Cannes

[MacGuffin]

Sean Penn to top Cannes jury
Festival being held from May 14-25
Source: Variety

Sean Penn has been named the jury president for this year's Cannes fest, being held from May 14-25.

"In the last few years," Penn said, "it seems there has been a rejuvenation of cinema building worldwide; increasingly thoughtful, provocative, moving, and imaginative films by talented filmmakers: that a new generation of filmmaking may have begun. The Cannes Film Festival has long been the epicenter in the discovery of those new waves of filmmakers from all over the world. I very much look forward to participating in this year's festival as President of the jury."

Penn won the best male performance prize at Cannes in 1997 for "She's So Lovely" by Nick Cassavetes.

[MacGuffin]

Clint Eastwood's `Changeling' leads Cannes Film Festival

American directors Clint Eastwood and Steven Soderbergh will headline the streamlined competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which features fewer big-name directors and more emerging voices from across the globe.

Eastwood will show "Changeling," a mystery set in 1920s Los Angeles and starring Angelina Jolie as the mother of a kidnapped child. Soderbergh, the director of the lighthearted series that began with "Ocean's Eleven," gets serious with his four-hour-long marathon, "Che," about Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Guevara, organizers said Wednesday.

Organizers said they would announce the movies that will open and close the festival, which runs May 14-25, at a later date.
 
Harrison Ford dons his khakis for the latest installment of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones series. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" also stars Australian actress Cate Blanchett, and will be screened out of competition.

Festival head Thierry Fremaux said he was thrilled Spielberg had chosen to premiere the movie at Cannes.

"It's amazing," he said. "A big portion of festival-goers and journalists grew up with Steven Spielberg's first movies."

Woody Allen's Spanish-set "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" will play in the same category, as will Serbian director Emir Kusturica's "Maradona," a documentary about Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona. Kusturica has won the Palme d'Or, Cannes' top prize, twice, in 1985 and 1995.

Organizers said the 61st edition of the French Riviera festival will mark a shift in the spirit of the event, known for its mix of Hollywood blockbusters and small art-house films.

They said they'd pared down the offerings in the main competition from 22 last year to 20 this year and nixed some of the sideline events to put the spotlight back on cinema.

This year, smaller productions by lesser-known directors appear to have the upper hand over blockbusters. Organizers explained that many of the festival's favorite star directors like Britain's Stephen Frears ("The Queen") and Spain's Pedro Almodovar ("Volver") are presently working on new movies.

The main competition lineup includes movies by art-house directors from Belgium, Turkey, China, France, Argentina, Brazil and Italy. Eight of the directors have never before appeared in Cannes' main competition.

Brazilian director Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries") is showing "Linha de Passe," the story of brothers trying to scrape their way out of poverty. Argentina's Lucrecia Martel makes her debut at Cannes with "La Mujer Sin Cabeza (The Woman Without a Head)," which explores the psychology of a woman after she hits and kills a dog with her car.

Award-winning Chinese director Jia Zhangke, whose "Still Life" took the top prize at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, continues to explore how economic expansion affects China's legions of poor. "24 City" is about the relocation of an aircraft factory and its workers in the southwestern Chinese city Chengdu.

American screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Adaptation") makes his directorial debut with "Synechdoche, New York," starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Germany's Wim Wenders, who won the Palme d'Or for his melancholic 1984 movie, "Paris, Texas," will screen "The Palermo Shooting," a drama with a multilingual, multinational cast.

Palme d'Or laureates Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who took top honors at the 1999 and 2005 festivals, are back with "Le Silence de Lorna (Lorna's Silence)." Known for their harrowing portraits of those on the margins of society, the Belgian brothers tell the story of the marriage between a drug addict and an illegal immigrant.

In a festival first, an animated documentary has been selected for the main competition. Israeli writer-director Ari Folman's "Waltz With Bashir" grapples with the 1982 massacre of Palestinians by Christian militia members in Lebanon.

Sean Penn, the American actor-director, leads the jury, which also includes Natalie Portman. The Palme d'Or and other awards will be announced May 25.

Though festival regular Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction") isn't presenting a new movie, the 1994 Palme d'Or laureate will give a master class on moviemaking to students and film buffs.

[Redlum]

Cannes, le Mépris

[MacGuffin]

'Class' takes Cannes top prize
First French film to nab Palme d'Or since 1987
By TODD MCCARTHY; Variety

Laurent Cantet's "The Class" (Entre les murs), an evocation of contemporary society as seen through a year's events in a Paris junior high school classroom, went to the top of the class by winning the Palme d'Or of the 61st Cannes Film Festival. Prevailing by a unanimous decision of the jury, it became the first French film to cop the festival's main prize since "Under Satan's Sun" in 1987.

Runner-up award, the Grand Prix, went to "Gomorrah," Italian director Matteo Garrone's unsparing look at organized crime in Naples, while Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the directing prize for "Three Monkeys," an intense drama of a family pulled apart by crime and suspicion. The Turkish helmer took the Grand Prix in 2003 for "Distant."

Helping Italy have its best Cannes in many a season, Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo," a caustic and stylish look at former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, nabbed the jury prize.

Benicio Del Toro was named best actor for the title role in "Che," the unconventional Che Guevara biopic which he also co-produced, while little-known Brazilian thesp Sandra Corveloni won the actress prize playing the pregnant single mother of four boys in Sao Paulo's slums in "Linha de passe."

Two-time Palme d'Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne were given the best screenplay prize for "Lorna's Silence," a drama about a young female immigrant in Belgium under intense pressure from several men.

The victory of "The Class" was received with great enthusiasm by the crowd inside the Palais on the blustery Sunday evening. Incredibly, other than for "Satan's Sun," purely French productions have only won Cannes' top prize two other times since 1960, for "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" in 1964 and, in a shared award, Henri Colpi's "Un aussi long absence" in 1961.

In announcing the Palme at the occasionally boisterous televised awards ceremony that featured a few minor gaffes, jury president Sean Penn called "The Class" "an amazing, amazing film," and further extolled it at the subsequent jury press conference, calling it a "virtually seamless film. All the performances, magic. All the writing, magic. It just touched us so deeply."

In the distribution of awards and the jurors' comments, there was a feeling that the nine judges had taken their job very seriously and considered the 22 contenders from all angles. At the press conference, jurors suggested that there were several other films they rated highly -- specifically Clint Eastwood's "Changeling" (locally known as "The Exchange," the English translation of its French title), Arnaud Desplechin's "A Christmas Tale" and Ari Folman's "Waltz With Bashir." To cover the first two of these, the jury created something called the "special prize of the 61st Cannes Film Festival" to give to Eastwood, who did not appear to collect it, and to Catherine Deneuve, one of the stars of "A Christmas Tale," who took the stage to receive the equivalent of a life achievement award.

As for Folman's animated Israeli film of memory and combat, Penn said, "I think it's a wonderful film," while fellow juror Natalie Portman allowed that, "I think it's testament to the amazing selection that a film as good as 'Waltz With Bashir' didn't win an award."

Not only was "Bashir" widely expected to win something, but over the weekend much industry gossip centered on the presumed likelihood of a Penn jury giving a top prize to "Che" as a way to support maverick independent filmmaking. "Che" did win the actor prize, but at the press conference Penn said that, "I was happy to find out that buzz means nothing, and this jury is entirely uninfluenced."

Aside from Penn and Portman, other jury members were German actress Alexandra Maria Lara, French director Rachid Bouchareb, Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, Iranian writer-director Marjane Satrapi, Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Italian actor-director Sergio Castellitto and French actress Jeanne Balibar.

Cannes 2008 was an unusual edition in the sense that critical reactions ranged all over the map on many prominent films -- raves, middling views and pans could be found for even the most prestigious titles. In addition, just when the fest seemed to have climaxed on Wednesday with "Che," a prime example of a film provoking all kinds of reactions, along came two surprise hits, "Il Divo" and the eventual winner, "The Class," right at the end to provide a final electric charge and end the fest on a high note.

PRIZES OF THE 61ST CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

INTL. COMPETITION JURY PRIZES
Palme d'Or
"The Class" (dir. Laurent Cantet, France)
Grand Prix
"Gomorrah" (Matteo Garrone, Italy)
Special Prizes of the 61st Cannes Festival
Catherine Deneuve ("A Christmas Tale") and Clint Eastwood ("Changeling")
Director
Nuri Bilge Ceylan ("Three Monkeys,"Turkey-France-Italy)
Jury Prize
"Il Divo" (Paolo Sorrentino, Italy)
Actor
Benicio Del Toro ("Che," Spain-France)
Actress
Sandra Corveloni ("Linha de passe," Brazil-France)
Screenplay
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne ("Lorna's Silence," Belgium-France-Italy-Germany)

SHORT FILMS JURY PRIZES
Palme d'Or
"Megatron" (Marian Crisan, Romania)
Special Mention
"Jerrycan" (Julius Avery, Australia)

UN CERTAIN REGARD JURY AWARDS
Main Prize
"Tulpan"(Sergey Dvortsevoy, Germany)
Jury Prize
"Tokyo Sonata" (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan)
Heart Throb Jury Prize
"Cloud 9"(Andreas Dresen, Germany)
The Knockout of Un Certain Regard
"Tyson" (James Toback, U.S.)
The Prize of Hope
"Johnny Mad Dog"(Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, France)

OTHER JURY AWARDS
Camera d'Or
"Hunger" (Steve McQueen, U.K.);
Special Mention
"Everybody Dies But Me"(Valeria Gai Germanika, Russia)
Cinefondation Awards
"Anthem"(Elad Keidan, Israel) - first prize; "Forbach"(Claire Burger, France) - second prize; "Stop" (Park Jae-ok, S. Korea), "Roadmarkers"(Juho Kuosmanen, Finland) - third prize, shared
Fipresci Awards:
"Delta"(Kornel Mundruczo, Hungary-Germany) - Competition; "Hunger"- Un Certain Regard; "Eldorado"(Bouli lanners, Belgium-France) - Directors' Fortnight
Ecumenical Award
"Adoration"(Atom Egoyan, Canada-France)

[MacGuffin]

Cannes unveils lineup
Heavyweight auteurs vie for Palme d'Or

PARIS -- It's official: Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee and Pedro Almodovar will face off with Jane Campion, Ken Loach, Michael Haneke and Park Chan-wook in Cannes' biggest heavyweight auteur smackdown in recent years.

All have snagged Competition berths at next month's 62nd Cannes Festival, whose Official Selection was unveiled Thursday at a packed press conference in Paris' Grand Hotel by program topper Thierry Fremaux and fest prez Gilles Jacob.

As forecast, this year's Competition is heavy on European and Asian fare. Large swathes of the globe (including Latin America, Central Europe, Scandinavia, Africa and the Near East) are unrepped, and, with only two U.S. titles in the battle for the Palme -- "Inglourious Basterds" and "Taking Woodstock" -- it's the thinnest Yank presence in Competition since 2006.

Tarantino's "Basterds," a World War II actioner toplining Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Mike Myers and Eli Roth, leads the Croisette charge for the U.S., followed by Ang Lee's "Woodstock," a comedic take on the legendary concert, with Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Emile Hirsch.

Even in the non-competing sidebars of the Official Selection, which usually showcase big-name Hollywood fare, it's slim pickings for the U.S. this year. Sam Raimi's horror opus "Drag Me to Hell," already a highlight in an unfinished version at March's SXSW fest, scores a Midnight Screening slot, while Anne Aghion's docu on post-Rwanda Massacre reconciliation, "My Neighbor, My Killer," has a Special Screenings berth.

Aside from this year's opening film, Pixar 3-D toon "Up," the only other U.S. pic in the Official Selection is Lee Daniels' Sundance multi-prizewinner, "Precious," in Un Certain Regard.

Among names strongly rumored to have been offered slots but not figuring in the final selection, most prominent is Francis Ford Coppola, with his indie project, "Tetro," starring Vincent Gallo. Pic is reported to have been offered a non-competing slot.

Heading the list of fave Cannes names in Competition are Almodovar ("Broken Embraces"), Campion ("Bright Star"), Loach (soccer-centered drama "Looking for Eric"), von Trier (psychodrama "Antichrist") and Austrian Michael Haneke's ("The White Ribbon," about incipient fascism in 1919 Germany).

Amping up the Fortress Auteur look of this year's Competition -- which features not a single name new to Cannes or any first-timers -- are Isabel Coixet's "Map of the Sounds of Tokyo" and Italian vet Marco Bellocchio's "Vincere."

Park Chan-wook's "Thirst" leads the strong Asian presence in Competition. He's joined by more Asian titles: Johnnie To's "Vengeance," starring Johnny Hallyday on the rampage in Hong Kong, Brillante Mendoza's "Kinatay" and "Face," a French-set extravaganza from Taiwan-based maverick Tsai Ming-liang. China's Lou Ye ("Summer Palace") is back at Cannes with a reportedly torrid young love-triangle tale, "Spring Fever."

Otherwise, this year's Cannes Competition belongs largely to Europe.

Alain Resnais' "Les Herbes folles," Jacques Audiard's "A Prophet," Xavier Giannoli's "In the Beginning" and Gaspar Noe's late submission, "Enter the Void," fly the flag for Gaul, which has one of its biggest Competish presences in recent years, especially if one includes co-productions like Campion's "Bright Star," Von Trier's "Antichrist," To's "Vengeance," Tsai's "Face" and Loach's "Looking for Eric."

The "newest" director is 48-year-old Brit Andrea Arnold, who segues from her acclaimed debut "Red Road" (in Cannes' 2006 Competish) to teenage girl drama "Fish Tank." Returning after a seven-year break is Middle East helmer Elia Suleiman, with the six-decade Palestinian family saga, "The Time That Remains." The Palestinian helmer last competed in Cannes with "Divine Intervention" in 2002.

Alejandro Amenabar's "Agora," a Christian drama set in Roman-era Egypt, starring Rachel Weisz, eventually snared an out-of-competition slot.

Even this year's Un Certain Regard, the biggest sidebar in Official Selection, and once seen by Fremaux as a section of "discovery," is stuffed with Cannes faves, including Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda with "Air Doll" (about a clerk falling for an inflatable female doll), Pavel Lounguine with "Tzar," Romanian directors Cristian Mungiu ("Tales from the Golden Age" anthology) and Corneliu Porumboiu ("Police, Adjective"), South Korea's Bong Joon-ho ("Mother") and Thailand's Pen-ek Ratanaruang ("Nymph").

Fest closes May 24 with "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky," starring Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen, directed by Dutch vet Jan Kounen. Still to be announced are Cannes Classics, the short film selection, and the Cinefondation's choice.

The Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week both announce their full programs Friday in Paris.

Elsa Keslassy contributed to this report.


CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

OPENER
"Up," U.S., Pete Docter, Bob Peterson

CLOSER
"Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky," France, Jan Kounen

IN COMPETITION
"Bright Star," Australia-U.K.-France, Jane Campion
"Spring Fever," China-France, Lou Ye
"Antichrist," Denmark-Sweden-France-Italy, Lars von Trier
"Enter the Void," France, Gaspar Noe
"Face," France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium, Tsai Ming-liang
"Les Herbes folles," France-Italy, Alain Resnais
"In the Beginning," France, Xavier Giannoli
"A Prophet," France, Jacques Audiard
"The White Ribbon," Germany-Austria-France, Michael Haneke
"Vengeance," Hong Kong-France-U.S., Johnnie To
"The Time That Remains," Israel-France-Belgium-Italy, Elia Suleiman
"Vincere," Italy-France, Marco Bellocchio
"Kinatay," Philippines, Brillante Mendoza
"Thirst," South Korea-U.S., Park Chan-wook
"Broken Embraces," Spain, Pedro Almodovar
"Map of the Sounds of Tokyo," Spain, Isabel Coixet
"Fish Tank," U.K.-Netherlands, Andrea Arnold
"Looking for Eric," U.K.-France-Belgium-Italy, Ken Loach
"Inglourious Basterds," U.S., Quentin Tarantino
"Taking Woodstock," U.S., Ang Lee

OUT OF COMPETITION
"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," Canada-France, Terry Gilliam
"The Army of Crime," France, Robert Guediguian
"Agora," Spain, Alejandro Amenabar

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
"A Town Called Panic," Belgium, Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar
"Ne te retourne pas," France-Belgium-Luxembourg-Italy, Marina de Van
"Drag Me to Hell," U.S., Sam Raimi

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
"Petition," China, Zhao Liang
"L'epine dans le coeur," France, Michel Gondry
"Min ye," France-Mali, Souleyumane Cisse
"Jaffa," Israel-France-Germany, Keren Yedaya
"Manila," Philippines, Adolfo Alix Jr., Raya Martin
"My Neighbor, My Killer," U.S., Anne Aghion

UN CERTAIN REGARD
"Samson & Delilah," Australia, Warwick Thornton
"Adrift," Brazil, Heitor Dhalia
"The Wind Journeys," Colombia, Ciro Guerra
"Demain des l'aube," France, Denis Dercourt
"Irene," France, Alain Cavalier
"Air Doll," Japan, Hirokazu Kore-eda
"Independance," Philippines-France-Germany, Raya Martin
"Le Pere de mes enfants," France-Germany, Mia Hansen-Love
"Dogtooth," Greece, Yorgos Lanthimos
"Nobody Knows About the Persian Cats," Iran, Bahman Ghobadi
"Eyes Wide Open," Israel, Haim Tabakman
"Mother," South Korea, Bong Joon-ho
"The Silent Army," Netherlands, Jean van de Velde
"To Die Like a Man," Portugal, Joao Pedro Rodrigues
"Police, Adjective," Romania, Corneliu Porumboiu
"Tales from the Golden Age," Romania, Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu, Ioana Uricaru
"Tale in the Darkness," Russia, Nikolay Khomeriki
"Tzar," Russia-France, Pavel Lounguine
"Nymph," Thailand, Pen-ek Ratanaruang
"Precious," U.S., Lee Daniels

FEATURE FILM JURY
Isabelle Huppert (president), actress, France
Asia Argento, actress, director, screenwriter, Italy
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director, screenwriter, actor, Turkey
Lee Chang-dong, director, author, screenwriter, South Korea
James Gray, director, screenwriter, U.S.
Hanif Kureishi, author, screenwriter, U.K.
Shu Qi, actress, Taiwan
Robin Wright Penn, actress, U.S.

LA CINEFONDATION AND SHORT FILM JURY
John Boorman (president), director, author, producer, U.K.
Bertrand Bonello, director, France
Ferid Boughedir, director, Tunisia
Leonor Silveira, actress, Portugal
Zhang Ziyi, actress, China

[Stefen]

That's a pretty strong lineup.

[SiliasRuby]

Yeah baby.......Yeah!

[New Feeling]

This line up is out of control!   

I am so happy that Enter the Void is in and therefore will be likely to come round by the end of the year. 

It's a great sign that Taking Woodstock got in after that sorry ass trailer. 

I'm rooting for QT and Basterds all the way even though I suspect it doesn't have much shot at any awards. 

Can't believe that these guys will be in competition against eachother: Noe, Tarantino, Ang, VonTrier, Haneke, Park, and Almodovar

the rest of the line-up ain't too shabby either.

I will be following closer than I have ever followed.  Cant remember the last time my most-anticipated of the year dropped at Cannes, and this year my unmovable top two are both gonna be there teasing me with their cheers and jeers months before I will see them.     

Oh to be at Cannes 2009...

[New Feeling]

Cannes Competitors To Receive Online Showcase

23 April 2009 2:39 AM, PDT

Gilles Jacob, president of the Cannes Film Festival, has offered the festival's website as a showcase for the first five minutes of each of the 20 films participating in this year's competition. In a statement, Jacob said that the traditional movie trailer "extinguishes all desire" while it has been suggested that great directors are at their best in the first and last reels. "Let's hope that Internet users everywhere might drop their games and be tempted to rush to their nearest theater to find out what happens next," he remarked. At a news conference, festival director Thierry Fremaux indicated that he expected the current worldwide economic crisis to have little effect on the festival. "We haven't felt the slightest reluctance on anybody's part, anyone saying 'we have to watch out because of the crisis,'" he said, adding that Cannes would remain "the rendezvous for creators and the industry."

[Ghostboy]

Aw man....I wish I could go this year too. This is the best lineup in years. And two of my friends have films in Directors' Fortnight! Too bad I can't afford a ticket.

[JG]

go get some rosemary should be a good movie. have you seen it ghostboy?

[Ghostboy]

Only a smidgeon, but it was a good smidgeon.

[Chest Rockwell]

Wow, sounds like it should be a really good year.

On an unrelated note, I was actually right in the neighborhood of Cannes for the past week, in Avignon, Arle, Nice, Monaco, and Antibes (and passed through Cannes on the train). That whole part of the world (i.e. southern France) is crazy-gorgeous this time of year. And what's really nice about Nice is that all the museums are totally free. If any of yooz guyz is thinking about traveling anytime soon...just think about it. 

[72teeth]

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
"L'epine dans le coeur," France, Michel Gondry

What's this?

[modage]

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
"L'epine dans le coeur," France, Michel Gondry

What's this?

it's this.

- he has been shooting a documentary for a few years about his auntie who was a schoolteacher, shooting footage at various tiny schoolhouses she has worked at during her life.  he is now in the process of editing it.

he's finished.