Father Geek here posting up Euro-AICN's Day # 2 Report on Cannes 2000, so I'll turn you over to our editors in Paris for their great report...
Hello AICN readers... We received here in the Euro
AICN offices three reports related to Cannes...
Two from people who are actually right there (lucky
bastards) and one from the eternal Ozymandias who
shares some "deals" he heard... Today in Cannes were
presented two films in competition (reviewed here
below by Stanley) and one not in competition : UNDER
SUSPICION (the new film by Stephen Hopkins, with Gene
Hackman, Morgan Freeman and -mmmmmh - Monica
Bellucci), remake of the French film GARDE A VUE...
But let's hear from Stanley first...
We received here in the Euro
AICN offices three reports related to Cannes...
Two from people who are actually right there (lucky
bastards) and one from the eternal Ozymandias who
shares some "deals" he heard... Today in Cannes were
presented two films in competition (reviewed here
below by Stanley) and one not in competition : UNDER
SUSPICION (the new film by Stephen Hopkins, with Gene
Hackman, Morgan Freeman and -mmmmmh - Monica
Bellucci), remake of the French film GARDE A VUE...
But let's hear from Stanley first...
Hello friends! So we have finally arrived after weeks of preparation. The Cannes Film Festival started yesterday with a red carpet ceremony in the pouring rain. As soon as the movie started, the rain stopped. So we almost did not get to shoot the footage we wanted for our documentary, CANNES - THROUGH THE EYES OF THE HUNTER. But we did get a little bit, namely Sam Mendes arriving in his limousine and signing an autograph.
We then went home early as none of us had slept much the night before. Today I saw my first two movies: HARRY, UN AMI QUI VOUS VEUT DU BIEN by D. Moll. A dark, beautiful and artistic movie about a rich man who wants an old friend to write again. He will stop at nothing to help him be able to write again, at nothing at all. Highly bizarre, entertaining and a bit shocking. But definitely more than just another movie.
My second screening today was Ken Loaches's BREAD & ROSES. I love the work of Loach, but this one didn't quite work for me. Don't get me wrong, he is brilliant and the acting is fantastic, but in total the movie was a bit too depressing. In his last, MY NAME IS JOE, he had a lot of humour and all the football stuff that made it very entertaining and before that in CARLA'S SONG he had the awesome music, dancing and a strong lovestory aside the "usual" social criticism. But this time I feel like he didn't get the balance right. Fantastic acting though!
Afterwards we went on shooting stuff for my documentary. Markus, the autograph collector got some really nice autographs and I filmed him at it. Ken Loach, Claudia Schiffer, Gong Li, Andi McDowell, Alica Flockhart, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman....
Tomorrow I will review NURSE BETTY by Neil Labute, starring Morgan Freeman, Renee Zellweger, Chris Rock and Greg Kinnear. (www.nursebetty.com)
Otherwise we made friends with a photographer who's son is also an autograph collector, 13 years old, and he told us that he staid at SKYWALKER FARM for two weeks, because they know the guy who designed Darth Maul.
OH BROTHER WHERE ART THOU ? is coming on saturday !
Questions?
Stanley
And now, a different kind of report from.... GROZILLA !!! (sorry for the English, I translated quickly to get it to you, dear AICN readers)
Hello
Here's what I could see during the "Film Market" : OCTOPUS from John Black. A CIA agent must bring home by submarine a dangerous terrorist, all that while a giant hungry octopus is around. Weird mix between a sub-James Bond, a monster movie and the serie "Love Boat"... Nothing to get really excited about, even if the first half hour is quite fun (a car chase "à la" Rémy Julienne). For the rest, the script is just borrowing stuffs from other movies and does not hold any suspens. Good point to the bad guy who overacts and the bimbo, strip poker player, who takes EVERYTHING off easily... And the Octopus ? Rubbery and flabby...
I had also an eye on YONG GARY, a Korean Godzilla announced with tons of advertisement in Cannes for the last few years... After the flyers, the posters, the elevators decorated to its image, the trailer, here is at last... YONG GARY - the movie !! Even if it's more fun than the daub from Emmerich, you can't help thinking the best of the adventures of this lizard, also waken up by nuclear tests, was in the 20 minutes of the promo reel... The best film monster showed in Cannes these last years is still so far the great GAMERA 3 presented in 1999(but I still have to see SPIDER CROCODILE and the carnivor cockroaches from THE NEST)
Some news :
- Robert Carlyle and Kiefer Sutherland will pair in TO END ALL WARS, from David Cunningham where allied soldiers try to rebuild a social life in a Japanese camp for prisonners during WWII.
- Franco Zeffirelli prepares a biopic of Maria Callas that will concentrate on the last months of the diva. The professional singer Teresa Stratas has been choosen to play Callas.
- As Dario Argento prepares to start the shooting of I CAN'T SLEEP with Max Von Sydow, SCARLET DIVA, the first film directed by the beautiful Asia Argento, daughter of Dario, will be presented here in the Film Market of Cannes.
- Matt Dillon could join Gene Hackman and Danny de Vito in THE HEIST, on jewelry robbers ready to make the heist of their lifes. David Mamet wrote and will direct.
- Lars Von Trier just announced the creation of a new branch in his prouction company Zentropa, Zentropa Real will make documenteries. The objective is to "shake" the world of documentaries like Dogme 95 did with fiction. The first one coming under this branch will be 1000 EYES, the making-of of DANCER IN THE DARK, the new... Lars Von Trier movie !!
More next time...
Grozilla
And here are some news announced in the frame of Cannes that the efficient Ozymandias just sent us :
- Mel Smith (BEAN) will direct HIGH HEELS, LOW LIVES a $10 million ``Thelma and Louise''-style caper about two young London women who overhear a conversation between bank robbers and decide to rip them off.
- OUR LUCKY BREAK : Peter Cattaneo, in his first outing since THE FULL MONTY will take the helm of this Ealing-style comedy about a group of prisoners who stage a musical as cover for an escape attempt.
- THE LAST BORN : a thriller with sci-fi elements, set in France and Germany. Niels Arden, who previously made the Danish movie PORTLAND will direct from his own script.
- MOMENTS OF CLARITY is an original screenplay by Danish writer Mikael Colville-Andersen. No director is yet attached. It's a comedy about an American who returns to an East European country to claim an inheritance.
- SAINT-EX : about French author Antoine De Saint-Exupery (''The Little Prince''). An action-adventure story, the movie will depict the larger-than-life character Saint-Exupery -- one of most daring pilots to ever fly, who also became a French and international icon, writing such books as ``Wind, Sand and Stars,'' ``Night Flight'' and the classic children's book ``The Little Prince.'' Budgeted at $48 million, the film will be financed or co-financed by Interlight, which hopes to begin shooting early next year.
- In a surprise opening move, Miramax Films has picked up North American rights to Roland Joffe's $37 million VATEL which opened Cannes. Referring to the picture as ``an example of the finest in filmmaking,'' Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein said he picked it up because he simply wanted the American public to see it. Miramax would not confirm the price, which sources said was reasonable and will include a back-end component.
