The scene in Cannes
Be sure to check out American-Statesman writer Charles Ealy’s reports on all of the happenings at the Cannes International Film Festival. And don’t forget to browse through our star-studded collection of photos.
Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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 Darful, 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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
Cannes crowd’s verdict: ‘Indy’ is a hit
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.
For the record, George Lucas has been known to fib to help promote his movies, and he did so Saturday during an interview with reporters. It was a Santa Claus-like fib, well-intentioned and designed to protect a surprise. So, although it was reported here, it’s probably best not to be a spoilsport.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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 to 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.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
Castro pic has Austin ties
Austin-based Artists Relations Group is fixing up with Oscar-touched producer Robert Moresco (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Crash”) to produce a biographical feature about Fidel Castro’s exiled daughter, Alina Fernandez.
The story is based on Fernandez’s book “Castro’s Daughter: An Exile’s Memoir of Cuba,” in which she describes her bizarre and ruptured relationship with her father and her split from Cuba to the U.S.
Financing for development of the flick comes from private Austin-based outfit the Lamy Group.
Fernandez and her book
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Our Man in Cannes: Chatting with Angelina Jolie
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
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.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
Penn spices up news media conference
CANNES, France — The annual news conference of the Cannes jury, which will decide the top prizes at the end of the 61st festival this year, is usually a dull affair. But jury president Sean Penn spiced things up Wednesday.
He attacked the “inane supidity” of President Bush, said he was encouraged by the kind of support that Democratic hopeful Barack Obama was generating. But he also warned that, if elected, Obama would have to become “a greater man than he’s ever been” to keep people from becoming disillusioned.
As usual, the media raised questions about whether favoritism, personal politics and cultural biases would play a role in this year’s jury deliberations.
Penn, of course, has been the target of bloggers who contend that he has a conflict of interest because his friend, director Clint Eastwood, has “Changeling” in competition for the Palme d’Or this year. Penn won a best actor Oscar for his role in the Eastwood-directed “Mystic River.”
Penn said such notions were insulting and that the jury would listen to the hearts and minds of this year’s films. He also joked that Eastwood has directed and starred in scores of movies, but that “the bastard only offered me one.”
Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron got a laugh when he dryly responded to the same question of bias. “I’m rooting for the Mexican movies,” he said.
Other members of this year’s jury are: German actress Alexandra Maria Lara, French director Rachid Bouchareb, American actress Natalie Portman, Iranian director Marjane Satrapi, Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Italian actor Sergio Castellitto and French actress Jeanne Balibar.
Penn got another laugh when he was reminded that he once said he was averse to movie awards and that he wouldn’t want to be on a Cannes jury because he would have to stay “wise and sober for 12 days.”
Said Penn: “How many days here do I have left?”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
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.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Cannes
Latest comments
As much as I’m sure we’d love to take the credit, Kelly’s new film “Wendy and Lucy” did not screen at SXSW. “The Pleasure of Being Robbed,” however, did premiere at SXSW and will screen at Cannes in the Directors
... read the full comment by Matt Dentler | Comment on Trying to catch it all at Cannes Read Trying to catch it all at Cannes
The second review is a fake. The guy admits it on his forum at stallioncornell.com/board.
... read the full comment by Stallion Cornell | Comment on Does the new Indy stink? Ask Harry Read Does the new Indy stink? Ask Harry
See more recent comments