[Due to my usual sloppy planning, we’re doubling up on this series with two entries a day, so as to be finished in time for next week. Catch up with all the Cannes Check posts so far here.]
The director: Julia Leigh (Australia)
The talent: With novelist Leigh making her directorial debut here, the name being most prominently used to sell the film is that of Leigh’s mentor Jane Campion: though not actually a producer, the 1993 Palme d’Or champ is credited as “presenting” the film. Having replaced Mia Wasikowska, rising star Emily Browning heads the cast, fresh off (and hopefully with more success than) her lead turn in “Sucker Punch,” while followers of Australian cinema should recognize a number of faces in the supporting cast — notably Rachael Blake from “Lantana.” Below the line, DP Geoffrey Simpson is a veteran of Hollywood and Australian cinema, his diverse CV ranging from “Oscar and Lucinda” to, er, “Glitter.”
The pitch: If you’re tiring of the current vogue for fairytale revisionism — present in everything from “Red Riding Hood” to “Hanna” — Leigh’s debut, title aside, at least appears to be a more lateral example. The erotic drama stars Browning as a university student who moves into a prostitution career seemingly straight out of “The Story of O”: in a chamber, she is drugged and used by a succession of men, with no memory of the events the morning after. The Campion association portends an explicit preoccupation with the sensual world; the film’s strong sexual content was allegedly an obstacle to government funding in Australia. Leigh’s screenplay is original, though there have been murmurings on the internet about unacknowledged parallels to Yasunari Kawabata’s novella “The House of Sleeping Beauties.”
The pedigree: Of the two first-time filmmakers in competition, Leigh is the more high-profile, given her acclaimed literary career — a screen adaptation of one of her novels, “The Hunter,” also hits screens this year. Meanwhile, her “Sleeping Beauty” script featured on the 2008 Black List of the industry’s best unproduced screenplays.
The buzz: Impressively loud for a first feature — immediately after it was announced in Competition, the film’s handlers cunningly released a striking trailer (embedded below) that spread quickly around the blogosphere, attracting breathless speculative comparisons to the work of Campion, Lucile Hadžihalilović and even Stanley Kubrick. When the excitement died down, the release of a teasingly sexy poster (see below) stirred it right up again. Combined with Browning’s relative fame and the promise of controversy, this smart marketing has made a small Aussie indie one of the Competition’s most anticipated titles.
The odds: Despite the buzz, the bookies, ever wary of unknown names, aren’t buying: Paddy Power places it stone last with odds of 25-1. While no debut feature has won the Palme d’Or since Steven Soderbergh’s “sex, lies and videotape” 22 years ago, I’m half-tempted to take a punt on this dark horse: it’d certainly be an interesting turn of events if Campion, still the only female Palme winner in the festival’s history, were to shepherd in the second, though I’d like its chances more with an edgier jury president than Robert De Niro. If I could place a bet on the film taking the bronze-medal Jury Prize — the same award won four years ago by the last female freshman in Competition, Andrea Arnold — I would, while Browning’s lack of modesty could be rewarded with Best Actress.
Comments
8 responses to “CANNES CHECK: ‘Sleeping Beauty’”
I love this trailer so much! It totally has gotten me psyched for this film. Hopefully it is not all about just the visuals and that it actually has some meat on its bones. I look forward to your (and other critics’) take on the film after it premieres in Cannes. On a side note, I wasn’t aware that Campion was the only female winner of the Palme d’or – that seems somewhat surprising to me for some reason.
I wouldn’t say it’s the least likely film to win; there’s a 3D Takashi Miike film in the competition. Plus, it’s hard to ignore the buzz for this film.
Jasper: I’m with you. Bookies’ festival odds are always somewhat off at this stage, largely because they’re made with very little cinematic knowledge — until critical consensus starts emerging on the films, name appeal is pretty much all they consider.
The critical reaction to this will definitely be worth watching. If only to see how many times Leigh is called a sexist.
Robert DeNiro starred in a Palme d’Or winner about a teenage prostitute… now he’s the head of a Cannes jury in which a film about a teenage prostitute is screening. It’s a wide stretch, but… :)
When you say Paramount has already snapped up the rights, I just point out that the film’s local distributor – Transmission Films – have a production deal *with* Paramount Australia. So not sure if you’ve just misread or if it actually has American distribution (seems odd that it would).
I think a lot of its buzz stems from the fact that it is such an unknown quantity in a festival that year-in-year-out tends to be about specific names.
Glenn: Careless of me — I was reading the wrong source. Thanks for the clarification.
And I agree that the film’s debut status probably contributes to the buzz — it seems that much fresher and more intriguing when we don’t know the director’s brand — though sadly, we should probably admit that being an English-language unknown quantity is what helps. After all, we’re not hearing much talk about the Competition’s other debut feature — Markus Schleinzer’s “Michael”.
The X factor of this film is all taken from that Kawabata’s book, that was already translated ungracesfully into a film in in 2008. On the book, the point of view comes from the client. On this new film, it comes from the girl.
The trailer is really amazing. With this and Snowtown the Aussies should rule Cannes 2011! :D I can’t wait to see if they will deliver one of the year’s best films just like last year with Animal Kingdom.