In Contention

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  • CANNES PREVIEW: Sizing up the Competition, part two

    Continuing the breakdown of the 18 titles in contention for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which begins Wednesday. (Catch up with yesterday’s preview here.) Among them is the film I’ve put a sneaky wager on to take the gold — though given the foolhardiness of predicting festival awards, I don’t encourage you to do the same.

    As we learned this morning, one additional title will be added to the Competition lineup over the course of the weekend; I will update accordingly. Let’s get back into it:

    “ON TOUR” (Mathieu Amalric)

    The pitch: Better known to most audiences as one of France’s finest actors, sometime filmmaker Amalric brings some lighter fare to the lineup, directing himself as the down-at-heel manager of a touring group of American burlesque dancers. Christina Aguilera does not star.

    Past form: Though his 2003 feature “Public Affairs” played Cannes in 2003, this is Amalric’s first brush (as director, that is) with a major festival competition.

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  • FRIDAY FORECAST: ‘Babies’!

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    The babies are finally here guys! You’ve oohed and ahhed at penguins and oceans and Michael Moore, but this documentary finally gives you the chance to ooh and ahh at humans. Specifically, little ones. There’s also a silly sounding movie about a man who wears a suit made of armor, but it’s not even set in medieval times. He also fights some Russian villain, but it’s not even set in Cold War times.

    Most importantly, it’s officially summer according to Hollywood! Go to the beach, confess your love to your crush and cash in those time shares people!

    “Iron Man 2” is opening in 4,380 theaters today. That’s the biggest number for a debuting film in history. The first film in the franchise kicked off the 2008 summer season with a $109.2 million debut, en route to a fantastic $352.6 million total, earning more than supposed-summer titan “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in the process. As far as sequels go, you can add as many stars, villains, explosions and cameos that you want but the most potent weapon in your arsenal will always be the popularity of the original, and “Iron Man” was extremely popular. An improved debut figure is a virtual certainty but the all time record of $175.4 million for “The Dark Knight” is probably safe.

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  • New ‘Inception’ trailer hits

    I’m not the biggest fan of viral marketing, so the idea of playing a game in order to see the new “Inception” trailer just…rubs me wrong.  That’s just me.  But it was, along with the new “Super 8” trailer, the best part of “Iron Man 2,” so I wanted to pass it along.  UPDATE: It seems WB took the other link down and replaced it with the old trailer.  Here’s an embed:

  • Stunningly stupid

    FINAL UPDATE (5/11/10): JoBlo has now posted an apology letter from Tom Perkins, the accused.  It’s as dubious as you might expect but at least the whole thing has some closure.

    UPDATE (5/9/10): You’ll notice that the video is now indicated as “private” and can’t be viewed.  But this guy got his comeuppance on the unforgiving internet, so it’s pretty much over.  This post does a good job of summarizing what went down.

    EARLIER: First, read JoBlo’s review of “Iron Man 2.” Then, watch FilmXTRA’s virtually word-for-word plagiarized video review below, and tell me these guys shouldn’t be hung up by their short and curlies:

    Apparently a good portion of it was also stolen from Den of Geek’s review.

    By the way, my opinion: the film fails across the board. More in today’s Oscar Talk special, coming in a few hours.

  • IFC nabs Katz’s ‘Cold Weather’

    I want to take a moment amid this typical distribution announcement to offer a big congrats to my friends Aaron Katz, Ben Stambler and Brendan McFadden, director and producers of SXSW sensations “Cold Weather.” It’s a special thing to secure major distribution for your first flick and Aaron has been working hard ever since he nabbed that filmmaking degree in the Carolina Piedmont.

    Katz’s last film, “Quiet City,” made my top 10 in 2007, and if I’m honest, I actually thought “Cold Weather” was a step down creatively.  But the filmmaking is nevertheless more refined (cinematographer Andy Reed moving over to the RED camera makes his skills leap off the screen even more).  I can’t wait to see what the boys do next.

    The press release, in part:

    IFC Films, the leading American distributor of independent and foreign films, announced today that the company has acquired North American and multiple foreign rights including Asia, the Middle East and East-Central Europe to Aaron Katz’s critically acclaimed COLD WEATHER…IFC Films will release COLD WEATHER via its IFC in Theaters platform which brings critically-acclaimed independent movies to on-demand viewers at home the same day they premiere in theaters.

    President of IFC Entertainment Jonathan Sehring said: “We’ve always been fans of Aaron Katz’s work but, with COLD WEATHER, he has made a great step forward as a filmmaker. It’s great fun to see him play with the detective/mystery genre and he’s aided by a wonderful cast and fantastic creative team. This is one of the most original American independent films of the year and we can’t wait to bring it to audiences via all of our various platforms.”

    Bravo.

  • Dancing on the ceiling

    The “Inception” marketing finally goes all Escher on us with this rather terrific poster. Is now as good a time as any to admit that, as much as I’m looking forward to Christopher Nolan’s latest, I wish it had another title?

    [Source: Yahoo! Movies]

  • Bated breath

    Cédric Succivalli (AKA @OnTheCroisette), the first person you should be following for Cannes updates, just posted this tweet that will bring hope to the hearts of Cannes-watchers everywhere:

    A new film is going to be added to the official competition today or over the week-end! Which one do you think it’ll be?

    Before you ask, it won’t be “The Tree of Life” — apart from anything else, Alexandre Desplat’s presence on the jury would represent an unallowable conflict of interest.

  • Tarantino to head Venice jury

    Berlin went with Werner Herzog. Cannes with Tim Burton. Now Venice clearly felt they had to follow suit by tapping an eccentric auteur as jury president for the 67th Venice Film Festival in September. Quentin Tarantino will take the job.

    It will, of course, be Tarantino’s second stab at chairing the jury of a major European festival: in 2004, he held the position at Cannes, somewhat contentiously throwing his weight behind the decision to award the Palme d’Or to Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Tarantino made no bones about wielding his influence on the awards that year (the runner-up, Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” was also a film after his own heart), so it’ll be interesting to see if he’s similarly persuasive in Venice.

    Interestingly, unlike Cannes and Berlin, Tarantino has never actually taken a film to Venice — in contrast to last year’s president, two-time Golden Lion champ Ang Lee.

    Meanwhile, Variety reports that, in addition to Julian Schnabel’s “Miral,” the Venice lineup will also include Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere,” Monte Hellman’s “Road to Nowhere” and Francois Ozon’s “Potiche.” If all goes according to plan, I’ll be on the Lido once more to let you know how it all goes down. For now, I’ve got Cannes on the brain.

  • CANNES PREVIEW: Sizing up the Competition, part one

    (This is the first of three Cannes preview pieces we’re running before my festival coverage begins on Wednesday. The first two will break down the 18 films in the running for this year’s Palme d’Or; the third will comb through potential highlights that lie outside the Competition, as well as listing my own most anticipated titles of the festival.)

    The groans were almost audible from across the Atlantic as Cannes festival director Thierry Frémaux unveiled this year’s Competition lineup, unusually trim at 16 (eventually 18) titles, and shorter than expected on big-ticket auteurs. Where was Terrence Malick, journos wailed. (Not yet ready, ran the simple answer.) Where were Julian Schnabel, Olivier Assayas, Darren Aronofsky? (Not wanted, not eligible, and not ready, respectively.)

    As they looked down the very global-flavored list — only two English-language films, only one of them American — more than one blogger suggested that Cannes may not be worth the trip this year.

    I say it’s too soon to be disappointed. Frémaux and his team have hardly been obscure in their choices: the list abounds with esteemed critical pets ranging from Mike Leigh to Abbas Kiarostami, Alejandro González Iñárritu to Apichatpong Weereasethakul. It is perhaps a more granola selection than last year’s all-star lineup of Almodóvar, Haneke, Campion, Von Trier, et al, but that one drew just as many accusations (justified, I think) of being too insular and unadventurous — 19 of the 20 directors chosen had been in Competition before. Frémaux, it seems, can’t win.

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  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1943 and 1944

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    The Academy and America were in the thick of World War II and patriotism or sentimentality were the order of the day. “Casablanca” and “Going My Way” were the two big winners in the history books and while I can hardly argue with the former, the latter hasn’t aged well at all. It was the first film to win Best Picture in front of a nationwide audience as ABC broadcast the ceremony for the first time… on the radio. The event was still filmed for newsreel purposes though. Don’t believe me? Ask the dishes (Youtube!)

    The ceremony was beginning to look more and more like what we are used to, with Best Picture getting whittled down to five, powerhouse films taking more and more of the awards and one guy getting nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the same performance. Okay, maybe we never got used to that last one. A quickly changed rule made sure that never happened again but it’s too bad they can’t as easily change the history books to reward these films instead.

    1943 – “Le Corbeau” (Henri-Georges Clouzot)

    I’m not sure why some foreign titles retain their original title in popular conversation and some don’t, but the American DVD release of this film goes by “Le Corbeau” and so shall I. Translated as “The Raven,” it’s an early film made by one of my absolute favorite filmmakers of all time, Henri-Georges Clouzot, who only ever received one nomination for Best Foreign Film in his life.

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  • UK trailer for ‘The Killer Inside Me’

    Sorry for the second lazy embed in a row, but the day serves up what the day serves up. I already offered my thoughts on Michael Winterbottom’s controversial Jim Thompson adaptation from Berlin — it’s a bit of a mixed bag, with Casey Affleck’s riveting lead turn slightly overwhelming the structurally uncertain film. (And yes, Jessica Alba is pretty good in it too.) Still, this British trailer does a superb job of highlighting its atmospheric strengths. It debuted at The Guardian today; a less crisp YouTube version is below.

  • A soupçon of ‘Certified Copy’

    I’ll begin a more in-depth Cannes preview tomorrow, but I’m happy to trail it with this vaguest of teasers for my own most anticipated film of the festival: Abbas Kiarostami’s “Certified Copy,” starring Juliette Binoche. (Thanks to AwardsDaily for the tip.)

  • Almodóvar and Banderas, together again

    Speaking as we just were of actors returning from the wilderness, when was the last time Antonio Banderas starred in a film you had any interest in seeing? (Talk to the hand if your answer contains the word “Shrek.”)

    From strained paycheck jobs like “My Mom’s New Boyfriend” to gruesomely botched prestige projects like “The Other Man” and “Imagining Argentina,” it’s been a lean couple of years for Melanie Griffith’s better half.

    But things are looking up for the Spaniard, who rather improbably hits 50 this year. A role in a Woody Allen film is a pretty hit-or-miss proposition these days, but “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” is easily the toniest thing the actor has been attached to in years — we’ll find out next week at Cannes if the film has the goods.

    More promising, however, is news of a reunion with the director who launched him to stardom in the 1980s — one Pedro Almodóvar.

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  • Paging Rene Russo

    Honestly, the last time the name “Rene Russo” crossed my mind, I was still wearing school uniform and Bill Clinton was still president of the United States. Even then, it was only fleetingly: if you want the last time she was in a film that actually merited a second thought, we’re looking more at the year my voice broke. (Yes, that’d be “Tin Cup.”) How time flies.

    Of course, film history is littered with the swiftly curtailed careers of briefly ubiquitous stars — women in particular, given the regrettable age-40 sell-by date the industry still applies to many actresses. Hey, remember Madeleine Stowe? Andie MacDowell? Penelope Ann Miller? I can’t say Russo’s big-screen absence struck me as especially conspicuous, but Telegraph arts editor Sarah Crompton clearly thinks otherwise.

    Crompton takes the casting of Russo in Kenneth Branagh’s Marvel comic adaptation “Thor” — her first film role in over five years — as occasion for a valentine to the actress, holding her up as a 1990s ideal of “the woman every woman wanted to be,” and mourning a larger absence in the process.

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  • Well worth the read

    Every once in a while, Devin comes up with nuggets like this and all (most) is forgiven.  The gist:

    “You have to know when to go,” The Scream told reporters. “You don’t want to outstay your welcome. In my time I’ve gone from being a weirdly particular cry to film-lover’s in-joke and I don’t want to end up as a distraction or just a rote, meaningless reference.”

    But read the full “press release” for yourself at CHUD.

  • ‘The American’ trailer

    I think the announcement of a September 1 release date was probably enough to assume Focus Features sees more commercial potential than awards prospects in Anton Corbijn’s “Control” follow-up, but it’s worth running the trailer.  Corbijn, you might recall, has been blogging his experience on the film.

  • Ebert versus the third dimension

    By now, you may have read Roger Ebert’s lengthy nine-point diatribe against 3D in Newsweek — it has certainly generated a substantial amount of online conversation in the last few days.

    On the face of it, as a declared 3D agnostic myself, I should be pleased with the article: when a “Clash of the Titans” proves the technology a potential artistic liability as emphatically as “Avatar” suggests the opposite, 3D needs to be both argued for and argued with.

    I fear Ebert, however, has slightly let the opposing side down: his piece is impassioned and sincere, but for every viable point he makes — and there are several — there’s another that is short-sighted, obstinate or just tautological: however much you may agree, it’s difficult to accept “it adds nothing to the experience” and “it’s a waste of a dimension” as separate claims in a serious argument, as opposed to simple whining.

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  • Keaton ready to rock as Ken

    One of the big reasons for me to get excited for Adam McKay’s “The Other Guys” was that Michael Keaton, after suffering through a slew of straight-to-video or otherwise forgettable films, would have a front-and-center performance in what should be a commercially successful film.

    I remain faithful to Keaton despite the lows.  But let’s face it.  The last time he had a theatrical starring role was the deplorable “White Noise” (and before that it was 1996’s “Multiplicity”).  The last time most remember seeing him on screen was probably 1997’s “Jackie Brown.”

    Of course, there was his directorial debut, “The Merry Gentleman,” which opened last year and surely demanded plenty of his time.  And there have been some nice TV offerings (such as “The Company” a few years back and “Live From Baghdad,” which is actually nine years ago at this point).

    Anyway, I was excited when it was announced that Keaton would be working with Pixar again, this time as the Ken doll in “Toy Story 3.” Susan King caught up with the actor recently for a Los Angeles Times piece, and he definitely seems to be having fun with things.

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