Cannes '07

[Johann]

This years' Cannes Film Festival celebrates it's 60th year.

The premier festival on earth runs from May 16th to the 27th.

Michael Moore's new film SICKO will be in the main program, and it will play out of competition as per Mike's request.

[Chris Knipp]

And what about the Tribeca Film Festival? Tribeca is about to begin, and it steals the spotlight from the SFIFF pretty well, except that we're out in California so we don't notice.... Stephen Holden's introduction to this year's Tribeca Festival (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/movies/20trib.html?n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fS ubjects%2fT%2fTribeca%20Film%20Festival%20%28NYC%2 9) in today's New York Times (Apriul 20, 2007): "Feast of Serious Cinema; Partygoers Welcome."
It all begins with a gala — Al Gore is the host — that introduces the SOS Short Films Program. Consisting of seven movies about global warming, each directed by a different filmmaker, the program includes contributions by Jonathan Glazer (“Sexy Beast”), Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”), Abel Ferrara (“King of New York”), Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (“Jesus Camp”), Aardman Animation (“Wallace and Gromit”), Amy Berg (“Deliver Us From Evil”) and Ari Sandel (“West Bank Story”). Like last year’s opening salvo, the premiere of “United 93,” this year’s pointedly addresses controversy and current events. The festival was born out of the ashes of 9/11 to help revitalize the devastated economy of Lower Manhattan, and its focus on issues makes it an exception among film festivals. This year there are a plethora of films dealing with the Middle East and the war in Iraq..--From Holden's intro. New York rocks, as always.....Holden continues, referring to the competition:
As a showcase Tribeca may never match the Cannes Film Festival, which Peter Scarlet, Tribeca’s executive director and chief programmer, described as “a 200-pound gorilla.� But the absence of the international A-list directors who regularly take their work to Cannes allows more room for lesser-known international talents. In its commitment to world cinema, it’s way ahead of the Sundance Film Festival. Eastern Europe and Asia have been particularly fruitful sources of challenging Tribeca Festival films. In any case much of the best of Cannes, which takes place next month, can be seen this fall at the New York Film Festival. Expect me at the NYFF again this year.

[oscar jubis]

CANNES 2007: OFFICIAL SELECTION

OPENER
"My Blueberry Nights," Hong Kong-France-China, Wong Kar Wai

CLOSER
"The Age of Darkness," Canada, Denys Arcand

IN COMPETITION
"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," Romania, Cristian Mungiu
"Alexandra," Russia, Alexander Sokurov
"Auf der anderen Seite des Lebens," Germany-Turkey, Fatih Akin
"The Banishment," Russia-Belgium, Andrey Zvyagintsev
"Breath," South Korea, Kim Ki-duk
"Les Chansons d'amour," France, Christophe Honore
"Death Proof," U.S., Quentin Tarantino
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," France, Julian Schnabel
"Import/Export," Austria, Ulrich Seidl
"The Man From London," Germany-France-U.K.-Hungary, Bela Tarr
"Mogari No Mor," Japan, Naomi Kawase
"No Country For Old Men," U.S., The Coen Brothers
"Paranoid Park," France-U.S., Gus Van Sant
"Persepolis," France-U.S., Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
"Promise Me This," France-Serbia, Emir Kusturica
"Secret Sunshine," South Korea, Lee Chang-dong
"Silent Light," Mexico-France-Netherlands, Carlos Reygadas
"Tehilim," France, Raphael Nadjari
"Une Vieille Maitresse," France, Catherine Breillat
"We Own the Night," U.S., James Gray
"Zodiac," U.S., David Fincher

OUT OF COMPETITION GALA SCREENINGS
"A Mighty Heart," U.K., Michael Winterbottom
"Ocean's Thirteen," U.S., Steven Soderbergh
"Sicko," U.S., Michael Moore

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
"Boarding Gate," France, Olivier Assayas
"Go Go Tales," U.S., Abel Ferrara
"U2 3D," U.S., Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington

UN CERTAIN REGARD
"Am ende kommen touristen," Germany, Robert Thalheim
"L'Avocat de la terreur," France, Barbet Schroeder
"El Bano del papa," Uruguay, Enrique Fernandez and Cesar Charlone
"Bikur Hatizmoret," Israel, Eran Kolirin
"California Dreamin'," Romania, Cristian Nemescu
"Calle Santa Fe," Chile, Carmen Castillo
"Et toi, t'es sur qui?," France, Lola Doillon
"Kuaile Gongchang," Thailand, Ekachai Uekrongtham
"Magnus," Estonia-U.K., Kadri Kousaar
"Mang Shan," China, Li Yang
"Mio fratello e figlio unico," Italy, Daniele Luchetti
"Mister Lonely," U.S., Harmony Korine
"Munyurangabo," U.S., Lee Isaac Chung
"Night Train," China, Diao Yi'nan
"Les Pieuvres," France, Celine Sciamma
"Le Reve de la nuit d'avant," France, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi
"La Soledad," Spain, Jaime Rosales

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
"11th Hour," U.S., Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners
"He Fengming," China, Wang Bing
"Retour en Normandie," France, Nicolas Philibert
"The War," U.S., Ken Burns

60th ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTES
"Boxes," France, Jane Birkin
"One Hundred Nails," Italy, Ermanno Olmi
"Roman de gare," France, Claude Lelouch
"Ulzhan," Germany, Volker Schlondorff

CANNES CLASSICS — DOCUMENTARIES ON CINEMA
"Brando," U.S., Mimi Freedman and Leslie Greif
"Lindsay Anderson, Never Apologize," U.S., Mike Kaplan
"Maurice pialat l'amour existe," France, Anne-Marie Faux and Jean-Pierre Devillers
"Pierre Rissient," U.S, Todd McCarthy

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION JURY
Stephen Frears, British director (president)
Marco Bellocchio, Italian director
Maggie Cheung, Hong Kong actress
Toni Collette, Australian actress
Maria De Medeiros, Portuguese actress
Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist
Michel Piccoli, French actor
Sarah Polley, Canadian actress
Abderrahmane Sissako, Mauritanian director

UN CERTAIN REGARD JURY
Pascale Ferran, French director (president)
Kent Jones, American writer
Cristi Puiu, Romanian director
Bian Qin
Jasmine Trinca, Italian actress

[Chris Knipp]

Lots of new stuff as usual and eventually we'll even learn what all the titles mean in English. Kind of a cliquish jury list but it's nice I think to see that Cristi Puiu is on the "Certain Regard" panel.

And, of course, I should mention, Johann is going to be writing about the Toronto Festival this time, adding another important venue to our growing Festival Coverage.

Who's going to do Cannes? Who's going to do Sundance?

[Johann]

Tribeca is extremely important.
God bless Robert DeNiro. Wish I could be there.

Thanks for posting the lineup for Cannes Oscar- you beat me to it.
I was too busy Friday and Sat. with 4:20- what a freakin' party. It's getting bigger every year.

When the crowd started to grow logarithmically, I had people/tourists coming up to me (I was near the eternal flame waiting for my friend Alex to arrive) and asking what was the gathering all about.
I said "Oh, they're just enjoying the weather"

The Jury is interesting.
Stephen Frears, Toni Collete, Sarah Pollley, Maggie Cheung...just great

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for posting the line-up for Cannes Chris- you beat me too it. Can't take credit--that was Oscar.
I was too busy Friday and Sat. with 4:20- what a freakin' party. As some of you know, I don't do that any more. And when I did, didn't need a special day for it. Every day was 4:20. I'm done with that party and like it better the other way. I kind of think Tribeca steals the thunder from San Francisco, but New York always rocks.

[Johann]

irk!- a thousand apologies Oscar- how did I not notice that? I guess I'm still stoned....

Man the black hash was making the rounds.
Stoned me just like Jelly Roll...

At 4:20pm (on 4:20) you wanna be in Major's Hill Park if you're in Ottawa. I was on the hill until just after 4 when the Mounties seemed to be getting jittery, talking into their radios and moving nervously around the front entrance...

The REAL party was at Major's Hill, just a 5 minute walk away,where most people usually spark one when there isn't a reason.
Must've been a thousand there. Very peaceful too- no violence- who needs that shit?
It was just buds, buddies, hackey sack & some cool tunes (brought by various people- I heard everything from trance to the Monkees).

Every day is 4:20 for me Chris.
I don't need no stinkin' day!

[Johann]

Some great films lined up for Cannes this year.

New films from Wong Kar-Wei, Denys Arcand (Canadian Legend!), Emir Kusterica, Bela Tarr (when am I going to see a film of his? everytime I want to something comes up), Gus van Sant, Michael Moore, Breillat, Sokurov, Schnabel, Assayas and on and on.

Awesome lineup.

[oscar jubis]

*The version of Tarantino's Death Proof to be shown is 10-15 minutes longer than the one currently showing in North America.

CROSS-BORDER CINEMA

My Blueberry Nights is directed by a Chinese (WKW), financed with European money, and shot in the US with American and British actors.

American Abel Ferrara's Go Go Tales is an Italian production, set in New York but filmed in Italy.

Variety is describing Mexican enfant terrible Carlos Reygadas' new film as an "unusual Dutch-language Mennonite love story ".

American Julian Schnabel's biopic The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, about French Elle magazine editor-in-chief Jean Dominique Bauby's life with "locked-in" syndrome is in French.

Hungarian master Bela Tarr's long-aborning The Man From London, a Georges Simenon adaptation with Tilda Swinton, is in English and French.

Munyurangabo, by Korean-American helmer Chung Lee Isaac is set in Rwanda.

NOT AT CANNES

Woody Allen's new British crimer Cassandra's Dream, starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell, was offered the closing night slot, but when Allen balked at that idea, discussions came to an end.

Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Red Balloon seemed to have Cannes written all over it - the Taiwanese helmer is a longtime fest darling and it's a French production starring Juliette Binoche - but the selection committee passed, as it did on Chinese director Jiang Wen's The Sun Also Rises with Joan Chen.

Two venerable figures from the French New Wave, Eric Rohmer, with Les amours d'Astree et de Celadon, and Claude Chabrol, with the Ludivine Sagnier starrer La Fille coupee en deux, are similarly conspicuous by their absence.

Two highly anticipated Yank entries, Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood," simply were not finished in time to be considered.

(Information courtesy of Variety magazine)

[Chris Knipp]

A lot of the preceding post comes directly from this Variety article:

"Cannes lines up American Feast," (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117963392.html?categoryid=19&cs=1) , April 19.

Direct quotations as I've pointed out before must be presented as such by using either the "quote + /quote" format, or regular quotation marks. Given that the Variety article gives a lot of other information, if would have been more helpful just to to cite the article and give the link. "Information courtesy of Variety magazine" is not the proper acknowledgment for direct quotation of major excerpts. It troubles me that you are slow to grasp this. It should be clearly indicated which are complete word for word quotations and which are summaries or references to information from the article, as some of your sentences also are.

Some of the best of these films in competition or out at Cannes will be likely to turn up at Toronto and later at the New York Film Festival. Those mentioned that are not making it to Cannes may also turn up at Toronto and/or the NYFF. Hou for instance. Likewise the Todd Haynes and PT Anderson movies if completed would be ones to watch for at upcoming festivals, but they'll no doubt have US releases before too long, once completed. The Rohmer and Chabrol will turn up at subsequent festivals, or quite likely at the next Rendez-Vous with French Cinema of the FSLC, which I expect to go on attending and writing about.

[Johann]

Wow, Hou's latest was passed on?
That's staggering to me.
I've only seen one Hou film and I think about it a lot. Sublime art .

And what's with Woody Allen balking at closing the festival. Weirdness man...

It's awesome to hear Death Proof is being expanded. You haven't commented on Grindhouse Oscar- I'm curious what you think :)

I'll watch anything by Wong Kar-Wei, British and American actors or not. Did you see that Cannes poster that used an image from "Days"?

Ludivine Sagnier is a honey-pie.
(Watch Water Drops on Burning Rocks- you'll drool over that body). Why on earth are those 2 French Gods of cinema absent? Do you know a reason oscar?

[Chris Knipp]

This discussion is stealing some of the fire from the SFIFF, but that is inevitable. So does Tribeca, more immediately. Note that both SFIFF and Tribeca offer things you won't find at Cannes, however.

As I said, Hou and others who didn't make the deadline or the cut at Cannes will turn up in subsequent festivals. Cannes is important, but it isn't the be-all and the end-all for new films.

We might look at Van Sant's new one, possibly going to be a more upscale and frankly white bread version of Wassup Rockers, a high schooler skateboarder film. Don't forget that Van Sant got the big prize at Cannes in 2003 for the similarly high-school newcomer based Elephant. Van Sant apparently finished his new one, Paranoid Park, in good time for Cannes. I guess this is a date some filmmakers keep in mind when they schedule a shooting.

I'm a little confused about Tarantino's Death Proof. Is it being presented without Planet Terror, out of the US theatrical presentation format? How does Rodriguez feel about that?

I'm glad that Fincher's Zodiac is a US entry. It is going to hold up as one of the year's best, I'm thinking.

The Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men is Cormac McCarthy's penultimate novel, a very bleak story (but with tie-ins with the cowboy genre) --no room for humor this time. Maybe this, which appears to be a turn in a new direction, will be an opportunity for them to go beyond the mediocrity of some of their recent work.

Wong Kar Wai's new one is set in America and stars Jude Law. I'm always dubious about that kind of shift in a director whose work has always been in his own country and language and in his own very special artistic mode. However, it was clear that in 2046 Wong had taken his Fifties-Sixties nostalgia themes about as far as they could reasonably go, and then further. At least he got it in on time, so the ultra-tweaking tendency was in check.

Michael Moore's Sicko doc on the US health system meltdown is out of competition, but ought to get good attention given his winning the big prize two years ago with Fahrenheit 9/11.

[Johann]

Sicko is listed on the imdb as "a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on earth"

Gus van sant is always a man to watch.
His films are high quality stuff, even if they're not for everybody..

The Coen's have a dark streak in them, but they can make a mean film. Sadly nothing they've done recently has interested me.

It does seem odd for Kar-Wei to make a movie with Jude Law. I hope he has very good reasons
to justify it, but I have no problem with foreign directors looking west. Ang Lee and John Woo have proven that that ain't such a bad move...

The Weinstein's are behind splitting up Grindhouse I think. Bad box-office= change of release plans?

[Johann]

It's also Michael Moore's birthday today.
He's 53.
Happy B-Day Mike!

[Chris Knipp]

It does seem odd for Kar-Wei to make a movie with Jude Law. I hope he has very good reasons to justify it, but I have no problem with foreign directors looking west. Ang Lee and John Woo have proven that that ain't such a bad move... I would go for Ang Lee more than John Woo. Lee has made some truly fine films in English, but I liked the pre-Hollywood Woo better. I hope for the best from Wong Kar Wai, who has always been my favorite "younger" Chinese director (till the younger and completely different Jia Zhang-ke came along) and (Wong, I mean) was my big discovery of the Eighties and Nineties. Jude Law has a decent record, but there's nothing exciting about it.
The Coen's have a dark streak in them, but they can make a mean film. Sadly nothing they've done recently has interested me. Nor have they interested me, and several have been downright bad, such as The Man Who Wasn't There (the movie that wasn't there) and The Ladykillers (they should have left the original Alec Guinness classic alone). This ought to be something pretty different for them. Their worst enemy may be how prolific they are, and their humor can be borderline condescending. That No Country for Old Men may have no room for humor may be a plus.

Van Sant has been up and down in quality too, but with his recent trilogy

Gerry
Elephant
Last Days

he seemed to be going back to more original, less mainstream stuff and away from Psycho (a pointless exercise, , Good Will Hunting (70) , and its self-knockoff, Finding Forrester

Mala Noche (no score)
Drugstore Cowboy 74
My Own Private Idaho 77
To Die For 86

--those will stand the test of time. And I like the recent trilogy a lot myself, though many have dismissed all or part of it. I"ve put the Metacritic scores after each one. If these are accurate estimates of the critical reactions, I do not agree with them.. I would say Finding Forrester (62) and Psycho (47) are the only critical responses I'd completely agree with, assuming again that Metacritic is correct in their estimates. Here's how they rate the recent trilogy:

Gerry 54
Elephant 70
Last Days 67

Relatively that may be about right, but each one should be at least ten points higher, in my opinion. I am not ready to rate To Die For so much higher than My Own Private Idaho. I'd rate it equally high or higher.

I will look forward to Sicko and hope it has at least as much effect on public opinion as Fahrenheit 9/11.

Bowling for Columbine has a renewed relevance after the Virginia Tech massacre. Maybe it was okay in principle to let that dangerous kid go back to class, but it was way too easy for him to get guns and ammunition.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Johann
Wow, Hou's latest was passed on?
That's staggering to me.
I've only seen one Hou film and I think about it a lot. Sublime art .
Hou is perhaps my favorite director. Right up there with Alain Resnais, maybe WKW, de Oliveira and Egoyan. There are other, younger ones, who will have to prove themselves over the long haul. But back to Hou, yet another director crossing borders as his new film is thoroughly French and premiering in Paris during the Cannes festival. Which Hou film have you seen? You've got to watch the rest.

And what's with Woody Allen balking at closing the festival. Weirdness man...
Perhaps he wanted the film to show in competition...just a guess.

You haven't commented on Grindhouse Oscar- I'm curious what you think :)
I'm honored by your curiosity but I'm the wrong guy to ask. Coming of age cinematically and otherwise in the 70s, I steered clear of the "grindhouse" and all forms of disposable entertainment. My tastes have broaden enough to enjoy certain features of these type of films but I have no passion for and insight into them. I know as a film buff I must watch the car chase in Tarantino's film for its complex mise-en-scene and the ways the directors have "art-designed" Grindhouse to make it look like a lost 70s exploitation flick. I also like to look at beautiful women and I hear there's plenty of babes in the film. I guess I have to watch it and report back.

Why on earth are those 2 French Gods of cinema absent? Do you know a reason oscar?
One possible reason is that the films are simply not ready. I get the impression the films were not among the thousands submitted for consideration. Chabrol's film is listed as being in post-production and scheduled to premiere in August. Rohmer film is further behind, listed as being "in production" with no premiere date announced. To be honest, I'm not all that perturbed by their absence, I found Rohmer's last feature, Triple Agent quite mediocre. I'm much more interested in the latest film from their compadre Jacques Rivette, which premiered at Berlin 2007 and opened in France to wide acclaim.

[Chris Knipp]

Oscar--Probably true about Chabrol and Rohmer, and maybe both are about ready to be put out to pasture. They've both had quite a run. You're probably right about Woody Allen too. He has a French cult following and might want to capitalize on it. I think his recent movies have done better critically in Paris than New York.

Oscar--Hou, Resnais, de Oliverra, Egoyan--whows how completely our tastes differ, and none of these would be favorites of mine, but out of the bunch, I'd definitely pick Hou, though not all I've seen, he's uneven, and I would challenge Johann to see all of them anyway; they're not available here. I've seen the ones I could readily find. I prefer the films of Wong Kar Wai and find the reverent attitude toward Hou a bit excessive. I'm not sure what the appeal of Resnais or Oliveira is. Of course Resnais made a couple of very important films, or ones that made a big impact right at the beginning, and I was there to see them when they were new and I was young--Hiroshima mon amour and L'année dernière â Marienbad, both memorable and much talked about at the time and maybe still. I think Godard has been more important. And I prefer Malle. Egoyan has never seemed that interesting to me. I simply don't see why someone whose knowledge of movies is as extensive as yours would single him out so pointedly.
Coming of age cinematically and otherwise in the 70s, I steered clear of the "grindhouse" and all forms of disposable entertainment. My tastes have broaden enough to enjoy certain features of these type of films but I have no passion for and insight into them. I guess I can relate in that to the extent that I fail to see the charm of the crap melodrama directors of the Fifties celebrated by Todd Haynes and others. However when I was little I loved the crap films of the Forties -- if the crime movies would fit that category -- of course some of them are celebrated today -- and I still like to see anything neo-noir, even though such efforts are uneven. I didn't particularly "steer clear" of grindhouse presentations in the Seventies. They just didn't come my way; I was elsewhere. I can appreciate Rodriguez's and Tarantino's celebration of the genre and the setting regardless of whether I went out to see the movies they are referring to. What a shame to have to force yourself to go to see Grindhouse as a film buff because you need to know about the technique!

[Johann]

CHRIS:

I agree that Woo's films prior to his"americanization" are stellar.
Classics in every sense. Especially The Killer and Hard Boiled. Absolute must-sees.

Jude Law is fine, but he's in an awful lot of movies and he doesn't seem to "stretch" much.
A.I. is his best work.
Hey Jude! (what a name for a guy, huh?)
Play more Mecha-type roles!

I haven't seen Last Days.
You nailed van Sant's work there.
I really liked his Psycho, but yes it is a pointless remake.
To Die For is amazing. I remember watching in the theatre when it came out and wondering where this Goddess came from. (Turned out she was from down under).

RE: Bowling for Columbine.

Sad that something like what happened at Virginia Tech validates and amplifies Michael Moore's point. This massacre makes Columbine look like a test-run.
I hate to say it but it needs to be said:
The USA should not be surprised that these tragedies occur. You have a very very strong gun culture and like you said Chris it's way too easy to get a gun the States. When I was in L.A. in 2002 I was even asked to buy one, on the street, downtown L.A.- near the McDonald's next to the Greyhound depot. No shit. Some guy had a handgun and bullets in his bag and wanted to sell it, no questions asked. I politely said no. Crazy shit man.
You want a gun in the states, you got it. Just produce the scratch.

OSCAR:

The only Hou I've seen is Three Times, which is a much-cherished moviegoing memory. I know I've got to see all of his work.
So many films, so little time...
His new one is in French? Interesting..

Grindhouse is indeed babe-a-licious.
If Rose McGowan doesn't spark lustful thoughts then you can't be helped...
Maybe I'm fixating on the butt shots in the movie (there aren't that many actually) but I wanna thank Quentin for those. I'm a fan of the female posterior, especially ones you can bounce a quarter off of, like QT has in his movie. Hopefully those extra minutes have some more "rear-axel" :)

[Chris Knipp]

Sorry Oscar I failed to note you rate Wong high, because you called him "WKW" and that phrase slipped right past my impatient eyes. There of course I do firmly agree with you so I can't say our tastes completely differ after all.

[Chris Knipp]

You are funny Johann as usual, and I can assure you I liked Rose McGowan and also the ladies in the second part of Death Proof, the stunt driver ladies.

I was also going to say Jude Law just takes on too many projects and doesn't stretch. He is seemingly happy with being a matinee idol, and I don't see why they think he's so wonderful looking and that is something I can usually see in male actors. I would say he was good in Minghella's Ripley movie, he did have the golden boy qualitity there and I liked him in a smaller role in Gattaca. Law's role in A.I. is not just a schtick, it's quite brilliantly done; that's another underappreciated film I think. 65 on the Metacritic scale just isn't fair for something so firely crafted and touching.

So are you implying you have seen Gerry, which Van Sant suggested was partly a Bela Tarr homage? I urge you to see Last Days, a pity you can't see it on a big screen because it is visually gorgeous. I like My Own Private Idaho for its gay and River contents, I think many gay people do. To Die For seems very straight, but I probably should see it again, I just didn't quite get it the first time. I gather it is much more mordantly witty than I realized then.

The Fifties segment of Three Times is absolutely wonderful, but the earlier one is a bit boring and the modern one just doesn't come off. I don't think Hou does contemporary very well. I have seen it twice; the segment I like is magical. When he hits it, he flies to the moon.

As for Bowling for Columbine some of the contrast from what I've heard may have been somewhat inaccurate but it is a big point made by Moore that Canada is a much safer place and it is not because you don't have most of the same social problems but that you have different policies and media that don't pump up the paranoia the way US media does.

[Johann]

A.I. is a special work. I'm so happy that film exists- thank you with all my heart Mr. Spielberg. It's the greatest tribute to Kubrick.
Why isn't there a filmmaker out there willing to drive down the highway that Stanley paved?
You don't have to be obsessed with "changing the form" as he was, just create the mise-en-scenes. Do as he did: get the most interesting stuff going and then shoot it. There's enough ace DP's out there who know how to film. Use A.I. as the inspiration if you have to.
Talk to Mr. Spielberg. Grill him on how he did it.
Films in the style of Kubrick would be a Godsend. He was the GRAND MASTER.

I've seen Gerry and I really liked it.
Not as much as van Sant's other stuff, but it's still great. My Own Private Idaho is in aclass by itself. I wholly embrace most things Gay. I have gay friends. A lot of my favorite artists were homosexual: Rimbaud, Cocteau, Clive Barker, Bacon, Pasolini, Ian McKellen, Freddy Mercury, Andy Warhol, Knipp, and on and on :)
Don't forget Alexander the Great!

[Chris Knipp]

I can relate. Some of my best friends are straight.

[oscar jubis]

Absolutely love Three Times, My Own Private Idaho, and A.I. (I've seen them several times) and like To Die For very much.

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Oscar--Hou, Resnais, de Oliveira, Egoyan--whows how completely our tastes differ, and none of these would be favorites of mine,
I'm not sure what the appeal of Resnais or Oliveira is.
Egoyan has never seemed that interesting to me. I simply don't see why someone whose knowledge of movies is as extensive as yours would single him out so pointedly.

Of course our tastes do overlap sometimes: Wong, A.I., Brokeback Mountain, etc.
But I think it's good for the site that our tastes differ quite often. Let's celebrate and appreciate our differences rather than imply that someone who knows about movies can't possibly think Atom Egoyan is great. That's not quite having a disagreement about a film but calling into question another's aesthetic judgement about a director's career based on a personal viewpoint.

[Chris Knipp]

I did add that seeing Wong Kar Wai in your personal pantheon made me think we have more in common that I thought. But it's also true that it's fine for our tastes to differ and it would be boring for the site if they were the same.

You are quite right that it was wrong and out of line for me to imply your liking for Egoyan made no sense for a person who loves and so well knows film. You have every right to like anybody you choose. Knowledge is not wisdom. But I have neither.

Moreover there is more to Egoyan than I am familiar with. I've just looked Egoyan up on IMDb and am surprised and interested to find he was born in Cairo, Egypt. I was born in Cairo too. Just kidding, but in a sense I was born there because the two years I lived there had a decisive effect on me. I'm also interested that he has done Bach cello films and a film of Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, which I did not know.

I have not personally liked some of his most publicized films that much, though of course his chronicling of the Armenian people is something it is good to have. I watched a number of his films in the EIghties. I like The Sweet Hereafter and Felicia's Journey. Some of his other ones such as Speaking Parts, The Adjuster, and Exotica, I had to strain to see the point of. I'm sorry to say Ararat seemed a bit of a long slog. Others it has not come my way to see. I'm not even saying he's anything other than interesting. I just don't know why you pick him to be among your very favorite directors when you have hundreds to choose from.
That's not quite having a disagreement about a film but calling into question another's aesthetic judgement about a director's career based on a personal viewpoint. Why shouldn't one do that?

[Chris Knipp]

I've seen quite a few of Egoyan's films.

[Johann]

re: Beckett on Film
The Ottawa U media centre has the box set.
When I get a chance I'll post on them as I see them.
It's the 2nd best "video store" in the city- problem is, you have to watch them in the media lab if you're not a student and you must return them by the end of the day- they cannot leave the campus
:(

Herzog posts are coming eventually...
Time management is a b*&^ch

[Johann]

Cannes wraps up very soon, and "Sicko" seems to be the talk of the Riviera.

We'll see who wins the big prize.

My money's on Death Proof. Ha ha ha...

[oscar jubis]

Cannes' great divide
Critics impressed but split over fest's best

By TODD MCCARTHY
Posted: Thurs., May 24, 2007, 7:15pm

CANNES -- Everyone seems to agree that there have been quite a few fine films at the Cannes Film Festival this year. What they entirely can't agree upon is which films they are.

Entering the 60th anniversary edition's second and final weekend, the leading contenders for the Palme d'Or would still seem to be two movies from very early in the fest, the Coen brothers' pungent bloody thriller "No Country for Old Men" and Romanian helmer Cristian Mungiu's bracing abortion drama set in the late communist days, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days."

But as heavyweight art fare bellied up to the bar in the days thereafter, critical opinions, as they are prone to do, started flying in all possible directions. Is Carlos Reygadas, whose "Silent Light" focuses on a Mennonite community in Mexico, the second coming of Carl Dreyer, as a number of American critics suggested, or an "imposter," as the French paper Les Inrockuptibles insisted? Is Christian Honore, with his French "musical" "Love Songs," really the new Jacques Demy or a tone-deaf wannabe? On the basis of "My Blueberry Nights" and "Death Proof," respectively, have Wong Kar Wai and Quentin Tarantino furthered their reputations as ultra-cool stylists or driven off the road?

More clear than ever is the dramatic divide between the views of the French critics and their international (mostly Anglo-American) counterparts. The French not only readily embraced "Love Songs" but also slammed a film generally regarded by English speakers as one of the better competition entries, Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." Was the French rejection due to prejudices formed against his earlier work, unspoken bias against an American with the audacity to make a French-language art film based on a French book, or strictly aesthetic matters? No one professed to know.

Going strictly by the critics' polls here, the top-rated pictures on the Croisette in 2007 are "No Country for Old Men," "4 Months" and "Zodiac"; reaction to "Zodiac" confirms the view of some industryites that Paramount should have waited to premiere the film in Cannes and waited until September to release it.

The high-art side -- that is, films restricted in interest to film buffs and critics and not destined to be seen by ordinary human eyes -- was repped by several pics: Ulrich Seidl's "Import Export," which belongs to the genre dedicated to the proposition that life is undiluted merde; Andrei Zvyagintsev's "The Banishment," a simple story (from William Saroyan) elaborated and inflated to death by grandiose proportions; "Silent Light," which to my eyes possessed the most extraordinary visuals in a festival full of exceptional camerawork and seemed sincere in its portrayal of religious devotion in the bargain; and Bella Tarr's "The Man From London," which epitomized what is known as a "festival film," i.e., one made for no known audience apart from the already converted disciples of a cult director. One version of hell for me would consist of being trapped inside the insular world of this film for eternity.

But the inclusion of such films is de rigeur for a festival such as Cannes and helps keep people talking and disputing. On the other side of the equation, the projection of "Death Proof" upon the giant screen of the Palais du Festival seemed audacious. In the old days, a picture devoted to kick-butt fighting chicks and car crashes, complete with scratches on the film, would have been seen only in the back streets of the market.

Somewhere in between all this are Fatih Akin's "The Edge of Heaven," the highly anticipated follow-up to "Head-On" that some observers liked but was exceptionally schematic and laborious in its structure; Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park," a look at a young skateboarder's denial of moral responsibility for a man's death that just seems too insistently limited in its view of the subject; "Secret Sunshine," South Korean helmer Lee Chang-dong's absorbing, well-acted account of a woman undone by a domestic tragedy; the trifling but attractive "My Blueberry Nights"; and "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's animated version of Satrapi's graphic novel about her life in Iran and Europe whose promising premise doesn't build satisfyingly either dramatically or visually.

There were the usual examples of films festgoers felt should have been in the competition rather than Un Certain Regard and vice versa and so on. But in a year fest organizers took particularly seriously, given the big anniversary, 2007 proved to be quite lively, and mostly in a good way.

[Johann]

Nice article. Thanks for posting.

I saw a picture of Bela Tarr on the red carpet.
He was smiling and seemed very humble.

The "festival film" evokes mixed feelings for me.
You have these incredible films showing that your average person never sees.

Films like James Benning's 13 Lakes or Ten Skies, Tarr's films, Hou's films, hell even Godard, the Quays, Resnais and Trier fall into that bracket.
Films that the Shrek crowd would yawn over.
They have cagey distribution, almost always polarize the audience, and I often wonder how people like Greenaway can keep cranking out such esoteric, ergonomic art when they don't do anywhere near the business of Spiderman or Pirates. George Lucas is right:
popcorn movies have always ruled.
They have ruled over tastes, wallets and insulated minds for far too long

At least Film Comment has their "Distributer Wanted" feature in their magazine.
Every little bit helps in getting the word out over alternative/foreign/offbeat no-hope-in-hell-of-proper-release movies that so many people never get a chance to see.

[Chris Knipp]

Goog comment, johann. I liked the McCarthy piece (Variety, source omitted above: link (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117965767.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=todd+mccarthy)) for its neutrality--at this stage I prefer that to the roundups with gratuitous gushes and pans. Let us make up our minds later. I don't get the reaction to Death Proof's being shown, given that Tarantino has chaired the Cannes jury recently. He's an insider, non?

Readers can get other Variety Cannes pieces from the sidebar of this page. (http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=Cannes2007&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR1117965815)

[oscar jubis]

Palme d'Or: "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" by Cristian Mungiu
Jane Fonda awarded the Palme d'Or of this 60th Cannes Festival to Cristian Mungiu for 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.

Grand Prize: Naomi Kawase for "The Mourning Forest"
The Grand Prize was awarded by Carole Bouquet to Naomi Kawase for The Mourning Forest

Jury Prize: "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi and to "Silent Light" by Carlos Reygadas
The Jury Prize was awarded by Jamel Debbouze to Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and to Silent Light by Carlos Reygadas.

60th Anniversary Award: Gus Van Sant for "Paranoid Park"
Jury President Stephen Frears bestowed a 60th Anniversary Prize Prix to Gus Van Sant for Paranoid Park.

Best Director: Julian Schnabel for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
The prize for Best Director was awarded by Michelle Yeoh to Julian Schnabel for Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).

Best Screenplay: Fatih Akin for "The Edge of Heaven"
Awarded by Charlotte Rampling, the Best Screenplay went to Fatih Akin for The Edge of Heaven.

Best Leading Actor: Konstantin Lavronenko in "The Banishment"
The prize for Best Leading Actor was awarded to Konstantin Lavronenko for his performance in The Banishment by Andreï Zyvagintsev.

Best Leading Actress: Jeon Do-yeon in "Secret Sunshine"
The prize for Best Leading Actress was awarded by Alain Delon to Jeon Do-yeon for her performance in Secret Sunshine de Lee Chang-dong.

Camera d'Or: "Meduzot" (Jellyfish) by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen

- The Jury of the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) awarded the International Critics Prize to 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days by Romanian Cristian Mungiu

- The International Critics' Week Grand Prize, intended as a groundbreaking prize whereby the film press rewards rising new talents, was awarded to XXY by Lucia Puenzo of Argentina.

[Chris Knipp]

I don't know much about the two top prizes or Satrapi but I'm a fan of Zvyagintsev (--tricky spelling -- his The Return or Vozvrashcheniye was one of those few truly magical moments in a movie theater),and am glad of the recongition received by Van Sant and Schnabel and Reygadas in this prestigious setting. Are Kawase's films available here? Not listed on Netflix apparently.

[oscar jubis]

No, Naomi Kawase's films are not available here. I have searched to no avail for a copy of any of her films with English subs. Two of her films were released on dvd in France: Camera d'Or winner Suzaku ('97) and Shara ('03). I listed Suzaku as a film of importance that it's worth searching for (and should be made available on dvd) in my 1990s Lest We Forget (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=15455#post15455) post.

[Chris Knipp]

Too bad. Have you seen Suzaku, or just searched for it? I'm excited to see some of these titles.

[Johann]

Yes, these titles are all excitement-inducing.

INLAND EMPIRE wasn't screened at Cannes this year, was it?
I'll be checking it out at the Bytowne tonight...

[Chris Knipp]

Inland Empire wasn't quite ready for Cannes last year but was shown at Venice, still at festivals in the US, and theaters here and there, a somewhat odd process.

[oscar jubis]

*I haven't seen Suzaku.

*I actually passed, believe it or not, on watching Inland Empire at a theater (for $15). A critic, can't remember who, made a strong argument that the ideal viewing environment to watch it is at home on dvd so you can rewatch key parts at your convenience. He said something about the film being "in tune with the new cinephilia" or something to that effect. Does this sound ridiculous to you guys?
dvd release date: August 14th.

[Chris Knipp]

i saw it for free at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, and enjoyed doing so. Wouldn't have wanted to miss the discussion with Lynch afterward. It was one of the best events of the NYFF; and the public screenings were very heavily attended. But there are certainly times when I like to be able to replay segments of a movie on a DVD or tape. If it's three hours and you're going to replay lots of parts, you're going to spend a lot of time with Inland Empire. But that's okay.

[Johann]

INLAND EMPIRE should be seen on the big screen, but I know what the guy means by rewatching key scenes.

The new cinephilia? How come I haven't heard about it? What is it? Watching DVD's over and over?

Get out to a theatre oscar! Seeing a brand new David Lynch film is living history.
He's a special special director...

[Chris Knipp]

I did get into some nice conversations with people waiting to go in--this was a big event, though a press screening, and we had to wait outside a while. Lots of excitement. People did leave, to some extent, during the showing, so if you stayed to the end and the Q&A you had that nice feeling of being hard core, and loyal. It restored my previously waning enthusism for the man and his work back to the way I felt when I saw his first productions and Twin Peaks.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Johann
The new cinephilia? How come I haven't heard about it? What is it? Watching DVD's over and over?

The "old" cinephilia refers to a time when theatrical screenings were the only choice and one discussed movies only with people who shared your physical and cultural environment.

New Cinephilia:
Things started to change with the popularity of vhs tapes and later laserdisc.
Suddenly you could "own" a film and watch it as many times as you wanted. People outside major markets now had access to a larger variety of films. The dvd format made it easier to create your own viewing experience by quickly locating scenes and taking the movie to any environment (wherever your PC can go). Film "culture" became more democratic and widespread via the extra features included on many dvds. Home viewing started to approximate the theater experience as TV sets got larger and resolution became sharper.

The internet made it possible for film buffs to create virtual communities with like-minded folks from all over the world, which helps broaden one's perspective on a given film.

[oscar jubis]

I am quite surprised that there seems to be no mention in this thread of the film commissioned by the Cannes FF to commemorate its 60th anniversary: Chacun son cinema (To Each His Own Cinema), an omnibus project of 33 3-min. films with at least one scene set in a movie theater. The results are intermittently excellent and consistently amusing and revelatory. The Dardennes' , Cronenberg, Egoyan, Salles, Hou, and Kiarostami shorts were my favorites. Youssef Chahine's and Trier's were the only two I didn't like at all. No region 1 release as of yet. I will have to add this film to a list of favorite undistributed films of the 2000s. I cannot believe this movie did not play in American theaters at all!

[Chris Knipp]

Sorry I missed out on Cannes 60 (2007)'s Chacun son cinéma. I didn't see it mentioned. it's on IMDb and also in Wikipedia, which lists the 34 (not 33) films:



Raymond Depardon – Cinéma d'été (Open-Air Cinema)
Takeshi Kitano – One Fine Day
Theo Angelopoulos – Trois minutes (Three Minutes)
Andrei Konchalovsky – Dans le noir (In the Dark)
Nanni Moretti – Diario di uno spettatore (Diary of a Moviegoer)
Hou Hsiao-hsien – The Electric Princess House
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne – Dans l'obscurité (Darkness)
Joel and Ethan Coen – World Cinema
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Anna
Zhang Yimou – En regardant le film (Movie Night)
Amos Gitai – Le Dibbouk de Haifa (The Dybbuk of Haifa)
Jane Campion – The Lady Bug
Atom Egoyan – Artaud Double Bill
Aki Kaurismäki – La Fonderie (The Foundry)
Olivier Assayas – Recrudescence (Upsurge)
Youssef Chahine – 47 ans après (47 Years Later)
Tsai Ming-liang – It's a Dream
Lars von Trier – Occupations
Raoul Ruiz – Le Don (The Gift)
Claude Lelouch – Cinéma de boulevard (The Cinema Around the Corner)
Gus Van Sant – First Kiss
Roman Polanski – Cinéma érotique
Michael Cimino – No Translation Needed
David Cronenberg – At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World
Wong Kar-wai – I Travelled 9000 km To Give It To You
Abbas Kiarostami – Where Is My Romeo?
Bille August – The Last Dating Show
Elia Suleiman – Irtebak (Awkward)
Manoel de Oliveira – Rencontre unique (Sole Meeting)
Walter Salles – A 8 944 km de Cannes (5,557 Miles From Cannes)
Wim Wenders – War in Peace
Chen Kaige – Zhanxiou Village
Ken Loach – Happy Ending
David Lynch – Absurda Quite a roster of Cannes favorites. I'd love to see it. How can I? How did you?

Omnibus films, especially with many short ones like this, are a tough sell. FROM PARIS, WITH LOVE didn't even do well critically here: Metacritic 42. But of course someone who likes short films or wants to learn how to do them would want to see them done by masters like these.

[oscar jubis]

A friend made me a copy off the Region 2 DVD, which has 33 films because there was an issue, still unresolved apparently, with the rights to the entry by the Coen brothers.The one by Gonzalez Inarritu is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCg17_6CwmA
The very personal one by Cronenberg (perhaps my favorite "commercial director") : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEMT1mQiD68

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. It came out on two different French DVDs apparently. One also omits David Lynch's. Both were on YouTube but taken off now.

[Chris Knipp]

The Coen brothers' short entry 'World Cinema' is on YouTube here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HjDtgBdSjs&feature=related)though it may not stay.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks Chris. Interesting to ponder what a hunter from rural Texas (the character from "No Country" played by Josh Brolin) would find enjoyable about such a dour, intimate drama as Ceylan's Climates...

[Chris Knipp]

Indeed. I guess there point was the hand of World Cinema reaches far.