Fist to the table with granite resolve, I demand the final screen of these animated visions of Stanley Kubrick’s long list of milestone works (cleverly mounted by Martin Woutisseth) be whipped up into classy, large-ish posters, particularly the one below. Everyone else can have their Tyler Stout geek-out works (also nice, but if you’ve seen one…). I want these puppies. Bummer about the typos, though.
Click the image below for a unique trip down memory lane.
One of the mostly eagerly awaited films of next month’s Cannes Film Festival, Lars von Trier’s latest has just unveiled an international one-sheet — and while it’s less than illuminating, employing only a single (lovely) still we’ve already seen amid an ocean of white space, I’m happy for this one to play coy. Meanwhile, I suspect the wedding-invitation look is intentional. (On a side note, I’m amused by the number of outlets already labelling the film “controversial” before we’ve even laid on eyes on it. At this point, von Trier could do a shot-for-shot remake of “The King’s Speech” and still get the fainthearts quivering ahead of time.) Full poster, courtesy of the film’s website, after the cut.
The director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)
The talent: By this point in his career, auteur-photographer Ceylan is a self-standing arthouse brand — which is just as well, since the other names involved are unlikely to ring many bells with non-Turkish viewers. Leading man Yilmaz Erdoğan, a 43 year-old actor-writer-director, is a hugely popular figure in his home country, but his domestic hits haven’t crossed over. IMDb claims Ceylan wrote the film with his wife Ebru, as was the case with 2008’s “Three Monkeys”; other sources give him sole script credit. Cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki, who shot Ceylan’s last two features, returns — arguably the more important concern, given the director’s reputation as a visual stylist.
The pitch: Details on this one are closely guarded — even the usually long-winded Thierry Frémaux had nothing to add about the film at the Competition press conference. This much I have gleaned: Ceylan’s most expansive production yet, the 150-minute film covers a night in the lives of a doctor and a prosecutor on the harsh terrain of the Anatolia steppe. (Suffice to say the title’s promise of a Turkish spaghetti western is unlikely to be fulfilled.)
(Thanks to Israeli film critic Yonatan Doron for chipping in with extra information about this title. If any readers think they can help with further entries in this series, do get in touch.)
The director: Joseph Cedar (Israel)
The talent: Good news for fans of 2001’s wonderful arthouse hit “Late Marriage”: that film’s leading man, Lior Ashkenazi, headlines here. Other names will be less familiar to those outside Israel: Ashkenazi’s older co-lead, Shlomo Bar-Abba, is famed in his homeland as an eccentric TV comedian, but hasn’t appeared in a film in 22 years. Cedar himself, of course, carries his own level of cachet — more on that below.
The pitch: In the press conference unveiling this year’s Cannes slate, festival director Thierry Frémaux described “Footnote” as one of the Competition’s more light-hearted entries, though there’s conflicting word on whether or not we should expect an outright comedy.
(Apologies for the break this feature took over the Easter weekend — blame the holiday spirit and the London sunshine.)
The director: Alain Cavalier (France)
The talent: The internet is currently not rife with details on this entry, but we do know that the film is a two-hander of sorts, headlined by the veteran director himself and sturdy 51 year-old French star Vincent Lindon (seen most recently in last year’s “Mademoiselle Chambon”), both seemingly appearing as themselves. Producer Michel Seydoux, who has worked with Cavalier for the past decade, has a notable résumé, including “Cyrano de Bergerac,” “Burnt by the Sun” and last year’s “Leaving.”
The pitch: In the last decade, Cavalier has shifted from narrative cinema to more self-reflexive video diaries straddling drama and documentary. His latest, pitched as a comedy, appears to be a further excursion in that vein, though the synopsis offered by French distributor Pathé is otherwise cryptic, promising viewers a glimpse of the director and his leading man “at once in real life and in the fiction they have invented together.” (My translation.)
The director: Bertrand Bonello (France)
The talent: Unsurprisingly for a brothel-set narrative, the film is heavy on rising female stars, including Hafsia Herzi (“The Secret of the Grain”) and Italian ingenue Jasmine Trinca (“The Son’s Room”); their more senior co-star, Noémie Lvovsky, is arguably more of an institution in France than on the international arthouse scene. Two male cast members also prompt interest: Louis-Do DeLencquesaing, so excellent in last year’s “The Father of My Children,” and the more unlikely figure of “Of Gods and Men” director Xavier Beauvois.
The pitch: An evidently sumptuous period affair, Bonello’s film (also known by its French title “L’apollonide”) examines the goings-on in a Paris brothel at the beginning of the 20th century. After one prostitute is brutally disfigured for life by a client, the other women of the house shut themselves off from the outside world; the film tracks the rivalries and camaraderie of their isolated day-to-day existence. Bonello has been something of a controversy-monger with sexually frank films like “The Pornographer” and “Tiresia”; expect that trend to continue with his latest.
This is terribly sad news. Tim Hetherington, the gifted British photojournalist who justly shared a Best Documentary Feature Oscar nomination with Sebastian Junger earlier this year for their joint debut “Restrepo,” has died on the front line in Misrata, Libya, where he was documenting the conflict. Also killed was his colleague, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Chris Hondros.
I haven’t adequate words to respond to this. Hetherington, Hondros and his ilk are braver, better men than the rest of us: they risk their lives so that the rest of the world can see what would otherwise be unimaginable. “Restrepo,” which both Kris and I listed as one of 2010’s finest, is a vivid portrayal of combat unprecedented in its sensory immediacy, the result of many months spent embedded in a US Army unit in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley.
Hetherington broke his leg on the assignment; would that the injury remained the biggest misfortune of his career. (On the same assignment, he took the now-famous shot posted below, for which he won the World Press Photo of the Year award in 2007.)
[This is the first in a daily series of posts, wherein I size up the 19 films–pending further additions–in the Competition at next month’s Cannes Film Festival. We’re running through them alphabetically, by director, so it just happens that we start with a biggie: the length of the entries will vary according to the availability of information.]
The director: Pedro Almodóvar
The talent: The star, as you surely know by now, is Antonio Banderas, a one-time Almodóvar regular who hasn’t collaborated with the director in 21 years. When Penelope Cruz proved unavailable, Spanish star Elena Anaya (who previously appeared in “Talk to Her”) stepped into the female lead. Meanwhile, the names of cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, composer Alberto Iglesias and actress Marisa Paredes will all be familiar to the Almodóvar faithful.
[NOTE: We’re kicking off our daily Cannes preview series later today — stay tuned.]
We knew months ago that Robert De Niro was presiding over this year’s Cannes jury, but the eight people joining him on the bench were finally named yesterday. Red-carpet stargazers should be pretty happy with this year’s crop: joining De Niro from the Hollywood side of things are Jude Law and Uma Thurman. (Perhaps festival director Thierry Frémaux is as big a fan of “Gattaca” as we are.)
Filling the big-name auteur slot on the panel is Olivier Assayas, a three-time Competition entrant who some might say has earned jury president status. Other Cannes alumni include Chadian filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, who took the Jury Prize at last year’s festival for “A Screaming Man,” and Hong Kong action merchant Johnnie To, twice a Palme d’Or contender.
The upcoming summer movie season is about as dark and dreary as any we’ve seen. The product couldn’t be more finely tuned to the thoughtless months and I anticipate having to dig deep for positive accounts along the way. So it goes. Maybe, then, it would be a good idea to finally lap up those Criterion Blu-ray releases of Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” and “The Great Dictator” and delight in the beauty and brilliance as a bit of a preemptive antidote?
In any case, Happy Birthday to The Tramp. If you head over to Google today, you’ll be greeted with the following video celebrating the occasion:
Or “Bigger, Better, Faster, More: The Linda Perry Story.” Paolo Sorrentino’s latest, due to compete for the Palme d’Or at Cannes next month, stars the two-time Oscar champ as a rock star turned Nazi hunter. Bernardo Bertolucci (due to receive an honorary Palme at the fest, by the by) reportedly describes the film (if not Penn’s Robert Smith wig) as “quite something.”
[Photo: Premier PR]
After weeks of speculation, this year’s Cannes lineup was unveiled in spectacularly long-winded fashion by fest director Thierry Frémaux this morning. (French TV networks clearly got so bored with his sidebar discussions on each title he announced that they helpfully cut to commercial halfway through the press conference.)
Anyway, the speculation was largely borne out — most of the names you expected to see here are present and correct, including such Cannes regulars as Pedro Almodóvar, Lars von Trier, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and the Dardenne brothers.
Meanwhile, the question on whether or not Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” would play in competition has been answered in the affirmative. Malick’s inclusion makes this to second Cannes competition slate in a row to feature only one American filmmaker, though it’s something of an upgrade from from last year’s Doug Liman head-scratcher.
[More thoughts, and the full lineup, after the cut.]
I’ve had the whole of Sidney Lumet’s available DVD catalogue lined up, in chronological order, in my Netflix queue as of late. He was always a filmmaker I looked to in my own pursuits in the field as an idol, someone who seemed to stay way above the fray while consistently cranking out engaging, often seminal work. He had his share of turkeys, but he learned from them and he never stopped evolving as a craftsman.
I recently revisited the brilliant, unfortunately buried (due to “Dr. Strangelove”) “Fail Safe.” I had my first viewing of “The Hill” not long after, and “The Pawnbroker” should be on the way. “12 Angry Men” and “Network” see frequent rotation on my player, as they are two films that sit comfortably in my personal top 10 of all time.
The legendary titles need no introduction, but who wouldn’t see fit to mention “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Serpico,” “The Verdict” (which screenwriter Travis Beacham shrewdly noted “was ‘Michael Clayton’ before ‘Michael Clayton’” this morning), “Murder on the Orient Express,” “Prince of the City,” “Equus,” “The Anderson Tapes,” and on and on and on?
It burns me up that I have to step out for most of the early part of the day right now, because I woke up to the awful news that Sidney Lumet, prolific marcher to his own drum, has left us. It’s an epic loss, I feel. Two of this man’s films have solid spots in my personal top 10 films of all time. I’ll be back later to pen something more in depth, but for now (and forever), the work speaks for itself.
I’m continuing my 2011 resolution of not watching trailers for films I’m really looking forward to, but for the less ascetic among you, here’s our first glimpse of Lars von Trier’s latest, which will doubtless turn up in next month’s Cannes lineup. As many of you know, I’m always in the tank for von Trier — I was firmly on the “pro” side of the “Antichrist” debate two years ago — and with that fascinatingly eclectic cast on board, including a second go-round for Charlotte Gainsbourg, I scarcely need to see any footage to put this atop my “most anticipated” list. Click on the image below to watch it at the film’s official website, or check out the embed after the jump.
UPDATE: According to Anne Thompson, Fox Searchlight have denied reports of the early UK release date. Empire, however, is standing by their story, based on the word of UK distributor Icon. Watch this space.
EARLIER: I’ll admit that when this Empire scoop first popped up on my Twitter feed, I had to check my diary to make sure I hadn’t slept through to April 1. But there it is. While Terrence Malick’s endlessly awaited “The Tree of Life” will play Cannes in May, as was confirmed last week, the film will not have its world premiere at the festival. That honor apparently falls to the UK, where the film will hit screens on May 4 — one week ahead of Cannes’s opening day, and just over three weeks ahead of its Stateside release.
Forgive the recent posting drought — I’m trying to get back on track. I’m also sorry that it’s taken the passing of one of history’s greatest honest-to-God movie stars to get me back on here, but there we have it — whether you first encountered her in “National Velvet” or as the voice of young Maggie Simpson (just please tell me it wasn’t as Pearl Slaghoople in “The Flintstones”), Elizabeth Taylor’s career is one of those that has been so extensively bronzed into legend that revisiting her films first-hand can yield some real surprises.
I’d write a full obit here, but allow me some inter-site shortcutting. I was invited by The Guardian to contribute this “Career in Clips” piece, in which I trace her career trajectory through eight defining performances, ranging from deservedly legendary work in the likes of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Who’s Afraid Virginia Woolf?” to less prominent, but no less fascinating, curios like “Secret Ceremony.”