Here's the final report on this year's American Film Festival of Deauville
and Father Geek is happy to have been posting columns from there on AICN this year for the first time, we can never get enough coverage of these international film fests to suit me. Many times the ONLY word we get on some of these films is what comes to us from these faraway festivals... and I'll tell you what, lots of great little flicks are playing these venues just waiting to be discovered. If we can help them just a little to get distributed then it is worth the effort on our part.
Hello AICN readers... Edgard here from Euro AICN. As we were telling you in our Monday's Euro AICN column, the American Film Festival of Deauville ended this past Sunday. If this festival is not as prestigious as Cannes or Venice, it's still a major Film Festival in Europe as it's really a showcase of all the American blockbusters of the Summer (meaning many stars show up for press conferences). But for the last few years the Festival has launched a competition with smaller American movies, independant movies... so now you get for the same price two sides of the American cinema. Which is nice. Anyway Champagne 2000 who reported already for us from Cannes last May sent me his report... here it is :
Bonjour !! Champagne 2000 reporting.
Yesterday the American Film Festival of Deauville has ended. Like every years, many stars stopped by. Thus just by staying 5 minutes in the hall of one of the big hotels of the town, you could see Samuel L. Jackson and Harrison Ford. If you had to give prizes to the guests, the price for the nicest actress would go to Carmen Elektra who amazed everyone (journalists, public, assistants) with her kindness and disponibility. The price for the most insufferable actor would go without a doubt to Tommy Lee Jones whose disdain for journalists and public was obvious (many media's canceled interviews with him for "Rules of Engagement" because he was just horrible during the "Space Cowboys" interviews). Special "nice" prize Samuel L Jackson who left the VIP room during the "Scary Movie" party so he could be with everyone else and have fun with all the guests... Really cool...
My robot cousin, Champagne 1900, told me that Samuel L. Jackson announced during an interview that he had finished his scenes for Episode 2 (maybe you all already know. Another famous person to walk naturally in the streets was Brian De Palma. A little story about him : De Palma came to see What Lies Beneath; at the end of the film everyone was leaving the theatres as the ending credits were still showing, but big Brian stayed until the end of the credits. This image of Brian De Palma alone in this huge theatre with 1500 seats was quite surrealist (and as he always says that he never stays until the end of a movie, this could mean he liked the Zemeckis film). Talking about De Palma, my cousin Champagne 1900 whispered to me that he was busy writing a scenario with French director Regis Wargnier ("Indochine").
The festival honoured Chow Yun Fat who was also present. He announced with an unconvinced tone that he would not make "King's Ransom" before at least 2 years and he didn't even know which part he would play. It sounded more like the movie would not be made (or not with him at least). There was also a ceremony in honour of Dino de Laurentiis. That was the good opportunity to see again "Conan the Barbarian" on a big screen. AThe ultimate happiness to check that all the sets and special effects still look great even on a larger screen.
The festival was also the opportunity to see short films, like the excellent "Georges Lucas in Love". One of the big and good surprise of the Festival was "Memento", the new film from Christopher Nolan ("Following"). This very original film, with Carie Ann Moss, will make you think that the construction of "Usual Suspects" is just a children puzzle !! I don't want to say too much about it in order not to spoil it but I highly recommend this one, even if it's a bit long... The directing is excellent and the ending really great. A very good surprise.
A bientôt
Champagne 2000
