to tell you that she had both babies not because she was promiscuous but because her father raped her repeatedly.
Her mother resents her, because she thinks Precious is taking away her Man. Never mind that her “Man”, if you can call him that, is a pedophile.
But the awakening of Precious after she learns to read keeps the movie from sinking into sorrow. Instead, it’s one of those great stories about someone who faces horrible odds but, through the force of will and help from others, manages to get her life in order and end up with hope.
Teachers, of course, play a big part. But so does a caring nurse (Lenny Kravitz) during the birth of her second child. And so does a therapist, played subtly by Mariah Carey. I know, that sounds weird to say. But Carey pulls off the role, and you hardly know it’s her.
The movie is laced with profanity, which is entirely suitable for the circumstances in which Precious finds herself. And it would be ridiculous to have it otherwise. So it’s bound to get an R rating. That’s too bad. It should be seen by nearly every high school student. It’s all about empathy and hope, and we could use more of both.
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New $30 mil movie to be shot in Texas
Los Angeles-based Entertainment 7 announced this week in Cannes that it will be shooting a $30 million action epic called “Waco” in Texas, starting Aug. 9.
The film will be directed by Rupert Wainwright and produced through A Plus Productions. Emilio Ferrari and Lee Nelson will be the producers.
Details on the story of the film were sketchy, as were the shooting locations. Entertainment 7’s most recent production was “Baby on Board” with John Corbett, Heather Graham and Jerry O’Connell.
If the Texas Film Commission has more details, please alert Chris Garcia at the Statesman.
Editor’s note: “Waco” screenwriter James Hibberd is a UT grad and a former entertainment writer at the Austin American-Statesman. He now writes about TV for The Hollywood Reporter.
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Campion in Cannes
Director Jane Campion, the only woman ever to win a Palme d’Or (for “The Piano”), made another appearance in the official competition Friday with the premiere of “Bright Star.”
The new pic is based primarily in the letters of John Keats and focuses on his relationship with Fanny Brawne, a woman of similar background whose family was financially insecure. In the Campion tradition, the movie is told from Fanny’s perspective, giving it a feminist vibe.
Abbie Cornish plays Fanny, while Ben Whishaw is Keats, who’s dying of consumption throughout most of the movie but nevertheless strikes up a passionate love with Fanny.
Campion said she was nervous about bringing the new film to Cannes, and that she had “butterflies” Thursday night when looking at the final edit. But she handles herself well in front of the media and made an impassioned statement about the neglect of Keats and his sense of humor and joyousness, even amid his illness.
The movie can seem like something of a romantic throwback, which is partly the point. After all, Keats was one of the Romantic poets. Campion, however, does not pretend that she was an expert on Keats before tackling the project. Instead, she says the making of the movie was like a discovery of his poetry.
Whishaw also said he was relatively clueless about Keats before playing him. “I didn’t really know much about him. I had a prejudice against the Romantics, preferring the modern poetry…. But I’ve grown to love the luxury and sensuality of his poetry.”
For American audiences, “Bright Star” may seem a bit slow. To cut to the chase, there’s a lot of sewing. And that’s just one step above watching paint dry, if you must know. But the sewing has a point. At the beginning, Fanny is sewing a white cotton dress, symbolizing the possibility of romance or a wedding. And at the end, she’s sewing a black funereal dress.
Campion defends all this sewing, saying bluntly, “Women of this period did two things. They sewed and they waited.” They obviously did a bit more than that, as Campion acknowledged, since they have borne everyone in the world. But the sewing metaphor takes precedence in “Bright Star.”
Cornish also stepped up to defend the sewing. “Sewing is the thread of the film,” she said.
For all you sewing enthusiasts out there, please note that I don’t hate sewing. My mother sewed — a lot. But I’m not sure it’s going to be a big box-office draw. That’s all I’m saying. Then again, sewers of the world might unite and surprise me. We’ll see.
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Scorsese in Cannes
Martin Scorsese, one of the few truly great auteurs without a film at Cannes this year, made an appearance anyway Friday, to promote the newly restored version of the 1948 classic “The Red Shoes.”
It has been restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, in cooperation with the British Film Institute, ITV Global Entertainment and Janus Films. And it’s showing tonight at a special screening, before it comes out in a special-edition Blu-ray at the end of June.
Scorsese, who’s a film restoration buff, took time out from his filming of :”Shutter Island” to come to Cannes and promote “The Red Shoes.”
After finishing “Shutter Island,” Scorsese plans to start work on a documentary about British cinema history, yet another of his passions. He’s a big fan of Jose[h Losey, Basil Dearden, Guy Hamilton and John Gilling.
Cannes always has a host of restored movies in its Cannes Classic sidebar, which gets little attention but is a gem of the fest.
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May 14, 2009
Phooey on swine flu
In case you’re wondering, nobody in Cannes cares about swine flu.
Nobody is wearing a mask. I suspect it would interfere with the all-important cigarette dangling from the mouth, at least for the French.
But the Canadians and the Americans are ignoring it, too. I suspect it would interfere with their beer and wine-guzzling. This is not the time for a health kick.
Still, the regular sunbathers are out in force, in various states of undress along the Croisette. And there’s something comforting about that, too.
A few years ago, the European porn industry held a concurrent event with the Cannes fest. But those days are gone. So there’s less blatant nudity, and that can be a blessing, especially when you realize that few people you’d like to see nude ever take their clothes off in front of you in Cannes.
But the cleavage is still here. And the Shirt Guys, those dudes with the form-fitting tops, are out in force again as well. So there is plenty of people-watching.
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More "Thirst" at Cannes
I doubt that Park Chan-Wook, the famed director from South Korea, has ever seen “True Blood” on HBO. But I couldn’t help thinking about it during the screening of his latest film in competition in Cannes.
It’s called “Thirst,” and it deals with a Catholic Korean priest who undergoes medical experiments to help people and ends up turning into a vampire. If he doesn’t drink blood, he starts to look like a leper, with boils on his body and fingernails that peel off. The fingernail peeling gets a bit old, but hey, this is par for the course for the director of “Oldboy.”
The similarities to “True Blood” focus on vampire ethics. If you’re a good vampire, you should probably just rely on blood that’s been in storage, so that you don’t kill people. Or you can hook up an IV at a local hospital and drink from the tubes of the sick. That’s what the priest in “Thirst” does.
But he starts to have sexual urges, too. And wouldn’t you know it, that’s a recipe for trouble. His new lover/convert doesn’t want to rely on the bottled brew and likes the kill. What’s a priest to do?
If you’ve ever watched “True Blood,” you’ll spot the similarities immediately. But this doesn’t mean that “Thirst” should be dismissed. It’s quite stylistic, with the unmistakable imprint of an auteur. And it should find receptive audiences among those who liked “Oldboy.”
Immediate reaction from my Canadian friends was mixed. But I come down on the favorable side. In fact, I haven’t seen a bad movie yet in the competition group. And that’s unusual.
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"Thirst" at Cannes
If one were inclined to whine while in Cannes (and I’m not because I love it over here), one could bemoan the absence this year after a decade of free Stella Artois in the pressroom. It was always nice after a brisk jaunt up the Croisette in the warm climes of the Riviera to know that a free beer was waiting if you wanted it. No more.
Apparently, the recession has made Stella Artois rethink its party-going ways in Cannes. Sigh.
A pint of Guinness goes for about 6 Euros during the fest. That’s about $8.50 to $9. So it’s a bit of an expense. But one must make do. A cocktail at a hotel is about $20 to $30, depending on whether it’s a call drink or a special label. It’s better to stick with wine, which goes for about $4 or $5.
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Alamo dude comes to Cannes
Tim League, the owner of the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, is bringing his traveling karaoke road show to Cannes this year.
He’ll be at the American Pavilion, on the shores of the Riviera, next Thursday night, according to the folks at the pavilion, which is a gathering spot for Americans at the festival.
Should be weird.
It’ll be going on during the screening of Elia Suleiman’s “The Time That Remains,” which retraces the lives of Palestinians during the founding of Israel in the late 1940s. But I’ll try to drop by.
A bigger problem, however, is that “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” the last movie of Heath Ledger, with Terry Gilliam directing, is screening at 8:30 the next morning. So can’t stay out too late. We’ll see.
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The scene in Cannes
CANNES, France — Tables at the annual gala Amfar benefit for AIDS are going for $100,000, and the stars are still getting dressed up and walking the red carpet, but the glitz isn’t the same this year at the Cannes Film Festival.
Could it be that the recession is actually having an effect at the most glamorous film event in the world, where excess has been a hallmark?
Apparently, yes.
Although official attendance statistics haven’t been released, a number of prominent journalists are not here this year, partly because of the recession-related media meltdown. The largest newspaper in Canada, the Toronto Globe and Mail, did not send its film critic to this year’s fest, and that’s almost unheard of.
The parties on nearby yachts have been few and far between. And the elaborate lunches for the press are even rarer.
Perhaps the biggest indicator that the high-rollers are missing in action: The Casino Barriere has reduced the number of gown-clad women who once staffed the doors to the gaming rooms for blackjack and roulette from three to one.
A lone woman sits at a counter near the entrance these days, saying merely that the setup has changed. Inside, sports coats are no longer required, and people are dressed in jeans. The days of James Bond are gone.
Then there’s the minimum bet. For the past 10 years, it was unthinkable that you could play a hand of blackjack for less than 20 Euros, which is roughly $30. The minimum this year has been cut to 10 Euros, a relative bargain for pricey Cannes environs.
Some people, however, are here to spend money to make money. A group of young women this morning were trying to recruit critics this morning to attend an event at the American Pavilion. They were from Louisiana. And they were touting film incentives that have lured countless movie productions to the Bayou State over the past few years, much to the detriment of the Texas film scene.
In short, they’re messing with Texas. So I simply smiled at them near the mailboxes for journalists and said no thanks. Haven’t heard anything from the Texas film folks yet — or even seen them around the Croisette.
But I did catch up with Craig Whitney, an Austinite who’s marketing a movie at the Short Film Corner, and Dana Glover and Michelle Carter of Midian Films in Round Rock, who are representing several film projects at the market.
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May 13, 2009
The Cannes Jury
The Cannes Jury met the media Wednesday, and I’m still not sure why I go each year. But I did, yet again.
Most of the questions are posed by TV reporters who want to prove to the folks back home, wherever that may be, that they really were there. They really don’t have anything of substance to ask, but they look good, and they want to gain what little prestige they can by posing questions like: “How do you feel about being on the jury? Are you comfortable being a judge?”
This question, regrettably, was passed around to each and every member of the jury. This year, they are: Isabelle Huppert, the French actress who’s the president; U.S. director James Gray (“Two Lovers”); U.S. actress Robin Wright Penn (looking pained and distant, as if she were worried that someone would ask about her impending divorce from Sean Penn. No worries. The airhead journalists asking questions wouldn’t dare to be so presumptuous); pan-European actress Asia Argento; Turkish director Nuri Ceylan; British director Hanif Kureishi (“My Beautiful Laundrette”); Taiwanese actress Shu Qi; Indian actress Sharmila Tagore; and South Korean director Lee Chang-Dong (“Oasis”).
All of them said basically the same thing about being a judge. No, no, the word judge has negative connotations. Or as Huppert said, “We’re not here to judge; we’re here to love film.”
Kureishi, at least, said he always thinks awards competitions are just awful and unnecessary, but that his mind always changes when he wins one.
Gray said he decided to say “yes” to being a judge, simply because he wanted to get away from stuff and watch a bunch of good movies over the course of two weeks. Fair enough.
Poor Lee Chang-Dong was asked whether he would be partial to South Korean entries in the competition since he’s South Korean. Another lame question. But at least he had a comeback. “While in Cannes, my nationality is movies,” he said.
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'Up' at Cannes
CANNES, France — When the media come to Cannes, they seem to suffer from a case of the bad puns. So here’s one: The media were not down on “Up.”
The opening-night Disney/Pixar animated movie, showing in 3-D, received highly favorable reviews on Wednesday, a turnaround from previous years of savagery. London-based Screen International called the movie “a highpoint of ingenuity and storytelling.” Variety said it was “a lofty delight.” And The Hollywood Reporter said the “nongimmicky” use of 3-D gave “Up” a “joyously buoyant lift.”
By all means, go ahead and groan.
But the movie itself rightfully deserves accolades. It’s a charmer, combining the latest digital technology with old-time storytelling that Disney does so well.
No stranger to self-promotion, Disney wisely screened “Up” for select critics in advance of the debut Wednesday, showing it to members of the all-important trade press before they became jet-lagged in Cannes.
Such was not the case with such critical flops as “The Da Vinci Code,” another opening night movie in Cannes that went on to make more than $600 million worldwide despited bad reviews.
When it’s released later this month, “Up” will most likely have not only financial success but also critical support, as did the new “Star Trek.” And Disney will no doubt breathe a sigh of relief.
The story focuses on a grumpy 78-year-old widower who ties thousands of balloons to his home and tries to float away to an adventure in South America. The filmmakers, who took three years to write the script, let audiences identify with the old coot through a silent prologue, showing the marriage of Carl to Ellie, their years of domestic happiness, the sorrowful discovery that they can’t have children and the recovery of joy through everyday events. When Ellie dies, Carl retreats into his home, becoming the neighborhood grouch. Remarkably, all of this is conveyed with no dialogue ever spoken. And the scene will probably go down as a mini-masterpiece because of its visual effectiveness.
At a press conference after Wednesday’s screening in Cannes, the filmmakers looked relieved over the picture’s warm reception.
But Pixar honcho John Lasseter said that the birth of “Up” wasn’t as easy at it might look. He said his team sometimes re-did various sequences of “Up” from 30 to 40 times, just to get the right look and dialogue. And he said that the prologue about the life of Ellie and Carl was one on the most crucial in establishing audience identification with the characters.
Lasseter and director Pete Docter said they tried to use the 3-D effect to provide an emotional window into the story, rather than use it as a “gotcha” gimmick.
But the use of 3-D at Wednesday’s screening did have a downside. All English-language movies in the official selection at Cannes are required to have French subtitles, and they seemed to leap from the screen into the audience and distract from the story on Wednesday. If the French critics eventually decide to sharpen their knives over “Up,” this might be one of the easiest ways to pop its balloon. Yes, you may groan again.
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April 23, 2009
Cannes competition
It looks like a battle of the auteurs at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which begins May 13.
Festival programmers announced the lineup for competition films today, and it’s packed with some of the most high-profile directors in the world.
Quentin Tarantino will be bringing his World War II Brad Pitt star vehicle “Inglourious Basterds” to the Croisette, and it’ll have the longest running time of the 20 competitors, 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Tarantino will be facing such an Asian-heavy lineup that includes Johnnie To, with “Vengeance,” Park Chan-Wook with “Thirst,” Lou Ye with “Spring Fever,” Brillante Mendoza, with “Kinatay,” and Tsai Ming-Liang with “Visage.”
The king of Spanish film, Pedro Almodovar, will be screening his new movie, “Broken Embraces,” starring Penelope Cruz. And Jane Campion will be screening “Bright Star.” Also on board are Ang Lee, with his comedy “Taking Woodstock,” Ken Loach with “Looking for Eric,” Gaspar Noe with “Enter the Void” and enfant terrible Lars Von Trier with “Antichrist.” Trailers for the Von Trier flick have been stirring interest on the Internet, mainly because of a writhing Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg making love in the roots of a giant tree.
Michael Haneke will be bring his thriller “The White Ribbon” to Cannes, and Marco Bellocchio will explore a love affair of Mussolini in “Vincere.”
Other films include Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank,” Jacques Audiard’s “Un Prophete,” Isabel Coixet’s “Map of the Sounds of Tokyo,” Xavier Giannoli’s “A L’Origine,” Alain Resnais’ “Les Herbes Folles” and Elie Suleiman’s “The Time That Remains,” an epic about the creation of Israel.
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May 25, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: Jury picks French film as fest's best
CANNES, France - The Cannes jury headed by Sean Penn surprised nearly everyone Sunday by awarding the Palme d’Or to “The Class,” or “Entre Les Murs,” in French. The film screened Saturday and was the last to be shown in the official contribution, long after many critics had flown back home.
The selection proved popular, however, and Penn said the jury’s decision was unanimous.
The movie, directed by France’s Laurent Cantet, focuses on one yar in the life of a class at high school and is based on a popular French book by a teacher, Francois Begaudeau. The author is also the movie’s lead actor, lending an air of authenticity of the give-and-take between teacher and students.
Penn called “The Class” a virtually seamless film. … All the performances, magic.” Fellow jury member Alfonso Cuaron of Mexico added that the movie had universal thems and was “high cinema you can share with really young audiences.”
The other big surprise at Sunday night’s awards was best actress, Brazil’s Sandra Corveloni of “Linha de Passe,” directed by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas.
It was the first feature film for Corveloni, a Sao Paolo stage actress who beat the critically acclaimed performance of Angelina Jolie of “The Changeling,” directed by Clint Eastwood.
Benicio Del Toro scored a major victory for Steven Soderbergh’s long-running “Che” by winning best actor. Penn said the decision was unanimous.
The No. 2 prize in Cannes, the Grand Prix, went to Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah,” which deals with five stories about Mafioso-style crime in southern Italy.
The jury prize, or the No. 3 award, went to another Italian entry, Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo,” which tracks the career of former leader Giulio Andreotti with biting humor. Nuri Belge Ceylan of Turkey won best director for “Three Monkeys.” And Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne of France won best screenplay for “The Silence of Lorna.”
In announcing the awards, Penn acknowledged that there were too few prizes and too many movies.
So the jury announced two special awards to Eastwood and Catherine Deneuve, star of Arnaud Desplachin’s “A Christmas Tale.” Penn said the awards were for the two legends’ “body of work.”
Both Eastwood’s “Changeling” and “A Christmas Tale” were critical favorites. Shut out from awards were Charlie Kaufman’s quirky, ambiguous “Synecdoche, New York” and Ari Folman’s animated drama, “Waltz With Bashir,” which focuses on Israel’s involvement in Lebanon in the ’80s.
“Hunger,” from controversial British newcomer Steve McQueen, won the Camera d’Or, for the first film by a director. It deals with an early ’80s hunger strike by members of the Irish Republican Army.
The winner of the Un Certain Regard competition was “Tulpan” of Kazakhstan. It focuses on a shepherd who wants to marry a young woman who rejects him because his ears are too big.
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May 24, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: Summer plans of the stars
CANNES, France — It looks like the heat wave and the summer lull are taking a toll on celebrities in Hollywood.
Scott Speedman and Rachel Blanchard, two of the principals in Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration,” say they’re going to spend the next month or so traveling Europe, rather than returning to L.A. “I’m sending my clothes back home, packing a knapsack for my travels, and I’m going solo,” said Speedman, who plays an uncle who raises a teenager whose parents were involved in a fatal traffic accident in “Adoration.”
Looking fit and tan, Speedman talked to reporters during a luncheon at the Carlton Beach. (The Carlton Hotel, fyi, is one of the most exclusive establishments on the Croisette and was the site where Cary Grant’s “To Catch a Thief” was filmed.)
Blanchard also showed up to meet the press and said she was planning to spend most of June traveling Europe with friends.
Both stars bemoaned the current state of the industry and said they were having to turn down numerous scripts because most of them were banal.
“You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff I’ve been sent,” Speedman said. “A lot of the scripts for indie productions are awful, and you typically have to go after scripts that you want,” he said. That was the case with Egoyan’s “Adoration,” which focuses on a teen who creates a false persona on the Internet to find out what happened to his parents.
Speedman said he read the script and lobbied Egoyan for a chance to play the uncle. “At first, I didn’t think Scott was right for the part,” Egoyan said. “I had an older man in mind for the uncle. But then I realized that putting someone as young as Scott in the role would make the character more interesting. Here’s a guy who gave up life in his 20s to raise a child.”
“Adoration” has been getting mixed buzz in Cannes, but some people think it has a chance at a major award.
The competition prizes will be announced Sunday.
The leading contenders for the Palme d’Or are: Arnaud Desplachin’s “A Christmas Tale”; Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling”; Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York”; Nuri Ceylan’s “Three Monkeys”; Steven Soderbergh’s “Che”; and the Dardennes brothers’ “Lorna’s Silence.”
I must, however, point out that I have never accurately predicted the Palme d’Or winner in the past decade. My pick this year is “Synecdoche.” Maybe I’m due.
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Our Man in Cannes: Madonna being Madonna
When there’s an event as big as Cannes, it’s a magnet for such publicity hounds as Madonna. This week, she trotted out her new documentary, “I Am Because We Are” to Cannes audiences, even though it wasn’t an official part of the festival.
Metro, the daily festival newspaper, gave the film a scathing review Friday.
The doc focuses on Malawi, the second poorest country in the world, according to “Metro.” Don’t ask me what the poorest country is. I don’t know the criteria for such judgments, and “Metro” didn’t say.
But Madonna adopted her child, David, from Malawi, and she has a heartfelt interest in the nation.
Said Metro: “The images of tearful, emaciated children are enough to convey the message but (director) Nathan Rissman reduces their plight to pathos with overwrought music, pointless slow motion sequences, and simplistic commentary on the order of ‘everybody needs love.’ “
Oh yeah. It should be pointed out that director Rissman is the gardener for Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie.
Ahem.
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May 23, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: The worst movie at Cannes?
While “Il Divo” and “Synecdoche” wowed many critics, “Frontier of Dawn” repulsed them. The lusty Cannes audience booed heartily during the closing credits on Thursday morning. Frenchman Philippe Garrel directs Louis Garrel and Laura Smet in a tragic love story shot in black and white.
“Frontier” opens promisingly, with a photographer showing up to take shots of an actress who is emotionally available. A love story ensues, and it has all the passion you would expect from a French romance.
But the movie quickly takes a turn for the worse and becomes one of the most insipid exercises in recent cinematic history.
You know it’s bad when the director sets up a tragic scene and the audience breaks out into laughter because of its banality.
Don’t expect to see “Frontier of Dawn” in wide release in the U.S. It’s the worst movie in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Our Man in Cannes: The battle for best actor honors
Cannes, France — Up until Friday, it looked as though the race for best-actor in Cannes might be between Benicio Del Toro of “Che” and Joaquin Phoenix of “Two Lovers.”
That has changed, however. Philip Seymour Hoffman shows his versatility once again in “Synecdoche, New York.” And Toni Servillo brings Italian leader Giulio Andreotti to life in “Il Divo.”
“Il Divo,” directed by Italian Paolo Sorrentino, tracks the life of one of the most controversial — and possibly corrupt — Western European leaders of the 20th century. In playing Andreotti, Servillo is reminiscent of Peter Sellers. He’s pitch-perfect in imitation, but also brings an aura of heft.
The movie, which premiered late Thursday night, got a rousing ovation at the press screening and looks as though it could go on to pick up a major award.
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Our Man in Cannes: Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut
CANNES, France — In his directorial debut, Charlie Kaufman has done what most people can only apsire to do: seamlessly melding intellectual curiosity with emotional impact. Kafuman’s new movie, “Synecdoche, New York” (pronounced sa-NECK-ta-ki), asks questions about whether life can be lived successfully as art, how art can be integrated into life and how love and death play a role in our everyday existence. It is, by far, the most interesting and stimulating movie at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
There will be some critics who will question how well Kaufman pulls off “Synecdoche.” But there’s little doubt that the film will keep viewers talking over coffee for hours, if not for days. It has the ultimate respect for the audience. It revels in ambiguity and begs for a personal response.
The central role, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, is a theater director who fears death and wants to create a masterpiece. He gets his chance with a MacArthur genius grant, and proceeds to create a mini-New York City inside several warehouses, where his players can go about their daily lives.
In some ways, the movie borrows from Francois Truffaut’s “Day for Night,” which tracks the lives of movie actors making a movie. Truffaut created a movie within a movie.
But “Synecdoche” extends the concept. The movie is about the creation of a play, and the characters in the play reflect those in real life. But Kaufman multiplies the conceit times two, having various people play the same character in the play at different times of life. For instance, in the movie, Samantha Morton plays Hazel, a love interest for Hoffman. But in the play, Morton plays herself as a much older person, while Emily Watson plays her as a young Hazel in the theater production.
If such “refraction” sounds confusing, it can be. But that’s what prompts discussion and helps challenge the audience.
Kaufman adds yet another layer of complexity by externalizing the inner feelings of a character onscreen. For instance, if someone feels like he or she is on the verge of dying, an apocalyptic event may have seemed to occur. But in reality, it’s just the inner turmoil of the character who is facing death.
One of the most dramatic scenes, by far, is the burial of one of Hoffman’s parents and a lengthy graveside sermon by a preacher, who raises age-old Shakespearean-type questions about the meaning of existence.
Despite the weighty topics, the movie is never heavy-handed. Kaufman’s wry humor pops up at every turn.
At one point, Morton’s Hazel decides to buy a home. She spots one that’s on fire — and for sale — and walks in as if nothing is going on. The real estate agent notes that the owners are “motivated sellers.” So Hazel decides she has found a deal and sets up a life there. The home continues to burn throughout the rest of the movie.
Such is the quirky mind of Kaufman.
If the Cannes Film Festival were predictable, “Synecdoche” would be a shoo-in for the Palme d’Or. It’s brilliantly experimental while also emotionally moving. It makes people want to talk. And you simply won’t be able to get it out of your mind.
But Cannes has a way of defying expectations. One need look no further than last year, when “No Country for Old Men” was a critical favorite and got nothing here on awards night.
“Synecdoche” almost demands multiple viewings, and that will ensure steady arthouse business for the lucky distributor who picks up rights in the U.S.
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May 22, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: Soderbergh talks 'Che' with press
CANNES, France — What do you do with a nearly five-hour movie that you want to release in the United States?
That was the question for director Steven Soderbergh on Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival, one day after he premiered his epic “Che,” about the revolutionary leader who helped overthrow the Batista regime in Cuba in the 1950s.
Speaking at a press conference, Soderbergh said he hoped that U.S. exhibitors would show the entire movie for one week, to create an “event” atmosphere, then split “Che” into two parts for the rest of the run.
The U.S. director said he filmed the last part of the movie first. It deals with Che’s efforts to spawn a revolution in Bolivia — an attempt that eventually led to his execution.
But after making that movie, Soderbergh said, he realized that the viewer would need context for Che’s actions, so he went back and filmed yet another movie about the leader’s experiences in Cuba.
Together, the two last four hours and 28 minutes or so, not including intermission.
Soderbergh arrived at the press conference with a bevy of producers, writers and actors, including Benicio Del Toro, who plays Che. He looked subdued, following a scathing review by Todd McCarthy in Daily Variety and in other publications. But reaction was decidedly mixed, with some critics praising it as a masterwork.
Jon Lee Anderson, a writer for the New Yorker and author of “Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life,” worked as a consultant for the movie and argued that Che remained a vital figure for most of Latin America.
“I think Che’s ideas still retain a potency, more in a symbolic sense. He remains one of the few attractive figures of the Cold War period.” Soderbergh said the aim of the movie was “to give you a sense of what it was like to hang out with this person.”
He said he hoped the movie would find an audience in Latin America, but that the details for U.S. distribution remained to be worked out. Soderbergh joked about the length, with an anecdote about longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
During several trips to Cuba, Soderbergh said, everyone in government was well aware that he was there — and that there was the possibility of a phone call from “Pedro,” a euphemism for Castro, who fancies himself a film buff.
But Castro never called. Soderbergh said Castro is well-known for stopping movies that are shown to him in order to discuss a particular scene that stirs his interest.
If he tries to do that with the lengthy “Che,” Soderbergh said, “he may never survive this movie.”
While Soderbergh’s movie paints a largely positive portrait of the controversial Che, he said, “I come to him as an agnostic. … I’m not interested in building him up or tearing him down. I’m just interested in him.”
The director said he was fascinated that Che gave up a comfortable life not once, but twice, to help lead insurrections, and that the movie aims to trace what would cause a man to make such sacrifices.
He added that he has heard all the anti-Che arguments and that “there is no amount of accumulated barbarity” that would satisfy detractors. The movie is expected to be released in late July, but the details are still unclear.
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May 21, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: Austin-area filmmaker sells his short
CANNES, France — Dana Glover of Round Rock-based Midian Films had an unexpected surprise at this year’s festival.
As he did last year, he came to Cannes with a short film, this one called “TKL,” which was intended to be a calling card for people interested in financing a full-length film. Instead, he sold the short — an almost unheard-of event.
Turns out that several European countries are starting to show shorts on cable networks, and the channels need content.
The buyer of “TKL” was the Mini Movie Channel, www.minimovie.com. The channel has outlets in France, Russia and Luxembourg.
Glover did not disclose the sales price but said he hopes the deal will lead to a full-length feature.
Press material for the short describe it this way: “Kristi is on a secret rendezvous to meet a friend at a local bar. The bar happens to be near the site of several unsolved murders. After her friend is a no-show, Kristi discovers she’s being hunted in a terrifying game of cat and mouse.”
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Our Man in Cannes: Steven Soderbergh's 'Che' premieres
CANNES, France — Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” premiered Wednesday night in a five-hour marathon session, including an intermission, and it’s safe to say that it’s the most ambitious movie from an American director since the 1970s.
Benicio Del Toro stars as the Argentine revolutionary who helped overthrow the Batista regime in Cuba and helped install Fidel Castro as the longtime leader.
That’s the segment that originally made up the first part, called “The Argentine” and now called “Che Part 1.”
The second part deals with Che’s role as a guerrilla leader in Bolivia, 10 years after the Cuban revolution. That movie was originally to be called “The Guerrilla” but screened Wednesday night as “Che Part 2.”
It’s unclear how the epic tale will eventually be released in the States. After all, the long running time would prevent exhibitors from showing it more than once per evening, cutting into ticket sales and, thus, profitability.
Soderbergh is expected to address such questions at a news conference Thursday.
Whatever the case, the Wednesday night screening was a spectacle that is assured of getting both raves and pans from the international press. After the movie ended, there was a bit of competition from those who were booing and those who were cheering. The cheers predominated.
To film the movie, Soderbergh used a new digital process called RED. The body of the camera is designed for flexibility and weighs about 9 pounds.
Soderbergh says the RED process “sees the way I see … so beautifully attuned to that most natural of phenomena — light.”
During the intermission Wednesday night, the entryway to the theater was abuzz. The festival handed out brown bags filled with sandwiches, Kit Kats and bottled water to about a thousand journalists who stuck around for the second half. And that was the vast majority.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it in Cannes.
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Our Man in Cannes: More Texas connections in South of France
CANNES, France — I went over to the American Pavilion to check on high-speed phone access and ran into Michael Cain, the head of the American Film Institute Festival in Dallas. He and his team are over here to promote their festival and check out the new movies. Since returning to Dallas from L.A. in the past decade, Cain started, from scratch, the Deep Ellum Film Festival, which has morphed into the AFI fest, the biggest — and best — annual movie celebration in Dallas.
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May 20, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: The festival's craziest moment
CANNES, France — I’m often asked what the craziest moment in Cannes is each year. This year, it happened over the weekend, during the red-carpet premiere of “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
The star arrivals began along the Croisette around 6:30 p.m., and thousands of gawkers jammed the streets. Meanwhile, just west of the big premiere, another press screening was scheduled to start, and hundreds of journalists were trying to make their way past the Palais to the theater, only to face a mob.
Then police let several cars through blockades and they took up most of the street between the Palais and the nearby buildings. So what is normally a mob scene became similar to the ending of “The Day of the Locusts,” with people shoving and hollering.
But the most startling part of all of this was that several parents had decided to bring their children to the spectacle in strollers. The crowd became so hostile and pushy that the parents had to anxiously grab their small children from the strollers to protect them. Then they tried to fold up the strollers while clinging to their children.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen locals inexplicably bring their strollers to a mob scene, so I have no reason to expect that it won’t happen again. But I bet the parents who were there over the weekend won’t do it again.
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Our Man in Cannes: Director Lucretia Martel received coldly
CANNES, France — Cannes audiences — and juries — seem to approach Latin American movies with far less intellectual hospitality than they show to others.
This year, it’s happening to Argentine director Lucretia Martel’s “The Woman Without a Head,” or “La Mujer sin Cabeza,” which was hissed and booed at Tuesday night’s screening.
The film focuses on a woman who’s distracted while driving and hits something in the middle of the road. Rather than stop to see what she has hit, however, the woman continues driving. In succeeding days, she becomes increasingly disoriented from her family and friends, until she mentions the incident to her husband, saying she fears she killed someone. (There are visual clues that she actually hit a dog, but it’s not clear.)
It’s unlikely that Martel’s latest work will get distribution in the States. Her earlier movies, including “La Cienaga,” received limited distribution in the States. So it’s probably safe to discuss some of the details without spoiling it for readers.
The movie can be read on two different levels. The first, and most obvious, is the extended nightmare/dream scenario, with the main character becoming disassociated from her surroundings.
Another reading could be that the movie is a subtle commentary on Argentine social structures. That view is borne out by events following the discovery of a boy’s body in a canal near the road. All records are wiped away of the woman’s hospital visit following the accident. The woman also discovers that the hotel where she stayed near the crime scene has mysteriously lost any record of her visit. The implication is that her husband and his legal friends have eliminated any trail that could lead back to her.
The movie’s pacing is lackadaisical, so that could be part of the reason for the audience’s negative response. But the pacing is suited to a tale about a disoriented woman who believes she might have killed someone.
So, the overall negative reaction seemed a bit much Tuesday night. Martel is an interesting director and deserves a most hospitable reception.
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Our Man in Cannes: Screenings on the beach, ooh la la
CANNES, France — The Cannes Film Festival isn’t really for the public. It’s mainly for the industry and the media, with access to top movies tightly controlled.
In an effort to make the festival more open to the public a few years ago, organizers began to show late-night films on a big outdoor screen along the beach.
People bring blankets, snacks and drinks and watch movies set against the background of the Riviera. It really is quite beautiful.
Tuesday night’s screening was the screwball comedy “What’s Up Doc?” Later on this week, it will be “Dirty Harry” and others. Not a bad way to spend an evening.
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Our Man in Cannes: "The Changling"
CANNES, France — Hollwood’s Old Master of cinema unveiled his latest portrait Tuesday in Cannes, with a highly nuanced portrayal of a mother under siege by Angelina Jolie.
Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling,” or “L’echange” in French, tells the true story of Christine Collins, a 1920s Los Angeles single mother who comes home from work to find her 9-year-old son has disappeared.
Despite the mother’s pleas, L.A. police come up with nothing for five months, when a child claiming to be her son is returned by police amid a hoopla designed to boost the corrupt department’s image.
When Collins tells officials the boy is not her son, they insist that she take him home and “try him out for a couple of weeks.”
Confused, she relents, but returns to the officers three weeks later, insisting that her son is still missing.
The police, anxious to avoid any kind of embarrassment, decide to throw Collins in the county psych ward.
Anyone familiar with Jolie’s past knows that she’s no stranger to onscreen psych wards. But the movie doesn’t dwell on her incarceration. Instead, it focuses on a woman who refuses to stop asking the question: “Where’s my son?”
At a press conference Tuesday after the press screening, Eastwood said he was attracted to the script by former journalist Michael Straczynski because “crimes against children are the most heinous of crimes. … They make you question humanity.”
Jolie agreed, saying the film was a “good study of a mother fighting against a city.” In addition to directing, Eastwood also wrote the melancholy, jazzy score for the film. He greeted reporters Tuesday with graciousness and seemed to be enjoying the Cannes limelight.
When asked why he allowed his film to be entered in the official competition, rather than screen more safely out of competition like many Hollywood movies here, Eastwood said simply: “It seems like if you’re going to go to a film festival that has a competition, you might as well be in it. … Playing out of competition is playing it safe.” Eastwood had no predictions about how his movie would fare in the race for the Palme d’Or. “A lot of good films have won, and a lot of good films haven’t. That’s the same case with the Oscars,” he said.
Eastwood, however, has never won a Palme d’Or.
If “Changeling” doesn’t take the top prize, it has a good shot of getting a best actress award for Jolie. And at the least, Eastwood should be in the running for best director. The cinematography is lush, and the sets are jaw-dropping. There’s nary a technical flaw, yet another tribute to Eastwood’s quality and longevity.
On a side note, Amy Adams of “Gone Baby Gone” has an outstanding supporting role as a prostitute who has been locked up in the psych ward with Jolie.
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May 19, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: "Two Lovers" and more
CANNES, France — It’s shaping up to be quite a race for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
U.S. director James Gray premiered “Two Lovers” Monday night, and it’s one of the most sensitive portrayals of the vagaries of love to hit the screen in recent years.
Much of the credit goes to Joaquin Phoenix, who stars as a depressed young man who moves back in with his parents after a failed engagement and becomes romantically involved with two women.
Gwyneth Paltrow portrays a confused woman who lives nearby and is involved in an affair with a married man. Vinessa Shaw stars as the daughter of family friends who is considered a nice match for him by his parents.
It may be predictable that Phoenix’s character, Leonard, would fall for the least available of the two. But Phoenix gives such a heartbreaking, thoughtful, understated performance that any predictability seems not to matter.
While the movie was excellent, the Cannes Film Festival should be chastened by the way it treated the premiere. Members of the press lined up outside the Salle Debussy before the 10 p.m. screening, only to find that it had been delayed. And when 10:30 rolled around, another unscheduled movie was still playing in the Debussy theater.
Unsuspecting critics were herded into yet another line and ushered into a much smaller venue, Salle Bazin. And as the delays dragged on, critics from major publications around the world were stomping around the theater, uttering profanities. The publicist, meanwhile, was glued to her Blackberry, trying to sort things out.
(As you may have gathered by now, critics in Cannes are not the most patient, pleasant bunch.)
By the end of the movie, however, it’s unlikey that even the most jaded critics were unmoved by Phoenix’s performance. He seems like a leading contender for best actor.
Two other movies that debuted in the last couple of days are getting high marks. The most notable is “Lorna’s Silence,” from the Dardenne brothers of Belgium. It revolves around a young Albanian woman who becomes an accomplice with a mobster in a sham marriage. The wedding will allow her to get citizenship. Then she and her mobster friend can kill the husband, get married and be married, giving the mafios citizenship as well.
There are lots of twists and turns, which won’t be revealed here. But the Dardenne brothers are Cannes favorites, having won two previous Palme d’Ors. So they can’t be counted out.
The other standout is “Gomorrah,” which is based on a highly popular novel about the Mafia in Naples. The movie, directed by Matteo Garrone, weaves five stories together, and some critics have complained about the confusing storyline. But it’s gaining a strong following in Cannes and seems like a contender.
With three such movies in recent days, the Cannes festival is shaping up to being one of the best of the last decade.
Still to come are Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling.” (The press kit for the movie arrived in the mail Monday night, and its name has mysteriously been changed to “The Exchange.” We’ll find out Tuesday when the movie premieres whether the name change is real.) Also ahead are such highly anticipated films as Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration,” Wim Wenders’ “The Palermo Shooting,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” and Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York.”
Fasten your seatbelts.
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Our Man in Cannes: Latin American movie bonanza
CANNES, France — Few directors are as verbally eloquent as Brazil’s Walter Salles, whose “Linha de Passe” premiered at Cannes.
If there were awards given out for best director interview, he would win hands down. A close second would be Brazil’s Fernando Meirelles, director of “Blindness.”
Latin American cinema is at its highest point ever, with several movies selected for the official competition in Cannes.
And Cannes jury president Sean Penn acknowledged the trend in a press conference on the first full day of the festival. Every once in a while, a “warm breeze of creativity” settles over a certain part of the world, he said, and “that’s what’s happening in Latin America.”
Traditionally, Cannes juries have unjustly slighted Latin American movies. But perhaps this year, it will be different.
Salles’ movie focuses on a family living in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Sao Paolo, which has doubled in population over the past decade to about 22 million. While Austin may fret and moan over growth, Sao Paolo has seen sprawl like few cities in the world.
As co-director Daniela Thomas said, “There is no planning, no protection, no health insurance, little or no educational system, poor housing.” But she added that Brazil has an “incredible capacity for reinvention” and that hope and humor are always at the center of the country’s psyche.
That’s the heart of the idea behind “Linha de Passe.” The title is virtually untranslatable, Salles said, but it’s basically a children’s soccer game, where four kids start kicking or passing a ball to one another, with elimination coming if the ball ever hits the ground. Each character in the movie is basically trying to avoid dropping an allegorical ball, keeping their lives intact amid great odds.
The key characters involve a mother and her four sons, all of whom take different paths in trying to crack into a society that seems trying to keep them on the margins. One dreams of becoming a minor-league soccer star; another is a motorcycle courier; another has joined a Protestant evangelical group; and the youngest dreams of being a bus driver.
Salles said he chose to portray a fatherless family because recent statistics show that 28 to 30 percent of households in Brazil are headed by the mother alone. The large-scale absence of father figures in Brazil is no accident, Thomas said. “Brazil was born wrong, out of destruction and rape, and it still suffers from it,” she said.
And both Thomas and Salles said recent reports of a Brazilian economic miracle are far overrated, especially when seen from the perspective of regular citizens.
“Hopefully, these cold statistics about a low inflation rate and rising prosperity will have an effect on the daily life of people in the coming decades, but we haven’t seen it yet,” Salles said.
Both Salles and Thomas see themselves as outsiders, despite privileged backgrounds. Salles’ father was a diplomat, so he saw different cultures at a different ages and gained respect for diversity.
Thomas’ father, meanwhile, was a famed cartoonist who was imprisoned by a past military dictatorship for his outspoken opinions.
Salles sees the current trend in Latin American cinema as akin to what happened in disillusioned Italy after World War II.
“This is our version of Neo-realism,” he said, referring to the postwar cinematic movement in Italy. “Brazilian cinema is getting out of the studio and into the streets, creating a new aesthectic,” Salles said. “In the last 10 years, we’ve tried to give voice to people who have previously not been represented,” mainly those in the lower classes.
“The challenge is to move the cameras into other areas, to show the whole range of society,” he said.
Meanwhile, Salles revealed that he’s working on a cinematic version of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” He plans to film the movie in the U.S., and says he was drawn to the topic because it’s about people “trying to break into a society that’s impermeable.”
Salles added that “On the Road” is also a product of a culture where fear permeates, and he sees modern-day comparisons to the Bush administration and its attitudes toward the rest of the world. “We want to deal with a generation that collides with its society. That always fascinates me,” he said.
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Our Man in Cannes: Film with Smithville roots inks distribution deals
Summit Entertainment is having success is marketing Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” in Cannes.
The movie, which stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn and was filmed in Smithville, Texas, has sold well to such distributors as EuropaCorp in France, Screen International reported Monday.
Icon has bought the rights in Britain and Australia, while Tele Munchen Group has the rights for Germany. Rights in Italy and Scandinavia have also been sold.
The movie is scheduled to be complete in November 2009. U.S. distribution rights are still undecided.
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Our Man in Cannes: Where's Scarlett?
Attending the Cannes Film Festival to promote a movie is extremely expensive, especially for Americans, where the dollar is near all-time lows against the Euro.
So it’s no surprise that some of the smaller productions cut back this year and didn’t trot out all the stars.
One of the most noticeable absences this year is Scarlett Johansson of Woody Allen’s witty “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
Word on the street (primarily publicists in the know) is that Scarlett wanted to bring nine people in her entourage, including specialists in makeup and hair.
Not gonna happen, the backers of Woody’s film reportedly told Scarlett. Such an entourage would have cost well more than $100,000, and that’s probably a low estimate.
A compromise was offered, according to the buzz among publicists. But Scarlett did not relent; hence, no Scarlett.
Allen, meanwhile, was looking quite relaxed during interviews, wearing khakis and his trademark black glasses. He is getting a bit hard of hearing, which was evident at the press conference in Cannes. But he still has his dry wit.
When asked about whether the proposed menage a trois in his new movie was a fantasy, he responded: “It’s tough enough to get just one person in bed.”
He said he felt very lucky to be able to get Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem together for the film. “Who else could have played the role like Javier? And there is certainly not another Penelope.”
In many interviews with American directors, the subject of the U.S. presidential race has popped up.
Allen said he “would be thrilled with Hillary or Obama, and I would campaign for either one.”
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Our Man in Cannes: Indy reviews largely favorable
CANNES, France — The biggest premiere of the festival is over, and critical opinion for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is generally favorable, despite a few pans.
That was especially apparent in the three biggest daily industry publications here in Cannes: London-based Screen International, and America’s Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter.
Allan Hunter of Screen International gave Indy the best review. “The world can reast easy — the old magic still works. … The first Indy adventure in almost 20 years is like a fond reunion with an old friend and will not disappoint diehard fans, or indeed a new generation, from embracing it as a summer blockbuster ride.”
Todd McCarthy of Daily Variety gave it a thumbs up, but with qualifications. “One of the most eagerly and long-awaited series follow-ups in screen history delivers the goods — not those of the still first-rate original … but those of its uneven two successors.”
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter agreed with bloggers who have been worried that special effects would overtake the story. “Whatever story there is … gets swamped in a sea of stunts and CGI that are as relentless as the scenes and character relationships are charmless,” he wrote.
That last comment might make Paramount executives wince, but there has to be some relief in the studio that the movie wasn’t critically savaged, as was “The Da Vinci Code” several years ago after its world premiere here.
The good reviews could give Indy a boost, and the negative ones are unlikely to keep many diehard fans away. Those two factors will probably help make Indy the big box-office success of the summer.
Cannes certainly got into the spirit. Street-wise entrepreneurs flooded the Croisette with imitations of Indy’s famed fedora, and by the end of the evening, hundreds of people from all parts of the world were sporting the look.
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May 18, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: Statesman's Charles Ealy chats with NPR
The Statesman’s Charles Ealy, who has been in Cannes, France for the past week, talks with National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” about how to pronounce “Cannes,” Penelope Cruz sightings, his favorite film of the fest, Angelina Jolie, and the premiere of what should be this summer’s biggest blockbuster, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” among other things.
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Our Man in Cannes: 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' a return to form for Allen
CANNES, France — When you’re watching one movie after another showing every side of depression and gloom around the globe, it’s a welcome relief to see something fluffy and fun.
Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” provides such relief. It probably won’t go down as a classic comedy, like Allen’s “Annie Hall.” But it far surpasses some recent efforts and will reward the Allen faithful.
The movie is set in Barcelona and focuses on two American women who are visiting, staying at the villa of one of their distant relatives. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is straight-laced in all things romantic and is engaged to be married to a rich, young man. Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is romantically flighty and is on the rebound from yet another failed affair.
Vicky has arranged the trip and has secured lodgings with two distant relatives. She is there to work on her master’s thesis, and is majoring in “Catalan identity.” When she explains this to her relatives, the wicked Allen humor kicks in. “What do you plan to do with that,” asks one of the relatives. Vicky, of course, doesn’t plan to do anything with it. She’s rich, she’s American, and she’ll marry well.
The setup is right out of a Henry James novel.
When the impetuous artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) approaches Vicky and Cristina one night at a restaurant, he’s so suave that he is actually able to pull off a proposal for a menage a trois within the first minute.
But throughout his seduction of the two women, he continues to talk about his former wife, a talented spitfire portrayed by Penelope Cruz.
The chemistry between Cruz and Bardem is electric, and it’s hard to think of a better romantic comedy team than these two.
So, if you’ve been staying away from Allen comedies because of recent disappointments, you may want to give this one a try.
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Our Man in Cannes: Jolie's humanitarian work overshadows films
Angelina Jolie has been getting the most attention this year at the festival. It’s partly because she’s one-half of a high-profile couple, partly because she’s carrying twins, and partly because she has two movies here, “Kung Fu Panda” and “Changeling.”
But her work with the United Nations seems to bring out the worst in the international press.
During interviews for DreamWorks’ “Kung Fu Panda,” international journalists kept peppering her with questions about whether she had any words for the Chinese quake victims, what she thought about Darfur, whether she would consider settling down in Sweden, whether she would support a boycott of China’s Olympics.
As the questions continued, DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg became increasingly agitated, and rightly so. He was there to promote the movie, and probably spent $1 million or more to do so, only to have to listen to questions about something else.
So, after about a dozen questions that Jolie dutifully answered on Darfur, et. al., Katzenberg turned to the moderator of the discussion and indicated that he didn’t want any more questions about world affairs.
His frustration was obvious to everyone in the room, but unrelated questions kept coming.
Jolie politely answered, while Katazenberg fumed.
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Our Man in Cannes: What are the best movies so far?
We’re about halfway through the festival, and the question arises: What are the best movies so far?
“Three Monkeys” by Nuri Ceylan of Turkey has to be one of the best. It focuses on a lie that begins to multiply and ends up threatening to destroy a family. Good drama, good performances and stunning cinematography.
Then there’s Arnaud Desplachin’s “A Christmas Tale.” It’s not what you’d expect from a Christmas story. The family is as dysfunctional as possible. Catherine Deneuve stars as the mother, who needs a bone-marrow transplant but has to put up with a daughter and son who are at war. Full of French humor and pathos.
And finally, there’s Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir,” an unusual look at the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the early ’80s.
What’s the worst so far? That’s easy. It’s Philippine director Brillante Mendoza’s “Serbis,” or “Service” in English.
The movie focuses on a family that lives in a multistory porn theater where gay men have sex each night.
That may sound like a promising premise to some. But it doesn’t work, and this movie will probably never see the light of day in the U.S.
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Our Man in Cannes: Allen wrote movie role just for Cruz
Woody Allen and two of his stars, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall, met the press on Sunday at the Martinez Hotel to promote “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”
Cruz, as you’ve probably heard, is a knockout in person. She’s petite but dazzling, even after having stayed at a Vanity Fair party until the wee hours of the morning.
She arrived early in a white Chanel dress, beating stragglers Allen and Hall.
Cruz said she had wanted to do a “Woody” for a long time. And when Allen heard this, he wrote the script specifically for Cruz.
Allen said he was stunned by Cruz’s performance in Pedro Almodovar’s “Volver” and was eager to work with the star.
Looking at bit lecherous despite his age, he grinned and said he had one of the greatest jobs in the world, having to spend hours and hours with Cruz and co-star Scarlett Johansson. “This is a very good way to make a living,” he said.
Up next for Cruz is “Nine,” co-starring Daniel Day-Lewis. For the role, Cruz will be a singing, dancing, sultry siren, and has already begun working on her part.
She said she has been a bit of a workaholic in recent years, but doesn’t expect that to change soon. “If I didn’t have a hunger, I’d be very worried. I’ve been very addicted to work.”
But she said she could imagine a time when she’d want to stop for a while and see such places as Africa. “But for now, it’s hard to say no when a good script is offered to you.”
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Our Man in Cannes: The crowd's verdict: 'Indy' is a hit (spoiler alert!)
CANNES, France — The people behind “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” may have feared the Cannes snakepit, but it looks like they’re going to escape without a serious bite.
Sunday’s world premiere was met with roaring approval, and any critical sniping will be deftly deflected by adoring audiences.
The new Indy, released by Paramount, is expected to be the biggest summer movie of the year in the U.S., and those expectations should be easily met.
The flick has much of the humor of previous installments, as well as breakneck action sequences that will make you keep reaching for popcorn.
Trade publications in Cannes had been predicting a possibly rocky reception, partly because bloggers who saw exhibitor screenings back in the States questioned its pacing. Also, another blockbuster that premiered in Cannes a few years ago, “The Da Vinci Code,” was savaged here, despite going on to success.
There were plenty of justifiable reasons for such savagery toward “The Da Vinci Code.” There are few reasons for such a reaction to the new Indy.
The scene outside the Palais before the premiere was chaos. The streets were packed with onlookers out for a stroll on a beautifully sunny day. Dozens of journalists from top-flight publications — with the highest credentials possible for festival access — were shut out of the theater until just before the movie started. And many had to sit in uncomfortable, fold-down seats at the ends of the aisles.
Only those who arrived more than 30 minutes early gained decent seats.
Fans of the Indy series will enjoy the reunion of Harrison Ford and Karen Allen, as well as the introduction of Shia Labeouf. Labeouf, who has stunts involving knives, vines, swords and motorcycles, is believable as the naive sidekick who is drawn into Indy’s wild world. Cate Blanchett, as usual, is pitch-perfect as a villainous Soviet parapsychologist.
There’s not much point in saying more about the movie. It would just give away the plot - and any possible surprises.
SPOILER ALERT: Contrary to earlier Lucas comments, bloggers weren’t wrong about the relationship between Indiana Jones and his new sidekick, Mutt (Labeouf).
Steven Spielberg acknowledged at a press conference Sunday that the secret was out. But don’t let that spoil the fun. Hint: There’s another big snake scene.
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May 17, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: All things Indy
CANNES, France — Daredevil archeologist Indiana Jones may face the challenge of a lifetime Sunday when the latest movie in the blockbuster franchise is unearthed at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. But director George Lucas didn’t appear too worried Saturday.
“When you do a film that is this anticipated, some people think it’s going to be the Second Coming,” Lucas told a group of U.S. and Canadian reporters in advance of the world premiere. There’s always an increased “danger of disappointment,” he said. “But anyone who loves the old Indiana Jones movies will love this one.”
While details of the movie have been kept under tight wraps, the action of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” takes place in the late 1950s, at the height of the Cold War and McCarthyism.
Like the other Indy flicks, which featured the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail, this one has a supernatural element: aliens from outer space, with the so-called Area 51 playing a big role.
Karen Allen, star of the original movie, reunites with Harrison Ford, and Shia Labeouf and Cate Blanchett join the cast.
Labeouf, the 21-year-old star of “Transformers,” does not play Indiana Jones’ son, as some bloggers have speculated. Instead, he’s a rebellious youth who enlists Indy’s help in a special search that could lead to the Crystal Skull of Akator, a legendary object of superstition and fear. Blanchett, sporting a 1950s Louise Brooks bob, plays a Russian spy whith parapsychological powers. “She thinks that it’s possible to use mind power to dominate the world,” said Blanchett, who joined Labeouf, Allen and Ford in meeting the press Saturday.
Lucas said he never planned to do a fourth Indiana Jones flick but that Ford was the instigator. The long process of coming up with a script took years of revisions, including suggestions from director Steven Spielberg, who was initially reluctant, Lucas said.
But Lucas said he was glad with the outcome and hopes that the latest Indy flick will renew interest in history and archeology.
“I think people should have a good picture of the past,” and the new movie will help a new generation understand the “truly paranoid attitude toward communism” that dominated the U.S. in the ’50s, Lucas said.
Suchg paranoia was “created by, dare I say it, an unwillingness to talk to each other,” he said. “But this is history. Learn from it.”
Ford said he wasn’t worried about the upcoming premiere. “Regardless of whether it’s highly successful, moderately successful or not successful at all, it’s still an enjoyable process” to make a new Indiana Jones movie, he said. “I have great confidence in the movie because of the peoled involved.”
While Lucas, Ford and others were the epitome of outward calm Saturday, Labeouf admitted to being a bit on edge because of the likelihood that the new role will make him much more a target for media scrutiny.
When Ford began the Indy series, “he came into it at a different age. He wasn’t 21 when he did this. I’m like a loner, and I can’t deal with it yet,” he said, referring to an expected tabloid frenzy. “I’m just weirded out.”
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May 16, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: Mark Cuban, movie maverick
2929, owned by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, is having a high-profile year here in Cannes.
It wasn’t too long ago that the duo behind broadcast.com were newbies along the Croisette, ready to spend some of the billions of dollars they made by selling their Dallas-based company to Yahoo.
This week, 2929 picked up the international sales rights to John Waters’ new movie, “Fruitcake,” starring Johnny Knoxville and Parker Posey. They’re selling rights to the film in the market section of the festival.
The movie focuses on a kid who gets separated from his Waters-weird parents on Christmas Eve.
The Cuban/Wagner team also is handling international sales for Barry Levinson’s “What Just Happened?”; James Gray’s “Two Lovers” and Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain.”
Variety broke the story about the Waters deal Thursday.
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Our Man in Cannes: Nuri Bilge Ceylan's best film ever
CANNES, France — Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan of Turkey has been a critical favorite in Cannes ever since “Climates” premiered here a few years ago.
He has been so well-regarded among film snobs that Joel and Ethan Coen last year showed a short film about a cowboy (Josh Brolin) who goes to an L.A. theater and asks the ticket seller to describe “Climates.”
The result was hilarious, in a Coen brothers kind of way. (Ceylan typically focuses on moods, not events, so “Climates” is quite hard to describe.)
So it was interesting to see Ceylan’s latest, “The Three Monkeys,” on Thursday night. I’ve never been a big Ceylan fan. I respect his work, especially the cinematography. But I’ve usually been faced with watching his movies at 10 p.m. here in Cannes, and if there’s not much going on up on the big screen, I tend to nod. (That’s a horrible admission, but it happens all the time. I sat next to a critic who slept last night.)
Remarkably enough, I was engrossed by “The Three Monkeys” from the very beginning. It’s the best Ceylan film ever, not that such a comment will mean much to most people.
It focuses on a politician who is involved in a hit-and-run on a dark, lonely road. He gets out of the car, but hides when another vehicle shows up. The driver doesn’t stop to help, but calls police with the license plate number of the abandoned politician’s car.
The politician, knowing he’s in trouble, pays a man who occasionally works as his driver to confess to the hit-and-run and go to prison. Regular paychecks will be sent to his family, and a big payday will come when he is freed, should he remain silent.
To say any more would give away too much of the plot. But one deception leads to another, and another, and another.
Ceylan’s cinematography is wonderful, once again.
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Our Man in Cannes: Emerging stars
CANNES, France — New stars emerge in Cannes each year, and a few months later, the rest of the world begins to take notice.
At the 61st annual festival, the first new star has to be Michael Fassbender, who plays an IRA rebel who goes on a hunger strike in a British prison in the early 1980s. The movie is director Steve McQueen’s “Hunger,” and no, this McQueen is not related to the late actor Steve McQueen. Fassbender leads a group of imprisoned men against a series of brutalities, and by the end of the movie, he’s an emaciated shell of a man, his body covered with bedsores.
Even though “Hunger” will have a hard time drawing large audiences in the States, it has a raw power, much of it derived from Fassbender’s performance.
It was announced Friday that Fassbender has been named to play Heathcliff in Ecosse Films’ upcoming “Wurthering Heights.”
Tim Haslam of Hanway films, which is handling international sales, told the trade publication Screen International that Fassbender is “brooding, wild and dangerous. He could be a Brando for Britain.”
The other emergent star is Martina Gusman of “The Lion’s Den,” or “Leonera” in Spanish. In the Argentine flick, Gusman transforms herself from a sniveling victim into an empowered woman. For most of the film, she’s trapped in prison, where she gives birth to a baby boy. But it’s fascinating to watch her face, her slow-evolving physicality and her ultimate bravery as she stands up for her rights as a mother.
She could easily win the best-actress award here, but such predictions usually come to naught in quirky Cannes.
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Our Man in Cannes: 'Indiana Jones' buzz
CANNES, France — The Daily Variety headline says it all: “Indy braves the Palais of Doom.”
When “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” premieres Sunday, the notoriously picky pack of Cannes critics will undoubtedly be ready with sharpened knives. In the past, they’ve been known to boo, throw things at the screen, slam their seats up and walk out in droves.
In short, it’s not pretty when movies fall flat.
Snootiness, in fact, comes as easily here as the early-summer rains, and a summer Hollywood blockbuster like the new Indy movie is bound to get drenched.
But it’s not as if critical reaction in Cannes will be of any import in terms of box office, especially in America. “The Da Vinci Code” was justifiably savaged here during its premiere a few years ago and went on to gross $758 million.
Paramount, the studio behind the new Indy flick, seems well aware that storms are brewing. After exhibitor screenings last week in the U.S., Variety reports, word went out on blogs that the new Indy was rather tired.
In a sign of Paramount’s edginess, the studio has invited some critics to attend a brief press conference Saturday with director Steven Spielberg, producer George Lucas and the stars. But unlike most press conferences, none of the critics will have seen the movie yet. That probably won’t stop some pointed questions, but it’s also unlikely to generate any early positive buzz.
So one has to wonder: Why is Paramount bothering?
Most of the invited critics say they plan to attend the early press conference Saturday, as well as go to the one right after the critics’ screening on Sunday. But few, if any, expect to write anything of substance about the new “Indy” until after the press screening at 3:30 p.m. Cannes time Sunday.
And who knows. Perhaps Indiana Jones can pull of another miracle escape.
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May 15, 2008
Our Man in Cannes: 'Leonera' and Martina Gusman
Argentine director Pablo Trapero planted a Latin American flag in the race for the Palme d’Or on Thursday morning with “The Lion’s Den,” or “Leonera” in Spanish.
The movie focuses on a young woman who wakes up in her apartment surrounded by the bloody bodies of two men, one of whom is still alive. As it turns out, both have been her lovers, and both men have been each other’s lover. And one has made her pregnant.
The woman takes the fall and ends up in prison, where she delivers her baby, only to face the prospect of having the child removed from her care.
Martina Gusman has the starring role, and she’s phenomenal. The movie has a bright future on the American arthouse circuit and is just the latest in a string of groundbreaking Latin American works.
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Our Man in Cannes: 'Tree of Life' shopped around
Director Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life,” which was filmed in Smithville, is being shopped for international distributors in Cannes. The movie isn’t finished, of course, so there are no screenings of footage being made available to critics. But Summit Entertainment is handling negotiations.
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Our Man in Cannes: 'Waltz with Bashir'
The “Kung Fu Panda” screening was the second animated feature premiere — as part of the official selections — in two days in Cannes, a rarity.
On Wednesday night, Israeli director Ari Folman showed “Waltz with Bashir,” a serious but non-traditional documentary looking back 25 years when Israel was involved in a war in Lebanon.
Folman said he didn’t want to do the documentary with a middle-aged guy looking into the camera, so he went with animation. But he didn’t use the Richard Linklater technique of rotoscoping, employed in the Austinite’s “A Scanner Darkly” and “Waking Life.”
In essence, the story revolves around a former Israeli soldier who begins to question what happened — and his involvement in — the massacre of Arabs in refugee camps in the early 1980s.
On the surface, the film may be seen as anti-Israeli, but that would be a limited reading of what’s on screen.
Instead, it’s passionately anti-war, questioning the point of sending soldiers into another country to shoot and kill. There’s no mistaking that Folman thinks such conduct is utterly banal.
The movie ends with actual documentary footage of the killings. And it’s a powerful moment, making this one of the contenders for the Palme d’Or.
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Our Man in Cannes: 'Blindness' celebrities
The director and cast of “Blindness” sat down with journalists Thursday at the Hotel Martinez, which is the site of some of the most serious star-gawking in town. Hundreds of people are usually lined up outside, hoping to get a glimpse of a celebrity, and even journalists with badges have to go through a checkpoint and questioning about why they want to enter.
Inside, director Fernando Meirelles and actors Julianne Moore, Alice Braga, Gael Garcia Bernal, Don McKellar and Danny Glover fielded questions on Thursday.
And as has been the case in past festivals, Meirelles and Glover were the most eloquent (although Bernal and Moore can hold their own.)
Meirelles tried to explain his comments Wednesday that he did not think “Blindness” was a good opening-night film for the fest.
“It’s the subject matter and the context,” he said. “The opening-night film is followed by dinner and a party, and this movie isn’t exactly a good lead-in for a party.”
“Blindness” focuses on a sudden outbreak of sightlessness in an unnamed city and tracks the disintegration of society inside a quarantined dormitory as well as in the world at large, where the virus cannot be contained.
Although several critics gave the movie good reviews, the main critics in the international press in Cannes gave “Blindness” mixed reviews, at best, on Thursday. Among the complaints: that Bernal’s character was too one-dimensional, that the script was too compressed, with too many shortcuts from the award-winning novel, and that the horror of the situation wasn’t fully conveyed.
Meirelles didn’t seem fazed by the reviews, at least not publicly. Instead, he focused on the movie’s main theme Thursday, that of people who wear blinders in order to get through the day, people who can see but don’t really see the person next to them. “We go blind to protect ourselves,” he said. But when an entire society goes literally blind, there’s no protection left.
So the movie is about rebuilding a society and rediscovering humanity amid an apocalypse, he said.
Glover, meanwhile, had a slightly different take, giving a personal example of why he wanted to do “Blindness.”
He talked about his young grandson who has fallen in love with a little girl who has Down’s syndrome. He said he and his daughter had talked about the situation but didn’t want to discourage the child. “He sees her inner beauty,” Glover said of his grandson. “Imagine it. If he keeps that sensibility throughout his life, there’s no telling what the possibilities will be.”
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Our Man in Cannes: Chatting with Angelina Jolie
CANNES, France — When so many great movies are screening, it’s mildly irritating to spend time focusing on the personal lives of celebrities. But hey, that’s part of the gig. So, without further ado, Angelina Jolie confirmed Thursday that she is indeed carrying twins and that she was feeling fine.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I weren’t,” she said.
At a press conference for the new animated DreamWorks flick “Kung Fu Panda,” Jolie said she was, in fact, thrilled to be in Cannes to promote two movies, the other being Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling.”
In “Kung Fu Panda,” she voices the role of Tigress, one of the legendary Furious Five who aspire to be the prophesied Dragon Warrior.
Jolie, who managed to keep a smile on her face for most of the conference, said she would walk up the red carpet with Brad Pitt for the “Kung Fu Panda” premiere. “He’s taking care of the kids right now.” (They already have four.)
She also said the two would attend the “Changeling” premiere.
When questioned about the workload, Jolie replied: “It’s not such hard work. I sit and talk and everyone is being very nice to me. … And it’s part of the job.”
She said she’d be wearing sensibly low-heeled Cole Haan shoes, with special Nike soles, for the red-carpet appearances.
As for the movie, it’s a throwback to the old Disney animated features. “It doesn’t talk down to kids,” said co-director John Stevenson. “It’s going to scare you, but it’s going to be OK in the end. … It’s the classic Disney formula.”
Jack Black voices Po, the panda who goes on to greatness, once he learns to believe in himself. He said he identified with the character because he’s like a bear who’s plump and soft and goes a little crazy at times. “I am Po.”
Dustin Hoffman voices Shifu, the Kung Fu master charged with teaching the roly-poly Po how to fight. (Hint: food is a motivator.)
Hoffman fielded almost as many questions as Jolie. At one point, he was asked what it was like to go from such classics as “The Graduate” and “Midnight Cowboy” to today’s “Kung Fu Panda.”
“It’s a decline in culture,” he deadpanned.
He then added: “I want everyone to know there was a point in time when Angelina could have chosen between me and Brad.”
When the cast was asked whether the movie would send a bad message to obese kids that it’s fine to be fat, Hoffman stepped up to the plate in more serious fashion.
“The superhero exists because of our need to idealize,” he said. “But the point of Po is to become a real hero … to realize that the superhero is within you, not outside.”
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May 14, 2008
The brilliance of ‘Blindness'
CANNES, France — Director Fernando Mereilles’ “Blindness” has broken the traditional opening-day jinx in Cannes.
Usually, the first movie of the fest is a real stinker. But “Blindness” got the show off to a good start Wednesday, with redemption emerging from an apocalypse.
Julianne Moore stars as the wife of a doctor who’s the only person in an unnamed city who escapes the mysterious ailment of sudden blindness.
When her husband, played by Mark Ruffalo, becomes blind early in the outbreak, she accompanies him to a quarantined dormitory by pretending to be blind herself. As the epidemic spreads, hundreds of people are crammed into disgusting, filty quarters, and Moore becomes a reluctant leader, trying to help the victims navigate the nightmare of complete social breakdown.
The movie, based on the prize-winning novel by Nobel winner Jose Saramago, explores the efforts of people to maintain their dignity among the most horrific of circumstances.
Gael Garcia Bernal, in a sinister turn, stars as an emergent gang leader within the dormitory.
Meirelles said he was drawn to the script because it shows “the fragility of our civilization” and strips the veneer off of our niceties.
Because of the subject matter, which includes a revolting mass rape scene, Meirelles said he was surprised that “Blindness” was chosen to lead off the festival. “I still don’t think this is the best film to open the festival,” he said. But festival organizers, well-aware of the usually hostile reception to opening-night films, obviously wanted to change course.
Their strategy worked.
It’s hard to watch “Blindness” and not be reminded of the irrationality that accompanied the beginning of the spread of AIDS in the early ’80s, as well as other recent epidemics. “We play civilized, sophisticated people because we have food and other necessities,” Meirelles said. “But once we lose that, our society collapses, and the question becomes: How do we start again?”
The movie co-stars Danny Glover, who serves as a narrator during the last part of the film, as well as Alice Braga and Don McKellar, who wrote the script.
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How about a connection?
Mia A. Farrell, a partner with Laboratoire in Los Angeles, is working at the American Pavilion, and she’s a frequent visitor to Austin, having grown up in Houston.
She’s trying to arrange a high-speed phone line for me here in Cannes so that I can do a couple of broadcasts on the festival for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”
She’s working with a nice British chap, Chris Burton, who is representing the high-speed broadband service Skype.
Haven’t heard yet from NPR on whether the computer-based broadcast will work. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
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Longhorn needs a ticket
CANNES, France — A big shout-out to the University of Texas comes from Alicia Kamath, a student in the radio/television/film sequence.
She’s working at the American Pavilion, just behind the Palais. She says she’s hoping to score some tickets to a nighttime screening at the Lumiere so she can get dressed up and walk the red carpet.
In case anyone in Cannes wants to give her some, she’s just inside the entrance at the pavilion, checking badges.
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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?”
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May 13, 2008
Trying to catch it all at Cannes
The Nice airport is jam-packed, the crowds are already strolling the Croisette, hundreds of journalists are lining up for credentials outside the Palais, and the Cannes Film Festival is getting ready to kick off Wednesday.
The screening schedule is always withheld from journalists until you get here, and it always causes a few moans.
Some of the most highly regarded flicks will be screening at 8:30 a.m. They include Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” and “Linha De Passe” from Walter Salles.
Then there are the inevitable conflicts. You can’t see Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration” without missing the press conference for Steven Soderbergh’s “Che.”
But that’s par for the course in Cannes. Too may films, too little time. “Wendy and Lucy,” the Kelly Reichardt flick that did well at South by Southwest, screens in the Un Certain Regard program at 10 p.m. Thursday, May 22.
But it’s going up against Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo,” a controversial look at the Italian reign of Giulio Andreotti. But it will be possible to catch an earlier screening of the Sorrentino flick, if people are so inclined.
Overall, the lineup looks good, with lots of Brazilian and Mexican movies, plus the usual French suspects.
The festival kicks off Wednesday with Brazilian Fernando Meirelles’ “Blindness,” followed by Israeli director Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir.” Then the festival takes an early turn toward Hollywood-style comic relief with the Thursday screening of the animated “Kung Fu Panda.”
Stay tuned for updates Wednesday.
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May 7, 2008
Here comes Cannes
The opening-night movie at the Cannes Film Festival has traditionally been a stinker that screens out of competition. Think “The Da Vinci Code.”
But this year, the movie that kicks off the festival May 14 will actually be in competition for the Palme d’Or and has the probability of being worthwhile. Fernando Meirelles’ “Blindness” is based on the prize-winning novel by Jose Saramago and focuses on a town that comes down with a mysterious case of sudden blindness, leaving everyone sightless except for one woman.
Meirelles, a Brazilian who works in multinational productions, is a noted director, having done such standouts as “City of God” and “The Constant Gardener.” And he has assembled a great cast. Julianne Moore, one of the nicest women in show business and one of the most talented, stars as the woman who can see. Mark Ruffalo plays her husband, a doctor.
I first met Meirelles in Cannes a few years ago when he brought “City of God” to the festival. It was a searing tale of life on the streets of Sao Paolo, where Meirelles grew up.
He’s quite gracious and, thankfully, fluent in English. “Blindness” has been one of the most anticipated art films of the year, so it’s good to see that he made the competition.
Stay tuned for more posts, which will be coming daily starting next Tuesday, when I land in the south of France.
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May 28, 2007
Cannes reminds festival goers that it's all about art
Despite all the glitter and glamour, the topless women on the beaches, the creamy-rich desserts and the endlessly flowing wine, the Cannes Film Festival reasserted this year that it’s all about art.
“We are celebrating, here in Cannes, film as art,” said Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, one of nine people on the Cannes jury, as he explained the reasons for the awards on Sunday night.
And nearly every member expressed support for the Palme d’Or victor, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” the harrowing tale of an illegal abortion in Romania during the oppressive, waning days of communism. The movie’s most shocking scene: an aborted fetus, which is four months, three weeks and two days old, lying on a hotel room floor.
Director Cristian Mungiu said he put the fetus on screen to make a point. “People should be aware of the consequences of their decisions,” he said.
The jury’s proclivity for gloomy fare continued with the Grand Prix, the runner-up prize. It went to “The Mourning Forest,” which focuses on a Japanese nursing assistant who tries to help an old widower who hasn’t gotten over his wife’s death.
The best actor prize went to Russia’s Konstantin Lavronenko in “The Banishment,” a look at death and remorse. And the best actress prize went to South Korea’s Jeon Do-yeon of “Secret Sunshine,” the wrenching tale of a woman who loses both her husband and her son in a short period of time.
In other words, this was not a festival for popcorn.
The notion that gloom-and-doom movies deserve the biggest awards flies in the face of many Americans, who tend to think that entertainment can be art. Hitchcock turned a Peeping Tom tale into high art and entertainment in “Rear Window.” Coppola did the same with “The Godfather.” Tarantino proved the point again with “Pulp Fiction.” And on and on.
In this context, it’s hard to understand how the jury could overlook the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men.” It had some of festival’s most thrilling, chilling scenes. It had fine performances. It had moral heft, and it wasted no time in telling its story.
And then there was James Gray’s “We Own the Night.” It had excellent acting from Robert Duvall and Joaquin Phoenix. It featured a car-chase scene rivaling that in “The French Connection,” sans baby carriage in the middle of the road. And its direction was superb.
Then again, maybe violence was a turnoff for the this year’s jury.
(On a side note, Gray and Duvall engaged in one of liveliest festival arguments during a lunch over the weekend. Gray was talking about movies that he admired and mentioned “Bonnie and Clyde.” This rankled Duvall, who pronounced that everyone in the movie “over-acted,” except for Gene Hackman, and that it was not deserving of such high praise. Gray then described how Duvall could be a pain to work with and that he directed Phoenix to get up in Duvall’s face during some key scenes of confrontation. Duvall just huffed that he wasn’t intimidated, that he could beat Phoenix in a fight any day. “Not [co-star Mark] Wahlberg, but I could take Phoenix,” he said.)
Some of the most entertaining movies weren’t even in the main competition and weren’t eligible for prizes. They included Michael Moore’s health-care documentary “Sicko.” Variety, the movie industry bible, proclaimed in its top headline the morning after the world premiere: “Sicko Is Socko.”
And then there were ineligible movies with all sorts of star power, including Angelina Jolie in “A Mighty Heart,” George Clooney and Brad Pitt in “Ocean’s 13,” Leonardo DiCaprio in the environmental documentary “The 11th Hour,” and Bono in the spectacular concert flick “U2 3D.”
To be fair, the world isn’t full of smiley, happy, pretty people, and there’s plenty of room for art films to deal with those who have had to deal with tragedy, poverty and oppression.
That’s one of the big reasons to come to Cannes, the biggest, most international annual gathering of movie lovers and makers.
It’s sometimes easy for Americans to complain that the top Cannes winners end up being seen by few Americans, and that the Palme d’Or means little. This attitude is typically summed up with the smug phrase, “no box-office potential.” While that may be true, that’s not what Cannes is really about.
It’s about seeing different cultural expressions on screen — and listening. In that respect, 60-year-old Cannes is still a success and is prepared to survive for 60 more.
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May 27, 2007
And the winners at Cannes are ...
The Cannes Film Festival reached out to small, unknown filmmakers Sunday night, awarding the Palme d’Or to Romania’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” directed by Cristian Mungiu.
The Grand Prix went to Japan’s “The Mourning Forest,” directed by Naomi Kawase. The second-place victory for the Japanese film was a major surprise. It didn’t screen for critics until late Friday night, and there was absolutely no buzz along the Croisette that it had any chance of winning a major prize.
The Romanian movie, however, had been an early critical favorite. It focuses on two young women in the waning days of communism in Romania, as they seek out an abortionist for one of them, who has been pregnant for four months, three weeks and two days. The experience is harrowing and brilliantly filmed, often with long, uninterrupted takes.
“One year ago, we didn’t have an idea of this project, and six months ago we didn’t have any money,” said Mungiu. He added that his movie’s victory shows that “you don’t necessarily have to have a big budget and a big star to make” a great movie.
“No Country for Old Men,” which critics hailed throughout the festival as one of the best, was shut out, and the Coen brothers went home empty-handed, although they’re sure to have box-office success later in the year. Also shut out were the three other American movies in competition: Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof,” David Fincher’s “Zodiac” and James Gray’s “We Own the Night.” It should be noted that all had a high level of violence, which was apparently not liked by the Cannes jury headed by British director Stephen Frears.
Julian Schnabel, an American who helmed the French-language “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” won best director, as many expected. And Gus Van Sant, the American director of the teen-angst, skateboard drama “Paranoid Park,” won the specially created 60th anniversary prize.
But there was little to no star power in Sunday’s awards ceremony. In a surprise, best actor went to Konstantin Lavronenko of Russia’s “The Banishment,” which ranked among the lowest in critics polls. He did not even show up for the awards ceremony. And best actress went to Jeon Do-yeon, the star of the Korean drama “Secret Sunshine.” Unlike Lavronenko, she gained critical attention late in the festival.
Best screenplay went to “The Edge of Heaven,” a worthy, complicated tale from Turkish director Fatih Akin, yet another relative unknown.
And the jury prize was split between two excellent movies, Iranian exile Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” and Mexican director Carlos Reygadas’ “Silent Light.” The latter featured the festival’s most gorgeous cinematography.
The Camera d’Or, which is given to first-time feature filmmakers, went to “Meduzot,” by Israelis Etgar Keret and Sira Geffen.
Despite the snubs to Americans, the awards capped a festival that was generally judged as stronger than usual. The festival’s jury is well-known for disregarding critical opinion. Sunday’s awards were no exception.
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May 26, 2007
At Cannes, an attack against Putin
Russian director Andrei Nekrasov launched an attack against the administration of President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, airing a documentary at the Cannes Film Festival that accused him of being behind a series of crimes, including the bombings of Moscow apartments, the killings of journalists and the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko.
“Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case” features interviews with friends, family and enemies of the slain former spy, who was allegedly poisoned with radioactive polonium 210 last November in London.
Litvinenko spent hours with Nekrasov, explaining on film the reasons for his rebellion and detailing the rise of a police state in modern-day Russia.
“It is not okay, in my opinion, to be the pure apolitical artist because it feels like turning the blind eye to crime,” Nekrasov said in a written statement issued to reporters. “And as far as the Litvinenko affair goes, turning the blind eye, for me, means cowardice. Because if your pal is killed, what do you do? You find out who did it, and go after them.”
The documentary is sure to heighten tensions between London and Moscow, which have been at a low point ever since the poisoning of Litvinenko in London last year. Litvinenko and his family fled to London in 2000, where he became a British subject and a vocal exile who was critical of the Putin government.
Earlier this week, Ken Macdonald, director of British prosecutions, said he had “concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoi with the murder of Mr. Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning.”
But the Russian government refused to turn over Lugovoi, saying it would be a violation of the constitution. And Logovoi dismissed the charges as “propaganda.” Lugovoi had tea with Litvinenko in London on the day of the poisoning.
The documentary that premiered Saturday paints an overall picture of Putin that details his rise to power through devious means. One segment discusses his years in college, where he offered to be a KGB informant against intellectual dissidents.
The bombings of the Moscow apartments in 1999 were allegedly staged to win political support for Putin, who wanted to invade Chechnya, according to various people interviewed in the documentary. The bombings were publicly blamed on Chechnyan terrorists.
The documentary also raises questions about Putin’s involvement in the rising number of slain Russian journalists, especially in the death of one who was investigating the Moscow bombings.
And Litvinenko publicly accuses Putin of being behind his poisoning, as he did in a letter released shortly before his death.
Litvinenko said he parted ways with the Russian secret police, now known as the FSB, after he realized that he would be ordered to kill people who were judged enemies of the state, just as the KGB had. Disillusioned with where he saw his country headed, he wrote a book, “Blowing Up Russia,” that detailed his investigations of the bombings of apartment houses in London. The Kremlin’s reaction to the book eventually caused Litvinenko to flee to Britain.
Another prominent Russian, business mogul Boris Berezovsky, also fled to Britain, and Russia has been seeking his extradition. Britain has refused, further heightening what appears to be new Cold War tensions.
The print of the documentary that premiered in Cannes wasn’t a final version, partly because a storm in Russia delayed its transport, a spokesman said shortly before the screening.
Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, showed up in Cannes to support the premiere of “Rebellion.”
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May 24, 2007
It's tough being Matt Damon
The “Ocean’s Thirteen” cast brought a lot of star power to the Croisette on Thursday, but most of the questions at a press conference were fended off with jokes.
Poor Matt Damon ended up being the butt of most of the joking, and you have to wonder whether he was the guy most picked on during the filming.
When an Australian reporter tried to ask Damon a question about doing so many sequels, Damon couldn’t figure out where the reporter was standing and started mumbling. So the reporter kept saying, “Matt, over here; Matt, over here.”
This brought a bunch of catcalls from the rest of the cast, namely from Don Cheadle, who started rolling in laughter.
Damon eventually responded that he felt a bit “like a prostitute because I’ve done two number threes this year,” referring to the third part of the Ocean’s series and the upcoming third part of the Bourne series.
This prompted fellow cast member George Clooney to jokingly interject, “He’s also done three number twos.”
And when director Steven Soderbergh was asked about the difficulties of trying to herd such an all-star cast, including Clooney, Cheadle, Damon, Brad Pitt and Elliott Gould, Soderbergh said the biggest problem was getting them to stand on their marks.
This prompted yet another round from Cheadle, who kept saying, “Matt, over here! Matt, over here!”
Damon took the joking in stride and said he was open to doing yet a fourth Ocean’s movie, but Clooney sounded more pessimistic: “I think we have sapped this tree.”
Damon also confirmed that the upcoming Bourne movie will be his last in the series.
Clooney fielded most of the questions and set the tone when he announced that “Ocean’s Thirteen” is “basically a cry for peace.”
Notably absent from the press conference was Al Pacino, who plays an evil casino operator who double-crosses Elliott Gould’s character, Reuben. This prompts the Danny Ocean group to set up a robbery to punish Pacino.
Jerry Weintraub, the producer, said Pacino couldn’t make it because he was doing an American Film Institute tribute.
The most surprising moment of the press conference came when a Hong Kong reporter questioned whether the movie was stereotyping Chinese with the portrayal of acrobat Yen, played by Shaobao Qin. The actor responded that he didn’t view his character as “clownish,” and that “Ocean’s Thirteen” was “just entertainment.”
Elsewhere …
James Gray has directed a conventional crime drama in “We Own the Night.” Despite high hopes among most critics, the screening prompted widespread boos on Thursday night.
The movie focuses on Joaquin Phoenix, a nightclub manager whose father (Robert Duvall) and brother (Mark Wahlberg) are top police officers in Brooklyn. The trouble arises from the discovery that the nightclub is the center for a Russian drug ring.
Phoenix’s character, Bobby, resists cooperating with the police, only to discover that he’s going to have to choose between his career and his family.
It’s a formula for tragedy, and Bobby eventually decides to seek vengeance. Perhaps that’s why the European audience was offended. America is generally seen as having a predisposition toward vengeance, and that’s not at all a popular stance in the context of the Iraq war. The only way vengeance plays well over here is when it’s ironic, as is Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof.”
Still, Gray’s movie is tautly directed and well-acted. It’ll probably do well in the States, the European reaction notwithstanding.
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May 23, 2007
Cannes coming to a close
The Cannes Film Festival doesn’t wrap up until the awards on Sunday, but it’s not too early to size up this year’s 60th anniversary celebration.
American movies — and their stars — have stolen most of the limelight over the past 1 1/2 weeks, as the fest has unfolded under sunny skies on the French Riviera.
Most of the media coverage has focused on the race for the top prize, the Palme d’Or. Critics agree that the frontrunners so far are the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men,” Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.”
They’re the top three films in the British trade magazine Screen International’s annual critics’ poll, and various discussions with other critics confirm the results. Then again, the critics rarely agree with the jury that hands out the awards.
Last year, critics favored “Volver,” “Babel” and “Pan’s Labyrinth,” all of which went on to widespread acclaim and Oscar nominations. But the jury gave the Palme to “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” a look at Irish tensions. The movie barely made a ripple after its release in the U.S.
At least two more movies promise to be contenders but have late screenings. They are James Gray’s “We Own the Night,” a crime drama starring Joaquin Phoenix, and Emir Kusturica’s “Promise Me This.”
But even with these caveats, it seems appropriate to recap the highlights and lowlights so far of this year’s festival.
Most amusing sideshow
The cast of HBO’s “Entourage” has been making the rounds this week at parties on various yachts, before beginning a three-day shoot for their show.
Adrian Grenier, who plays the big-time star around whom “Entourage” revolves, has been one of the biggest partygoers.
“Entourage” executives haven’t revealed details about the shoot in Cannes. But if you’re a regular viewer, you might suspect that Grenier’s character finally gets to make the arthouse crime drama “Medellin” and that it’s selected by the Cannes fest. Then again, that’s pure speculation.
The entire cast showed up at the Majestic Hotel on Wednesday morning to greet various members of the press.
Oddly enough, “Entourage” producer Mark Wahlberg didn’t make the trip. And he’s co-starring in “We Own the Night.” The Los Angeles Times reported earlier that Wahlberg stayed in the States because he was miffed about being told that he wouldn’t be reimbursed for his own entourage’s expenses if they all came to Cannes. But the “Entourage” folks said Wednesday that he merely had other commitments.
Best publicity stunt
Cannes is always seen as a way to get publicity for movies that aren’t quite finished. And that has produced some doozy stunts in the past. This year, Jerry Seinfeld reigned as the king of all stunts when he went to the top of the Carlton Hotel while dressed as a bee, to promote the upcoming “Bee Movie.”
After about 30 minutes of checking his gear, Seinfeld latched himself to a wire and slid down eight stories, across the Croisette, to the beach below. Then he went back up again and came down again. Chris Rock, who voices a philosophical mosquito in the animated flick, announced to the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, you have just witnessed an act of pure stupidity.”
Worst movie. period
Sadly, there’s plenty from which to choose. But the Austrian director Ulrich Seidl appeared to trump all others with “Import Export.” What was so bad, you might ask? The movie takes place mostly in a dreary nursing home, with a nonprofessional cast of actual patients, many of whom are in advanced stages of dementia.
Seidl shows us the changing of a diaper of an elderly man who is bedridden, revealing his private parts. And he zooms in on other patients as they suffer and babble mindlessly. He apparently had long negotiations with the nursing home before he was allowed to shoot, and one presumes that he got permission from the families of those featured in the movie. But it’s hard to believe that the actual patients would have given their consent to be filmed — or that many of them were capable of making informed consent.
In short, it seems like a vile violation of privacy. The other half of the movie isn’t much better. It focuses on women who work in the Internet sex trade and the degradations that they face.
Best animation
Iranian director Marjane Satrapi has a winner with “Persepolis.” It’s the story of her growing up in Iran during the 1970s and ’80s, with the rise and fall of the Shah, the revolution, the war with Iraq and the subsequent repression of the Islamic regime.
Satrapi, who now lives in France, was apparently a wild child in Iran, questioning everything, romanticizing the quest for freedom and getting into the punk rock movement. Her parents sent her to Austria during some of the biggest upheavals, and she experienced her own sexual revolution there, only to find eventually that she has become a lonely exile. “Persepolis” is truly inventive and mature, with mostly black and white animation.
Biggest star moment
Even though the cast of “Ocean’s Thirteen” has lots of star power, the biggest celebrity moment in Cannes has to be the joint appearance by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to promote “A Mighty Heart.” The docudrama focuses on the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and Jolie stars as his widow, Mariane. Pitt is one of the producers.
Until this week, Pitt and Jolie had not taken the stage together as a celebrity couple. But Jolie tossed off suggestions that it was a big deal, saying that promoting “A Mighty Heart” took precedence over other considerations. Photographers couldn’t get enough.
Most memorable movie scene
Julian Schnabel wins this category by a nose, or perhaps an eyelid. In “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” he puts us inside a paralyzed patient who is having one of his eyes sewn shut to prevent infection. Schnabel places two latex pieces that look like an eyelid over a camera lens. One of the pieces has eyelashes. And we watch, as if we were the patient, as the needle comes toward us to shut out our vision.
Close runner-up: Javier Bardem, the serial killer of “No Country for Old Men,” who meets his match when he begins to question a trailer-park manager about the whereabouts of the guy he is stalking. The woman at the desk, played by Kathy Lamkin, stares down the killer with no fear, refusing to hand out information and unaware that he has already blown away at least two dozen people. It’s a classic, funny Coen brothers moment.
Most discomfiting flick
Again, it’s a tight race. But the winner has to be “Zoo” from American director Robinson Devor, a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The surrealistic documentary is shot in a dreamy style, with a mix of real-life characters and actors. The subject matter: how a Seattle man bled to death after having relations with a horse.
Runner-up: “Savage Grace” from American director Tom Kalin (“Swoon”). Julianne Moore stars as Barbara Baekeland, the real-life American socialite who seduced her son on a couch.
Biggest buzz
Two movies this year generated the kind of favorable buzz that studios dream about.
“Control,” Anton Corbijn’s look at the doomed Ian Curtis of Joy Division, will undoubtedly make a star out of British actor Sam Riley. He has won raves for his performance, and he’s the lead singer of the Leeds band, 10,000 Things. Miramax representatives told reporters during a luncheon that they were doing everything they could to woo him to their company’s projects. And other studios were following suit.
Close runner-up: “The Orphanage,” from Spanish director Juan Bayona and producer Guillermo del Toro. This classy horror flick has elements of “The Sixth Sense” and “The Haunting.” And it has moments that will make you literally jump out of your seat. It’s a Spanish-language movie, but that shouldn’t unduly hurt its prospects in America, where a good scare is always appreciated.
Best performances
Word on the street has it that Joaquin Phoenix is phenomenal in the upcoming movie “We Own the Night.” But he’ll have tough competition from Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men” and Mathieu Amalric in “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Haven’t seen the Phoenix movie yet, but my money is on Amalric.
As for the women, Anamaria Marinca of “4 Months” has a good shot at best actress. Her portrayal of a friend who takes her roommate to get an abortion from a creepy doctor is a classic. Strong female performances are also expected in two upcoming movies, Alexander Sokurov’s “Alexandra” and Catherine Breillat’s “Une Vielle Maitresse.”
Most unusual outfit
Normally, this prize is reserved for women. But this year, it has to go to bohemian New York artist Julian Schnabel, who directs “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” He showed up this week for poolside interviews at the elegant Hotel Martinez, and he was wearing dark purple silk pajamas and slip-on red tennis shoes stenciled with a black skull. Oh, yes, his pajama top was unbuttoned down to the middle.
Nicest stars
This one’s easy. Josh Brolin is the actor who’d be the most fun to hang out with on a sunny day. He’s charming, chatty and down-to-earth, with no pretension.
The nicest woman has to be Norah Jones, who was just as open as Brolin.
Biggest tech achievement
“U2 3D” rocks, in part because of the technological advances in 3D photography. It is the first movie to be filmed in digital 3D, multi-camera, in real time. Catherine Owens, the visual content provider for such tours as “ZooTV” and “Vertigo”, directs.
The movie was shot during three concerts in Latin America: in Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and in Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile. The result is an incredible viewing experience.
Americans might be interested to know that two key players in the movie’s production were David and John Modell, former owners of the Baltimore Ravens. They began experimenting with 3D because they wanted to bring NFL games to American televisions in 3D. They said this past week that such productions are indeed in the future. In fact, they’ve already shot several segments of games in 3D, and they say it won’t be long before this becomes a standard in our homes. We’ll see, but it sounds great. Imagine watching the game as if you’re hovering on the football field, with a bird’s-eye 3D view.
Best quote
Brad Pitt, at the press conference for “A Mighty Heart.” When asked to respond to follow up on a question that had just been answered by his partner Angelina Jolie, Pitt said he forgot what he was going to say because “I was wafting in the words of what’s-her-name.”
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May 22, 2007
Jolie plans yearlong break from films
Angelina Jolie said Tuesday that she plans to take a year off from moviemaking in about a month so that she can focus on being with her four children, all 5 years old or younger.
Jolie spoke to reporters at the Hotel du Cap, where she and Brad Pitt are staying with their children.
“Brad is taking care of the kids today, and he’s very good at it,” she said.
She and Pitt are attending the Cannes Film Festival in part to promote “A Mighty Heart,” the story of Mariane Pearl. She’s the widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and beheaded by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002.
Pitt is a producer on the movie, and he’s also here to promote “Ocean’s 13,” which premieres Thursday.
Jolie said Tuesday that she has great admiration for Mariane Pearl, who refused to condemn Pakistanis after the slaying of her husband.
“She had every reason to descend into hate, but she didn’t. She even expressed concern for other Pakistanis who had been killed by terrorists while her husband was being held captive.”
Jolie expects to return to the Czech Republic after the festival to finish filming her next movie, “Wanted.” Then she’ll take a year off, she said.
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QT: V is for victory
A bubbly Quentin Tarantino showed up for a press conference in Cannes on Tuesday, flashing the V for victory sign — an indication that he thinks that “Death Proof” is a leading contender for the Palme d’Or.
“I consider myself to be a favorite son” of the festival, he said, noting that he previously won the Palme for “Pulp Fiction.”
He referred to the festival as “where the gods go. It is where the greatest films that are made go. It is where the greatest directors go. It’s a place of royalty.”
Tarantino was clearly feeling royal himself. His appearance at the press conference sparked a mob scene among reporters and TV cameramen who were trying to get in to the relatively small conference room.
The director said “Death Proof” was meant as an homage to the powerful women protagonists of the 1970s. In the movie, three women take revenge on Kurt Russell, a serial killer who uses his car as the weapon of choice.
In what turned out to be a veritable love fest, a reporter from Uzbekistan thanked the director on behalf of “all the women of Central Asia.”
Fellow “Grindhouse” director Robert Rodriguez of Austin showed up and stood on the sidelines without saying anything. The director, who just announced he’s planning to remake “Barbarella,” couldn’t be missed. He was wearing a big cowboy hat.
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From Round Rock to Cannes
Amid all the hustle and bustle of Cannes, a little company from Round Rock is finally getting noticed.
Dana Glover and Michelle Carter of Midian Films have been pressing the flesh and meeting with movie production companies this week in an effort to get funding for the first feature film.
They have brought a short called “Shadows” to Cannes, using it as a teaser to get a full-fledged movie made. And “we’ve been getting lots of attention and had a meeting with a major movie company earlier in the day,” Glover said Monday.
Glover directs “Shadows,” which was shot at a home on Lake Austin. It stars Amy Staggs as a troubled young woman who takes refuge in a secluded home. But she begins to realize that she may not be alone, and her fears get the upper hand.
Glover, who describes the movie as a psychological thriller, directs. Business partner Carter is the cinematographer, and longtime Austin radio personality David Anderson wrote the script.
It’s the second year in a row for Midian Films to come to Cannes. Last year, the company brought a short called “Sub Urban Safari,” but they didn’t get nearly as much attention as they have received this year, Glover said.
Most of the shorts at the festival get here through the same process. They have to be submitted to a Cannes panel, and if they’re selected, then they’re shown in what’s known as the Short Film Corner in the Palais. Several small screens are set up there, and hundreds of aspiring filmmakers hang out in the area, hoping to get the attention of movie producers.
Midian also brought another short, the animated “Musicartunes,” but “Shadows” has been getting the most attention, Glover said.
Glover, a longtime composer for film projects and an alumni of the University of Southern California, first came to Texas in 1987 to work on “Robocop 2” in Houston. He ended up staying, working on “The Hot Spot” and eventually landing a job at Origin Systems, the video game firm run by Richard Garriott.
“Garriott wanted me to help with the cinematic music in his games,” Glover said, “so I decided to stay in the area.”
He later met Carter, an alumna of Cal State San Bernardino and a specialist in cinematography and editing.
“So we thought, hey, if we joined forces, we could start our own movie company,” Glover said. “She was the other piece to my puzzle.”
And so they did, in 1992.
It has been a long road to Cannes, but Glover and Carter think it might finally pay off.
“We’re meeting everyone this year, and I think we may get a deal,” Glover said.
Among the folks they’ve met: the Czechs, who have inexplicably adopted Glover and company. In fact, the crew from Round Rock spent Monday partying at the Czech pavilion.
And Anderson, the writer, was having lots of fun trying to persuade Czech festivalgoers that he was Tommy Lee Jones.
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A Palme d'Or challenger emerges
Until Tuesday, it looked like the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men” was the leading contender for the Palme d’Or. But Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” should prove to be strong competition.
The beautifully photographed movie focuses on Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a massive stroke and became totally paralyzed. But Bauby, who is hooked up to machines to help him breathe, still has his intelligence, his imagination and the use of one eye. And as he lies in his hospital bed, he slowly begins to see a reason to live. He wants to write a book.
The first half of the movie is shot totally from Bauby’s perspective. We see only what he sees, and when someone steps out of his narrow line of vision, they disappear from the screen. Although he can’t speak to anyone, the audience can hear his thoughts. We are his confidant. And his ideas aren’t at all full of self-pity. In fact, they’re a humorous, running commentary on what he can see. His eye becomes his butterfly, his only opening to the world. His body, meanwhile, is his diving bell, a clunky contraption that suspends him in the ocean of time. Hence the title.
Schnabel, whose previous credits include “Basquiat” and “Before Night Falls,” seems a perfect match for the material. “Basquiat” was about fellow New York artist Jean Michel Basquiat, and “Before Night Falls” featured Javier Bardem as a Cuban homosexual. Both movies showed Schnabel’s uncanny ability to frame a scene, much like a painting.
And he shows similar brilliance in “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”
At one point, the non-functioning right eye of Bauby has to be sewn shut to prevent infection. And we see the process through Bauby.
To convey this, Schnabel places a material that looks like an eyelid over the camera lens and then sews it up, little by little. It’s as if we’re seeing our own eye being sealed.
The other, functioning eye becomes Bauby’s only way to communicate. One blink means yes. Two blinks means no.
To write a book under such circumstances, Bauby memorizes what he wants to say and then waits for his speech therapist to show up. She begins to pronounce the letters of the alphabet, and when she says the right letter, Bauby blinks once. Thus, he is able to slowly compose words and sentences.
Using this system, Bauby reflects on his life. “My life was a string of near-misses,” he blinks to the therapist. “The women I was unable to love, the chances of joy I let drift away … a race who’s result I knew beforehand but failed to bet on the winner.” But such introspection leads him to realize that he can still connect with his children and that his life doesn’t have to end as a near-miss.
Max Von Sydow gives a stirring performance as Bauby’s ailing, aged father. But French actor Mathieu Amalric is amazing as Bauby. We see his life before the tragedy, when he was at fashion shoots for Elle and when he was playing with his children. And we also feel the frustration, the dark humor and the eventual hopefulness as he communicates his thoughts orally and visually.
Amalric is virtually unknown in the United States, but this movie will change all of that. After more than a year of tedious blinking dictation, Bauby completed his book. It was published to great success in 1997, just before his death. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” will help him live on in our hearts.
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May 21, 2007
Cheers, jeers for QT
Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof” unspooled Monday night at the Cannes Film Festival and drew a mix of cheers and jeers.
Cannes audiences have never been shy about expressing opinions vocally at the end of a screening, but Monday night’s response was a bit of a puzzler. It seemed as though the press either loved it or hated it.
Regardless of the international reception, “Death Proof” turned out to be one of the most original, stirring movies of the fest. If you think that means the rest of the movies have been rather muted (with the exception of “No Country for Old Men”), then you’re right.
Year after year, the main films in competition at the festival tend to be long, boring musings on death or meaningless. It’s probably a sign of the post-millennial malaise, but it isn’t entertaining.
You have to wonder whether many folks in the audience had seen such flicks as “Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill!” Probably not, and that’s their problem.
Tarantino will face the press tomorrow. He’ll survive, despite a few catcalls. By the way, the movie will be released as a separate feature in Europe and elsewhere, without being paired with Robert Rodriguez’s flick, which was released in the states as “Grindhouse.”
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Welcome to 'Paranoid Park'
Gus Van Sant, who has long been a Cannes favorite, brought his latest flick, “Paranoid Park,” to the festival on Monday.
It is very much in the vein of “Elephant,” “Last Days” and “Gerry.” The camera work has the look of live video. The actors are not professional. And the narrative is nonlinear.
The story focuses on a high school skateboarder who starts hanging out at the roughest park in Portland, Ore. While there, he meets another skateboarder who suggests that they hop a train and take a ride. But the ride turns out to be devastatingly tragic. A security guard sees them on the train and starts chasing them. After catching up with the train, he begins to hit them with a club, and the central character responds by hitting the guard with a skateboard.
The big problem: The guard falls backward into the path of an oncoming train, and his body is cut in half by the wheels.
The rest of the movie — an adaptation of a young adult novel by Blake Nelson, a Portland writer — focuses on how the kid deals with what he has done.
The new movie is far more accessible than the Kurt Cobain musing known as “Last Days.” It also has better potential for box-office returns than “Elephant,” which won the Palme d’Or here. But it won’t be a big grosser. And Van Sant is probably fine with that. He has stated repeatedly that the restraints of making a commercially successful movie has proved to be too much of a hassle.
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Consult 'The Golden Compass'
Savvy movie companies know how to use the Cannes Film Festival to promote films that aren’t quite finished but have lots of promise.
Last year, Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks screened about 20 minutes of “Dreamgirls” and generated big buzz. This year, New Line Cinema has done the same with “The Golden Compass.” Like “The Lord of the Rings,” it’s planned as an epic trilogy, set for release over the holidays.
The segments shown in Cannes looked great. The cast alone is worth giving it a shot. But fans of the books by Philip Pullman will want to attend regardless of star power.
Precocious newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, 12, plays the young girl Lyra, who voyages to the edge of her world with her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig). Asriel is obsessed with a mysterious phenomenon called the Dust, which he believes can be found at the site of the Northern Lights over the Arctic Circle.
Nicole Kidman plays Mrs. Coulter, who takes Lyra to London, where she gets a chance to join her uncle in the journey.
As with the “Rings” movies, the fate of the world rests with the ability of a single person, Lyra, to navigate the various challenges ahead. (But in contrast to the “Rings” movies, Lyra is not fully aware of the importance of her role.)
The rest of the cast includes the great Derek Jacobi, Oscar nominee Tom Courtenay and Ian McShane, the star of HBO’s “Deadwood.”
It’s clear that New Line hopes to duplicate the success of “The Lord of the Rings,” the biggest grosser ever for the movie company.
But even though the Pullman books have sold more than 15 million worldwide, that’s far smaller than the multigenerational built-in audience for “The Lord of the Rings.”
Complicating matters is the need for elaborate special effects. Those include armored polar bears, stark icy scenes and, most importantly, the pairing of daemons with each character. (In the books, the spirit of each person is externalized and represented by an animal or reptile. And these daemons — pronounced “demons” — interact with the characters.)
Director Chris Weitz, who most notably directed “About a Boy,” said Monday that he realized he faced a huge challenge in making the movie.
“I knew that I had to imbue humanity and spirit with the special effects,” he said. “Otherwise it wouldn’t work. I wanted to make those effects as seamless as possible and to make the movie matter.”
On a side note, Sam Elliott, the ever-present movie character who has repeatedly been seen as the personification of Wild West Texas, showed up Monday to help promote the flick.
Sporting long gray hair and an equally long gray moustache, he plays a Texas astronaut who lends the heroic Lyra a helping hand. He sat stoically Monday during the goings-on and said nary a word. Just what you’d expect.
Daniel Craig also sported a different look. His role calls for a heavily bearded character, and he kept scratching at his newfound facial hair.
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Brad and what's-her-name
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie showed up for the first time together at a press conference in Cannes on Monday, and it was clear they’re still goo-goo-eyed over each other.
They were in Cannes to promote “A Mighty Heart,” the tale of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. It’s based on the book by Mariane Pearl, his wife.
Although not sitting next to each other on the dais, Pitt and Jolie communicated with each other through their eyes at several points. She was wearing a sheer brown cocktail dress and he showed up in a silver designer suit with a unbuttoned white dress shirt.
At one point, Jolie and Pitt were asked to expand on their experiences during the movie. Jolie gave an eloquent answer about overcoming hatred, and then the moderator, Henri Behar of French Vogue, asked Pitt if he had anything to add. He just smiled and said he couldn’t even remember the question because “I was wafting in the words of what’s-her-name.”
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May 20, 2007
Brolin, Bardem living 'Country' life at Cannes
Josh Brolin is a chatting, charming dude, able to spin tales and laugh at himself.
In Cannes for the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men,” he launched into stories about Texas on Sunday while sitting in the restaurant/bar on the beach across from the Noga Hilton.
Just a few samples:
• “My mother was a very loud Texas woman. (His late mother, Jane, was from Corpus Christi.) She had this big pesonality and liked to spend a lot of time with truck drivers and that kind of stuff. We lived in central California, and one time she told me, ‘You’ll never be a man until you’ve eaten a Whataburger.’ So we got in the car, drove all the way to Texas, maybe stopping once, and when we got there, she ordered me this huge hamburger. I didn’t realize it at the time, but now that’s she’s gone, I can say she was very much loved.” (His mother died in a car crash in 1995. She married Josh’s father James after meeting him while working as an assistant casting director in California.)
• “It was a great experience working in Texas. We were in Marfa for a while, and I love that place. It’s so vast and lonely. There are these ranches that are more than 100,000 acres. I remember one time I had to take some dancing lessons for a role, and I took them with Patrick Swayze’s mom, who’s a Texan. She asked me where I was from, and I told her I grew up on a 100-acre ranch in California. She just looked at me and said with disdain, ‘That’s not a ranch! That’s a little farm!” Of course, she grew up on a ranch of 120,000 acres.”
• “When I found out that I got the part in ‘No Country for Old Men,’ I called up Cormac McCarthy. Got his number through my agent. I love his work, his way of writing, the way he deals with all these complicated characters who go through so much and just want to get on to the next day. He can be really expansive about hardships. So I wanted to talk to him. But I got an answering machine, so I left a message. I waited a while, and he never called back. So I called him again and left a [nasty] message. The next day, he called back. I think he liked the message, the fact that I’d do that. We eventually met, and he turned out to be a very happy family man. I think that’s why he’s able to do what he does, writing about such dark things. I guess it’s the old adage that comedians are the most miserable people in the world.”
• Brolin says McCarthy has seen the movie adaptation of his book, and loves it. But he had one problem with it. There’s a scene where Brolin’s character Moss is fleeing Mexican drug-runners and he jumps into a river and tries to swim away. But the drug-runners unleash this big, black pit bull that jumps in and starts swimming quickly toward him with teeth bared. “McCarthy thought the dog was more evil than Chigurh,” Brolin says, referring to the pathological killer who stalks people throughout the movie. In “No Country for Old Men,” Brolin plays Moss, a decent West Texas man who stumbles upon $2.5 million and decides to keep it, unwittingly setting off a series of killings.
During lunch Sunday, he frequently joked around with co-star Javier Bardem, who plays the dreaded Chigurh, and kept swiping food off Bardem’s plate.
Bardem was in a upbeat mood, too, talking about his experiences on the set. In a trademark Coen brothers touch, Bardem sports one of the wildest hairstyles ever on screen. It’s almost like a pompadour, swept up and menacingly stiff. “When I first went into makeup, the hairstylists were experimenting and when they got through they were laughing,” Bardem says. “When I looked in the mirror, I could see why. And I thought, ‘God, I’m going to have to look like this for three months.’ But the hairstyle works. It makes Chigurh all the more frigtening. I guess it’s the idea of the order of things, and the hair is very much in order. It’s part of the character, who has to have everything in place before he reacts. The way Chigurh looked isn’t described in the book, except for the piercing eyes, so that left his looks open to interpretation.”
Bardem says he saw his role as a sort of violent representation of fate. “I am the violence in the movie, and you don’t understand me, and that makes me all the more frightening. I symbolize the idea of never-ending violence.”
But Bardem says he isn’t attracted to violent roles usually. “I wouldn’t have done this movie if the Coen brothers hadn’t been directing. I wouldn’t have wanted to appear in a movie that’s all about the violence, and I knew the Coens would make it something much more.”
At one point in his search for Moss, Chigurh goes to a trailer court where Moss lives and finds an empty residence. So he goes to the offices of the trailer park and asks the female manager (Kathy Lamkin) where Moss might be.
The manager, of course, doesn’t know that she’s talking to a stone-cold killer, although he looks menacing enough. Still, his looks don’t faze her, and you can tell she’s a tough woman. (FYI, she looks like Bertha Bumiller of Greater Tuna, but much meaner.)
At any rate, the manager tells Chigurh that Moss is probably at work. So Chigurh asks where he works. “I can’t give out that kind of information,” the manager says. So Chigurh repeats his question. And the manager just looks up, with a glare in her eyes, and says in a thick Texas accent. “Can you not hear me! I said I can’t give out that kind of information.”
Bardem says it was the funniest scene in the movie to shoot. “We had to shoot it several times because I kept breaking into laughter. Here was this woman in a trailer court who was every bit a match for Chigurh, and she was hilarious.”
Bardem says it was a signature Coen brothers moment. “That’s the kind of stuff that makes you love their movies.”
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May 19, 2007
News and notes from a Saturday at Cannes
ANTIBES, France - If you’re a big star, you don’t really have to show up in Cannes. Instead, you can have Cannes come to you.
That’s what Leonardo DiCaprio did on Saturday. The narrator and chief force behind The 11th Hour, an environmental documentary, has been holed up in the Hotel du Cap, an exclusive resort about 25 miles east of Cannes. He and his publicists invited a few journalists, including me, to chat about his environmental activism amid one of the most elegant settings in the world.
In fact, only a few years ago, the resort was so exclusive that it refused to take anything but cash for payment. This prompted various celebrities to show up at the hotel with a suitcase of hundred-dollar bills. But that’s beside the point.
On this day, DiCaprio was wearing jeans, a dress shirt that wasn’t tucked in, and black Prada sunglasses.
He was laid-back and quite aware that the exclusive setting might seem at odds with his back-to-earth awareness movement. He said he also knew of the danger that some people would dismiss his environmental movie as an indulgence of celebrity.
“But the science about our environmental troubles is overwhelming,” he said, “and I wanted to give experts a platform to express their views, where they didn’t need to argue about science anymore.”
He said he also wanted to focus on “solutions for the future.”
The genesis of the film came after DiCaprio visited the White House, shortly after the success of what he dismissively called “that Titanic thing.”
He said he sat down for an hour with then-Vice President Al Gore, “who talked about the impact of global warming.” And he said the talk hit a nerve, that it revived a longstanding interest in environmentalism.
After Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” came out with much success more than a year ago, DiCaprio said, he decided the time was ripe to follow it up with his own tale that would try to show how all of the Earth’s ecosystems are beginning to break down.
In “The 11th Hour,” DiCaprio said, “I wanted to pose myself as a concerned citizen and give people who know about these things a platform. I didn’t want to pretend that I had a degree” in environmental science, he said.
DiCaprio said he hopes that the movie will spur Americans to action, that they’ll begin to “vote with their dollars” when purchasing appliances, heating systems and cars.
“It’s up to us to make these changes,” he said. “And America is the largest polluter in the world.”
ABOUT THE DU CAP: The Hotel du Cap is a series of buildings surrounded by lushly landscaped gardens overlooking the Riviera. Guests can dine at the equally exclusive Eden Roc, which is on the grounds. And special piers float off the coast for sunbathers. Numerous cabanas dot the hills around the resort, and various jet-setters set up shop there.
You can’t just drive up to the hotel. Access is strictly controlled. And big barricades jut up in the middle of the roads leading to the resort. Only a specially entered code can make them descend into the ground to permit entrance. Guards stand at the entrances, as well. No riffraff allowed.
Angelina Jolie, who’s in the south of France for the premiere of “A Mighty Heart,” is also staying at the du Cap.
A cocktail at the bar costs about 20 euros, or about $27.
A FIRST FOR THE PALAIS: U2, which is the subject of a 3D documentary premiering at Cannes, announced that it will show up Saturday night to give an impromptu performance on the red carpet leading to the main theater at the Palais. Various local publications are warning casual strollers to steer clear of the crowds. As of 5 p.m. in France, the band had yet to show up. Catherine Owens, the director of the concert flick, told reporters that the band was on its way but had been delayed briefly from takeoff at the airport in Dublin, Ireland. A late-night concert was expected.
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Moore brings 'Sicko' to Cannes
Michael Moore, the rabble-rousing director of “Fahrenheit 911,” brought “Sicko,” his indictment of the American health-care system, to Cannes on Saturday.
But the director, who was full of fire and vinegar a few years ago, said he was tired of all the screaming and name-calling that followed the release of Fahrenheit before the 2004 elections. Such weariness shows in “Sicko.”
In a marked departure from the past, Moore doesn’t confront congressmen or U.S. officials.
Instead, he said he made a conscious decision to focus on average people who had trouble getting health care in America. He especially focuses on workers who helped clean up the New York site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many of whom have respiratory troubles.
Some have found that insurance companies will not cover their health-care costs, and this prompts Moore to look at how other societies treat their citizens.
He goes to Canada and paints the health care system as rosy. He goes to France and shows how everyone has universal health care. And he visits Britain, where he finds much higher rates of life expectancy than in the U.S.
Then he returns to the U.S. and becomes angered by reports that members of al-Qaeda are getting the best health care available while being locked up at Guantanamo Bay.
This prompts Moore to gather several 9/11 rescue workers, take them to Miami and set sail for Guantanamo Bay.
“I wanted to take the 9/11 workers to the only place on American soil where there is universal health care,” Moore said. “I wanted to see if we could get rescue workers from 9/11 the same kind of care that we were giving members of al-Qaeda.”
So Moore, with ill U.S. rescue workers in tow, sails up to the American base in Cuba and is predictably turned away. He then proceeds to Havana, where doctors and other workers embrace the Americans and offer them all sorts of medical treatments.
It’s hard to believe that this wasn’t all set up in advance, with the cooperation of the Cuban government.
Reports of Moore’s activities led the Treasury Department to recently notify the filmmaker that he was being investigated for violating various bans on Americans’ visiting and trading in Cuba.
Moore said he has only a few days to respond to the charges, and that he’s actually worried about “fines and possible jail time.”
He indicated that he wasn’t looking forward to any possible confrontations, but he also acknowledged that Harvey Weinstein, who heads the Weinstein company that’s distributing the movie, wouldn’t shy from such controversy and would be ready to go on attack. Weinstein, who was standing on the sidelines during a press conference, smiled broadly.
Moore said that one of the best ways to fight the American health care system is by voting — and staying healthy. He revealed that he has begun to eat “those things called vegetables and fruit,” and has begun a daily walking regimen. He also said he has lost 25 pounds in the past few weeks.
Barring legal troubles, “Sicko” is scheduled to open in the States in late June.
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May 18, 2007
The scene in Cannes
This year’s festival has been one of the most crowded ever.
There are reportedly a record number of journalists at the 60th anniversary edition of Cannes, and there are an extraordinary number of tourists as well. Pair that with almost picture-perfect blue skies, and you have a recipe for logjam on the Croisette.
By 9 p.m., it’s almost impossible to walk from one screening to another along the main boulevard. People are everywhere, and the streets are closed off. It’s also remarkable that the French seem to have no hesitation to bring out the baby buggies with crying infants and plunge into the crowd. You’d think they wouldn’t want to expose the kids to such germs and put them at risk with all the pushing and shoving. But at least a dozen baby carriages were being maneuvered through the madness Friday night.
Oh yeah. They like to walk their dogs in the crowds, too.
During the nightly red-carpet arrivals, the festival typically has huge speakers blaring music, adding to the so-called drama of it all. But the festival tends to feature electronica and disco.
I suppose organizers think such music is more glamorous than other types, but it doesn’t seem appropriate in many circumstances. For instance, at a party for “My Blueberry Nights,” starring Norah Jones, the music was all disco. No jazz, nothing funky, nothing folkie, nothing even remotely Norah Jones-ish. Just disco. And this is for a movie that revolves, in part, around Ry Cooder tunes and Memphis blues. Huh?
The crush to get in to see Savage Grace this afternoon was stunning. Part of the problem: The movie was premiering in Directors’ Fortnight, which isn’t as controlled as the main screenings at the Palais. (The Fortnight is held at the Noga Hilton and other theaters in the area.) And it didn’t help that an official Cannes vehicle decided to park in front of one of two main entrances to the theater, thus making hundreds try to form an orderly single-file line.
But enough whining. It has been a great festival so far, in spirit and tone. Some of the early movies have been a bit disappointing, but “No Country for Old Men” more than makes up for the early disappointments. So does “U2 3D.”
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Verdict on latest Coen brothers flick: Brilliant
It’s a surreal experience to sit in a cavernous theater on the French Riviera with critics from around the world, with everyone watching a classic, mythic Southern story unfolding on screen.
The Coen brothers, abandoning their recent spate of comedic movies, brought their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men” to the Croisette on Friday night, and it was nothing short of brilliant.
That doesn’t mean that it’s a shoo-in for the Palme d’Or. Or that it will be universally praised. The only thing guaranteed in Cannes is critical disagreement.
But the Coen brothers hew closely to the spirit and text of the McCarthy novel about a young, decent West Texas man who stumbles upon $2.5 million in cash and decides to keep it, setting off a chain reaction of killings.
Josh Brolin plays Moss, the guy who has to go on the run with the money. Javier Bardem ably captures the pathological menace of Chigurh, who murders dozens in his search for Moss. And Tommy Lee Jones, in one of his finest performances, stars as Sheriff Bell, the beleaguered lawman who is only able to watch as the carnage unfolds.
It’s by far the most violent Coen brothers film ever, surpassing the deadpan tree-shredding of bodies in “Fargo.” And it marks a return of the Coens to Texas, where they set their first feature film, “Blood Simple.” Like that movie, “No Country” delights in the unusual minor characters who pop up in scene after scene. You hate to see them gunned down, but you know it’s coming, just like a biblical plague.
Much has been made of McCarthy’s biblical tendencies, and there’s no denying that his literature is rooted in the Southern tradition of Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner. But in many ways, McCarthy is a humanist of the first order, a spiritualist rather than a devoutly religious writer.
It’s gratifying to see the Coen brothers turn their attention back to serious cinema. “Fargo” and “Miller’s Crossing” have always ranked among their best. And they couldn’t have chosen a better vehicle to get back to their roots.
The rest of the day …
The “U2 3D” concert flick was a great way to start the day, screening at 8 a.m.
The special effects put Bono’s hands up in your face and gave you the best seat in the house for a killer concert. But the rest of the day, with the exception of “No Country for Old Men,” was rather dreary.
Olivier Assayas, the noted French director, unspooled a curiously unengaging tale of corruption in the States and Hong Kong with “Boarding Gate.” Asia Argento and Michael Madsen star as two sadistic lovers who become entangled in corporate espionage and murder. Kelly Lin and Carl Ng co-star as the Hong Kong counterparts to Argento and Madsen.
The other disappointment: “Savage Grace,” from U.S. director Tom Kalin. Even the great actress Julianne Moore can’t keep this movie from going way over the top. She plays Barbara Daly Baekeland, the vivacious wife of plastics heir Brooks Baekeland and the mother of Tony (Eddie Redmayne).
As Tony grows up, he becomes more and more connected with his mother, especially as his father (Stephen Dillane) grows alienated from the family. The bond between mother and son, however, becomes far too physical, and the movie spirals out of control in its own Oedipal tragedy. It might have mythic aspirations, but it ends up just icky.
Coming up Saturday …
Michael Moore brings his health-care documentary, “Sicko,” to the Croisette, and it promises to cause quite a stir, if early insider reports are correct.
Also: Leonardo DiCaprio meets the press at the Hotel du Cap, the luxurious resort about 25 miles east of Cannes. He’s here to promote his environmental documentary, “The 11th Hour.”
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U2 on the big screen
Got up to see a movie at 8 in the morning.
Not a good thing when you haven’t had coffee. But this one rocked.
It was “U2 3D,” a 3D concert film featuring U2. Yep, the title is self-explanatory. It was only about an hour long, but it was like having the best seat in the house at a U2 concert. Not a bad thing, at all.
Quite amazing, with shots of the crowd coming into your face, Bono’s hand reaching out to you and lots of special effects. It’ll probably make a great midnight movie in the States, especially if you’re in the right mind-set and ready to get revved up to rock ‘n’ roll.
It reminded me of my college days, listening to “Dark Side of the Moon,” but quite a bit more upbeat and not so sleep-inducing.
More to come later today and tomorrow, with Leo DiCaprio’s “The 11th Hour,” Julianne Moore’s “Savage Grace” and the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men.”
Permalink | | Categories: Cannes
May 17, 2007
Photos from Cannes
American-Statesman reporter Charles Ealy is in France, covering the Cannes Film Festival. In addition to reading his daily dispatches, be sure to check out our photo gallery featuring celebs galore.
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