American actress Emma Stone
American
actresses Parker Posey and Emma Stone along with director Woody Allen for the Cannes premiere of Irrational Man
British-American actress Rachel Weisz
French actress Léa Seydoux
Léa Seydoux and American actor John C. Reilly
Dominican and Puerto Rican-American actress Michelle Rodriguez
Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek
Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o
South African actress Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron and Sean Penn
Charlize Theron with Sean Penn watching
Zoë Kravitz, Charlize Theron, and Tom Hardy from the cast of Mad Max: Fury Road
Chinese actress Fan Bingbing
American actress Julianne Moore
Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr
Red carpet shots
from The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/cannes-2015-red-carpet-arrivals-795394/1-sienna-miller
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/cannes-2015-red-carpet-arrivals-795394/1-sienna-miller
A collection of pieces from The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/package/cannes-style
Red carpet photos from PopSugar:
Best dressed from Vanity Fair:
Cannes photos from The Telegraph:
A French site that
lists daily galleries of red carpet photos:
Photo gallery from The
Daily Mail:
also vintage earlier looks of 18-year old model Charlize
Theron:
Celebrities arrive for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, from The NY Daily News:
Vogue guide to
Cannes:
http://www.vogue.co.uk/spy/celebrity-photos/2015/05/13/cannes-film-festival-2015
Elle fashion
photos:
http://www.elleuk.com/fashion/celebrity-style/the-cannes-film-festival-2015-celebrity-red-carpet
Photo Gallery from E-Online:
Los Angeles Times
gallery photos:
Fashionista blog:
Daily list of best dressed at Cannes from Blouin Art Info:
Best Cannes festival dresses of all time, from Marie Claire:
Best and Worst fashion choices from International Business Times:
http://www.ibtimes.com/cannes-2015-red-carpet-photos-best-worst-fashion-film-festival-so-far-1924787
Most Memorable Moments ever at Cannes from The Huffington Post:
Also the most iconic moments at Cannes from The Huffington Post:
Harper’s Bazaar at
Cannes:
Hollywood Life
photo gallery:
Another large
gallery of photos:
People magazine
hits the Cannes red carpet:
while also performing a running behind-the-scenes diary
style:
http://stylenews.peoplestylewatch.com/2015/05/14/cannes-film-festival-2015-behind-the-scenes-people/
Beatrice
Mancini, Giulia Lazzarini, director Nanni Moretti and Margherita Buy, the cast
from Mia Madre
John C. Reilly and Salma Hayek from Matteo Garrone’s Tale of Tales (Il racconto dei racconti)
Madalina Ghenea from Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth
Italian Directors Take
the Cannes Film Festival by Storm, by Rachel Donadio from The New York Times, May 12, 2015
PARIS — In the glory years of Italian cinema, Fellini, Antonioni and Visconti used to compete against each other at film festivals. This year, the trifecta of Italy’s leading contemporary directors — Matteo Garrone, Nanni Moretti and Paolo Sorrentino — all have films in the official competition at the 68th annual Cannes International Film Festival, where each has taken home prizes before.
Mr. Garrone and Mr. Sorrentino, both in their mid-40s
and both presenting films in English this year, are part of a younger
generation, more stylized and often darker in their palettes and sensibilities.
Mr. Moretti, 61, has evolved over the years from making sui-generis comedies in
which he stars, Woody Allen-style, to more somber family dramas like the one
he’s presenting this year.
Asked about the stiff national competition, the first
time in years that so many Italian films have been in the running for the Palme
d’Or, Mr. Garrone said he was pleased. “Finally,” he said in a telephone
interview from his home in Rome.
In 2008, his film “Gomorrah,” about organized crime
outside Naples, took home the Jury Prize at Cannes and in 2012 “Reality,” about
a man who becomes obsessed with being on television, also competed. His film
“L’imbalsamatore” (The Embalmer) was chosen in 2002 for the Directors’
Fortnight at Cannes, which showcases emerging talent.
This year at the festival, which runs from Wednesday
to May 24, Mr. Garrone is presenting “Il racconto dei racconti” (Tale of
Tales), a big-budget fantasy shot in English and starring Salma Hayek, Vincent
Cassel, Toby Jones and John C. Reilly. Its official screening is Thursday.
Filmed in luscious landscapes and darkly romantic
castles from Tuscany to Sicily, the film is based on the book of fairy tales by
the 16th-century Neapolitan writer Giambattista Basile, who went on to inspire
the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. (Italo Calvino once described
the book as “the dream of a deranged Neapolitan Shakespeare.”)
Mr. Garrone said, “I fell in love with this book, and
I embarked recklessly on a very ambitious film.”
Filming in English helped the director get a strong cast and a leg up in international distribution, but Mr. Garrone said it was also a smart artistic choice — Basile’s writing is in an antiquated Neapolitan dialect and would have needed to be translated into contemporary Italian anyway.
Filming in English helped the director get a strong cast and a leg up in international distribution, but Mr. Garrone said it was also a smart artistic choice — Basile’s writing is in an antiquated Neapolitan dialect and would have needed to be translated into contemporary Italian anyway.
“After ‘Gomorrah,’ I got many offers to do films in
America or outside Italy,” Mr. Garrone said. “In this case I made a different
choice. I brought the actors, American and English, to my house, to Italy, into
my world, my culture.”
In filming “Tale of Tales,” Mr. Garrone, who was
trained as a painter, said he was inspired by Goya. “It’s a fantasy, but a
fantasy that keeps a certain identity and personality connected to our culture,
to my point of view,” he said. “I think it’s a pretty unusual film with respect
to the genre.”
The film will be up for the Palme d’Or alongside Mr.
Sorrentino’s latest, “Youth,” which officially screens on May 20 and stars a
bespectacled Michael Caine as a semi-retired composer and conductor. It is the
director’s first film since “La grande bellezza” (The Great Beauty), an elegy
to decadent Roman decline, which competed at Cannes in 2013 without winning any
awards, before going on to win the best foreign language film prize at the 2014
Academy Awards.
Six of Mr. Sorrentino’s seven films have competed at
Cannes. His 2008 film “Il Divo,” about the powerful Italian prime minister,
Giulio Andreotti, won the jury prize there. Sean Penn was the president of the
jury that year and after meeting Mr. Sorrentino he later agreed to star in his
“This Must Be the Place,” which was filmed in English and competed at Cannes in
2011.
Mr. Sorrentino also shot “Youth” in English. The
French-Italian co-production is set partly at a spa in the foothills of the
Alps, and also stars Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano and Jane Fonda. The
film’s score is by the New York composer David Lang, whose music can also be
heard in the opening sequence to “The Great Beauty.”
In a telephone interview from his home in Rome, Mr.
Sorrentino said he loved working with Mr. Caine. “He’s a real phenomenon,” he
said, “an actor who doesn’t need to make an effort to become unforgettable.
It’s a quality that very few actors have, an absolute naturalness.”
The most seasoned director of the trifecta, Mr.
Moretti, is presenting “Mia Madre” (My Mother) this year, screening on May 16.
The film is a tragicomedy in which he stars with Margherita Buy, one of Italy’s
most soulful actresses. She plays a director whose mother is dying and who is
trying to keep it all together in the middle of filming a movie with a
difficult American actor played by John Turturro, who speaks in Italian.
It is Mr. Moretti’s seventh film in competition at
Cannes since 1978, when his Italian cult classic “Ecce Bombo” was shown. In
1994, he won the best director award for “Caro diario” (Dear Diary), which
helped launch his international career. “Habemus Papam” (We Have a Pope), about
a reluctant pope, competed at Cannes in 2011.
Outside of the three directors in the main
competition, two other Italian filmmakers are also showing at the festival.
Roberto Minervini, an Italian working in the United States, is presenting “The
Other Side,” about people living on the margins in America; it will compete in
the Un Certain Regard section, reserved for more difficult and innovative
works. And “Mediterranea,” about African immigrants in Calabria directed by the
Italian-American director Jonas Carpignano, will be shown in the Critics’ Week
selection.
Rise of Netflix met
warily at Cannes Film Festival, by Jake Coyle from U-T San Diego, May 15, 2015
CANNES, France (AP) — In Netflix's first official visit to
the Cannes Film Festival, the streaming service's ambitions have been met
warily at the Cote d'Azure cinema capital, a 68-year-old movie palace
reverential to the theater-going experience.
Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix, appeared
Friday as part of Cannes' NEXT conference to tout Netflix's global strategy and
its desire to upend the traditional window release schedules of movies.
Sarandos drew a packed theater in the Palais des Festivals, but not all in
attendance were swayed by his prognostications.
One French reporter shouted that Netflix will "destroy
the film ecosystem in Europe." Sarandos protested that Netflix would
benefit European film. Weinstein Co. co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, a
collaborator with Netflix who was sitting in the audience, also came to his
defense, calling Netflix "a visionary company."
The confrontation illustrated the unease felt by some at the
Cannes Film Festival about the encroachment of digital operators into an art
form seen as hallowed in France, the birthplace of cinema.
Cannes is a place where a trailer for Quentin Tarantino's
latest film, "Hateful Eight," drew applause when it advertises itself
as shot "in glorious 70mm." On the first day of the festival, jury
co-presidents Joel and Ethan Coen were cheered for their disinterest in
television.
"How do we feel about people watching 'Lawrence of Arabia'
on their iPhone?" Joel Coen said, pointedly rephrasing a question about
digital media. "There's something special about sitting with a big crowd
of people watching a movie on a big 80-foot screen."
But Netflix's inroads into original movies has been celebrated
by many viewers, has helped increase the streaming service's 60 million-plus
subscribers and has drawn a lineup of major names in Hollywood.
Netflix has inked deals with the Weinstein Co. for a
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" sequel, a new Pee-wee Herman movie
with Judd Apatow, and a series of comedies with Adam Sandler. Other plans
include a movie with Ricky Gervais, a documentary deal with Leonardo DiCapiro
and a four-picture deal with Mark and Jay Duplass.
Two documentaries ("The Square" and "Virunga")
have earned Netflix Oscar nominations in the last two years. Its growing
prominence in the movie industry is now seen everywhere from the Academy Awards
to Cannes.
On Friday, Sarandos insisted that Netflix wasn't
"anti-theaters," but "pro-movies."
"If you don't want to put on your shoes, nothing in the
theaters can compete with Netflix," said Sarandos.
Theater owners, however, have pushed back. All the major
North American chains have refused to play "Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon: The Green Legend" on Aug. 28 when it's to be released
day-and-date, both online and in theaters.
Sarandos said that movie budgets for Netflix range from
below $10 million to more than $50 million, though TV shows still make up about
2/3 of its programming.
Netflix hasn't announced any purchases at Cannes yet, but it
is shopping. The company has already had a large impact at other festivals,
acquiring Cary Fukunaga's "Beasts of No Nation" at the Sundance Film
Festival for a reported $12 million. At the Berlin Film Festival, it reportedly
snagged Richie Smyth's "Jadotville" for $17 million.
Those acquisitions point to Netflix's deep pockets — not a
common quality in the largely tight-fisted independent film market. That, plus
a reputation for allowing the creators to have creative control and the chance
for a global audience, has made Netflix a very appealing option for filmmakers.
Netflix, Sarandos said, will increase its push into original
movies and continue in its attempt to revolutionize the movie industry.
"Everything about how we consume entertainment has been
changed by the Internet," said Sarandos, "except windowing for
movies."
Women earning Cannes
respect in 2015, by Bryan Alexander from USA Today, May 14, 2015
CANNES, France — Women are coming on strong at Cannes Film
Festival in 2015.
While the prestigious film festival has perennially dealt
with complaints of under-representation of women in key roles and film
selection, Cannes organizers are making a statement with their first two days
of the festival, which started Wednesday.
Director Emmanuelle Bercot was the first woman since 1987 to
open Cannes with Standing Tall. It was a clear statement, trumpeted by festival
director Thierry Fremaux at the April media conference announcing the slate of
films.
Rather than the big, splashy Hollywood movie opening that
has kicked off most Cannes festivals, Standing Tall is a gritty drama about
France's juvenile justice system starring French acting icon Catherine Deneuve.
Bercot appeared ill at ease answering gender questions
Wednesday, even exhaling loudly when asked about the female directing
distinction.
"I'm going to disappoint you. But I don't think it's
important that a woman directed the opening night film," Bercot said.
"What's important is that the films chosen are beautiful ones. It doesn't
matter if it's made by a man or woman."
Thursday featured an equally rare film event, a female
action hero holding her own in a big-budget Hollywood movie. But that describes
Charlize Theron's role in Mad Max: Fury Road, which rolled into Cannes for its
gala premiere.
In the film, Theron's Furiosa liberates women used as
breeding machines by the film's villain Immortan Joe. She spends the movie
fleeing and fighting off his vengeance.
Longtime Cannes media conference moderator Henri Behar asked
director George Miller if the movie was, as one pundit put it, a
"sociopolitical pro-feminist film." Miller talked around the
terminology in his answer.
Tom Hardy, who stars as the Max from the title, was asked if
he was concerned that he was "outgunned by estrogen" in the film.
"Not for a moment," Hardy smiled.
Theron mentioned that she was drawn to her character's
strength.
"There was a lot of talk about a female character to
stand alongside Max. For a female actress, that's sounded really good,"
said Theron. "It was incredible to be in this sandbox. And to be a woman,
not try to be a man."
Also taking place Thursday: Isabella Rossellini gave a discussion
on female discrimination in cinema, part of the new "Women in Motion"
Cannes festival initiative (sponsored by Kering, the company run by billionaire
François-Henri Pinault, who is married to actress Salma Hayek).
The talks will continue throughout the festival and have
included topics such as "How can cinema help improve women's rights?"
Louise Beveridge, Kering senior vice president of
communications, says the problem with female representation is apparent well
beyond Cannes. It's a theme through film festivals around the world and the
industry itself.
"It's understandable that the debate gets higher
attention at these events because of their high media exposure," Beveridge
said. "However, film festivals are only the tip of the iceberg."
That's what the Cannes talks are meant to address.
"We want women's voices to be heard and their work to
be more visible," says Beveridge. "The more we are to talk about it,
the easier it will be to make the debate move forward and to find solutions.
What's better than the number one film festival in the world to do it?"
(The talks can be seen in their entirety on a two-part video
seen here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/cannes-film-festival/2015#section-3)
Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster
Eric Kohn on Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster from indieWIRE,
http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-review-yorgos-lanthimos-the-lobster-explores-a-crazy-world-more-familiar-than-it-looks-20150515
http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-review-yorgos-lanthimos-the-lobster-explores-a-crazy-world-more-familiar-than-it-looks-20150515
Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos explored restrictive social
constructs with his darkly satirical movies "Dogtooth" and
"Alps," a fixation that comes into full bloom with his first
English-language feature, "The Lobster." As with his earlier works,
Lanthimos builds a world that looks not unlike our own, but injects it with a
bizarre rulebook that gives his topic a scathing edge. Though at times almost
too peculiar for its own good, "The Lobster" brings Lanthimos'
distinct blend of morbid, deadpan humor and surrealism to a broader canvas
without compromising his ability to deliver another thematically rich
provocation.
It doesn't take much to synopsize the fundamental weirdness
of "The Lobster," a movie set in a world where being single is a
crime and subordinates get transformed into animals of their choosing. Perhaps
understanding as much, Lanthimos gets that high concept premise out of the way
upfront, establishing the plight of leading man David (Colin Farrell,
mustachioed and pot-bellied, submerged in a wonderfully unglamorous turn), one
of the unlucky bachelors in question. David is a hapless anti-hero less
interested in rebelling against the system than unsure of what it wants from
him — a brilliant encapsulation of the romantic loner, and the ideal agent for
setting Lanthimos' allegory in motion.
Forced to submit himself for 45 days at an isolated hotel,
David must spend that time attempting to find a mate, or go with the animal
option. It's there that he befriends two other single contenders (John C.
Reilly and Ben Whishaw), all entirely clueless about their needs from the
opposite sex, who form a curious entourage as they roam the compound
accompanied by David's former brother, now transformed into a dog. Eventually,
David does latch onto a woman, but the situation doesn't exactly go as planned.
Lanthimos uses this prolonged first act to establish a world that's equally
ridiculous and haunting, most significantly during a slo-mo montage in which
the hotel inmates must hunt down rebellious single refugees in the nearby
woods. Set to a lovely show tune, the sequence brings a more advanced scope of
imagination than anything found in Lanthimos' comparatively subdued works.
Not content to simply to push the situation around in the
same restrained environment, the director opens things up during the oddly
galvanizing second half, when David leaves the compound to join the
aforementioned rebels in the woods. It's here that he answers to the call of a
renegade leader (Lea Seydoux in femme fatale mode), learning to survive while
ironically contending with a whole new set of rules opposite to the ones he
escaped. Naturally, it's here that David actually does find a worthwhile
companion (Rachel Weisz), and their mutual attraction leads to yet another
escape plan. Through David's ongoing search for happiness, Lanthimos cleverly
asserts that the problem lies with the goal itself.
There are times when the scale of the story, with its
ensemble of idiosyncratic characters and outrageous circumstances, strains from
too many ingredients. Though her character supplies voiceover narration, Weisz
is a dispiritingly underutilized creation who mainly serves to complicate
David's priorities. The narration feels perfunctory as well, sometimes
overstating some of the richer ideas in the narrative. Whereas "Dogtooth"
slowly revealed the larger mystery while leaving much up for interpretation,
"The Lobster" is loaded with explanations.
However, the inherent absurdity of the premise maintains its appeal thanks to an unlikely combination of depravity and deadpan comedy. Lanthimos is aided in that tricky balance by a terrific cast, led by the frumpy Farrell in his most original performance ever. The story also benefits from a host of appealing minor characters, from Whishaw as a man who forces himself to get nosebleeds to attract a woman with the same ailment to Lanthimos regular Arianne Labed as an all-purpose hotel maid.
However, the inherent absurdity of the premise maintains its appeal thanks to an unlikely combination of depravity and deadpan comedy. Lanthimos is aided in that tricky balance by a terrific cast, led by the frumpy Farrell in his most original performance ever. The story also benefits from a host of appealing minor characters, from Whishaw as a man who forces himself to get nosebleeds to attract a woman with the same ailment to Lanthimos regular Arianne Labed as an all-purpose hotel maid.
Yet the real star of the show is Lanthimos' willingness to
shift his typical edginess away from the dreary claustrophobia of
"Dogtooth" and "Alps" to more outwardly comedic terrain.
The humor sets in early and fast, when David checks into his hotel ("Is
there a bisexual option available?" he asks the concierge) and never slows
down. Lanthimos' script (co-written by Efthymis Filippou) has fun with the
tendency to categorize the intangible aspects of human relationships. At one
point, a character is asked at gunpoint to rank his love for his partner on a
scale of one to 15, and replies, "14."
The hint of a science fiction premise never entirely comes
into play, though "The Lobster" uses it to flesh out the zany
environment, such as during one scene in the forest when a camel casually
lurches past in the background over the course of an unrelated conversation.
Even then, however, the grander conceit remains in play — why did someone
choose to transform into a camel? — as Lanthimos suggests that you can't
account for the whims of personal desire.
Overall, though, "The Lobster" is sustained by
Lanthimos' blatant disdain for any set of demands imposed by society on
individual expectations for companionship. At the hotel, residents are forced
to watch a hilariously dumb set of sketches designed to illustrate why men and
women belong together. It's a flimsy aid, which is exactly the point.
There's so much rage against the system in "The
Lobster" that it leaves the impression Lanthimos has finally expunged this
particular dystopian premise from his system. With "Dogtooth," which
assails family dynamics, and "Alps," a critique of organized
religion, "The Lobster" completes a sensational trilogy of diatribes
against powerful extremes. Notably, the new movie's climactic moments
rhythmically mirror those in "Dogtooth," with an outrageous act of
self-inflicted violence followed by a shot of utterly mundane circumstances. With
the implication that destructive pressures lurk beneath seemingly ordinary
moments, "The Lobster" transitions from a ridiculous world to the
real one.
* * * *
Cannes critics ratings, a composite of 7 different critic scores, where some of the
highest ratings might surprise you: http://cannes-rurban.rhcloud.com/index.pl/2015
The Cannes Criterion Forum is up and running:
http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=513599
http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=513599
Les Etoiles de la
critiques is up and running as well:
http://www.lefilmfrancais.com/cinema/122948/cannes-2015-les-etoiles-de-la-critique-2
http://www.lefilmfrancais.com/cinema/122948/cannes-2015-les-etoiles-de-la-critique-2
While Neil Young from Jigsaw Lounge maintains the odds for
winners:
http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/reviews/cannes2015/
http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/reviews/cannes2015/
PALME D’OR
FRONT RUNNERS
5-2 Hou – The Assassin 7-2 Nemes – Son of Saul
7-1 Audiard – Dheepan
8-1 Trier – Louder Than Bombs
8-1 Haynes – Carol 9-1 Garrone – Tale of Tales
– – – – – – – – – – –
POTENTIAL CONTENDERS 10-1 Lanthimos – The Lobster
10-1 Sorrentino – Youth
12-1 Franco – Chronic
16-1 Villeneuve – Sicario 18-1 Kore-eda – Our Little Sister
20-1 Jia – Mountains May Depart
– – – – – – – – – – –
PRIZE CANDIDATES
25-1 Kurzel – Macbeth
25-1 Maïwenn – My King
25-1 Brizé – The Measure of a Man
– – – – – – – – – – –
LONGSHOTS
33-1 Moretti – My Mother
50-1 Donzelli – Marguerite and Julien
100-1 Nicloux – The Valley of Love 200-1 Van Sant – The Sea of Trees
FRONT RUNNERS
5-2 Hou – The Assassin 7-2 Nemes – Son of Saul
7-1 Audiard – Dheepan
8-1 Trier – Louder Than Bombs
8-1 Haynes – Carol 9-1 Garrone – Tale of Tales
– – – – – – – – – – –
POTENTIAL CONTENDERS 10-1 Lanthimos – The Lobster
10-1 Sorrentino – Youth
12-1 Franco – Chronic
16-1 Villeneuve – Sicario 18-1 Kore-eda – Our Little Sister
20-1 Jia – Mountains May Depart
– – – – – – – – – – –
PRIZE CANDIDATES
25-1 Kurzel – Macbeth
25-1 Maïwenn – My King
25-1 Brizé – The Measure of a Man
– – – – – – – – – – –
LONGSHOTS
33-1 Moretti – My Mother
50-1 Donzelli – Marguerite and Julien
100-1 Nicloux – The Valley of Love 200-1 Van Sant – The Sea of Trees
BEST ACTRESS
2-1 Cate Blanchett (Carol) solo
6-1 Margherita Buy (My Mother) solo or with Giulia Lazzarini 6-1 any (or several) from Our Little Sister
7-1 Emily Blunt (Sicario)
– – –
10-1 Marion Cotillard (Macbeth)
12-1 Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara (Carol)
12-1 Isabelle Huppert (Louder Than Bombs; solo or with The Valley of Love) 14-1 Rachel Weisz (The Lobster and/or Youth) solo
16-1 Shu Qi (The Assassin)
16-1 any (or several) from Dheepan
– – –
20-1 Rooney Mara (Carol) solo
22-1 Zhao Tao (Mountains May Depart)
25-1 Emmanuelle Bercot (My King) 25-1 The Lobster’s female ensemble
25-1 Anaïs Demoustier (Marguerite and Julien) 33-1 Shirley Henderson and/or Salma Hayek (Tale of Tales)
40-1 Rachel Weisz and/or Jane Fonda (Youth)
40-1 Blanchett, Mara & Paulson (Carol) 50-1 Naomi Watts (The Sea of Trees)
2-1 Cate Blanchett (Carol) solo
6-1 Margherita Buy (My Mother) solo or with Giulia Lazzarini 6-1 any (or several) from Our Little Sister
7-1 Emily Blunt (Sicario)
– – –
10-1 Marion Cotillard (Macbeth)
12-1 Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara (Carol)
12-1 Isabelle Huppert (Louder Than Bombs; solo or with The Valley of Love) 14-1 Rachel Weisz (The Lobster and/or Youth) solo
16-1 Shu Qi (The Assassin)
16-1 any (or several) from Dheepan
– – –
20-1 Rooney Mara (Carol) solo
22-1 Zhao Tao (Mountains May Depart)
25-1 Emmanuelle Bercot (My King) 25-1 The Lobster’s female ensemble
25-1 Anaïs Demoustier (Marguerite and Julien) 33-1 Shirley Henderson and/or Salma Hayek (Tale of Tales)
40-1 Rachel Weisz and/or Jane Fonda (Youth)
40-1 Blanchett, Mara & Paulson (Carol) 50-1 Naomi Watts (The Sea of Trees)
BEST ACTOR
11-4 Géza Röhrig (Son of Saul)
9-2 Vincent Lindon (The Measure of a Man) 6-1 Colin Farrell (The Lobster)
8-1 Tim Roth (Chronic)
8-1 Michael Caine and/or Harvey Keitel (Youth)
8-1 Jesuthasan Antonythasan (Dheepan)
– – – 12-1 Toby Jones (Tale of Tales)
14-1 Vincent Cassel (My King, singly or plus Tale of Tales)
14-1 any (or several) from Louder Than Bombs (Byrne, Eisenberg, etc)
20-1 Michael Fassbender (Macbeth)
20-1 Gérard Depardieu (The Valley of Love)
– – –
25-1 John Turturro (My Mother) solo or with Nanni Moretti
25-1 Liang Jingdong (Mountains May Depart)
33-1 Jérémie Elkaïm (Marguerite and Julien) 40-1 Ken Watanabe and/or Matthew McConaughey (The Sea of Trees)
50-1 Kyle Chandler (Carol)
50-1 Benicio Del Toro (Sicario)
9-2 Vincent Lindon (The Measure of a Man) 6-1 Colin Farrell (The Lobster)
8-1 Tim Roth (Chronic)
8-1 Michael Caine and/or Harvey Keitel (Youth)
8-1 Jesuthasan Antonythasan (Dheepan)
– – – 12-1 Toby Jones (Tale of Tales)
14-1 Vincent Cassel (My King, singly or plus Tale of Tales)
14-1 any (or several) from Louder Than Bombs (Byrne, Eisenberg, etc)
20-1 Michael Fassbender (Macbeth)
20-1 Gérard Depardieu (The Valley of Love)
– – –
25-1 John Turturro (My Mother) solo or with Nanni Moretti
25-1 Liang Jingdong (Mountains May Depart)
33-1 Jérémie Elkaïm (Marguerite and Julien) 40-1 Ken Watanabe and/or Matthew McConaughey (The Sea of Trees)
50-1 Kyle Chandler (Carol)
50-1 Benicio Del Toro (Sicario)
The round-up of various links covering Cannes:
Screendaily still has paywalls, but if you click on the
reviews, they are open to the public:
http://www.screendaily.com/, also: http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/reviews/
http://www.screendaily.com/, also: http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/reviews/
The Hollywood Reporter
at Cannes: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/cannes-film-festival/2015
David Hudson does all the links for each review at
Fandor: https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/category/daily
The Film Center's Barbara Scharres and Michał Oleszczyk,
also Ben Kenigsberg and Chaz Ebert at Cannes from the Roger Ebert blog: http://www.rogerebert.com/cannes/cannes-2015-table-of-contents
Kevin Jagernauth, Oliver Lyttelton, and Jessica Kiang the
indieWIRE Playlist: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/tag/cannes-film-festival
a round-up of indieWIRE reviews: http://www.indiewire.com/festival/cannes_film_festival?t=all
The Guardian
collection of reviews: http://www.theguardian.com/film/cannes-2015
Mike D'Angelo at the Dissolve: http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-cannes/
David Jenkins from Little White Lies: http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/features/festivals
Daniel Kasman, Adam Cook, and likely others at Mubi: https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/tag/Cannes%202015
Fabien Lemercier at Cineuropa: https://storify.com/cineuropa/cannes-2015
Sukhdev Sandhu and Robbie Collins from The Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/cannes-festival/2015-movie-reviews/
The House Next Door at Cannes: http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/tags/cannes+film+festival
Cannes Diary from Film
Comment: http://www.filmcomment.com/blog
Eric Lavallee and Nicholas Bell from Ion Cinema: http://www.ioncinema.com/category/news/film-festivals
Drew McSweeny and Guy Lodge & others from HitFix: http://www.hitfix.com/movies/cannes-film-festival
Various writers at Twitch: http://twitchfilm.com/festivals/cannes/
And, of course, George is back at Cannes this year, where he
finds off the beaten track film fare:
http://georgethecyclist.blogspot.com
http://georgethecyclist.blogspot.com
None of us in the Last Minute Line this morning gained entry to the morning's Competition entry "Lobster." I had several worthy options--"Survivalist," (an English film that had been well-reviewed)? "I Am Michael," (a true story about a gay-rights advocate who had renounced his homosexuality, one of several films starring James Franco), or "Arteholic," (a German documentary about the German actor Udo Kier who loved art).
I chose the documentary as it had a running time and
location that would give me a chance to see "Rams," an Icelandic film
in Un Certain Regard at eleven. I was also tricked into seeing it as Lars
Von Trier was listed in the cast. Kier had appeared in "Breaking the
Waves" and was a friend of his, but his appearance in the movie was simply
a joke. Kier does visit him during the shooting of the documentary, but
the two of them simply sit and read for a minute or so. Not a word comes
out of Von Trier's mouth, not even a greeting. The whole movie was less
than honest. Kier does like art and was a friend of Warhol and
Mapplethorpe and others, but he's hardly an "arteholic" and has very
little to say about the art that is shown in the movie. He does like to
be on camera though, and somehow managed to get a totally unnecessary
documentary, a most indulgent, giant-selfie, made about himself. Usually one
can find some redeeming value in any documentary. I did learn in this one
that the signature chapter scenes in "Breaking the Waves" were
designed by an artist friend of his and not by Von Trier.
The documentary at least did allow me to see "Rams," a classic Icelandic
story of sheep farmers who have to destroy their flocks because a disease has
been discovered in them. This is the nightmare of every Icelandic farmer,
and in particular two brothers who live side by side but haven't spoken in
forty years. The scenery was magnificent as were the abundance of lush
beards. This was a full cultural immersion, the next best thing to
bicycling around the island as I did the summer before I began coming to France
for Cannes and The Tour de France.
The Italian Matteo Garrone is known for making movies about
his culture. He turned his back on that in his Competition entry "Tale of Tales," which I
stood in line for over an hour in its repeat screening today in the Soixante.
Not all in line gained entry, despite the tepid reviews. The most
tepid came from Michel Ciment, the most respected of French reviewers. He
gave it a rare zero stars, meaning it had no redeeming value. He was
absolutely right. This series of three fairy tales were utterly
inconsequential grotesqueries. Since his last two films in Competition
had won awards he was given the best odds by bookmakers to win the Palme d 'Or
this year. This proves how utterly useless such predictions are by those
who haven't even seen the movies they are speculating about.
I got right in line afterwards for yesterday's other
Compeition film, "Our Little Sister" from Japan that had been better
reviewed. It was the second film of the day I was turned away from.
That allowed me to see a "Sembene!,"
a documentary on the father of African cinema. As I was waiting in line,
Jason Silverman, a fellow staffer from the Telluride film festival who used to
direct the Taos film festival and now programs an art house in New Mexico
greeted me. I was shocked to see him and furthermore that he was wearing
a suit. The biggest shock was that he had co-directed the film. I
had no idea. And then Mark Steele, a former Telluride staffer, came over.
He had co-produced the film. They said this wasn't its world
premiere, as it had opened at Sundance.
This solid bio-pic was a narrative by the other co-director
of the film, Samba Gadigo, a Sengelese admirer of Sembene's who now taught in
the US. Sembene died a few years ago, but there was ample interview
material of him to make it seem he had been a full collaborator on the film.
There were clips aplenty from his many films. This wss a most worthwhile
contribution to the world of cinema. The ninety minute documentary was
followed by a recently restored "Black
Girl" from 1966 about the less than pleasant experiences of young
black woman who works as a servant for a young French couple, first in Dakar
and then in France. Seeing both of these was more than worth being shut
out of "Our Little Sister," which I'll have a chance to see in the
days to come, unlike these films.
I was denied the conclusion of "Black Girl" as I
had to meet Ralph at 7:45 in front of the credentials office, as he had just
flown in from LA via Zurich and I had to give him keys to our apartment.
He said he had slept well on the eleven hour flight and was eager for a
movie or two. Unfortunately the credentials office had closed at six and he'd
have to pick up his credentials at nine the next morning, also preventing him
from seeing the 8:30 a.m. Compeition screening. He was too thrilled to be
here for the fourth time and with nine days of cinema left wasn't too
chagrined.
After the handing over of the keys I rushed back into the
Palais complex of screening rooms for "Shades
of Truth," an attempt at a movie about a Jewish journalist who looks
like Robet Redford seeking the truth about whether Pope Pius XII was a Nazi
sympathizer. I was drawn to this movie as Pope Pius XII consecrated the
Madanna del Ghisallo chapel overlooking Lake Como as a bicyclist's shrine in
1949. The journalist goes to Rome, Israel, Berlin and Spain meeting with
people who convince him that the Pope saved the lives of hundreds of Jews,
including his parents he learns at the end of the movie. It was a nice
little history lesson, but a very feeble movie filled with miscast actors,
including the journalist's heavily made up girl friend and boss, who looked as
of the director had plucked them off a model's runway thinking their good looks
would look nice on the screen.
Per usual I was able to end the day with an "Un Certain
Regard" film, this time from South Korea, that looked all that more
stylish and accomplished compared to what I had just seen. A young, very
determined and idealistic detective in "The
Shameless" goes undercover in a brothel seeking a murderer. This
was more like it, and a fine way to end the day. I was only sorry I
wasn't able to discuss it with Ralph on a hike back to our apartment.
Instead, for probably the last time I rode my bike home.
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