EURO AICN - CANNES FESTIVAL DAY 3
Hello, hello... Edgard here with already our third report from Cannes... On the menu today :
Grozilla comes back on MOULIN ROUGE, then reports on SADISTIC & MASOCHISTIC, TEARS OF BLACK DRAGON and Abel Ferrara's R-XMAS...
Solamen is the first of our spy to report on the LOTR preview (miam miam)
A few links on the French Premiere Website
And last but not least Robert comments an article published in Italy accusing Tolkien's books to be nazi !!
... so read for yourself...
GROZILLA Stomping on Cannes - Report 2
Grozilla comes back on MOULIN ROUGE, then reports on SADISTIC & MASOCHISTIC, TEARS OF BLACK DRAGON and Abel Ferrara's R-XMAS...
Solamen is the first of our spy to report on the LOTR preview (miam miam)
A few links on the French Premiere Website
And last but not least Robert comments an article published in Italy accusing Tolkien's books to be nazi !!
... so read for yourself...
GROZILLA Stomping on Cannes - Report 2
And last but not least Robert comments an article published in Italy accusing Tolkien's books to be nazi !!
... so read for yourself...
GROZILLA Stomping on Cannes - Report 2
GROZILLA Stomping on Cannes - Report 2
MOULIN ROUGE Talk-Back; SADISTIC & MASOCHISTIC; TEARS OF BLACK DRAGON; R-XMAS...
Just read the comments on my Moulin Rouge review. Wow. I guess I have to get my point straight. I keep thinking this film is an awful one. And a dangerous one. Above all because Moulin Rouge says that it's a good thing to think film like a giant karaoke, to blend all film and music histories in one. To avoid any hint of script (In a nutshell - but what else could it have been ? - the thin line of that is Le roman de Marguerite Gautier) so the screen can be fulfilled of references. Moulin Rouge has no point of view, it's just about speed. In absolutely no case this is about cinema. In France we call those medley's of songs "Pot-Pourri". Indeed there's something rotten here. Period. Oh, by the way I just wanted some to get aware of Cannes' rules : if Moulin Rouge is an opener it's just for diplomatic reasons : It's made by an Hollywood studio and it got stars, all whithout what Cannes can't exist. And if some still have faith in standing ovations as a hint of quality, remember that in any evening competition screenings, even for the worst films screened, there's one. That's another rule of Cannes.
Anyway here's what I saw yesterday here. I woke up too late to be on 8.30 am Distance's screening. Heard mixed feelings from pals who get there. Good thing, it keeps me wanting to see Kore-eda's film. Maybe on a screening market later... Instead I went to see Sadistic & Masochistic, some fine Hideo Nakata's documentary about Masaru Konuma, one of the best Roman Porno films (yes, those incredible films who saved Nikkatsu from bankruptcy in the 70's). Konuma is now an old guy who seem embarrassed to talk about the manners he uses on his sets. Unfortunately there's no archives images showing him working at that time. Instead there's many interview and some (beautiful) clips of his works. Interviews from technical crew who all tell that if Konuma was tough gut he was also faithful and right. The best parts are interviews of actresses who agree to say that it was sometime very hard to do some scenes but express a kind of nostalgia for those days. Imagine one saying with kind of light smile how she was enduring a scene in a sewer with real maggots... Maybe a bit too talky, Sadistic & Masochistic is very interesting but for fans of this genre. Need a proof : This screening begins with four of the purests fans I know, in which, Christophe "Brotherhood of the wolves" Gans. Many people came in during the screening but left, maybe waiting for something more spicy as the title could promised. At the end, just stayed the same four guys...
I must confess, I fell sometimes asleep (nights are very short here) on the screening of Tears of black dragon, odd thaï movies that, as Moulin Rouge, praise the camp culture, but this time with the feeling there's a real human behind the camera and not an editing machine. Wisit Sasanatieng's film is a weird hommage to Douglas Sirk melodrama , with some gay subtext, begins as a western, but with a look à la Pierre & Gilles, then go for a sad love story between a son of peasant and a too rich girl. All that on thai recipe, which means : excess. Gore effects, scene with false exteriors (ah this huge painting of sun), hilarious duels, cheesy love songs... For all I've seen - I missed 15 minutes - I got the feelings of some unusual comedy, but not quite convinced, I might have been trapped by some exotic vision. I'll check that by interviewing the director this morning...
No films for the end of afternoon and early evening last night, I'm also here for working on a radio show...Next screening was 22:00 Pm of Abel Ferrara's R-Xmas. The poster sells it as a Christmas carol form this director. Well, here's the sad tale of Ferrara until now : Once upon a time, some European journalists told him many times he was a genius. He believed it and stop making good films, that was the time of awful artsy things like The addiction and New Rose Hotel. Good news, with R-Xmas, he begins to recover reason. The story : A latin family does some drugs business and have a happy life, until the husband get caught by thugs who want his wife to get all money she can to see him alive again, but they also make her promise he'll stop "selling this shit to kids". Very good cast (Drea deMatteo, Lillo Brancato Jr and Ice T in a short part but much better than ever) to some peaceful films. The first part of the film showing this kind family, dad, mom and girlie shopping for Christmas just before filling dope bags with the same cosy Christmas spirit. No blood, no violence, no yelling, just well builded images with sense. Wonderful beginning until Ferrara's decide to talk to himself with some confuse politic analysis of New York's ruling by David Dinkins who gets me perplex. What's the point, Abel ? Anyway this film is the first step on some way back for this director, wanting to get his seat back on the holy trinity of filmmakers dealing with catholic guilt : Scorsese, Pasolini and Schrader. For this he only gets a strapontin, hope next time he'll got some armchair. I can't say yet : "welcome back" but he's on a good way.
Today's schedule is asian : Sasanatieng interview in one hour, Takashi Miike's dead or alive , Some Sogo Ishii's short film and if its screening is really scheduled, Versus, this zombie-ninja film everyone talk about since some festivals...
GROZILLA
SOLAMEN's THIRD DAY IN CANNES - LOTR PREVIEW !!
Oh my God oh my God oh my God I've seen the 20 minutes preview of The Lord of the Rings oh my God oh my God oh my God... Well that's pretty much what I have said all day long !
I had decided to sleep longer today : no film before 1 pm, except Apocalypse Now Redux at 8.30 am and this film at breakfast, well, no thanks ! I love it but I've seen it once and that's enough for the rest of my life cause it was a real trauma for me ! So it was 11.30 am when I arrived at the Palais des Festival (it's late in Cannes life) and then a friend calls me (God bless the cell phones !) saying that he was in a small cinema in Cannes and that the screening of the preview was about to begin. It was a surprise because we thought it was supposed to take place tomorrow. Well, I ran but invitations was needed. Actually, in Cannes, you always have a friend who has a friend who has a friend... and my friend had a friend ! So I came in.
It was mostly press and television people and of course they asked us not to do any review since it was not really a definitive material but... Well now, here is my review of the LOTR preview !
First you have to know that I am a forever fan of the book so I was ready to be very critical about it. What we saw was a montage of the scenes of the first film The Fellowship of the Ring, a few seconds for every passage : Gandalf arriving, meeting back Bilbo, Bilbo's birthday party and disappearance, Frodo discovering about the Ring, then the four Hobbits leaving and being chased by the Black Riders (I only read it in French so I don't really know if they're actually called like that) then meeting Aragorn at the inn, then the battle against the Black Riders and Elrond's house and how the fellowship was formed and began the journey. Then we saw almost all the Mines of the Moria scenes... They cut it when Gandalf confronts the Balrog (which by the way I never imagined like that) After we saw something really exceptionnal : excerpts from The Two Towers and from The Return of the King and the final moment was when Frodo is about to drop the ring into the lava then turns back and says that he will keep it.
So my impression is : Oh my God !
It looks so great and so incredible ! It's not of course the exact way I had imagined it when I had read the book but if it's not my image of it it's anyway images that perfectly match the book and the atmosphere. The landscapes are exactly what they should be, Bilbo's house, in a hole lived a hobbit, and it's a great hole ! The forests are deep and the images are full of atmosphere. About the actors what we saw was not enough to way "wow !" but of course it was well acted and particularly Frodo : its evolution through the film is really sensible as we had glimpses from the beginning to the very end. What struck me most was the special effects. I must confess that I don't like movies with special effects only, it annoys me cause for me cinema is acting first. Well here not only the special effects are stupendous (wait till you see the Mines of the Moria) but they perfectly integrate the scene. The hobbits, well, they seem to be born like that and they do not contrast at all with tall people ! Everything look like if it has been designed by the best Tolkien specialized drawers. And it was really something full of emotion.
About the script, the main fear for European people is still here : we are afraid that to appeal american audiences Peter Jackson may alter the book (most of us don't have a high opinion of American audiences, no offense). Anyway, it was not possible to say if he did alter it or not after what we saw. Anyway what we saw is incredible and as I said before I'm a real fan of the book so I'm supposed to be very critical.
After that, I went to see an Iranian movie about the women condition in Afghanistan. It was a fine film but not really comitted when it should have been more striking with the horrible sufferings that take place there.
Anyway, I still had my head wandering in Lothlorien :)
And the LOTR party will you ask ? Apparently, it would not be on the day it was supposed to be (tonight). To be continued...
LINKS TO PREMIERE WEBSITE
We've posted an english version of our report from the screening of the LOTR footage http://www.premiere.fr/cannes2001/News/news.php?News=news_20010511_173904
Also: check out the posters for "From Hell" http://www.premiere.fr/cannes2001/Portfolio/portfolio.php?portfolio=portfolio_20010511_161835
and "Windtalkers" http://www.premiere.fr/cannes2001/Portfolio/portfolio.php?portfolio=portfolio_20010510_201630
And five clips from "Apocalypse Now (Redux)" with 3 never seen ones http://www.premiere.fr/cannes2001/Films/films.php?Film=Apocalypse_Now&Numero=4
We also have three clips from the new Abel Ferrara movie "R-Xmas" http://www.premiere.fr/cannes2001/Films/films.php?Film=R_Xmas&Numero=33
And that's just the beginning. Visit us at www.premiere.fr/cannes2001!
The Lord of the Rings is a nazi book???
Today (11/5/2001) the very important italian newspaper “La Repubblica” published an article from the Cannes Film Festival by big Italian journalist Natalia Aspesi who insulted: 1) the memory of J.R.R. Tolkien 2) his best literary work The Lord of the Rings 3) the huge mass of fans who, in each part of the Earth, love this book since its first edition in 1956. Writing about the LOTR Cannes Day Natalia Aspesi used these words: “…this fantasy saga, A LITTLE BIT NAZISKIN, written by the English philologist J.R. Talkien (you read it right, she wrote J.R. Talkien, N.d.R.) whose book, for his celtic mythology passion, will be used in the formigonbossiane schools (Formigoni and Bossi are two conservative Italian politicians who want, especially Bossi, to separate Lombardia country from the rest of Italian nation. Bossi is a friend of Austrian politician filo-nazist Haider, N.d.R.) as basis text”. We suppose that Natalia Aspesi didn’t read the book. The article is full of other mistakes as “Jan McKellen” instead of Ian McKellen and wickednesses as describing Liv Tyler as fat and LOTR fans as a sort of maniac, psychopathic persons who will go crazy if the costumes of the movie won’t be the same described in the three books. She attacks also the New Line budget strategy. Can you imagine anything more offensive?
For now we are the only journalists who took position against Aspesi words on our LOTR Italian site (http://www.caltanet.it/frm/cinema/home.html?../../html_pag/spettacolo/cinema/eventi/signoreanelli_indice.htm) with an article of our director Francesco Alò. Aspesi is one of the biggest Italian journalist and “La Repubblica” is the second Italian newspaper for readers and sales.
If you want to protest with us, please publish this mail and invite your readers to send their opinion at our dedicated e-mail address tolkien@caltanet.it. We will collect all the letters and we’ll write to “La Repubblica”. Please join us.
Robert Bernocchi, web journalist
