ISabel Coixet Tagged Articles at Cinematical

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."

The dog days of summer hit the indie box office this weekend, as the top earner was a film in its third week of release. Elegy, directed by Isabel Coixet and starring Ben Kingsley and Penélope Cruz, expanded from six to 92 theaters and grossed $5,546 per screen, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. The adaptation of a novel by Philip Roth has not been universally praised, but maintains a strong 74% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes. I can't help but conclude that Penélope Cruz is the art house crowd's answer to Megan Fox, because . . .

. . . Cruz also stars in Vicky Christina Barcelona (pictured), which made $4,339 per screen in its fairly wide (692 theaters) second week. Woody Allen's latest features other pretty people such as Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson, of course, and has very good reviews behind it, yet it's silly to ignore the current Cruz heat factor.

As Eugene has already noted, Andrew Fleming's Hamlet 2 got a jump start on its wide release by opening on 103 screens, but its average of $4,223 "doesn't inspire confidence for the expansion." Will this slow down star Steve Coogan?

Suspense drama Transsiberian ($4,157 per screen, 38 theaters, 6th week), tense drama Frozen River ($4,048 per screen, 41 theaters, 4th week), and mystery thriller Tell No One ($3,643 per screen, 101 theaters, 8th week, $3.8 million total) continued to draw well, while debuting debt doc I.O.U.S.A. made $3,461 per screen at 18 locations.

From bits of Babel to new nightmares on Elm Street:

• While it might have seemed like Rinko Kikuchi dropped off the cinematic circuit after making waves with Babel, the young actress has kept busy and will soon be seen in the likes of The Brothers Bloom and Shanghai. But that's not all: The Hollywood Reporter posts that she's in talks for Isabel Coixet's next film, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo. A tale of dual identities, the film is said to focus on a fish-market worker who is also a contract killer. It's not clear whether she is that worker, or will have another part in the film. Whatever the case, it'll be nice to see Rinko in something new.
• In a completely different vein, there's a new rumor on Elm Street. Forget Smallville stars -- according to Ace Showbiz, the reigning nightmare king Robert Englund was on Loveline recently, and mentioned the new movie. He said he's heard talks about Billy Bob Thornton taking on the role. I must say -- that's completely out of left field, but I'm not hating the idea. How about you? Could Billy Bob be a good fit for the striped sweater?

I'm not partial to overtly subjective reviews, yet I can't seem to find any better way of relating my response to Isabel Coixet's latest film, Elegy, an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel "The Dying Animal," which follows the romance between a college professor and his much younger former student. First, though, a note of appropriateness: early in the film, this professor, the Roth regular David Kepesh, who previously appeared in the novels "The Breast" and "The Professor of Desire," is lecturing about how literature, specifically Tolstoy's "War and Peace," will be appreciated differently by a reader at different points in his or her life. In ten years, for example, it may seem like a new book entirely.

Perhaps in ten years, then, or more likely in thirty, I will be able to watch Elegy again and have a new perspective. Maybe I will be able to relate to Kepesh, here portrayed by Ben Kingsley, when I am in my sixties and have similarly lived and experienced as much. Yet the fact that Coixet's film is so depressing makes me almost hope that I never actually live so long to find out. I should have known, what with the filmmaker's past films, such as My Life Without Me, with their gray atmospheres and dreary dealings with illness and death. While appearing on the outside to be a sexy drama about how one lecherous old man discovers love, Elegy is on the inside really just a slow, uninteresting depiction of a selfish fool who possibly too-late realizes that he's grown old before he's actually grown up.

People all over the world are unhappy with Hollywood's domination of foreign box office. It gives audiences worse movies, which must appeal to all of the world. It influences a number of cultures to be more like American. And, most devastatingly, it ruins the production and the identity of national cinemas. Last year we saw a major protest in South Korea because the government was eliminating a quota that mandated theaters to show a certain amount of domestic product per year. This week there was another protest, this one in Spain, but it had an opposite demand. The Federation of Spanish Cinemas (like our own National Association of Theatre Owners) is upset with a proposed "Cinema Law", which is currently moving through the Spanish parliament, mandating that theaters must show one Spanish film for every three imports they show. As a sign of protest and criticism of the law, the Federation shut down 93% of the nation's cinemas Monday, though just for the one day.

Because there are about 230 theaters that aren't a part of the Federation, some people in Spain were able to find a movie if they really tried, but with around 3770 cinemas closed, I feel bad for anybody doing the trying. It wouldn't be surprising if representatives from Hollywood head over to Spain to support the protest, and maybe even bully convince the government, as they have a lot to lose from the law. The Federation apparently has a lot to lose, too, because Spanish films don't perform nearly as well at the box office as Hollywood fare. But last year the nation's top15 highest grossing films included three titles that were at least Spanish co-productions, with Alatriste being all the way up at number 4 (it does star Viggo Mortensen). In 2005, the same position held a Spanish film, Torrente 3: El Protector. Of course, this isn't that great considering most of the other titles are from Hollywood, and so Hollywood is where most of moviegoer's money is going. Plus, so far this year, the highest grossing Spanish film of 2007 (El Ekipo Ja) is all the way down at number 40.

It's a noble enough idea: get five directors to each direct a short film highlighting a problem in an underdeveloped area of the world, then put them together into one feature-length film. Kind of like Paris, je t'aime, only darker and considerably more depressing (but hey, what would a film festival be without a slew of depressing documentaries to remind us of how mundane the problems of our modern lives are when compared to war, rape, child abductions, and obscure-but -deadly diseases that no one at the big pharmaceutical companies seems to care about?)

It is a decent idea, to be sure, and producer Javier Bardem's heart was in the right place in conceiving of the film Invisibles, but somehow the end result is five films that feel disconnected from each other in spite of their common theme of addressing the "invisible" people of society -- the disenfranchised, the victims of long wars, the poverty-stricken residents of slums and remote villages.

Part of the problem with the film is that several of the segments feel like they were shot for the kind of late-night infomercials that appeal to well-to-do insomniacs to donate money to their various causes. I kept expecting Sally Struthers to show up on screen, guiding us from short film to short film while holding a malnourished Third World child in her arms. Documentaries, even ones that highlight relevant social causes, still need to tell a coherent story that draws us in, makes us care about the people or causes we're learning about. Even with short docs, we still need a compelling story to engage the audience, and most of the films in Invisibles just don't accomplish that.

According to a recent report in Variety, the Lakeshore Entertainment adaptation of Philip Roth's 2001 novella Dying Animal has added Peter Sarsgaard (whose latest film Year of the Dog opens this week), Dennis Hopper and former Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry to its cast. These three will be joining the previously cast Penelope Cruz, Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson. In the film, Cruz will play a graduate student who has an affair with a much older professor played by Kingsley. Cruz's character returns years later with a revelation. According to Wikipedia, the novella Dying Animal marked the third appearance of Kingsley's character, Professor David Kepesh, who had previously appeared in The Breast and The Professor of Desire. No word on how these three new additions to the cast will fit into the story.

The film is being directed by Isabel Coixet, adapted by Nicholas Meyer (perhaps best known for his involvement in the Star Trek film franchise) and produced by Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi. Lakeshore International will distribute the film overseas, selling territories at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. The company is also currently in production on Pathology (the story of two medical students trying to commit the perfect murder), the Clive Barker adaptation Midnight Meat Train and the serial killer film Untraceable. Since the Variety article refers to the film as untitled, I can envision a meeting in which someone said, "Dying Animal? Who's going to pay to see a movie about road kill?" Whatever it ends up being called, it starts shooting next month in Vancouver.

There's some salacious cinema in the works for this Spring. Before Penélope Cruz heads to Europe to star in Woody Allen's next film, she'll be making her way to Vancouver to co-star with Ben Kingsley in another. And the film in question isn't what you might expect -- it's an erotic drama and Isabel Coixet's latest feature. She recently directed part of Paris, je t'aime, and she's the woman who also brought us the Sarah Polley drama, My Life Without Me. Now she's heading Elegy, which is based on the a 2001 novel by Philip Roth, The Dying Animal.

The novel is about a literature professor and renowned radio host/culture critic named David Kepesh (Kingsley) -- a man who left his wife and child in the 60's to pursue an "emancipated manhood." In other words, he's sexually casual and un-committed. He meets a young student, Consuela Castillo (Cruz), who he thinks of as "a masterpiece of volupte." Her presence throws his life into disorder as he becomes sexually possessive and jealous. A nice May-December tryst without the creepy statutory feel. While I can't help but think of Salma Hayek as I type this, I guess Cruz could handle it as well. However, I'm hoping that they up the age of her character, because I don't think anyone will buy Ms. Cruz playing someone 10 years her junior. The film is scheduled to begin principal photography on April 24th.

Am I the only one who didn't know anthology films compiling related segments by different filmmakers (New York Stories; Four Rooms) are called "portmanteau" films? Well, regardless of what we call them, there's a new one in the works called The Invisibles. Though it may sound like a comic book movie, it is really a set of four stories focusing on overlooked conflicts and world causes. Wim Wenders is doing one of the segments, which is about violence towards women in the Congo. The other subjects are sleeping sickness in Africa, young soldiers in Uganda and a non-fiction part about displaced Colombians (this time I spelled it right, even though Empire Magazine didn't!). Other people involved in the project include Oscar-nominated actor Javier Bardem, Spanish directors Fernando León, Mariano Barroso, Javier Corcuera and Isabel Coixet (wait, I have a feeling there are more than four segments).

Wenders may seem to stick out like a sore thumb, but I'm sure he isn't the only one whose segment is worth watching. Typically, I figure there's at least one part in these things that weighs the quality of the whole film down. Although, after Eros, which I hear was weak all around despite featuring three very well-regarded filmmakers, we probably can't even depend on the majority of the segments to be worth the effort.

The Goyas, Spain's version of the Oscars (I've always wondered - do other countries call the Oscars "The American version of______"? I certainly hope so.) were handed out last night, and though no one film dominated the proceedings, an English-language work left with four awards, including best picture and best director. The film, The Secret Life of Words, stars Tim Robbins and Sarah Polley (her second collaboration with director Isabel Coixet), and recently had its American premiere at Sundance. In it, Polley plays a quiet, shy nurse who travels to an oil rig while on "vacation" to care for Robbins' character who is recovering from severe burns. Corneal damage leaves him temporarily blind; as a result the movie is uncommonly concerned with the words that pass between him and Polley's character (hence its title). The film has been well-review by the few people writing in English who have seen it; one hopes this recognition will help it gain an audience in the US when it goes into (very, very) limited release this spring.