Fan Fare

Cannes – let the guessing game commence

Phew. Eleven days gone and the end is in sight at the Cannes film festival.

No, this is not a bad a assignment to have as a journalist, and no, we aren’t complaining, but yes, the end of the busiest festival  many of us can remember is a relief.

2011 has had it all — good movies (I can’t tell you my personal choices — this is Reuters!), big stars, great parties, huge interest from the outside world and a big dose of controversy.

The moment we will all remember above all else is the shock expulsion of Danish director Lars Von Trier for his strange outburst during a press conference in which he joked about being a Nazi, a Hitler sympathiser and used the phrase “final solution” to boot.

People variously found it funny, ill-advised, embarrassing, naive or just downright offensive. Kirsten Dunst, the star of Von Trier’s latest movie “Melancholia”, visibly squirmed as the director dug himself into a deeper and deeper hole. In subsequent interviews the arch-provocateur expressed a mixture of regret and defiance, and many of the festival’s reporters and critics disagree with Cannes’ decision to expel him.

That aside, there has been a string of hotly-discussed films — Melancholia itself, Terrence Malick’s epic “The Tree of Life”, the wonderfully comic “Le Havre” and “The Artist”, the touching “The Kid With a Bike”, the stylish “Drive”, subtle “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” and the radiant “The Source”.

All eight movies, and arguably two or three more, could win the top prize in Cannes when awards are handed out on Sunday evening, all for very different reasons.

Does director Malick exist?

Admittedly with tongue firmly in cheek, French reporters in Cannes for the film festival are pondering the unthinkable — does U.S. director Terrence Malick actually exist?

Most film makers are only too happy to share the limelight with their cast at the world’s biggest showcase, bathed in sunshine so far this year and the scene of an endless circus of screenings, press conferences and parties frequented by the beautiful people.

Not so Malick. The notoriously shy director’s “The Tree of Life”, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, is in competition this year and is one of the most talked-about movies at the festival so far. Only his fifth feature film and the first for six years, anticipation was high for a picture that tackles nothing less than the question of the meaning of life. Yet the 67-year-old “The Thin Red Line” director is nowhere to be seen. Pitt took most of the questions during the post-screening press conference, and Malick did not show on the red carpet.

Presenters on the festival’s official television channel joked that he may not actually exist. One said that Malick had been caught on camera briefly on Monday by a journalist who actually thought he was Brian de Palma.

Many reporters assumed Malick was not in Cannes, but French director Luc Besson suggested that the sighting may have been genuine. “He is shy, he’s just very shy,” he said on the red carpet before the world premiere of The Tree of Life. “He’s not far from here.”

You talking to me? De Niro perplexes at Cannes

Robert De Niro is known for explosive performances, lighting up movies as a mobster, conquistador or evil CIA stepdad. But to journalists, he has an entirely different reputation — as one of the toughest people to interview in showbusiness.

When facing reporters, the “Goodfellas” star has not always felt compelled to wax poetic. In fact, he barely waxes at all: De Niro has been known to field questions with abrupt ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, leave pregnant silences that can make the most seasoned interviewers squirm — or simply shrug his shoulders.

At the start of the Cannes film festival, running May 11-22, De Niro is proving true to himself. At a press conference to introduce the jury which he is presiding over this year, he gave a classically non-committal performance. A sample of De Niro-isms:

“Every movie is different.” “I’m not sure what we’re looking for.” “We’ll know when we see the movies.” “Some people will feel strongly about movies. Others won’t.” “I suppose it can get political, but that’s what it is.”

Previous jury heads have been less concerned with conveying stoic impartiality. In 2005, when Serbian director Emir Kusturica was in charge, at the end of the festival he complained about a competition lineup that fell short of his expectations.

De Niro did threaten to break with form briefly, when a French reporter stood up and asked him, quoting a well-known and unprintably rude line from “Raging Bull”, whether the actor had slept with his wife.

Looking briefly off-balance, De Niro asked the moderator to repeat the question. Then he cracked one of his signature one-side smiles, apparently contemplating a witty response.

Woody back on form in Cannes. Phew!

I, along with just about every other reporter and critic in Cannes for the film festival this year, was a little nervous about Woody Allen being chosen to open the event with his romantic comedy “Midnight In Paris”. Many cinephiles feel the 75-year-old Oscar winner has failed to live up to his famously high standards in recent outings. In Britain, at least, “Match Point” was not much loved while “Cassandra’s Dream” was broadly unpopular.

But Midnight In Paris quickly won over the notoriously picky Cannes crowd at a press screening today, with laughter (in all the right places) and warm applause as the credits rolled on what he has described as his “love letter to Paris”. The surreal tale follows Hollywood scriptwriter Gil, played by Owen Wilson, who is in Paris and travels back in time each night to the 1920s, where he meets his heroes including Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. As he grows closer to Picasso’s lover Adriana, played by Marion Cotillard, he moves ever further from his present-day fiancee, played by Rachel McAdams.

There are plenty of in-jokes for the culture vultures — it helps, for example, to know the paintings of Salvador Dali or the films of Luis Bunuel or the novels of Hemingway. But it’s not a must and the humour tends to work well, not least when Michael Sheen delivers the pretentious lines of odious intellectual snob Paul, an expert in everything and anything.

Wilson shares some of the classic Allen-as-actor mannerisms — the lost look and the uncertainty — but the differences are more striking. ”He’s the opposite of me,” Allen said of his central hero. “I’m very nervous and New York, he’s very West Coast, very blond, very ‘on the beach’, very athletic. He speaks nothing like me. If I got someone more like me we would have lost a dimension. He brought a dimension that was very different from what I imagined when I wrote it.”

Cannes organisers will be relieved to have got off to such a good start. Opening films have a habit  of putting a downer on the festival. In 2006, “The Da Vinci Code” had the honoured slot but bombed and cast a pall over the first few days of the 11-day cinema showcase. Not so in 2011. Phew.

Cannes family or Cannes clique?

The press conferences that follow screenings at Cannes are singular affairs, where journalists often spend as much time expressing their admiration as they do asking questions. They can be revealing nonetheless and rarely more so than when the regular master of ceremonies, a certain Henri Behar, introduces somebody as “very much part of the Cannes family.”

One of the persistent criticisms levelled at the world’s biggest film festival is that it always features the same names. It is an unfair criticism in some ways. There isn’t an infinite number of great film makers and so it isn’t surprising that certain directors and actors keep being invited back. But just running through this year’s main competition lineup, there certainly does seem to be something like a “Cannes family”.

This year’s competition opened with “On Tour”, directed by Mathieu Amalric. The story of a troupe of burlesque dancers on a wandering tour through the French provinces was his first effort as director at Cannes but he’s been here before in 10 films as an actor.

Chinese film maker Wang Xiaoshuai, who presented “Chongqing Blues” was here for the fourth time, having won the Jury Prize in 2005 for “Shanghai Dreams”. It was Korean director’s Im Sangsoo’s first time in competitition but his entry, “The Housemaid” starred Jeon Do-youn, who won the best actress award in 2007. That film was made by Lee Chang-dong, who was back again this year with “Poetry”, his third film in the festival.

Britain’s Mike Leigh, who brought “Another Year” to Cannes returned for the fourth time. He won the Golden Palm in 1996 for “Secrets and Lies” and was named Best Director in 1993 for “Naked”.

Bertrand Tavernier, who showed the historical drama “La princesse de Montpensier” is also a regular. It was his eighth festival either in front of or behind the camera and he too is a previous award winner, having been named Best Director in 1984 for “Un Dimanche a la Campagne”.

Japan’s Takeshi Kitano was also back for the eighth time as either actor or director, with “Outrage”.

What to do in Cannes? Not watch movies!

Each year, tens of thousands of movie industry players from around the world invade the Cannes film festival to watch movies and do business — buy and sell rights to show films around the world or on DVD, TV and other media. Thousands more provide services in restaurants, hotels and at the festival itself, and still thousands more come as tourists. But there’s so much more to do in Cannes than watch movies. We were struck by the three below:

Watch the Grand Prix. As you can see in the picture, these two gentlemen — who happen to be security for the festival — took some time to watch the Monaco Grand Prix. The Formula 1 auto race takes place at the same time of the year as the festival, just up the road. What’s funny about the picture is that television set, always (except when the Grand Prix is running) is used to show interviews with movie stars and film directors. Typically, most people just pass it by but when the race is on, it gets a crowd. What you can’t see is that behind these two, there are about 10 0ther men glued to the TV.

Dumpster Dive, Cannes Style. It certainly doesn’t sound glamorous, and it isn’t. But what struck us as funny is that the dumpster in the picture is used to recycle all the promotional material given to the press. And if you stay around long enough, you’ll see reporters come to it with sack fulls of press material and just dump the paper in. And, at the same time, you’ll see other journos digging through it to find materials that, perhaps, they weren’t given. Looking through can be interesting because it gives one a perspective of all the different types of films about varying cultures from around the world. It’s movies in a microcosm — all in a dumpster.

Stargazing in the hotels. The drinks can get expensive, and in many of the higher-end hotels along the Cannes Croisette, you may need a festival badge to get inside. But if you can make it, sit in the lobby or bar of the Carlton hotel, the Majestic or the Martinez. You need only to stay an hour or two and it never fails that someone famous will walk through. One problem is that, because the stars here are from around the world and not necessarily your home country, you may not know they are famous. Our weirdest sighting over the years? Faye Dunaway in the Majestic desperately trying to sell a movie idea (with her as director) to some far younger fella who no doubt claimed to be a producer. We talked to two women from Marseilles about stargazing. Click the video below to see what they had to say.

“Thank you for getting me off the radio!”

Gemma Arterton may be the eye-catching star, but fans of “The Archers”, have an extra reason to look out for Stephen Frears’ adaptation of “Tamara Drewe” as it marks a rare big-screen outing for Tamsin Greig, who plays the no-nonsense Debbie Aldridge in BBC radio’s long-running serial on life in the fictional village of Ambridge.

In Tamara Drewe, she plays Beth, the long-suffering wife of philandering author Nicholas Hardiment and stands out in a strong cast.

The film has had a very warm reception at Cannes and Frears was in jocular mood at his first press conference, doling out humorous compliments to his actors and putting down Greig’s involvement in the film to her radio experience.

“She’s in the Archers so she was good on the farming,” he explained.

“He did say at one point, ‘you’re only here because you know about the farming’, which helped a lot,” Greig confirmed.

“Listen, I brought you to Cannes, you’ve done alright,” Frears said, to which a grateful Greig trilled: “Oh, thank you for getting me off the radio!”

There was more conventional praise from one American reporter who cried out at the press conference: “I love Tamsin! I didn’t know her before and now I love her”.

Lost in Cannes: Roger Ebert’s MacBook

No doubt a lot of things have been lost in the city of Cannes on the French Riviera. but during the annual film festival here, we thought this one was noteworthy. (Especially since this year’s gathering has been rather lackluster. Read about that here).

On cafe tables in an industry pavilion at the annual gathering of filmmakers, critics and fans, this notice appeared on Monday: “REWARD for the return of Roger Ebert’s Macbook Pro.” Ebert, of course, is the award-winning film critic, so what resides on that hard drive might read like an encyclopedia (although Ebert’s writing has always been more lively than an encyclopedia) of film and film review. His website is here. One can only imagine its value to the critic, and to movie fans.

The Macbook was last seen, the notice says, on May 16 in a taxi out side the Carlton hotel on the Croisette, and it was in a brown tote bag with mini-speakers and a black sweater. We don’t know if it has yet to be found. But we do note that on his website his most recent update comments on the new film, “Another Year” by director Mike Leigh, and Leigh was working the press on Sunday, May 16.

Having lost (and then found) our own laptop PCs while on assignment, we can empathize. A journalist without something on which to write is like a musician without an instrument. If you find it, the note says, call the Hotel Splendid in Cannes.

Carey Mulligan: In “Wall Street”, but out of work

She got “An Education” and landed on “Wall Street,” but now Oscar-nominated actress Carey Mulligan is out of a job. … Really!

Mulligan, who wowed Hollywood in 2009′s low-budget British drama “An Education” was at the Cannes film festival this past week promoting her role in her first  big budget film, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” She spoke to reporters at the magnificent Hotel Du Cap in a seaside cabana with the breeze blowing through her hair. If it sounds carefree, it was. Mulligan, behind big dark sunglasses told reporters that after this film, she’s out of work. And that, she said, was “cool.”

“I’ve no idea what I’m doing next which is cool because I’ve always been, like, so freaked out when I haven’t had a job before now. ‘Wall Street’ was so different from ‘An Education’ and I was so nervous coming here (to Cannes) and really nervous watching the movie for the first time a couple of weeks ago in LA. ‘An Education’ got such a nice response and I’d hate for them (critics and fans) to be, like, ‘Yeah, she’s okay as a 16-year-old but stick to your day job, love.’”

In coming-of-age, British drama ‘An Education,’ Mulligan portrayed a teenager who falls in love with an older man only to have her heart broken. Her role in “Wall Street” is far different. She plays a young woman running a social activist website, and she is the love interest for the star character played by Shia LaBeouf, and daughter of master money manipulator Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). The movies are far different. The former, low budget. The latter, big-time Hollywood and led by star Michael Douglas and director Oliver Stone. But Mulligan said the size of the budget was just about the only difference for her — just about.

“I think I walked into an American film thinking this is going to be so huge and so scary and very different from our tiny crew (on “Education”) and it’s exactly the same. It’s just better food in America,” Mulligan said. “I mean, really, but other than that, it’s the same crew, the same kind of guys who still form all those nice relationships that make filming so much fun. It’s the same deal.”

But what about walking up the Cannes red carpet and seeing herself on the giant screen in the Grand Lumiere Theatre? “I shut my eyes when I was on screen,” she said. “I’ll watch it on the airplane, maybe, one day.”

And while we joke that she’s out of a job (knowing full well that plenty of work awaits her red hot career, we can’t help but worry a bit. You see, Mulligan may be working on “Wall Street” for the moment, but she says she’s not so good with her finances. “I’ve gone one bank account and very little interest in money,” she said. “Well, no, I like money. Everyone likes money, but I’m not, like, good at using it.”

Mike Leigh lays into reporter in Cannes

You can call a director’s latest film terrific, but it may not mean you get treated nicely.

Relations between filmmakers, actors and journalists inevitably come under pressure at the Cannes film festival, where people work (and party) long hours and often do not see eye to eye on the quality of a movie or performance. But in just three days of this year’s festival, there have been two terse, public exchanges between filmmakers, actors and reporters.

In Saturday’s flare-up, British director Mike Leigh took issue with a reporter from London’s Sunday Times. The bad blood between the two pre-dated the festival, but precisely why remained somewhat a mystery. The reporter was talking; Leigh wasn’t. Here is how the terse dialogue in the packed Cannes press room went:

Reporter: ”It’s a terrific film. I know we’ve had our disagreements in the past …”

Leigh: “You know, I don’t want to answer any of your questions and you know why, so I’d like to go on to the next question. Sorry, I refuse to answer your question and you know why that is.”

Reporter: “I don’t, actually, no.”

Mike Leigh: “Well now is not the time to discuss it, but you do. But I don’t want to answer your question.”