We might have guessed that eventually, Alec Baldwin and Harvey Weinstein–two of show business’s hottest heads–would end up clashing, and indeed, Mr. Baldwin called Mr. Weinstein a “douchebag” this week. It all went down at Cannes, the annual event at which Michael Haneke films coexist sweatily with the continued existence of Paris Hilton; Mr. Read More
Cannes has selected Marilyn Monroe as the official “icon” of its upcoming 65th Festival–the bombshell is to be featured in advertising for the fest. In a statement printed on Deadline, the French cinephiles noted: ““Fifty years after her death, Marilyn is still a major figure in world cinema, an eternal icon, whose grace, mystery Read More
The Cannes Film Festival is over for another year, with Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life winning the top prize, the Palme d’Or. (The film opens on our shores May 27; full list of Festival winners is here.) But the big story for a certain demographic of filmgoers may be Kirsten Dunst’s Best Actress win Read More
American actors and European directors can make a funny combo: one aims for highbrow legitimacy, the other wants a wider audience. And when they get together, the results can be blissful hybrids or horrible mutants. Just ask Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn, both of whom debuted new movies here in Cannes that hit both ends of the spectrum like Read More
If the best way to critique a film is to make a film, then The Tree of Life officially has its soul-crushing rebuke. With this morning’s world premiere of Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, the dour Dane punched a hole into the buoyant spirituality of Terrence Malick’s hymn to existence. Punched a hole? More like stuck Read More
What do you make of a pre-ordained masterpiece? Terrence Malick’s breathlessly-awaited The Tree of Life had its world premiere this morning in Cannes, and the smattering of livid boos against the torrent of applause felt delicious, if only to puncture an expectation of instant coronation for the Texan auteur.
Film fanatics have been reverently drooling over The Tree of Life Read More
The fairer sex is getting a beat-down this year at Cannes, and the wounds are self-inflicted. More than a dozen women directors have movies playing on the Croisette–a rare surge for any festival–and the first four whose films unspooled in the opening days have delivered dark, bleak, tough struggles.
The strangest and most chilling has to be Julia Leigh’s Read More
One of the best parts of the Cannes Film Festival is seeing movies in the Marché du Film, the marketplace where filmmakers pay neighborhood theaters to exhibit anything and everything – and a handy way to tell people that your film screened in Cannes without actually having to face a quality-conscious selection committee.
Today’s Read More
Want to know how the 64th Cannes Film Festival gets gritty to honor Robert De Niro? Imagine gnomish Brit crooner Jamie Cullum delivering a painfully jazzy version of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” on his grand piano while New York’s native son squirms helplessly onstage at the cavernous, VIP-filled Grand Théâtre de Lumière. Nothing like watching 2,000 black-tie film fanatics Read More
We report that D.A. Pennebaker, who made The War Room, is shooting a Freddy campaign film. Roberto likes the idea, Axelrod not so much. We tie that into the national and ethnic Big Themes that many of Freddy’s aides see in this campaign, and wonder whether it all adds up to a Read More
