Cannes 2005

[rustinglass]

Sophie Marceau's wardrobe malfunction:
http://www.thesuperficial.com/archives/000907.html

[tpfkabi]

like everyone else, i did a doubletake on the whole Tommy Lee Jones thing.

very unexpected.

very unexpected indeed.

i'm ready to hear the (spoiler free) reaction to Episode III.

[cron]

   

Mexican sex story tipped for top prize


Star Wars Episode III may be the blockbuster of the moment. But the movie festival-goers were fighting tooth and nail to see yesterday was not George Lucas's latest epic, but a small Mexican film that, along with Michael Haneke's Caché, is a favourite for the Palme D'Or.
But the film, Batalla en el Cielo (Battle in Heaven), had attracted controversy for its highly explicit sexual content even before its premiere in Cannes.


The film opens with a shot of a scruffily bearded man's face, expressionless behind his aviator spectacles. The camera pans down his utterly still body - his flabby upper arms, his immense belly - to reveal the head of a young girl, who is enthusiastically performing fellatio on him. As the camera pans round to her face, a tear drops from her eye.
Director Carlos Reygadas, hugely admired for his Cannes debut feature Japón in 2002, has dissociated the film entirely from pornography. "The whole of the world is involved in sex: that's how we continue," he said yesterday. "What happens during sex, how people communicate - that's what the film is about."

The film is set in an unforgiving Mexico City. Marcos and his wife have kidnapped a baby - but the child has died. Meanwhile Ana, the daughter of the general whom Marcos works for as a driver, prostitutes herself for pleasure.

"Seeing a young, pretty, well-off woman (Ana) suck off a poor and older man (Marcos) can be really upsetting for some people in the audience," Reygadas said.

"On the surface, the shock is aesthetic, but in fact the taboo is much deeper. It's about social differences. If the man were a rich drug trafficker ... they'd just think the girl was a prostitute. I'm not being provocative gratuitously, but to unleash strong feelings in the viewer." [/b]

[MacGuffin]

More details:

Explicit sex in Mexican film causes stir at Cannes

The world may not be waiting for a feature film showing two obese Mexicans having sex after their attempt to kidnap a baby goes horribly wrong, but Carlos Reygadas said on Sunday his film captures real life.

The Mexican director of "Batalla en el Cielo" (Battle in Heaven) said he included explicit scenes using his cast of non-professional actors because sex consumes everyday life, and he considers carefully scripted cinema sex to be a farce.

His couple are in unaesthetic middle-age.

"Most people look more like them than the beautiful people you see in advertisements," Reygadas told a news conference after screening of his competition entry at the Cannes film festival.

"I never wanted to film fat people making love," he added. "These were just two people. They weren't beautiful."

Reygadas said his film -- which drew some boos and whistles at a press screening, and questions from journalists at the news conference about the purpose of the sex scenes -- was the antithesis of pornography.

He said he included scenes that shocked -- such as the opening, when a teenage girl performs fellatio on the overweight Mexican man -- to draw viewers into the story.

"It's not a sex film or a porn film," he said. "Porn aims to sexually excite the viewer. That's not what this is about. It was to create a sense that this goes much further than simple sex. There's a mystery behind it."

After the graphic opening, it turns out the middle-aged man, Marcos, is a chauffeur whose kidnapping with his wife of a middle-class Mexico City family's baby is botched. The baby dies mysteriously.

Reygadas noted that kidnappings are common in Mexico.

NO PROFESSIONAL ACTORS

Marcos, played by Marcos Hernandez, then gets intimate with his boss's attractive but troubled young daughter Ana, played by Ana Mushkadiz. Both were amateurs with no experience in acting.

Marcos confides his dark secret to Ana, who despite her family's wealth works in a brothel for amusement. She tells him to go to the police. They have sex again. He later kills her.

"The whole world is involved in sex," said Reygadas, whose last film "Japon" made a splash at a previous Cannes festival for an extraordinary sex scene between a middle-aged man and an elderly woman. "Things happen when people make love. That's what this film is about. It's how we relate to it."

Reygadas said he wanted amateur actors for his film. He also said he finds absurd the way many commercial films carefully arrange bed sheets in a completely unrealistic way to conceal body parts during sex scenes, or use actors with perfect bodies.

"I said 'no professional actors, please'," he said. "The aim of this film was to capture the essence of the characters and I wanted to do that with non-professional actors who didn't have any particular acting technique."

He said Marcos, who has worked with his father at the Ministry of Culture in Mexico for decades, had long been a close friend. He discovered Ana, an art designer, at a casting.

Both said they weren't sure they would ever act again.

"I never wanted to be an actress," she said. "If nothing ever comes my way again, I don't care at all."

[MacGuffin]

DISPATCH FROM CANNES: George Lucas and Lars von Trier, With "Manderlay" and "Sith," Two Americans Question America?
Source: indieWIRE

An unlikely pair of films, Lars von Trier's "Manderlay" and George Lucas' "Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," debuted over the past two days here at the Cannes Film Festival offering criticism of the United States. "Manderlay" is critical in a more direct fashion with director Lars von Trier lashing out at George W. Bush, while in "Revenge of the Sith," which wraps up a six-part story involving the emergence of a dominant evil empire, creator George Lucas drew striking parallels between his films and U.S. history.

Railing against political correctness and even asserting that he is in essence an American, filmmaker Lars von Trier discussed his new film "Manderlay" this morning (Monday) in Cannes after a screening that left many journalists and film critics applauding loudly. "I have gotten a lot of advice about what not to say at this press conference," he told journalists today, indicting the use of political correctness (in interviews or in broader public discourse) that prevents true dialogue about important issues. "There is one thing that really kills any debate in any country -- its political correctness that stops any discussion, I think its kind of a fear of talking." Later, he reinforced, " Political correctness stops us (from) talking or thinking about things."

In Lars von Trier's powerful new film "Manderlay" (screened for press earlier today here in Cannes) -- the second installment in his USA trilogy -- the Danish filmmaker tackles slavery as a key topic. [Ed. Note: A partial plot summary of "Manderlay" is included in this paragraph.] Grace, played in this movie by newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, leaves the town of Dogville and drives to Alabama with her father (Willem Dafoe) where she finds the Manderlay plantation and its group of black slaves (among them Danny Glover and Isaach de Bankolé) still held by white owners, 70 years after they should have been freed. So she decides to take matters into her own hands engaging the help of gangsters who stand guard with guns to enforce her imposition of the slaves' freedom. Grace's decision to free the slaves of Manderlay destroys a delicate dynamic that once existed on the farm and in the end, they want to return to slavery. The film will have its gala premiere in Cannes tonigh t.

Probed by a journalist about the universal nature of the story depicted in "Manderlay," which could apply to many countries and political situations, von Trier reacted, "I am happy to have you see it in a more general way. It is about America and my own country and any country, you could say."

George Lucas' final installment in his six-part "Star Wars" saga, the striking "Revenge of the Sith" is also seen as having universal applications. The film, screened for the media yesterday ahead of its splashy world premiere last night, left some praising the new movie as perhaps the second best next to "Empire Strikes Back" and others offering more critical takes.

"This really came out of the Vietnam era," Lucas said of the "Star Wars" story during yesterday's press conference, noting the relevance today and adding that such themes have recurred throughout history, as well. And, he emphasized that "Star Wars" is strikingly relevant today. [Ed. Note: A partial plot summary of "Revenge of the Sith" is included in this paragraph.] A key line that draws parallels to today occurs during a key confrontation between Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), accepting the role of Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) his betrayed mentor. If you're not with me, you are my enemy," threatens the wayward Jedi, with his master responding, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." The democratic Republic, led by a poisoned Senate, hands over power to its Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, a Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious who empowers Darth Vader.

"When I wrote 'Star Wars', Iraq didn't exist. We were just funding Saddam Hussein and giving him weapons of mass destruction, we weren't worried about him," said George Lucas yesterday at the press conference. And then he added, "The parallels between Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable. I didn't think it was going to get quite this close -- I hope this doesn't become true in our country. Maybe the film will wake people to see how easily a democracy can be subverted."

With the knowledge that Lars von Trier has never been to America, journalists this morning asked the filmmaker to address his reasons for pursuing a trilogy of films set in the United States. "America is a big subject because such a big part of our lives have to do with America," he said, "I must say, I feel there could just as well be American military in Denmark. We are a nation under influence and under a very bad influence... because Mr. Bush is an asshole and doing very idiotic things." Continuing, he reflected on the U.S. dominacnce over other countries and culture. "America is sitting on our world, I am making films that have to do with America (because) 60% of my life is America. So I am in fact an American, but I can't go there to vote, I cant change anything. I am an American, so that is why I make films about America."

However, von Trier has decided to put his American films on hold for a bit, rather than immediately begin work on the third part of the trilogy he has decided to instead work on a new Dogme movie. "I have a way of punishing myself by making three films that look the same," he quipped. "I thought that would a mature thing, right now I am not ready, so I need a little break."

With this final chapter of the 'Star Wars' story, George Lucas has concluded his pair of trilogies, filling in the backstory on a tale that we know has a happy ending. "This is not the fun, happy go lucky movie that some of the others were," George Lucas said yesterday, re-emphasizing that it is the end of the saga and saying again that there will be no more "Star Wars" films.

"This is about the tragedy of Darth Vader, it starts when he is 9 years old and ends when he dies," Lucas said. "There really isn't any more story."

[MacGuffin]

Belgian Film 'The Child' Wins at Cannes

The Belgian film "The Child" about a young petty crook suddenly faced with the responsibilities of fatherhood, won top honors Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival.

It was the second time a movie by sibling filmmakers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne won the prestigious Palme d'Or. Their teen drama "Rosetta" took the main Cannes prize six years ago.

The award was presented by Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, who won Academy Awards in February for Clint Eastwood's boxing saga "Million Dollar Baby."

Receiving the second-place grand prize was U.S. director Jim Jarmusch's "Broken Flowers," a droll drama starring Bill Murray as an aging Don Juan in pursuit of the son he never knew he had.

Tommy Lee Jones was honored as best actor for "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," his feature-film directing debut in which he plays a Texas ranch hand who forces his best friend's killer (Barry Pepper) to dig up the body and haul it for reburial in Mexico. The film also won the screenplay award for Mexican writer Guillermo Arriaga.

Hanna Laslo earned the best-actress prize for her role as a gabby cabdriver in Israeli director Amos Gitai's "Free Zone," a road-trip tale through the Middle East.

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke received the directing award for "Hidden," his cryptic thriller about a couple menaced by a video stalker.

The third-place jury prize was given to Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai's "Shanghai Dreams," a love story set among workers who dutifully obeyed the government's call to relocate to factories in a remote new territory in the 1960s.

The award for best film by a first-time director was shared by U.S. filmmaker Miranda July for "Me and You and Everyone We Know" and Vimukthi Jayasundara of Sri Lanka for "The Forsaken Land."

On Friday, Romanian director Cristi Puiu's "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," a tale of a lonely widower living with three cats, won the top prize in a secondary Cannes competition called "Un Certain Regard." July's "Me and You and Everyone We Know," took main honors in a third Cannes category overseen by critics.

Awards night was a quieter affair than last year, when firebrand Michael Moore took the top prize, the Palme d'Or, for "Fahrenheit 9/11," his scathing critique of President Bush over the Sept. 11 attacks and the Iraq war.

The lineup of 21 films in the main competition did not produce any universally loathed turkeys like Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" two years ago, but it also did not offer any odds-on favorites that had audiences raving.

The consensus among Cannes crowds was that the main competition produced a solid but unremarkable crop of films.

The main attractions during the 12-day festival were two films that played outside the competition. "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith" was the festival's centerpiece, with the sci-fi franchise's creator George Lucas and stars Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson parading down a red carpet swarming with actors in white storm trooper costumes and a black Darth Vader outfit.

Woody Allen's "Match Point," a comic drama starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Emily Mortimer, proved to be his most crowd-pleasing film in years. Some critics said it would have been a key contender had it been in the competition.

The 58th edition of the world's most prestigious film festival wraps up Sunday with encore screenings of the winners and runners-up.

The festival's closing film, British director Martha Fiennes' comic drama "Chromophobia," premiered immediately after the awards. The ensemble cast included the director's brother, Ralph Fiennes, plus Penelope Cruz, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ian Holm in the story of a dysfunctional family coming apart at the seams.

[Gold Trumpet]

The Dardenne Brothers....the best fucking filmmakers in the world.

[rustinglass]

Hmmmm. I don't know how I feel about this... I didn't like Rosetta at all.
So the Dardennes join Francis Coppola and Kusturica himself as two-time Palme d'Or winners.

[bonanzataz]

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke received the directing award for "Hidden," his cryptic thriller about a couple menaced by a video stalker. [/size]

i love you, michael, but this sounds an awful lot like lost highway...

i need to rent time of the wolf. anybody see that? how was it?

[Myxo]

So, apparently this "Broken Flowers" film is good eh?

[Pubrick]

So, apparently this "Broken Flowers" film is good eh?

ugh, what.

Belgian Film 'The Child' Wins at Cannes

The Belgian film "The Child" about a young petty crook suddenly faced with the responsibilities of fatherhood, won top honors Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival.

euros love that damn story. kolya, anyone?

[MacGuffin]

Jury unimpressed with Cannes films as credits roll

The quality of the movies at this year's Cannes Film Festival fell short of expectations, the president of the jury said on Sunday, casting a shadow over the annual cinema extravaganza.

As the credits rolled on the 11-day movie marathon, Emir Kusturica made no secret of his disappointment at the 21 films in the official selection.

"We had a selection where I think the average wasn't very high," he told a final news conference. "I felt that most of the films were a little bit less good than I expected."

He said three movies could have won the coveted Palme d'Or, which eventually went to Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for "L'Enfant," a powerful, documentary-style film about a young thief who sells his own child.

Paparazzi were also less than impressed with the star talent on display on the red carpet and at late-night parties along the bustling Croisette waterfront.

"This year is pretty poor for stars," said one seasoned snapper who has been covering Cannes for 22 years.

"The opening evening, for example, was very French. For me it is a bit of a shame to have only French people and not any really major stars."

Not everyone was as gloomy, however.

"This is a good year for serious cinema," said British film critic and author Mark Cousins.

"It seems to me that there were more potential 'palmists', or winners this year. By my reckoning there were seven films that were possible winners. Usually it's four, or even three."

After triumphing with "Rosetta" in 1999, the Dardennes' victory places the double-winning duo in elite company.

The other big winner at Saturday's glittering evening ceremony was Hollywood actor Tommy Lee Jones, who has directed his first feature film that went on to win best screenplay and best actor for Jones himself.

"The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" explores life along the American-Mexican border, and Jones plays a gnarled ranch foreman out to give his dead friend a decent burial.

IN SEARCH OF A MOTHER

American Jim Jarmusch took the runner-up prize for "Broken Flowers," a portrayal of a man in his 50s who is told he has a son he did not know of, and goes in search of the mother.

Bill Murray is at his deadpan best, and stars alongside Sharon Stone and Jessica Lange in one of the competition's most commercial and accessible films.

Austrian Michael Haneke may be the most disappointed of the major filmmakers in Cannes, although he picked up best director for "Cache" (Hidden).

The French film starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche was the critics' favorite leading into the awards, and was widely praised for its exploration of personal and national guilt, and the pain of facing up to one's past.

Ample compensation, though, comes with distribution deals across the world for the sometimes shocking work.

Photographers grumbled there were too few stars who combined success on the screen with celebrity glamour, with the notable exception of Sharon Stone. Last year Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Charlize Theron filled that void.

Hollywood heavyweights were in attendance, though. Murray, Morgan Freeman, Mickey Rourke, Hilary Swank, Penelope Cruz and Natalie Portman all graced Cannes.

George Lucas was also in town, with the world premiere of his final "Star Wars" instalment which has gone on to break box office records.

Many disagreed with the jury's decision to crown the Dardenne brothers a second time.

"I liked the Dardenne movie very much but I think it's a bit of a waste after the prize they received six years go," said Michel Ciment, film critic for French magazine Positif.

He and others agreed that Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-Hsien deserved something for his "Three Times," featuring three stories set in three different times but using the same actors.

[Weak2ndAct]

There are a bunch of flicks I'm dying to see from Cannes, but this review officially bumps one to the top...

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

(U.S.-France)

A EuropaCorp and Javelina Film Co. presentation. (International sales: EuropaCorp, Paris.) Produced by Michael Fitzgerald, Luc BessonLuc Besson, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Tommy Lee Jones. Directed by Tommy Lee Jones. Screenplay, Guillermo Arriaga.

Pete Perkins - Tommy Lee Jones
Mike Norton - Barry Pepper
Melquiades Estrada - Julio Cesar Cedillo
Belmont - Dwight Yoakam
Lou Ann Norton - January Jones
Rachel - Melissa Leo
Old Man With Radio - Levon HelmHelm
Captain Gomez - Mel Rodriguez
Rosa - Cecilia Suarez
Lucio - Ignacio Guadalupe
Mariana - Vanessa Bauche

By TODD MCCARTHY

Tommy Lee Jones won a Cannes acting prize for his role in 'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,' which was also his bigscreen directorial debut.

From its palpable rapport with the rugged Tex-Mex landscape to its simultaneously jaundiced and generous view of the human condition, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" looks and feels like the best Sam Peckinpah movie since the late maverick himself ventured south of the border. Tommy Lee Jones' bracing bigscreen directorial debut, which copped acting and writing awards from the Cannes Film Festival jury, connects with both the head and the heart. Critical acclaim will guarantee interest among smart specialized audiences, but it will take a masterful campaign by a committed distribdistrib to muscle the film, which is about half in Spanish, to deserved success with the general public, including the growing Hispanic market.
Outstandingly realized on all levels, the picture filters a harsh story of senseless and brutal behavior through a sensibility strongly attuned to the absurd, humorous and illogical aspects of existence. Behind it all is a tale of redemption, an insistence on the significance of all human life in a geographic and political context in which life's value is easily and commonly minimized.

Penned by Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, "Three Burials" is told in a fractured, non-sequential way, complete with chapter headings ("The First Burial," etc.), although it's simpler structurally than the two films that put the scripterscripter on the map, "Amores perros""Amores Perros" and "21 Grams."

After a brief prologue in which two hunters in the desert come upon a coyote feasting on a man's corpse, pic sets up the dynamics in dirt-poor border area Cibolo County, Texas. Young Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) has just arrived to work for the hard-pressed Border Patrol. Sullen and uncommunicative, he does nothing to ease the transition for his uncommonly gorgeous wife Lou Ann (January JonesJanuary Jones), who spends parts of her vacant days at the local diner, where she befriends straight-shooter waitress Rachel (Melissa LeoLeo).

A woman who makes it her business to get what she wants, Rachel is married to the cafe owner, but is having simultaneous affairs with rugged, down-to-earth ranch foreman Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) and local Sheriff Belmont (Dwight Yoakam). Pete hires a young illegal from Mexico, Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo), with whom he forges a strong bond, while Belmont takes an expedient view of dealing with both the Border Patrol and the difficult daily issues of crime and illegals.

Although crucial incidents are revealed at select moments and from different points of view, the pivotal act has Mike, panicked by gunfire he hears while on routine desert patrol, accidentally killing Melquiades, whose body he hastily buries. A resulting cover-up has the local authorities decide not to pursue justice in the case, since it was "only" an illegal who died.

Enraged when he learns of this, Pete barges into Mike's home, tying up Lou Ann (who, as arranged by Pete, had been conducting a secret affair with Melquiades), and taking Mike away in order to administer his own form of correct moral justice.

The film gets down to business in the surprising, vivid second half. Pete compels Mike to dig up Melquiades' body and journey on horseback into Mexico, where, in fulfillment of a promise, the cowboy will bury Melquiades in his native village near his family.

This forced march, which recalls aspects not only of Peckinpah but "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," is necessarily brutal and bitter, as Pete keeps Mike in suspense as to his own fate just as he tries to push him to full recognition of the stupidity and severity of his horrible act.

The script and Jones' acutely intelligent work as director and actor give the journey a full-bodied dimensionality shot through with abundant flavors. There's the comic absurdity of Pete's attentions to Melquiades' rapidly deteriorating corpse, which include partially burning it to kill devouring ants and brushing its hair, which promptly falls out in clumps. There's brutality in a poisonous snake bite and the beating of a young woman, and unexpected poetic grace at an isolated desert cantina where a girl plays Chopin on an out-of-tune old piano.

Road to the climax contains surprises of its own, both for the characters and audience, and payoff is richly earned.

Arriaga's script is so deeply conceived that, even though the characters do many profoundly misguided things, the viewer understands these people well enough to accept them; there's no melodramatic good-and-evil here, but a range of human pros and cons hopelessly intertwined.

Jones' gritty, clearheaded direction amplifies these qualities; it's at one with the material in much the same way the life-and-death drama finds its natural stage in the desert. Reinforcing this feeling is Chris Menges' widescreen cinematography, which is exceptionally expressive of the rough textures of the landscapes (some of the action was filmed on Jones' own West Texas ranch).

Playing an iconic, grizzled, old-style cowpoke, Jones takes him deeper, investing Pete with values simple but not simplistic and navigating a path that does right by everyone in his life who deserves it.

Pepper potently puts over the most problematic role -- that of a young, shallow man who hasn't yet learned to properly deal with either life's bounty (his lovely wife) or its hardships (a challenging job).

Leo invests her wonderfully conceived role with a zest for life, while January Jones is an alluring, sympathetic vessel waiting to be filled. Yoakam and Cedillo are fine in the other significant parts.

Camera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen), Chris Menges; editor, Roberto Silvi; music, Marco Beltrami; production designer, Merideth Boswell; art director, Jeff Knipp; set decorator, Phil Shirey; costume designer, Kathleen Kiatta; sound (Dolby/DTS), Mark Weingarten; re-recording mixer, Dominique Hennequin; line producer, Eric Austin Williams; assistant director, Philip Hardage; casting, Jeanne McCarthyJeanne McCarthy, Jo Edna Boldin (Texas), Manuel Teil (Mexico). Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (competing), May 19, 2005. Running time: 121 MIN.
(English, Spanish dialogue)