CANNES Report # 7 from our crew in the SOUTH OF FRANCE just came in to Geek World Headquarters here in Austin and Father Geek is very happy with the job our Editors and Reporters are doing for us under very tiring circumstances. A Festival like this is difficult to report on daily because there is so much going on 24 hours a day that you are left with very little time to type up reports, but our guys and gals are making the time to squeeze all of us in and that is great. Now here's Edgard with today's coverage...
Hello dear AICN readers... Edgard here with a long
long report from Cannes from Stanley, Grozilla and
Eva... the three happy campers on site...
So let's not wait more, here is Stanley first :
So let's not wait more, here is Stanley first :
I'm back. Sorry I didn't write during the last two days. Firstly I haven't seen many new movies and secondly it is kind of a challenge to get time on a computer to write. But lets start with the movies that I have seen. Just this morning, Tuesday, the film LES DESTINEES SENTIMENTALES by Olivier Assayas. A three hour epic about a man's life, his struggle from being a protestant priest in France before World War One to becoming a porcellain manufacturer and all the way to his death bed. It is a movie that one does not get to see often in ones life and writing about it is difficult. It is a three hour film which is difficult to sit through at times, especially when you compare it to the speed of the festival itself and with all the things that could happen here in three hours. Nevertheless it is a beautiful film, nicely shot and with very nice music. It is not entertainment, rather a philosophical approach to life to see such a movie. One needs to be in the right mood for it, greatfully I was. The actors give a wonderful performance and although I know that AICN readers are usually not so keen about this kind of movie I feel obliged to review and recommend it.
Yesterday I did not see a single movie, due to shooting of my documentary which is going quite well. CANNES - THROUGH THE EYES OF THE HUNTER is, as mentioned in previous reports, a documentary about the festival by the approach of Markus, an autograph collector. Yesterday we got footage of Nick Nolte and Uma Thurman as Uma signs and Nick doesn't. Although I spent two hours chasing after BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI who's autograph I desparately wanted, I even got a couple of pictures with him in the end. I already tried to get him when I was here in Cannes the first time in 1998, but then I was unsuccesful. The documentary will be 15 minutes long, feature some famous celebrities and an energetic host and should be finished by september. I intend to place it on the internet so that you can watch it if you want. I would also like to point out that the reviews for Liv Ulman's INFIDELITY that Eva briefly mentioned are the best reviews here so far of all movies according to the daily press. I also went to see a new print of Terri Gilliams BRAZIL which is always nice to see with its wonderful Art work, music and bizarre characters. Anybody know what he is working on at the moment? (answer from Edgard : Gilliam will start in September THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUICHOTTE). The weather is nice again and I have made some contacts that I hope will help me as a film maker to distribute some projects. There are some internet companies here where you can post your projects for sale free of charge, for example www.internetstudios.com. I also met a film music composer and a script writer. It is nice to meet people of all levels in this industry here and talk to them about projects. It is a crazy industry where everyone is struggling, even if they have been in it succesfully for years, sometimes decades. Tomorrow morning I will attend the screening of Lars von Triers DANCER IN THE DARK starring Bjork. It was shot with up to 100 video cameras. By the way video cameras, SONY presented here a follow up to its classic the VX 1000. It is not the VX 2000 which aims more at the consumer market but the (something) 150. It looks a lot like the VX 1000, only that it has two XLR inputs and a better camera microphone, much like that of the Canon XL-1. Brilliant piece of equipment, it is gonna be out in Europe in autumn and will cost 4,000$. I hope the rate will go down till then. Well, excuse me that I am not reviewing more, but I haven't seen that many movies. But I hope my report will give you a little inside about the festival. If you think I party every evening I must unfortunatelly also say you that I have been unable to get into any party so far.
All the best from the crazy circus Cannes.
Stanley.
And now... the very busy Grozilla... it seems his appetite for films is far to be over yet !!!
BRUISER
Why is it that, against all odds, I will have to defend the new film from George Romero ?? Maybe the fact that at more than 60 years old this director has still a very sharp view on today's society, that he still has a rage that many young directors will never have. BRUISER starts wonderfully well, Henry a mega loser (played by one of the guys from LOCK, STOCK...) has hallucinations in which he lives his impulses totally freely : he misses his train on his way to work because of a blond girl; he gets her, beats her, puts her head on the rail track... He works for a paper whose director is a top yuppie (incredible Peter Stormare), a boss who shows (literally) his balls to tell his team they don't have any ! This horrible boss has an affair with the wife of the hero, himself in love with the ex-wife of the boss (if you follow). One morning Henry wakes up and finds himself faceless, just a white mask instead. He can at last become the real "him" and finds out how much people around him take him for a nerd. The carnage can start ! So far, BRUISER is pure joy, Romero throwing everything he can at white-collar's society, with so much rage. But it gets more complicated later on. A suspense and an investigation without any meaning take over the film... Only the parts when Henry lives freely his instincts or when Stormare overacts are worth then... And if you didn't get the metaphore of the lost of the face, a fancy dress ball where Henry wears a "Phantom of the Opera" costume straights things up. To bad that the ending transforms the subversive side in a speech yhalf babacool, half reactionnary. BRUISER is probably the most altered film of Romero. But also the most floating. Too bad it has so many good ideas surrounded by useless things...
FAST FOOD, FAST WOMEN
A priori not many people were ready to leave at dawn a party like there's only in Cannes every evening to see the new film from Amos Kollek, world's champion of depressing movies after his two last (and very beautiful) ones : SUE IN MANHATTAN and FIONA. Surprise ! FAST WOMEN,... is a... comedy ! And a real one... The opening scene blew everyone : Bella (Anna Thomson, faithful to the director)is lying on the road. A car brakes. The driver gets out of the car : "what are you doing on the road ?". She stands up and with a disarming smile : "Oh I was just trying to brighten up my Sunday !". Bella is a waitress in a dinner where she takes good care of retired people and looks for a man. Her mother organises a blind date with a friend from her niece : Bruno, who just ended up with two children at his charge. In parallel to this love "quiproquo", you get to follow the meeting between Paul (a retired guy) and Emily (a widow). Like usually with Kollek, this is about loneliness but with a much lighter tone than before. You see the same parts of New York shown with a "real" look that you never see in any blockbusters (people live in small appartments, and not luxury lofts, full of mouses, and have small jobs), and the same characters, lost in the mercy of the Big Apple, like this engaging stammering prostitute. The passage to comedy from Kollek confirms something you could barely notice in his other movies : generosity. More surprising, this renunciation to a pirate filming, almost documentary style, to plunge in a real fantasy, well written, reveals Kollek as an amazing screenwriter (especially for dialogues : « are you kidding me ? » « No miss. I'm a lawyer. Lawyers are never kidding"). Fresh, smart, FAST FOOD, FAST WOMEN could be good news to New York : there's a successor to Woody Allen. It's not too soon !
COMME UN AIMANT
I wen to see this movie with reluctance. A portrait of hoodlums from Marseille directed by a rapper (Akhenaton from IAM) even pertinent was not really atttractive for me. Big mistake, COMME UN AIMANT is almost totally succesful. In the neighbourhood of Belzunce, half a dozen of young adults live from small hits, and trickeries from all kinds. This does not prevent them to be lucid about their discomfort coming from their statut of second generation of immigrants, but born in France. Evidently using non-professional actors with the typical accent for most parts gives to the film an unintentionally folkloric tone but boosts a necessary naturalist approach to the project. The "heroes" will have to confront stronger than them or more simply to face the daily fatality. The real surprise of the film comes from these real ideas of direction figuring perfectly this envy of truth on boredom among kids who grew up too fast. This allows COMME UN AIMANT not to become of of these "auteur" film (that can be also sometimes fascinating), finding the right middle between Cedric Kahn ("Trop de Bonheur"), Maurice Pialat in his beginning ("Passe ton bac d'abord") and Matthieu Kassovitz. The final of COMME UN AIMANT will be inevitably compared to LA HAINE, when this gang must face the worst; one of the only survivors setting litteraly Marseille in fire. Not totally a success, some "cliché" on Marseille survive, Akhenaton is curiously the only "weak" actor in the group, some hints are too much, others are irrelevants (like the ones on refugiees from Bosnia), COMME UN AIMANT stays nevertheless a very promising first film for these directors (Akhenaton and Kamel Saleh), almost like a French MEAN STREETS. Very very good surprise.
THE CREW
I was desesperate with Michael Dinner, who became a "yes man" for the studios, after his nice CATHOLIC BOYS / HEAVEN HELP US. Almost 15 years after, he makes with THE CREW a very fun comedy. Four old men provoke the death of another one. Bad luck he is the father of a druglord whi will try to get revenge on these retired without knowing they were part of the mob. Luxury casting (Richard Dreyfuss, Seymour Cassel, Dan Heddaya and... Burt Reynolds !) for this film without pretention, not bad written and with good dialogues (« The good thing : we were wise guys. Bad thing : Wise Guys always screw everything up ») that holds up mainly thanks to its cast, all very funny, especially Dan Heddaya as the stupid one and Seymour Cassel as The mouth who talks too much after sex. Still much better than this little mob comedy with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, at least because here we have real fun. Maybe just to get to see these old men arguing with each others, Burt Reynolds getting a lot in his face. "Catholic Boys" will stay as a great success, THE CREW is a very nice comedy. I am not sure Touchstone made the right choice to launch it as a Summer comedy in the States, as it's still anecdotic.
HONEST
Dave Stewart (from Eurythmics) went to directing a movie. With the All Saints . On paper it's scarry. HONEST is still not that bad. In the late 60's London, three girls dress as boys to rob banks. They take with them a young idealistic journalist. Nothing exceptionnal, except a taste in British cinema for a little provocation in swinging London. HONEST shows multiple hommages to "Blow Up", "A Hard day's night" or the (good) films from Richard Lester and Michael Anderson. Happy surprise, the film is not an ode to girlsband, members of the All Saints are credited under their real names and are pretty good actresses. Dave Stewart is a relatively able director, having a good sense of rhythm and interesting visual ideas. But I am not sure about the interest of proceeding of the revival of this British cinema when the originals, like "The knack" or the ones mentionned before were more animated by free envies than HONEST, nice entertaining piece, who has not that spirit.
Tomorrow I will review SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE which sounds amazing...
Grozilla
Some news from Eva now...
This is regarding our short film Five feet High and Rising. I don't know if you are interested on this for the site or not. Tonight I'm going to see Darren Aronevsky's new film & I'm looking forward to that.
> Sundance Channel Acquires Award Winning "Rising" Sundance Channel's Liz Manne confirmed that the cable outlet has acquired the U.S. television rights to Peter Sollett's "Five Feet High and Rising." The 29-minute short, an offical selection at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival, will screen in the Festival's Cinefoundation section later this week, a showcase for first-time and second time student films.
"Rising" premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Festival's Jury Prize for short film. It also screened at New Directors/New Films, SXSW, ans Aspens Shorts Fest. Canal + Spain and France, and Chanel Four England have acquired television rights for their respective territroies.
And to conclude today's report, here's William Wallace:
I thought I'd drop you a line with some news of a future film that has filtered back from Cannes to the Scottish press...
Scottish director Don Boyd ("Lucia") is to make a gangster movie based on Shakespeare's King Lear. The film will be set in contemporary Liverpool, with Richard Harris ("A Man Called Horse") playing an aging gang boss, Lynn Redgrave ("Gods and Monsters") as his wife, and Catherine McCormack ("Braveheart") as one of his three daughters.
William Wallace
