Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2007 > May
May 2007
Austin short is a good bet in BET contest
Austin filmmaker CC Stinson’s short “Breakdown” is a finalist in BET J’s Best Shorts Contest and will air several times on the cable channel.
All times are Central: 7 p.m. Sunday; 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday; 7 p.m. June 3; 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. June 5; 7 p.m. June 10; and 8 p.m. June 12.
Produced by Stinson’s CCSquared Productions and inspired by events in her life, the all-Austin-made digital short chronicles the fallout of a corporate layoff on a wife and mother played by Stinson.
See more at bet.com.
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Ninjas and hot rods
Movies and gaming wed again, this time with an Austin angle that will make you go “Woo.”
The report from Austin360 blogger Omar Gallaga stars with this:
Local game legend Warren Spector (“Deus Ex,” “System Shock,” “Thief”) is teaming up with dove-loving action filmmaker John Woo for a film/game project called “Ninja Gold.”
In a smart move, Woo will handle the film side while Spector will be doing game duties. This sounds a bit like what Microsoft was trying to do with Peter Jackson on a “Halo” movie, but that project seems stuck in development.
Read the full entry HERE.
Austin indie filmmaker Paul Wright has won three Telly Awards for his documentary “Hot Rod Round Up.” The awards are silver for Best Automotive Documentary and bronze for cinematography and use of music.
The film — and it was shot on film, not video — “takes you on a journey into the people and culture of old-school hot-rodding … a road paved with rockabilly music, burlesque girls and vintage hot rods.”
What’s a Telly Award? Find out HERE.
More about the movie at www.hotrodroundup.com.
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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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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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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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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Two cool movie series
Click and be wowed:
- At the Ransom Center is the three-film Silent Silver Screen Series — “Orphans of the Storm” (June 7), “The General” (June 28), “The Big Parade” (July 19) — with live musical accompaniment by the great Graham Reynolds. And it’s free. Click HERE.
- The Austin Film Society presents Other Minds, Other Worlds: Global Sci-Fi Cinema from June 5 through July 31 at the Alamo Downtown and Alamo S. Lamar. Titles in the nine-title series include “Planet of the Vampires,” “Akira” and “The Day the Earth Caught Fire.” Click HERE.
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Go Underground
Organizers of the Austin Underground Film Festival say it way better than we can, so we’re letting them plug their show, their way:
Ever wanted to know how to get a Big Mac for a dollar, see comics Denis Leary and Bill Hicks square off, or learn how to get the most from your neighborhood bodega? The Austin Underground Film Fest is back with more revolutionary programming from local and international fringe artists — three solid hours of the best in subterranean cinema. Where else can you see a hacky sack music video, educational church PSA’s, lost celebrity rarities, and an inside look at the private lives of comic book artists? AUFF ‘07: The cure for the common film fest.
It happens at 3 p.m. June 9 at the Alamo Downtown. Tickets at www.drafthouse.com.
Info at www.austinundergroundfilm.com.
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Get rolling for film competitions
The Austin branch of the 48-Hour Film Project, in which teams produce a short movie from script to screen in two days, gets going at 7 p.m. June 22 at a location released upon registration. That’s when one team member will draw a movie genre, a line of dialogue and a prop that will be the guiding forces of their product.
All completed films will show for the public June 26 and 27 at the Arbor. A wealth of awards and chances for national exposure are up for grabs. Sponsored by Reel Women.
Register at www.48hourfilm.com.
The Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival wants student short films with thematic links to human disabilities for its next shindig Oct. 19 and 20 at the Alamo South.
Winning movies will receive prizes and be shown on the big screen during the festival. Details at 478-3366 or www.ctdfilmfest.org.
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Austin doc nabs awards
Last Saturday, Austin-produced doc “Last Best Hope” won two awards at the Mendocino Film Festival: Best Feature Length Documentary and the Audience Choice Award. Mendocino is a quaint beach town in Northern California.
The filmmakers work and live in Austin: writer-director-editor Mat Hames; executive producers Ramona Kelly and David Grosvenor; cinematographer Wilson Waggoner; and composer Stephen Barber.
The producers describe “Last Best Hope” as “an intimate story about the courage exhibited by ordinary men, women and youth in the Belgian Underground in their efforts to hide and repatriate Allied airman downed in German-occupied Belgium during World War II.”
Shown on PBS last October, the movie has also won the Hugo International Television Silver Award and the People’s Choice Award at the Texas Independent Filmmakers Festival.
More about the film HERE.
Making “Last Best Hope”
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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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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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More unapologetic pulp from Rodriguez
Apparently Robert Rodriguez will never grow up. Rumors are true about the Austinite directing the remake of “Barbarella,” according to breaking news from today’s Hollywood Reporter:
Robert Rodriguez has signed on to direct “Barbarella,” a new motion picture adaptation of the classic science-fiction comic book series that Universal Pictures is fast-tracking with an eye for a 2008 worldwide release.
The character was immortalized in the 1968 movie starring Jane Fonda. Dino De Laurentiis, who produced the film, will produce the update with Martha De Laurentiis.
“Barbarella” tells the story of a female mercenary who roams across the universe in a distant future, undertaking missions that require her physical fearlessness, ingenuity and sensuality. The character made her debut in 1962 in a French graphic magazine written and illustrated by Jean-Claude Forest, and was known for many adventures, which often involved sex.
“Dino De Laurentiis came to me and said, ‘Barbarella’ is a world where you are completely free to unleash all your fantasies, creativity and imagination-where the possibilities are limitless,’ ” Rodriguez said. “I love this iconic character and all that she represents, and I’m truly excited by the challenge of inviting a new audience into her universe.”
Rodriguez is working with writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who are developing a completely original adventure for Barbarella. Purvis and Wade co-wrote “Casino Royale” and recently finished work on the next installment in the James Bond franchise, which has a working title of “Bond 22.”
Hmm. Wonder who will play the sci-fi minx. Perhaps … Rose McGowan?
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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‘Chalk’ it up to wads of talent
Add Mike Akel and Chris Mass — creators of the all-Austin-made school mockumentary “Chalk” — to the small constellation of local moviemakers who are on their way to something big.
After a knockout opening weekend for “Chalk” in Austin, with numerous sold-out screenings, Akel dropped us a line about what the talented duo are up to next. We hope he doesn’t mind but here’s the note, pretty much verbatim, including his own headings:
UNIVERSAL PROJECT:
Long story short: At the 2006 LA Film Festival a producer from Larger Than Life, Gary Ross’ company, saw CHALK and loved it. Before we knew it, five meetings and a month later we were sitting in a room with Gary Ross and his two producers discussing their idea of a FAUX DOCUMENTARY in the style of CHALK about the behind the scenes world of Little League Baseball. At the end of the meeting Gary said, “Let’s do this thing. What do you guys have on your plate right now?”
I said very quickly, “We would love to have THIS FILM on our plate.” Shortly after we had a development deal with Universal and now have been writing for seven months. We’re now waiting some final feedback before we take it to the studio to get the “greenlight” so we can shoot the film.
CHALK TV:
We are teaming up with Morgan Spurlock of “Supersize Me” and “30 Days” and we are close to committing to producing partners and a studio. By mid July our plan, as a team, is to have our TV pitch honed and ready to hit the networks.
KEEPING IT IN AUSTIN:
Note: We’re fighting and pitching to shoot both the “Little League” film and CHALK TV here in Austin. And yes, we need to get the INCENTIVES PROGRAM TO PASS! We feel we have a good shot to get them here but the lack of INCENTIVES really hurts when it comes down to a “bottom line” business.
Exciting stuff. Congrats, guys.
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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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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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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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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.”
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Norah Jones shoeless at Cannes
MORE NORAH: Norah Jones, the star of “My Blueberry NIghts,” was meeting the press on Thursday in a bar/restaurant on the Noga Hilton Beach. She was down-to-earth but coming off a bad case of nerves.
Case in point: She had to endure the formal opening night screening Wednesday, walking up the red carpet to the Salle Lumiere. Normally, it would be a great moment in anyone’s life. But Jones says her shoes were killing her. As soon as the lights went down, she slipped off her shoes and took it easy. But she forgot that she needed to put them back on immediately after the screening, when the spotlight in the theater shines on the stars.
“So I had to scramble to get those shoes back on,” she says.
Since the movie wasn’t finished until two days before the screening, she had no idea what should be watching, or how “My Blueberry Nights” turned out. But she said Thursday: “I’m really happy with the way it turned out. I think it’s great.”
One of the key moments in the movie comes when she falls asleep late-night on the counter of Jude Law’s restaurant. She has cream and crumbs on her lips from eating a pie. And Law gently leans over her and kisses her, licking away the crumbs.
“That scene took 150 takes and was the most highly choreographed moment in the movie,” Jones says. “The cream on my face was applied perfectly, like a Picasso. And every strand of hair was just so.”
The camera zooms in, of course, on Jones’ lips and other aspects of her face. “It was shocking to see my face on a 30-foot screen,” she says. After dealing with hundreds of journalists and thousands of viewers, Jones says she’s looking forward to going back to concert tours to promote her latest album, “Not Too Late.”
She’ll be in Grand Prairie on June 11, Houston on June 12, Austin on June 15 (at the Backyard) and in San Antonio on June 16.
EARLY SURPRISE: There are always a few surprise successes at Cannes. One of the early ones is “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu. It focuses on a college student who needs an abortion in the final days of communism. Since the student is rather far along in the pregnancy, she and her roommate end up arranging to meet an illegal abortionist at a cheap hotel.
But when they get to the negotiations, the sleazy abortionist not only demands money but also demands sex. To say more would be divulging key plot points. Suffice it to say that this is one of the most gut-wrenching movies so far. It won’t be a big seller in the U.S., if it ever makes it to the country. But if it does, be prepared for some serious cinema.
ON A SADDER NOTE: This is the first Cannes Film Festival that I have attended without the presence of Roger Ebert, the beloved film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. As everyone knows, he has been battling cancer.
I have two distinct memories of him over the past few years. During a screening of “Down in the Valley” with Edward Norton, a woman from France began talking on her cell phone. She was seated two rows down from Ebert. He got up in the middle of the screening, went into the aisle and announced that such conduct was outrageous and told her to leave the screening immediately. She did.
The second moment: During the premiere of Vincent Gallo’s The “Brown Bunny,” Ebert was sitting two seats away from me. The movie was awful, and everyone was cracking wise about what they were seeing on the screen. At one point, Gallo and Chloe Sevigny get on a bicycle built for two and take a ride. Growing increasingly frustrated at the silliness of it all, Ebert broke out into song: “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”
I and other reporters wrote about and blogged about the incident, and word got back to Gallo. He immediately began to attack Ebert on a personal basis and wished him the worst of health in various news outlets. It was tasteless, to say the least. So was his movie. Ebert responded that he was overweight and not in great health, but that he was trying to get better.
He added that Gallo would always be stuck with “The Brown Bunny.” By the way, the bicycle scene was removed from the movie before its U.S. release. Ebert was right.
We wish him well.
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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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Cannes Film Fest: Day 3
CANNES, France — Publicity stunts at the Cannes Film Festival are nothing new, but they rose to new heights Thursday. Eight stories, to be exact.
Jerry Seinfeld, in town to promote his upcoming animated flick “Bee Movie,” dressed up in a yellow and black fuzzy outfit and went to the top of the Carlton Hotel overlooking the Croisette, where he took flight via highwire down to the beach below.
Most people figured the event would feature a stand-in double. After all, why would a multimillionaire risk sailing down a wire while thousands watched?
But it was Seinfeld, all right.
“This isn’t an act of desperation,” he said from the rooftop, via microphone. “It’s good advertising.”
Co-star Chris Rock stood on the beach and emceed the event. Once Seinfeld landed, he turned around and sailed back up to the Carlton roof, kicking his black leotard legs in the air. Then he sailed back down again.
As Rock said, “Ladies and gentlemen, you have just witnessed an act of pure stupidity.”
The event was organized by Jeffrey Katzenberg, the DreamWorks honcho whose animation team has been working with Seinfeld on the movie for the past 2 1/2 years. The flick, which will be released Nov. 2, focuses on Barry B. Benson, a bee who decides that he doesn’t want to do a boring job in the hive until he’s dead. So he tags along with the “Pollen Jocks” on a Central Park jaunt.
Before long, he meets a human (Renee Zellweger), who saves his life. So he breaks a cardinal bee rule and decides to speak to this kind human. Rock plays a philosophical mosquito who befriends the heroic bee when they both get stuck on a windshield.
As for the dialogue, Seinfeld said he and Rock “made it up on the fly.”
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Norah Jones and more at Cannes
“My Blueberry Nights,” the first English-language film by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, premiered Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival and was generally judged a success. That’s a big step in the right direction for the arthouse master, who had a disappointing premiere in Cannes two years ago with “2046.”
In fact, “2046” was so late in being finished that the print barely arrived in time for its screening — a major gaffe in well-orchestrated Cannes. The director told reporters Wednesday that he did much better with “My Blueberry Nights.” He finished it two days before it was to screen. And it actually arrived in Cannes on Tuesday, a full day before the screening. Still cutting it close, but not by minutes, as with “2046.”
The movie, which marks singer Norah Jones’ acting debut, was also better received critically than “2046.” One critic from Istanbul and another from Toronto, both of whom sat next to me at a press conference, complained that there was too much dialogue to explain the obvious emotions between characters. But the cinematography was luscious and the supporting actors were excellent. The cast includes Jude Law as a restaurant owner in New York, David Strathairn as an alcoholic Memphis cop, Rachel Weisz as the cop’s estranged wife and Natalie Portman as a surprisingly believable Texas Hold ‘Em player in Nevada.
Jones basically reacts to their life stories, but she acquits herself well as she travels across country after losing her boyfriend of five years.
STAYING A SINGER: If you’re wondering whether Jones is thinking of giving up her singing career and becoming a full-time actress, the answer is no. Jones said Wednesday that she didn’t even want to do a movie until Wong “came knocking at my door.” Wong said he was impressed with Jones after listening to her albums. “Her voice is very cinematic, and she creates characters in her songs.”
But Jones said, “I was doing a tour at the time, and there was no way I was going to be able to make a movie.” With her interest in Wong piqued, however, she eventually watched the director’s landmark “In the Mood for Love” and decided she’d like to give acting a try. “I had complete confidence in him,” she said of the director. As for the near future, she said she is planning on going on a long concert tour this summer and hasn’t made any plans to star in another movie.
A CASE OF NERVES: Jones said she was extremely nervous on the first day of the shoot for “My Blueberry Nights” in New York City. On StarPulse.com, a movie blog, the Dallas-raised singer says of the scene with Jude Law: “My voice was like helium and you could all but hear my knees knock. I had to slap myself hard around the face, metaphorically, and say, ‘Norah, be fearless, or forget it, OK?’ “
ABOUT THAT TITLE: “My Blueberry Nights” comes from a question Wong Kar-wai asked Norah Jones before filming. He wanted to know what her least favorite pie was. She replied blueberry. The question had a purpose, of course. The opening scene has Jones in a restaurant late at night, and she’s chatting with the proprietor (Jude Law), who is putting away the pies. He explains that some pies routinely get eaten before the day is up, especially the peach cobbler. But other pies, most noticeably the lonely blueberry, rarely get eaten. Law says it’s not the pie’s fault, it just comes down to people’s choices. So Jones, who is feeling down about a recent breakup, decides she’ll start eating a slice of the blueberry pie each night. “By the end of the movie, I even started liking blueberry,” she says.
THE MOORE FACTOR: Michael Moore and Harvey Weinstein are trying to drum up publicity for the new health-care documentary “Sicko,” and so far, the Treasury Department is cooperating. The government announced earlier this month that Moore may have violated U.S. law when he took several U.S. citizens to Cuba for health care and filmed them there. Rather than let the matter die quietly, Moore and Weinstein, the distributor, are acting as though the government is trying to violate their free speech. Moore even went so far as to send a master duplicate of “Sicko” out of the country shortly after the Treasury announcement, saying he needed to make sure a copy would be available for the Cannes Film Festival, should the States decide to seize his movie. All of this, of course, has dutifully been reported in U.S. movie trade publications. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be able to drum up as much controversy this time as he did with his Palme d’Or winner, “Fahrenheit 911.” It’s a safe bet he’ll give it a try. The movie screens Saturday.
ANNA NICOLE LIVES: You always spot bizarre posters and billboards when you walk down the Croisette. Many advertise B-movies that have little chance of wide distribution in the States or elsewhere. Some are exploitive. Some are merely dumb. The latest: A billboard hanging outside the Noga Hilton is bannering a new movie starring the late Anna Nicole Smith. It’s called “Illegal Aliens,” and it appears to be about space invaders. Don’t look for it at Oscar time.
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First post from our Cannes Film Festival reporter
If you ever end up at the Cannes Film Festival as either a tourist or industry professional, you’ll need to know a few basics:
Who’s here: The vast majority of people will be movie professionals or journalists. Most local residents of means — and anyone not connected with the tourism industry — get out of town.
There are several festivals going on within the main festival. And there are several levels of prestige within the main, official festival. At the top of the heap are the movies in competition for the Palme d’Or. They all screen at the Salle Lumiere, the huge theater that can seat several thousand. It’s at the end of the famous red-carpeted steps. That’s where folks like Sharon Stone pose while photographers snap their pictures. And that’s where all the tourists gather to see the stars before they enter the official screening. Stars do not walk to the theater. They are driven by festival limousines to the theater steps. It’s all very organized.
Some movies are part of the official selection but not in competition. Yet, they still get the star treatment. They are formally recognized as “out of competition” but nevertheless important. They include such movies this year as “Ocean’s Thirteen” with George Clooney and “Sicko” by Michael Moore.
Then there are movies that are part of a second tier of the official selection. They screen in the smaller theaters just next to the Salle Lumiere but in the same overall festival complex. They are movies for which the main festival has “un certain regard,” or a special regard. This year, they include such movies as Harmony Korine’s “Mister Lonely” and Cristian Nemescu’s “California Dreamin’.”
Then there are special screenings of short movies that are in competition, as well as “Cannes Classics,” typically movies that have made a splash in the past. Some of the classics are shown at midnight on the beach just down from the Palais, which holds the Salle Lumiere, the Salle Debussy, the Salle Bazin and on and on.
But that’s just the start of it all.
Movie distributors and buyers screen in yet another part of the Palais, with about a dozen theaters. All of them are participating in what’s known as “The Market.” That’s where just about any type of movie, some of them sexually exploitive or violent, attempts to get attention. Backers of these movies typically attempt some of the most outlandish publicity stunts, with scantily clad women parading around the nearby streets or cruising the Croisette in convertibles.
In the 1960s, directors in Europe became increasingly frustrated with the commercialization and artistic conservatism of the main festival. So they began a protest that eventually led to Directors’ Fortnight. These movies, typically more edgy or experimental than the regular fare, screen in various theaters along the Croisette, but not in the main Palais.
But it doesn’t stop there. Another group of movies are part of Critics’ Week, which is a slight step below Directors’ Fortnight but nevertheless sort of cool. They also screen outside the Palais.
Behind the Palais, directly on the Riviera, is a series of temporary buildings that house the international press and industry professionals. They’re basically bars on the beach. There’s the American Pavilion, the largest of them all, usually flanked by the Irish Pavilion and the British Pavilion. But just about every country has a spot on the beach. Norway, Finland, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Germany, India, Greece, Spain, Singapore, Sweden. You name it. They’re there. Swimming is allowed. But since most journalists aren’t that good-looking, they thankfully stay clothed.
Then there are the ever-present badges. For the press, the highest level is blanc, or white. It allows the holders first access into all screenings, even the flashy world premieres to the stars. But there’s one drawback to all that access. If you want to mingle with the stars during the nighttime, elegant screenings, you’ll have to wear a tuxedo or formal gown. Most people with white badges would prefer to have dental surgery over putting on a tuxedo and fighting the crowds. So they usually attend private press screenings for such movies. And they can wear jeans. Plus, right after the press screenings, the stars and directors for the main movies have to attend a press conference and answer questions, some of them insipid, some not.
On the insipid side, there’s always someone from Iceland TV, which is apparently quite boisterous and has several home-grown shows that imitate America’s “Punk’d.” So these journalists stand up in front of cameras and ask such questions as “Do you like Iceland?” To which most of the stars sit dumbstruck and mumble something like, “Well, yeah, I guess.”
But for the most part, the press conferences are well run and useful.
But back to the badges. Below the white badge is the pink with a yellow dot. That yellow dot is very important, because it basically gives you much more access than people with a mere pink badge. They have to stand in a different line from you, and they can’t enter a screening before you do.
But the pink hold sway over yet another tier. They’re the pitiful blue folks. And they represent low-circulation media from farflung places in the world. They often don’t even get into the top screenings unless they arrive very early and stand in line patiently, like peasants. Sometimes, these people have to make do by skipping many of the Palais screenings and standing in line with regular people who have bought tickets to theaters along the Croisette. In France, this is very sad for a journalist. Blue is the badge of shame.
If you’re a TV or press photographer, you typically get an orange badge. It’s not so bad. That badge gets you on the Palais steps and into press conferences. But it’s assumed you’re not a critic, so there’s a bit of snobbery among the upper-tier European writers. Plus, such people have to lug around a lot of equipment, and those who want to stand on the Palais steps have to wear tuxedos. If you know any photographers, you realize that this is not a good thing.
Movie math: an eye-pleasing equation
We rarely note educational movies here. It’s about time.
Jeffrey Travis’s almost-all-Austin-made animated short “Flatland: The Movie” aims to take the wince out of learning math (argh) and make it a (relative) pleasure.
In the whimsical story of squares and circles, Martin Sheen and Kristen Bell give voice to a pair of “sentient geometrical shapes” who learn that the world isn’t so flat, but actually, wonderfully, 3-D.
Aimed at ages 10 to 18 and inspired by the Edwin A. Abbott novel “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions,” the film screens at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Arbor. It’s free, and Travis and animator Dano Johnson will field questions. Bring the kids.
Check out www.flatlandthemovie.com.
- Stuff about making movies you need to know: The Austin School of Film @ Motion Media Arts Center is constantly offering professional-caliber classes and workshops, covering auditioning to editing. Bookmark this link to say apprised of top-notch tutelage: www.austinfilmschool.org.
Documenting Austin, and us
“Austin-tatious landmarks” is this year’s theme for KLRU’s community film project Filming Austin’s Lives, which is seeking Austin stories by observant, deep-rooted Austinites.
How it works: “Amateur and professional filmmakers of all ages submit short films, each less then three minutes, which focus on a place, person, building, event, location or just a vibe or state of mind that makes Austin unique.”
Chosen films will be aired on KLRU and News 8 Austin or be streamed on the project’s Web site. Submission deadline is Oct. 1. Details and entry form at filmingaustinslives.org.
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Austin teen’s grab for cinema success
Austin’s Chelsea Elliot is getting reel. The teenaged go-getter was recently in Los Angeles to shoot a short with hot young actress Rachael Leigh Cooke of “She’s All That.”
It’s all part of the Stayfree Girls in the Director’s Chair program. Next step is the contest: Chelsea’s movie will compete May 22-June 7 in an online film competition at www.girlsinthedirectorschair.com. The winning film will hit the festival circuit.
Read Chelsea’s bio HERE.
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Coppola on Coppola
The (sometimes) great Francis Ford Coppola made his poorly publicized appearance at UT on Monday night to show a doc about the making of his new feature “Youth Without Youth,” plug the film and chat movies.
We chose to see the wonderful “Strangers on a Train” with its star Farley Granger at the Alamo Downtown, but SXSW’s Matt Dentler was there. This is his report. (Thanks, Matt!)
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Big exposure for ‘Big Deke’
A funny, sexy, violent, superbly shot and definitely R-rated grindhouse-style trailer by Austin filmies Karl Anderson, Ben Foster and Scott Snyder is cool enough to be airing on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) throughout May.
Anderson tells us, “We made a trailer for the ‘Grindhouse’ competition in March called ‘Big Deke 6: Un**withable.’ We’re not sure we got it into the competition, but we put it up on MySpace and YouTube and the IFC website.”
IFC liked it so much it’s airing it at these dates and times (Central Time) 7:30 p.m. Monday; 7:15 a.m. Tuesday; 6:20 a.m. Friday; 2:20 p.m. May 15; and 8:55 a.m. May 23.
Or watch the fun clip HERE at the IFC site. Not for young eyeballs.
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They teach, you learn
At the Austin School of Film:
Learn DV and HD camera basics from 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. June 2. “Get an overview of digital video cameras and tips on how to get good exposure, color correct, critical focus and professional looking shots.” At 906 E 5th St. #106. Call 236-8877.
Lighting workshop from 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. June 16th. “Add brilliance to your film and video lighting skills with this workshop for beginning lighting designers, cinematographers and those interested in obtaining striking imagery.” 236-8877.
From Reel Women:
- Reel Women Workshop “From Stage to Screen,” presented by Sherry Mills and others. “We’re going to take Charley Devany’s short play ‘Passion Club,’ which she directed for the Hyde Park Frontera Fest in January, and go through the process of how to adapt and shoot this play as a short film. 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 19 at Austin Filmworks, 701 Tillery, Suite A-7. Reservations suggested. Contact: reelwomen@reelwomen.org.
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The guy who made ‘Apocalypse Now’ and those ‘Godfather’ thingamajigs — yeah, him. He’s coming to UT
We know everything about all things film at this blog. That’s why you should go to the amazing Austinist to find out about how you can see Francis Ford Coppola giving a FREE live presentation at UT on Monday.
We’d say we gave the Austinist the scoop — which is RIGHT HERE — but we don’t want to boast. Or flatout fib.
Wanted: kids with cameras
Another call for entries! (Hey, it’s Austin.) Cinemakids wants films, videos and computer animations by youth 18 and under for its annual screening program. Deadline is June 1.
For entry forms and guidelines, go HERE. Cinemakids happens Sept. 14-15 at UT.
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Laurels bestowed at Cine Las Americas
Award-winners are in for the 10th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, which ran April 19-26:
JURY AWARD WINNERS:
Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature: “TATUADO” (“Tatooed,” Eduardo Raspo, Argentina, 2005)
Special Jury Mention for Narrative Feature: “QUE TAN LEJOS” (“How Much Further,” Tania Hermida, Ecuador, 2006)
Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature: “TIERRA ROJA” (“Red Earth,” Ramiro Gomez, Paraguay, 2006)
“Tierra Roja”
Jury Award for Best Narrative Short: “PRIMERA COMUNION” (“First Communion,” Daniel Eduvijes Carrera, Mexico, 2006)
Special Jury Mention for Best Narrative Short: “BESTIARIO” (“Bestiary,” Daniel Castro, Mexico, 2006)
Jury Award for Best Documentary Short: “O MAIOR ESPECTACULO DA TERRA” (“The Greatest Show on Earth,” Marcos Pimentel, Brazil, 2005)
Special Jury Mention for Documentary Short: “LA PETITE CHASSE” (“The Little Hunt,” Wapikoni Mobile Team, Pamela Basilish, Canada, 2005)
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS:
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: “QUE TAN LEJOS” (“How Much Further,” Tania Hermida, Ecuador, 2006)
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: “TOCAR Y LUCHAR” (“To Play and to Fight,” Alberto Alvero, Venezuela, 2006)
YOUTH FILM AWARD WINNERS:
Jury Award for Best Youth Film: “VISIONS OF HUMBOLDT” (Community TV Network, USA, 2006)
Special Mention for Youth Film: “SIEMPRE AMOR” (Eternally Yours, Kenneth Chinea, Puerto Rico, 2006)
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Granger’s picks: An acting classic reflects on today’s cinema
My interview with classic Hollywood actor Farley Granger — star of Nicholas Ray’s “They Drive By Night” and Hitchcock’s “Rope” and “Strangers on a Train” — runs in the American-Statesman this Friday.
With space limitations always an issue, I axed long chunks of our conversation from the print version and include some of the unused excerpts here.
Granger and I talked by phone last week. The 81-year-old comes to the Alamo Downtown at 7 p.m. Monday to screen “Strangers on a Train” and sign copies of his new memoir “Include Me Out: My Life from Goldwyn to Broadway.”
Granger, left, and Robert Walker in “Strangers”
Me: Do you follow contemporary cinema? Are there any filmmakers or films you’re a fan of?
Farley Granger: I LOVED “Little Miss Sunshine,” just loved everything about it. I love a lot of Spielberg’s work. I thought “E.T.” was breathtaking. I thought “The Departed” was one of Scorsese’s best films.
What about the younger directors, like Quentin Tarantino?
Now, that’s fun. I do like him. I don’t think he’s ever topped “Pulp Fiction.” His latest one [“Death Proof”] is kind of fun. It’s way over the top and it’s fun, but if you really want to discuss it seriously it doesn’t keep company with “Reservoir Dogs” or “Pulp Fiction.”
Were you familiar with Robert Rodriguez’s work?
No, I wasn’t.
Did you like “Planet Terror”?
(Laughing) Yes! I wasn’t ever much of a science fiction or fantasy or “Night of the Living Dead” fan, but I thought his movie was great fun in the way it takes off of them.
Movies are much different these days.
They sure are. There are some awfully good ones. I tend to like the ones that concentrate on character rather than effects. “The Queen” was wonderful. Not only does Helen Mirren give a brilliant performance, but the film itself told an epic slice of history in a very intimate way, and that’s quite a feat.
What about, say, Woody Allen?
Looove Woody Allen. Not all of it, though. I loved every second of “Bullets Over Broadway.” And I loved the musical “Everyone Says I Love You.” I thought it was great fun that no one could really sing well. It’s very hard for me to pick my favorites. I even liked “Interiors.”
Since we’re talking about great directors, there’s Nicholas Ray, who directed you in “They Live By Night.”
Nick was very special. He was a wonderfully sensitive director. I think he self-destructed.
You look at something as great and unique as Ray’s “Johnny Guitar,” and wonder, “What is going on?”
Ha! “Johnny Guitar” is one of the best camp films ever made.
I know! I’m waiting for its DVD. They did make a musical out of it.
(Laughing) Who played Mercedes McCambridge?
I think it was a man, a cross-dresser.
(Still laughing) A tranny!
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SXSWclick wants your flick
The fourth annual SXSWclick online media fest is rearing and ready, so shoot, then shoot off, your short flick. They say it’s a prime way for worldwide filmmakers to get their art shown on the Web.
Consider this a call for entries. Deadline is June 15. Learn more and submit at SXSWclick.
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Linklater no slacker at Munich
Fifteen films by hometowner Richard Linklater will unspool at this year’s Munich Film Festival, June 22-30, as part of a retrospective the director will preside over, says The Hollywood Reporter.
Linklater’s “Slacker” had its international premiere at the festival in 1991. His retrospective (does that include “The Newton Boys”?) plays alongside the 52-film tribute to Munich-born genius Werner Herzog at the fest.
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