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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 17:20:29 GMT
The opening ceremony is starting right this moment. I'm sure that I will have things to say over the coming days.
Some of the films might be exceptional. (The opening film is The Great Gatsby, but it isn't in competition anyway. I'll go see it tomorrow morning, but I am not expecting much. I would have seen it this morning, but they couldn't show it in the cinemas of France before the first official screening in Cannes at 2 p.m. even though it is already playing in the U.S.)
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2013 17:55:23 GMT
There was a nice tribute in the opening ceremony to the 100th anniversary of the Indian film industry, which began in 1913.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2013 17:10:18 GMT
So far the festival has taken place in nearly non stop pouring rain, which does not really fit the media plan. I think it's pretty funny myself (as rain pours down on Paris at the same time).
The Chopard million dollar jewel heist was probably woth a million dollars of publicity. And of course then there was they guy who fired blanks on the main outdoor television set and threatened everybody with a (fake) grenade. It is definitely silly season.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2013 23:40:19 GMT
There was a nice tribute in the opening ceremony to the 100th anniversary of the Indian film industry, which began in 1913. I noticed that Bollywood Actor and producer Amitabh Bachchan was present. I haven't seen the tribute yet, I'll see if I can find clip of it. Shame about the rain. Nevertheless, wouldn't be great to be there?  |
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2013 18:57:37 GMT
He has a role (as a questionable Jewish banker) in The Great Gatsby, which opened the festival.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2013 18:04:21 GMT
According to the "Palmometer" which is the collation of the opinions of all the critics present at the festival, here are the top two films after one week.
1. Soshite chichi ni naru by Hirokazu Koreeda. His first film "Nobody Knows" was superb, about Japanese children living on their own and hiding the fact that they have no parents. I don't even know the English title of this new film, but the French title is "Like Father, Like Son." It is about a family who finds out that their son was switched at birth.
2. Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian) by Arnaud Desplechin. This is about a Blackfoot Indian who was injured in France in WW2. A French doctor comes to try to help him with his mental problems. (This is a French movie filmed in English.)
Naturally, the rankings of the Palmometer change every day until the last film has been screened.
For acting awards, there is quite a bit of buzz about Bérénice Béjo in the Iranian movie "The Past."
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2013 13:43:06 GMT
Michael Douglas has been getting very good press in Cannes for Behind the Candelabra. Unfortunately, no American Producer wanted to release it as a film in the United States, which is why it is going straight to HBO there. They're a bit worried in the rest of the world, but only because nobody has the slightest idea who Liberace was in most of the countries.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2013 17:32:26 GMT
Has the Cannes festival become too esoteric? Robert Redford is there tonight and he said that he did not even realise that this year's poster shows Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. (Only the image on the right is the poster.)  |
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Post by spindrift1 on May 22, 2013 19:56:02 GMT
On my Reuters app I see the heading 'Nerves of steel and hairspray are musts for Cannes red carpet'
'Nerves of Steel' probably refers to 'An ultra-violent thriller set in the Bangkok underworld of brothels and flight clubs that has come under attack for its bloodletting which Danish director, Nicolas Winding Refn defended as ART' (oh yeah).
It is called 'ONLY GOD FORGIVES'.....can you tell us anything about this?
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2013 20:04:42 GMT
I will go see the movie tomorrow, since it was not possible to see it in Paris before 13:30 today and my normal movie time is 09:00.
Today's scandal was the fact that Ryan Gosling did not come to Cannes, although everybody had their fingers crossed until this morning. He is in Chicago directing a movie and chose not to interrupt this activity. I imagine that if there is any chance that the film will get a prize at the conclusion of the festival on Sunday, he might still show up.
From what I have seen from the trailer, the most amazing "effect" is Kristin Scott Thomas dyed blonde to play Ryan Gosling's toxic mother.
This is the new trailer for Asia. The European trailer is much more civilised and not as interesting.
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Post by spindrift1 on May 22, 2013 20:13:55 GMT
Do let us know what you think of it.. I think the murders are portrayed in a terrifying way such as people being skewered to chairs before their eyes are gouged out. I could not watch this.
And the wonderful Kristen Scott-Thomas has the most obscene lines....do report on how well she acts (or not)...
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Post by fgrsk8r1970 on May 22, 2013 20:48:28 GMT
We watched Behind the Candelabra a couple of weeks ago, but I went into the kitchen to chat with my dad (he doesn't understand English so he really doesn't care to watch any TV) and missed over half of it. It looked really interesting and the last time I went to Las Vegas I was sad to learn that the Liberace museum there had closed. Michael Douglas did an excellent job I think and so did Matt Damon. (from what I saw.... will have to re-watch when dad is back in Germany)
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2013 20:59:13 GMT
So, I went to see Only God Forgives this morning, and it is quite disturbing and unusual.
First of all, it is really an authentic Thai movie in spite of being a Danish-French coproduction. The credits are in Thai and at least half of the dialogue is in Thai -- and most of all, the style is very much like Thai movies by directors such as Sarunyu Wongkrachang or Apichatpong Weerasethakul (who won the Palme d'Or in 2010). By this, I mean that it is difficult to determine whether certain scenes are reality or dreams or alternate possibilities.
The cinematography is extraordinary and will mostly be lost in video due to the darkness of most of the scenes. The main tone of the movie is red, not just because of the blood but also because of the lighting of the nightclubs and Streets.
Ryan Gosling is amazing even with only about 5 lines of dialogue, but Kristin Scott Thomas is dumbfounding, and the foul mouthed things that she says are shocking even in modern times.
The moments of gore are unbearable but brief.
The main prize that I would like to give the movie is for cinematography, but that prize does not exist at Cannes, so I would say that its best chance is for one of the acting prizes.
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Post by spindrift1 on May 23, 2013 21:25:05 GMT
Kerouac -Thank you for your report on Only God Forgives. I had no idea that it is a Thai movie. Was it dubbed? or were there sub-titles?
So, the violence is as bad as I feared - I could not watch it even if it's brief.
Do you think it will make money at the box office? or will it sink quickly into obscurity?
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2013 21:29:31 GMT
Well, there were French subtitles in France. When it is released elsewhere, there will be subtitles in the local language.
It will never be a box office smash, because neither Ryan Gosling or Kristin Scott Thomas are big enough stars to pull in spectators just with their names -- particularly since many people know that both of them tend to appear in quite a few experimental films that do not appeal to the general public.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2013 14:37:55 GMT
With four films to go, the "Palmometer" has a new frontrunner, the French film La Vie d'Adèle (English title: Blue Is the Warmest Colour) by Abdellatif Kechiche . This sounds rather credible because Kechiche has won best film at the Césars twice already, so he is really an excellent director. This article from The Guardian tells you everything you need to know. It won't be released in France until October, and in any case, this is apparently not the final cut of the movie -- 2 hours and 59 minutes is too long for traditional audiences, and as The Guardian points out, there is another reason it will most certainly be edited for a number of countries. The Japanese movie Like Father Like Son also has tremendous buzz for a prize, as does the French film Jimmy P. - the Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian. For best actor, they are talking about Michael Douglas (Liberace) or Benicio del Toro (Jimmy P.). For best actress, they very much like the actresses from 'Blue' but also Bérénice Béjo in the Iranian movie 'The Past' or Marion Cotillard in James Gray's 'The Immigrant.' |
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2013 11:48:32 GMT
Today is the hilarious day of the deliberations of the jury (presided by Steven Spielberg this year). The midday news talks about this as though it is a major verdict by the Supreme Court, and the journalists try to get information all day on what is going on. I don't know how they get any of their so-called news today -- whether it concerns things overheard by people bringing in coffee or snacks or if some jury members make phone calls when they go for a pee break and bend the rules about not saying anything.
So at noon we were told with bated breath the jury is split over the Palme d'Or between the sensation La Vie d'Adèle and the Iranian movie The Past. Michael Douglas apparently has best actor locked up, with an additional possibility the award also going to Matt Damon. Best actress is "certainly" going to be French -- either the actresses from Adèle or Bérénice Béjo or Marion Cotillard, or Emmanuelle Seigner in the Polanski movie. But certain people are saying they wouldn't mind seeing it go to Kristin Scott Thomas.
In any case there will be the usual 3 film prizes -- the Palme d'Or, the Grand Prix and the Prix du Jury which basically translate to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, a prize for best direction, another one for best scenario. The jury can also invent a special prize if they find something really exceptional that they want to honour, but this is very rare.
The French press tomorrow will mostly be full of all of the unjustly ignored films and actors who "should have" won something but didn't.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2013 14:42:58 GMT
I would really like to see Behind The Candelabra. What a bold and brave role for Douglas to have taken on after surviving a bout with throat cancer. Bravo for him and Steven Soderburgh for taking it on.
I heard a recent interview with Soderburgh who divulged that he is going to take a hiatus from films and stick with TV. Mostly because of the money and exploring creatively a different medium.
What about Polanski's film Venus In Fur? Any takes on it?
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2013 16:10:55 GMT
Well, apparently Emmanuelle Seigner is sensational in it, but that's really all I know except that Polanski shot the movie super fast. In my earlier post, I forgot to mention that often all of the news leaks about the prizes are totally incorrect and everybody is stunned by who actually wins the prizes. More suspenseful than annual awards shows since there are no nominees ahead of time! Everything will be revealed one hour from now....  |
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Post by bjd on May 26, 2013 16:56:12 GMT
I heard on the news at noon that in the Un Certain Regard category, a Thai film won but I don't remember its name. I'm not even sure what that category means.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2013 17:21:20 GMT
There are three different sections of the festival -- the official selection, the Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), and Un Certain Regard for more marginal films.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2013 17:24:09 GMT
Oh wow, sorry Michael Douglas, you didn't win.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2013 17:41:50 GMT
Oh my god, Kim Novak's face it so tight I'm afraid it is going to split open before she leaves the stage.  |
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2013 17:47:52 GMT
And so the Palme d'Or goes to Abdellatif Kechiche... La Vie d'Adèle
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2013 19:38:23 GMT
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Post by lola on May 26, 2013 21:56:03 GMT
I do like that poster.
The NYTimes reviewer liked the Coen Bros offering, Inside Llewyn Davis, quite a lot. When the Bros are good, they're good.
This male reviewer found Vie d'Adèle both boring and an onanism-fest, more concerned with the director's own desires than the young female subjects/objects. (This would not be unique.)
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2013 5:44:00 GMT
I like this excerpt from the New York Times article about the awards. In the only real shock of the evening, the best director award went to the Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante for his turgid, violent shocker “Heli,” which, among other staged atrocities, features a scene of a man having his groin lighted afire. “I wasn’t expecting this,” said Mr. Escalante, a sentiment shared by some critics. Full article here. |
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Post by bjd on May 27, 2013 7:16:32 GMT
I made a mistake about the Thai film -- it was Cambodian/French and about the Khmer Rouge.
The NY Times reviewer's comment struck me too. I will probably go see the Coen Brothers' film when it comes out. I'm not keen on seeing burning groins.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2013 7:59:11 GMT
Well, that won't be until November 6th in France. (Americans will have to wait until December 6th.)
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Post by spindrift1 on May 27, 2013 12:08:45 GMT
What with lesbians and loin-burners I'm not interested....
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