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.

Think your family’s bad? Cannes films beg to differ

This blog was written by Nick Vinocur in Cannes:

With jealous dads, sadistic sons and abandoned children in their key roles, many films in competition for the top prize at the Cannes film festival this year are taking on the very darkest sides of family life.

Two of the movies, Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and Israeli film “Footnote”, ask what happens when jealousy or hatred take the place of love and affection in a parent-child relationship.

“Footnote”, by director Joseph Cedar, is about an academic family in which father and son, both professors of Talmudic studies, end up hating one another due to jealousy over honours in their respective careers.

“We Need to Talk About Kevin” features a sadistic son who appears to hate his mother, played by Tilda Swinton, from the day he is born and does everything in his power to punish her, including a killing spree at his high school.

While “Footnote” takes a lighter tack, drawing laughs at its first screening in Cannes, neither movie gave the spectator any suggestion that in the end, love would prevail. To the contrary, in these families, the undertow of sadism or jealousy proves stronger than any filial bond — a dark view of modern family life on the filmmakers’ part.

In “The Kid With a Bike”, by Belgian filmmaking duo Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, there is a little more optimism — but not much. A 12-year-old boy moves mountains to locate a father who has abandoned him, only to be told that he is not wanted.

from Photographers Blog:

Shooting on the red carpet

By Eric Gaillard, Vincent Kessler, Jean-Paul Pelissier, Yves Herman and Christian Hartmann

Each year in May dozens of stars and photographers converge on the French Riviera at Cannes to attend what is recognized as the biggest film festival in the world. Since 1985, a Reuters Pictures team has taken part in the extravaganza.

This year, a team of five photographers from France, Switzerland and Belgium set up their headquarters in the basement of the Festival Palace on the eve of the 63th Cannes Film Festival. With the help of Paris-based editorial technicians Gilles and Sylvain, the 15 square meters cell was quickly transformed into an editing center as well as a stock room for equipment and a changing room to put on tuxedos.

As soon as the office was ready, photographers cruised the Croisette (a prominent boulevard in Cannes) looking for illustrative pictures for the upcoming Festival. Eric Gaillard, a festival veteran with 27 appearances to his credit, started to prepare his traditional and famous photo of the Jury President posing with a cinema clapper. This year, Tim Burton kindly accepted to pose for Eric on the balcony of his suite at the Carlton hotel. The picture was widely used by newspapers and internet sites.

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.

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.”

from Global News Journal:

Pusan International Film Festival unveils line up

The Pusan International Film Festival opens its 14th edition with “Good Morning President”, a movie taking a warm-hearted look at the ruthless and cold-blooded world of South Korean politics.

The festival is Asia largest and runs from October 8-16 in the South Korean port city of Busan. Organisers on Tuesday unveiled the line-up for the festival where 355 films from 70 countries will be screened, including 98 that will be world premieres.

The festival has its red carpet where several of South Korea’s and Asia’s biggest stars parade before the cameras but it pales in comparison to the glamorous showings in Cannes or Venice. What the Pusan fest does best is celebrate and promote Asian films. It is also one of the biggest film markets in the region where producers from, say, Malaysia can pick up distribution deals in Japan.

Influential Bollywood director and producer Yash Chopra will be honoured as filmmaker of the year at the festival, which is considered one of the top cinema honours in Asia.

The festival will have a special programme celebrating Hong Kong’s Johnnie To, called “The Hood in the City”, while French director Jean-Jacques Beineix will heads the jury for the New Currents award that honours new Asian directors.

from Global News Journal:

An Interview With South Korea’s Box Office Champ Director Bong Joon-ho

The South Korean director whose movie about a mutant river monster became the country's biggest box office hit has a new film on what might be an even more terrifying subject -- an maniacally obsessive mother.

Bong Joon-ho sat down last week for an interview with Reuters about his new movie called "Mother"that debuted last month at the Cannes International Film Festival and has quickly become one of South Korea's biggest hits of the year.

The movie is about a mother who goes to extremes to protect her emotionally and mentally unstable son after he is charged with murder. It follows Bong's movie "The Host," which was the first South Korean film to make more than $100 million at the local box office.

The following are excerpts from the interview in Korean and translated by Kim Junghyun 

Reuters: How would you describe your movie “Mother”?

Bong: It is a movie that brings this issue of motherhood to the extremes. This movie is about a mother, but not just a mother. It’s a mother whose son is facing a murder charge. International audiences might find it easier to approach this movie at first as a thriller.

Kylie sizzles in Cannes

Kylie Minogue’s music may not be to everyone’s taste, but she put on an impressive show late last night at a charity bash in Cannes. Sponsored by Chopard, the party suffered the same fate as other soirees at the film festival this year – the A-list was unusually short. That said, it was fun for the hundreds of mere mortals who did turn up.

In the blissfully uncrowded VIP area the Dom Perignon flowed freely all night, or at least until about 2 a.m. but by then it didn’t matter too much. Colleagues of mine who will remain nameless were quaffing from large tumblers — a crime against champagne if you ask me, but then, they didn’t seem to care what I thought.

And 40-year-old Kylie got the dancing going with a slick set for the Miracle Africa International Foundation Charity.

On her way in, the former TV star told Reuters she was keen to get back to work behind the camera.

“I definitely wouldn’t mind going back to my roots for a little bit and doing some acting. If I find the right project I will go into that with everything I’ve got.”

Barring a little unnecessary pushing and shoving by some over-zealous bouncers, it was feel-good all the way, and a perfect way to start winding things up at this year’s Cannes. Back to the hotel at 4 a.m. and up this morning for a couple of double espressos and some more movies. The curtain falls on Sunday night … we’re nearly there.

Forget 3D. Jim Carrey does Christmas in 4D!

Every year, movie distributors pull out all the promotional stops to gain the media’s attention here at the Cannes film festival. Two years ago, it was Jerry Seinfeld, dressed in a bee outfit and attached to a cable at the top of a roughly 10-story hotel that gently “flew” him down to the beach below. He was promoting his ” Bee Movie” from DreamWorks Animation.

This year, so far, the stunt of Cannes belongs to Disney, which turned on snow machines in the heat and sun outside the Carlton Hotel, covering the road with white stuff while comedian Jim Carrey was driven to the front of the hotel in a horse-drawn carriage. Hundreds of photographers snapped away as he promoted his upcoming title, “Disney’s A Christmas Carol.”

The movie is, of course, a re-imagined tale of the classic Charles Dickens novel about how mean old Scrooge is visited by ghosts who eventually convince him to change his miserly ways and soak in some Christmas spirit. The new twist is this “Christmas Carol” is animated, and uses motion capture technology to create lifelike cartoon characters. And, it will be released in 3D.

Carrey portrays Scrooge, along with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After the splashy photo call, director Robert Zemeckis was asked by reporters whether there would be enough digitally-equipped screens to show the movie broadly when it debuts in November — a key issue in the industry. He answered that even if there were not, the movie would still look great in 2-D. Then Carrey piped up.

“I was actually in the movie and for me it was 4-D, and you can’t imagine what it was possibly like.”

No Jim, we can’t.

The footage looked strong, however, and regardless of how it eventually does in movie theaters one thing is for sure, it ruled the day here at Cannes, and gave Disney a big media gift wrapped in a bow — and covered with snow.

Cannes’ famous Croisette lights up the night

Here at the Cannes film festival along the world famous Croisette, which is not unlike a seaside boardwalk in the U.S., a sort of circus atmosphere lights up the night as tourists stroll along the beachside walkway. Posh hotels, designer boutiques and restaurants border the Croisette and its adjacent boulevard. Artists and street performers work the crowds that come out to see film stars who are here to attend the festival. Movie companies advertise their upcoming films, and industry pros take a break from business to schmooze a little. A nighttime view is pictured above, and for a video look, click below:

And to read some of our early stories from Cannes, click below:

Jane Campion

Martin Scorsese

Lou Ye’s banned Chinese Film

Opening Night