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The Cannes Film Festival drew to a close on Sunday evening with the presentation of the Palme d'Or to Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon. Filmed in black and white, it's "a two-and-a-half hour parable of political and social ideas set entirely in a north German village in 1913 and 1914," says Dave Calhoun at Time Out London. Haneke "solidly resists answering the 'what's it all about?' question and makes you work hard to make sense of what you're seeing." David Hudson at IFC's The Daily has gathered the reviews, some of which endeavor to answer the "What's it all about?" question.

As is often the case, the nine-member jury passed out awards to as many films as possible. The Grand Prix (or runner-up) went to Jacques Audiard's A Prophet; Special Jury Prize to Alain Resnais for Wild Grass; and Best Director to Brillante Mendoza for Kinatay. Christoph Walz won Best Actor for his performance in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Charlotte Gainsbourg won Best Actress for Lars von Trier's controversial Antichrist. The complete list of winners can be easily viewed at indieWIRE. The festival's official site has a great set of award ceremony photos.

Here's a roundup of Cannes films we can expect to see in coming months. Corrections and updates will be appreciated.

CANNES TITLES WITH U.S. DISTRIBUTION

• Antichrist (IFC)
• A Prophet (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Bright Star (Bob Berney and Bill Polhad)
• Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Drag Me to Hell (Universal)
• Humpday (Magnolia Pictures)
• I Love You Phillip Morris (Consolidated Pictures Group)
• Inglourious Basterds (Weinstein Co.)
• Looking For Eric (IFC)
• Precious (Lionsgate)
• Taking Woodstock (Focus Features)
• Tales From the Golden Age (IFC)
• Thirst (Focus Features)
• Up (Disney Pixar)
• The White Ribbon (Sony Pictures Classics)

You can access all our Cannes coverage via this handy link.

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It's all over but the shouting. The last two titles in Competition for the Palme d'Or, which will be awarded on Sunday, screened on Saturday to general disinterest as industry attendees continued to flock home. But some were still happy just to be able to see a movie -- any movie -- at Cannes; Roger Ebert tells of a young man who followed the example of Ebert's granddaughter and "begged" for a ticket. He was happy and proud to get in. Ebert shares some photographs; he says: "I have no idea why they are all of beautiful women."

Key Screenings. Competition: Tsai Ming-Liang's Face (Taiwanese filmmaker makes a movie in France), Isabel Coixet's Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (Tokyo fish market employee also works as a hit woman).

Awards. Some observers felt the Un Certain Regard section featured higher-quality selection than the main Competition, so it's of note that Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth won the top prize, according to indieWIRE. The Greek film received warm praise from the few reviewers who have seen it. Karina Longworth of Spout says it's the only narrative she's seen in Cannes "that really feels like it represents the work an emerging new talent." The film revolves around an odd family, in which the three 20-something children have never even left their house, while their parents "have created a complex mythology ... to keep the family together." She called it a "dark comedy," though she also noted that "its depiction of forced incest, two explicitly not-fake images of sex acts, liberation via very bloody self-harm and the on-screen disemboweling of a housecat."

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As the festival enters its final weekend, things have grown quieter. That doesn't mean Friday lacked excitement, though. Undoubtedly, the big title of the day was Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, featuring Heath Ledger's final performance. Erik Davis rounded up the first reactions. The director and Verne Troyer (AKA "Mini Me") appeared in support of the film.

Another eagerly-awaited title also debuted: Gasper Noé's Enter the Void. Of course, the interest in Imaginarium has more to do with the stars (Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law stepped in to finish the film after Ledger's untimely passing). Void, on the other hand, created anticipation because it is Noé's first feature-length work since his Irreversible generated considerable controversy at Cannes seven years ago.

Via David Hudson at IFC's The Daily, we learn that Enter the Void has already been compared to the Wachowskis' Speed Racer and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining (by Daniel Kasman in The Auteurs' Notebook). Manohla Dargis of the New York Times also notes the borrowings from Kubrick, while describing it as an "exceptional work [by] an artist who's trying to show us something we haven't seen before." Eugene Hernandez of indieWIRE called it "an endurance test [that] stirred both boos and bravos."

Other Key Screenings. Competition: Elia Sileiman's The Time That Remains. Un Certain Regard: João Pedro Rodrigues' To Die Like a Man, Jean Van de Velde's The Silent Army. Directors' Fortnight: Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani's Ajami, Mikhael Hers' Montparnasse. Special Screenings: Fanny Ardent's Ashes and Blood.

Awards. Xavier Dolan's Canadian film I Killed Your Mother won three of the four prizes awarded by Directors' Fortnight, reports indieWIRE, beating out higher-profile US titles Tetro, I Love You Philip Morris, and Humpday. The complete list can be viewed at indieWIRE.

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Continue reading First Reviews for Ledger's 'The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus'

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Thursday seems to have been a quiet day in the south of France, an inevitable, hazy hangover after the four-day frenzy that began with Antichrist on Sunday and leading to the star-fueled red carpet screening of Inglourious Basterds on Wednesday night. "And so the late festival drag set in," writes Eric Kohn at The Wrap. "Fatigue from lengthy days in dark rooms and harsh sunlight generally starts to wear down Cannes attendees after a while, especially once the finish line comes into focus."

At a press conference today, Sam Raimi likened his horror flick Drag Me to Hell to "playing with a jazz quartet" (per James Rocchi at AMC News). Questioned about his latest film, The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke told the assembled journalists: "It's the duty of art to ask questions, not to provide answers. And if you want a clearer answer, I'll have to pass" (per Reuters).

Key Screenings. Competition: Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon (strange events in 1913 at a rural school in Germany), Xavier Giannoli's In the Beginning (small-time crook builds a highway). Un Certain Regard: Henitor Dhalia's A Deriva (teen girl's sexual awakening in the 1980s), Ciro Guerra's The Wind Journeys (retired itinerant accordion player takes a trip). Directors' Fortnight: Sebastian Lelio's Navidad (teen couple in crisis meet a teen girl), Denis Cote's Carcasses (eccentric used auto parts collector). Special Screening: My Neighbor, My Killer (Rwanda genocide reconciliations).

After the jump: Distribution deals for the critically-praised, criminally-minded Cannes Competition title A Prophet and environmentally-friendly Sundance closer Earth Days.

Continue reading Cannes in 60 Seconds: Thursday, May 21, 2009

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Nothing like a little war movie to bookend a day at the Cannes Film Festival. Lines began forming at the crack of dawn to see the first screening of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds this morning, and, still, many were shut out. (Erik Davis rounded up the first reactions from those who did manage to gain admittance.) Evening brought the glamour, as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie led a parade of celebrities down the fabled red carpet for the black-tie and gown gala presentation. As a cherry on top, Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell screened at midnight.

Films Sold. Amazingly -- or maybe not, when you consider all the free publicity it's already accrued -- Lars Von Trier's highly controversial and divisive Antichrist sold to IFC Films. The company says they will release the same version as the one screened in Cannes, according to indieWIRE. Specific release plans were not announced, but expect it this fall, in order to capitalize on the buzz. Also, I suggest a poster highlighting Willem Dafoe's previous, religiously-titled movie: "From The Last Temptation of Christ to ... Antichrist!"

Much less controversially, IFC also picked up Ken Loach's Looking for Eric, which the company describes as the director's "most accessible, crowd pleasing film." More details at indieWIRE.

Key Screenings. Competition: Alain Resnais' drama Wild Grass, starring Mathieu Amalric (the reviews so far, collected by David Hudson at IFC's The Daily, range from reserved to rave). Un Certain Regard: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's supernatural-tinged drama Nymph (Todd Brown at Twitch reviews), Luc Mullet's Land of Madness. Directors' Fortnight: Axelle Ropert's The Wolberg Family (a small town mayor's obsession with his family), Ho Tzu Nyen's Here (a middle-aged man deals with life as a patient in a medical institution).

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Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited WWII epic Inglourious Basterds premiered at the Cannes Film Festival mere hours ago, and so far critics seem to be finding the film entertaining, sure, if a tad too talkative. Would you expect anything less from the man? Here's a rundown of some early thoughts, and we've posted three new clips in between some of the quotes.

"Inglourious Basterds is great fun to watch, but the movie isn't entirely engaging. And it is defiantly an art film, not a calculatedly mainstream entertainment. Tarantino throws you out of the movie with titles, chapter headings, snatches of music. You don't jump into the world of the film in a participatory way; you watch it from a distance, appreciating the references and the masterful mise-en-scene. This is a film that will benefit from a second viewing. I can't wait to see it again." -- Anne Thompson, Variety

"The
 film is by no means terrible -- its running time of two hours and 32 minutes 
races by -- but those things we think of as being Tarantino-esque, the long
 stretches of wickedly funny dialogue, the humor in the violence and outsized 
characters strutting across the screen, are largely missing." Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter



"Forget what you think you know is such a cliché, but here it more than applies. Tarantino has made a career out of subverting expectations - this is the man who made a heist flick without a heist, after all - but he's outdone himself with Basterds. It's an action movie that has barely any action. The Basterds themselves, including Brad Pitt's Lt. Aldo Raine, are off-screen for long periods of time. And it takes wild liberties with history." -- Chris Hewitt, Empire

More quotes and clips after the jump ...

Continue reading First Reviews and Clips for Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds'

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The uproar about Lars Von Trier's Antichrist spurred interest even higher for attendees who wanted to decide the film's merits for themselves. (For one thing, rumor is circulating that the Cannes version will never be seen again. For another, Mick Jagger hated it, calling it "horrible.") During this morning's screening, however, the "projector broke thirty seconds in," says Todd Brown at Twitch, and this afternoon's was "shut down by a major power outage." His conclusion? "God hates Lars."

Robert Pattinson flew in from filming New Moon in Canada and posed on the beach. He confirmed that the fourth film in the Twilight saga, based on Breaking Dawn, will be made as soon as possible. Penelope Cruz suffered food poisoning last night, but recovered sufficiently to promote the new Almodovar flick (see below). She's also talking about her upcoming musical Nine.

Key Screenings. Competition: Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces (a writer / director grieves for his lost love), Marco Bellocchio's Vincere (Mussolini's secret wife and son). Un Certain Regard: Tales From the Golden Age (urban myths of ordinary people during the Communist era in Romania), Denis Dercourt's Tomorrow at Dawn (one brother tries to save another who is lost in his addiction to historical battles). Directors' Fortnight: Cherien Dabis' Amerrika (Palestinians try to find their place after emigrating to America). Special Screenings: the Dardenne Brothers' Lecon de Cinema.

Films Sold. IFC Films picked up Francois Ozon's "fantastical thriller" Ricky and plans a 2010 release, according to indieWIRE. The flick follows a "unique little boy and the struggles of a working-class single parent in contemporary France." Oscilloscope Pictures will re-release Jules Dassin's 1959 drama The Law in theaters later this year. Check the description at indieWIRE. The film stars Gina Lollobrigida (va-va-voom!) and Yves Montand.

After the jump: Choice Review Quotes!

Continue reading Cannes in 60 Seconds: Tuesday, May 19, 2009

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Cannes is not all about death, gloom, and independent movies. It's also about selling your motion-capture fantasy months in advance of its opening. Jim Carrey, Robin Wright Penn, and Colin Firth showed up in support of Robert Zemeckis' forthcoming A Christmas Carol. After the stars arrived by horse-drawn carriage, Carrey threw a fake snowball. Eight minutes of footage was shown to an invited audience.

Lars, Lars, Lars! Danish director Lars Von Trier's Antichrist shook up Cannes at a press screening on Sunday night, with word quickly spreading that the film was "intentionally unreleasable, chock full of intense violence, graphic sexuality, unforgivable misogyny ... and also beauty," as Karina Longworth described the buzz at Spout. Thus, Von Trier's press conference today, shortly after noon, just as quickly became required viewing -- Anne Thompson has a good report -- and his declaration, "I am the best film director in the world" shot around the world via Twitter. Photographers, depressed by the bloody movie, cheered up when they discovered Hayden Panettiere sunbathing in a bikini on a yacht in the harbor.

Key Screenings. Competition: Ken Loach's 'soccer fanatic / mailman' drama Looking For Eric. Directors' Fortnight: Alain Guiraudie's ''middle-aged homosexual man falls for a young woman romance' Le Roi de l'évasion, Michel Franco's kidnapped sibling drama Daniel & Ana. Un Certain Regard: Yorgos Lanthimos' 'isolated Greek family drama' Dog Tooth, Raya Martin's early 20th Century historical drama Independence.

After the jump: news on Asian action drama Warlords, lesbian romance Drool, and Cannes titles in play.

Continue reading Cannes in 60 Seconds: Monday, May 18, 2009

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And on the fifth day of the Cannes Film Festival, it snowed (actually, part of a promotion for Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey, due out in November). Meanwhile, Rachel Weisz walked the red carpet and talked about her role as a fourth century astronomer, and Lars Von Trier's Antichrist provoked both boos and applause.

Key Screenings. Out of Competition: Alejandro Amenabar's Egyptian historical epic Agora (with the aforementioned Rachel Weisz). Press screening: Lars Von Trier's polarizing Antichrist. Competition: Johnny To's Vengeance (with Johnny Hallyday as a French chef with a murderous past), Brillante Mendoza's crime-themed drama Kinatay. Robert Guediguian's tale of Nazi resistance during World War II, The Army of Crime. Un Certain Regard: Pavel Lounguine's Russian historical drama Tzar. Directors' Fortnight: Denis Villeneuve's school shooting recreation Polytechnique, Riad Sattouf's teen coming of age flick Les Beaux Gosses.

Films Sold. The festival is a great time to conclude and/or announce distribution deals. indieWIRE brings word that Regent Releasing / Here Media have acquired Lucia Puenzo's The Fish Child and Eran Merav's Zion and His Brother. The former, from the director of XXY, tells of a romance between an upper-class teenage girl in Argentina who falls in love with her family's 20-year-old Paraguayan maid. The latter, from a debut director, is a coming-of-age drama about two brothers, "set in a gritty neighborhood in Haifa, Israel." Look for both films in theaters early next year.

Thomas Balmes' doc Baby(ies) is still in post-production, but Focus Features has seen enough; they picked up US and other rights to the film in a deal announced today. They plan a release in 2010. The film "simultaneously follows four babies, in Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco, and Tokyo, respectively, from birth to first steps," according to indieWIRE.

After the jump: The critics divide on Antichrist.

Continue reading Cannes in 60 Seconds: Sunday, May 17, 2009

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The fourth day of the Cannes Film Festival rolled onward without apparent major incident. The gorgeous Sophie Marceau and Tilda Swinton got all dressed up; also making appearances were Emile Hirsch and Monica Belluci.

Key Screenings. Competition: Ang Lee's nostalgic comedy Taking Woodstock (due for US release on August 14), Jacques Audiard's prison drama A Prophet. Un Certain Regard: Bong Joon-ho's legal / family drama Mother, Corneliu's Porumboiu's drama Police, Adjective. Directors' Fortnight: Hong Sang-see's "film director forgets what he did the night before" Like You Know It All, Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie's "single father with kids for two weeks" flick Go Get Some Rosemary.

Films Sold. MTV picked up Adria Petty's Paris, Not France and plans to broadcast it this summer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The long featurette screened once at the Toronto fest last fall amidst concerns that Paris Hilton and her camp might object to its content. "After watching the film with an audience," the article says, "Hilton's concerns were allayed." Was it the one that James Rocchi reported on for Cinematical? He called the doc "a step above a home movie ... a glossy glib pseudo documentary."

Strand Releasing announced the acquisition of two films that debuted at Sundance in January. Emily Abt's lacrosse relationship drama Toe to Toe, planned for an early 2010 release, and Jay DiPietro's Peter and Vandy, starring Jason Ritter and Jess Weixler, planned for release this fall. Cinematical's Erik Davis saw it at Sundance and wrote in part: "This isn't a film that relies on a few big set pieces to rule the show; it's a quieter character piece about the complexities of love. Details on the deals are available at indieWIRE:

After the jump: Choice Review Quotes!

Continue reading Cannes in 60 Seconds: Saturday, May 16, 2009

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Day three of the Cannes Film Festival featured stars, mixed reviews, musicians, deals, and plans to save neglected films.

Key Screenings. Competition: Jane Campion's romantic drama Bright Star and Park Chan-wook's vampire drama Thirst. Un Certain Regard: Lee Daniels' drama Precious. Directors' Fortnight: Pedro Costa's Ne Change Rien. Out of Competition: Michel Gondry's "very personal" doc The Thorn in the Heart. Advance press screening: Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock.

Celeb / Fainting Scenes. Both Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz traveled to Cannes in support of their appearances in Precious, which made pulses race and cameras click. (I must say, Mariah looks gorgeous!) One person reportedly passed out -- not at the sight of Carey or Kravitz, but during a screening of the bloody vampire flick Thirst. That's a second-hand report, by the way, from The Globe and Mail. Comedian / director Jerry Lewis, 83 years old, told reporters, "Why am I here? To get my car washed." (Per AFP.) No wonder he's so beloved by the French.

Films Sold. No deals for new titles were announced. However, John Woo's period epic Red Cliff has finally secured a US distribution deal. Magnolia Pictures' genre distribution arm Magnet plans a fall release of the combined, edited version, according to Screen International, and will make the entirety of the original film, released abroad in two parts, available on VOD and DVD. Also, Noah Buschel's The Missing Person, which debuted at Sundance, was acquired by Strand Releasing, indieWIRE says. The distributor plans a theatrical release later this year.

After the jump: Martin Scorsese talks about saving world cinema.

Continue reading Cannes in 60 Seconds: Friday, May 15, 2009

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The second day of the Cannes Film Festival showcased the programmers' commitment to auteurs. Instead of helium balloons in celebration of the family-friendly, animated Up, one of the key screenings was for a very adult drama about an inflatable Air Doll.

Key Screenings: Francis Coppola's Tetro bowed with a red carpet premiere tonight to open the Directors' Fortnight section, while the Un Certain Regard section opened with Bahman Ghabadi's No One Knows About Persian Cats and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll. Screening in the main competition were Lou Ye's Spring Fever and Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank. Park chan-wook's Thirst screened for the press. [Thanks very much to B-Side's "festival genius" unofficial guide to Cannes, which makes it easy to get a quick sense of what's playing each day.]

Films Sold. Three deals were announced for non-Cannes titles today, and indieWIRE has the details: Jack the Ripper-themed The Red Riding Trilogy (IFC Films), Aleksandr Sokurov's The Sun (Lorber HT Digital), and Jeff Stilson's doc Good Hair, featuring Chris Rock (Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment).

Blog Talk. Peter Kneght provides a good roundup at indieWIRE. Frankly, though, David Hudson at IFC's The Daily provides the best, most comprehensive overview of the fest and the individual films (e.g. Tetro). I've cherry picked of couple of quotes that David found, and added a few others from Day Two.

"Officially, it was the third film I watched here at Cannes, and besides Pixar's Up, it's the best live-action film I've seen so far." -- Alex Billington of First Showing, deeming Park Chan-wook's Thirst the "best" ... of two live-action movies he's seen so far. There's a poster pull-quote for ya!

After the jump: Even more choice review quotes!

Continue reading Cannes in 60 Seconds: Thursday, May 14, 2009

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Sacre bleu, say it isn't true! The Cannes Film Festival may be "the gorilla of the film world," in the words of Geoff Gilmore of Tribeca Film Enterprises (quoted at indieWIRE), but it's feeling economic pains that are similar to every other fest. Advance bookings are down about 15 percent, according to Bloomberg, while the number of films on offer at the concurrent Cannes Market are about the same. That doesn't mean the glamour level is down for the major Hollywood productions that are debuting, yet it seems that more people are willing to question the importance of the festival itself.

Key Screening. Disney Pixar's Up, directed by Pete Doctor, got things started off on the right foot, earning rave reviews as the first animated film to open the fest -- and in 3-D, to boot. A 40-foot tall replica of Carl's house was constructed on the nearby Carlton Pier for the event; initially, there were thoughts of floating the house up in the air with hundreds of attached helium balloons, but that idea was abandoned when conditions became too windy, reports USA Today. Carl, by the way, is the cranky old balloon salesman voiced by Ed Asner, who was not invited to attend.

Films Sold. Veteran distribution executive Bob Berney and his partner Bill Polhad announced a deal for Jane Campion's Bright Star, which is screening in competition at Cannes. It's a 19th Century romance drama about the love affair between two poets, played by Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw. Variety has the details.

After the jump: More distribution news, plus critical reaction to Up goes through the roof!

Continue reading Cannes in 60 Seconds: Wednesday, May 13, 2009

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Gallery: 'Precious' Teaser Poster

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