festivaldecannes Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has added an educational element to their Cannes booty. Previously they picked up Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's drama Lorna's Silence, Norwegian director Bent Hamer's comedy/drama O'Horten, and animated Israeli doc Waltz with Bashir. (Eric Kohn explained why the latter deal was an especially good match of film with distributor.)

Variety reports that SPC's latest deal is their acquisition of US distribution rights for Laurent Cantet's The Class, which won the most coveted prize at Cannes, the Palme d'Or. The film was inspired by Francois Begaudeau's book based on his experiences teaching class in a rough section of Paris. The French-language title, Entre les Murs literally means "between the walls" or "inside the walls," which may give a further hint as to its concerns. (Thanks to commenter Céline for the linguistic assist.)

IFC Films has acquired yet another hot Cannes title. British director Steve McQueen's Hunger has impressed a number of critics, including our own Kim Voynar, who called it "a brilliant portrayal of a tragic moment in human history." The short article on the acquisition by Anne Thompson in Variety does not reveal what distribution plans IFC may have in mind.

Michael Fassbender portrays Bobby Sands, an IRA volunteer who led a long hunger strike in 1981 while he was imprisoned on gun charges by British authorities. (More information is available at Wikipedia or the search engine of your choice.) The case stirred up a considerable amount of controversy; I remember visiting New York City at the time and being besieged by daily headlines in the Post and Daily News screaming about one side or the other.

Kim notes that the film doesn't "address the circumstances that led to these men being incarcerated" but commented in response to a reader: "I don't believe we achieve greater humanity by sinking to crass brutality in our treatment of others, regardless of how they might have wronged us ... Nonetheless, I tried to keep the focus of my review on its artistic merits, and in that respect, it's a brilliant film." I hope IFC makes Hunger as widely available as possible -- it sounds like an incredibly timely subject.

Did you know that the beautiful city of San Diego has mean streets? City Lights Pictures announced in Cannes today that it has picked up North American rights to Damian Harris' Gardens of the Night, a drama about two young people struggling to exist hand to mouth on the streets of San Diego. City Lights plans a fall theatrical release, according to a statement released by the company.

Gillian Jacobs (pictured) stars as Leslie, a 17-year-old girl who is still dealing with the trauma she experienced when she and her childhood friend Donnie (Evan Ross) were abducted and held captive by two men nine years earlier. The abductors are played by Tom Arnold (!) and Kevin Zegers.

A famous Hong Kong action director is in an epic frame of mind. John Woo has not yet finished his two-part historical adventure Red Cliff, due out this year, but he has his next picture all ready to go. According to Variety, Woo will direct 1949, a romantic epic written by Wang Hui-ling (co-scripter of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Lust, Caution). Rising Taiwanese actor Chang Chen (Crouching Tiger, Blood Brothers) and Korean TV babe Song Hye-key (pictured) will star.

The film begins at the end of World War II and is based on real events that took place during the final years of the Chinese Civil War, right up to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Production is scheduled to begin in December, with release planned for December 2009 -- which is the 60th anniversary of the founding of a certain republic. The announcement was made in Cannes; Fortissimo Films will handle all rights outside China.

Woo stagnated in the studio system after a trio of entertaining action films (Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off ) that were much better than comparable Hollywood flicks. Having returned to Asia to make the epic Red Cliff, Woo appears ready to continue his career with more creative freedom, in partnership with producer Terence Chang. This sounds like the kind of film he should be making, with a quality screenwriter on board and two rising stars.

IFC Films has certainly been busy making deals at Cannes. As I posted a few days ago, they picked up Josh Safdie's indie comedy The Pleasure of Being Robbed and Arnaud Desplechin's drama A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), which impressed our own Kim Voynar with its "humor, beauty and depth." Now they've added two more films to their arsenal, according to indieWIRE, both European dramas.

The latest from director Olivier Assayas (Demonlover, Clean, Boarding Gate) is entitled Summer Hours and stars Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling and Jérémie Renier as siblings dealing with the death of their mother. They must make hard decisions about what to do with her valuable estate and all its many possessions. The film opened in France in early March. IFC plans a US theatrical release next year. More information in French is available at the official, super-duper, Flash enabled, slow loading official site.

Russian dramatic fairy tale Mermaid (pictured) won Anna Melikyan the prize for best director when the film played in the World Cinema section at Sundance this year. The film follows a young girl with telekinetic powers into adulthood, where she encounters the mysteries of love. Mariya Shalayeva plays Alisa as an adult. Mermaid has been provoking good reaction on the festival circuit; IFC will not release it in theaters, but instead add it to the offerings on its "Festival Direct" video on demand service, already available on many US cable systems. More infromation is available on the Russian-language official site.

The Weinstein Co. has added a British horror thriller to their upcoming slate of releases. According to indieWIRE, all North American rights to James Watkins' Eden Lake have been acquired by the Weinsteins at Cannes. Evidently, it's been months in the making: Fangoria noted in November 2007 that the Weinsteins were "reportedly finalizing" a deal.

Putting business aside, it sounds like writer/director Watkins, who also co-wrote My Little Eye, knows how to appeal to horror fans, telling Fangoria: "We show people's heads on fire, neck-stabbing with glass, stomach-slashing revealing intestines and kidneys and metal spikes through feet. Gritty realism in moments of ramped-up tension." (!!!!) The story follows a couple "on a romantic weekend getaway being terrorized by dysfunctional teenagers with no ethical boundaries."

Lest you think that this picture might appeal solely to horror fans, the actors who play the romantic couple have bona fide credentials. Michael Fassbender (300) has already received kudos this week for his performance as the hunger-striking IRA leader Bobby Sands in director Steve McQueen's Hunger, and is in advanced talks to play the coveted role of Heathcliff in a new version of Wuthering Heights, as Elisabeth Rappe told us earlier this week. Fassbender's better half in Eden Lake is played by Kelly Reilly (pictured), who has become even more gorgeous in the six years since she appeared in The Spanish Apartment. Explicit carnage, a hot heartthrob, and a lovely lady? Count me in.

While David Lynch prepares to team up with Werner Herzog to make a guerilla-style murder drama, his daughter is doing quite well on her own, thank you very much. indieWIRE reports that Surveillance, the first film by Jennifer Chambers Lynch in 15 years, has been picked up by Magnet Releasing for distribution in the US. The thriller will be playing out of competition at Cannes next week in one of the three Midnight screening slots.

Surveillance is set in the Santa Fe desert, where a blood-curdling killing spree has been unleashed, according to the official synopsis. The FBI arrives and listens to three eyewitnesses, including an eight-year-old girl whose family was brutally murdered. It becomes clear that the little girl knows something about the FBI agents ... and then two more bodies are found.

Creepy, eh? But not nearly as creepy as Lynch's first film, Boxing Helena, in which a surgeon held a woman captive and started amputating her limbs, all in the name of love. Based on the premise, Surveillance sounds much more straightforward, but perhaps the younger Lynch has some surprises up her sleeve.

The film stars Julia Ormond and Bill Pullman (David Lynch's Lost Highway) as the FBI agents, Pell James, Ryan Simpkins, and Kent Harper as the witnesses, and Michael Ironside as the local police chief. French Stewart and Cheri Oteri are also featured. Harper co-wrote the script with Lynch. Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, plans a fall theatrical roll-out.

The deals are already flying fast and furious in Cannes. As befits an international marketplace, most of the action involves far-flung territories, but we're keeping an eye out for US distribution deals too. indieWIRE has a great round-up of the first day's activity, which includes the news that IFC Films has acquired distribution rights to two films.

Good buzz about 24-year-old Joshua Safdie's feature debut The Pleasure of Being Robbed began when it world premiered at SXSW in March. Somehow, the Cinematical crew missed seeing it (hey, we're only human, we miss things sometimes), but David Lowery at Spout raved: "It's pure cinema, and as such it's one of the best films I've seen this year." The comedy revolves around a kleptomaniac, played by co-writer Eleonore Hendricks, with a philanthropic streak. Pleasure is the only US title in the Director's Fortnight this year.

In 2005, Tom Hall declared: "There is not a more important filmmaker working today than Arnaud Desplechin." He previously made Kings & Queen and Esther Kahn, among other critically-acclaimed work. The French filmmaker's latest, A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), features Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon and Mathieu Amalric "in a contemporary family drama set in France." The film plays in Official Competition and has its first screening on Friday night before opening theatrically in France next week.

We'll have to wait to hear about IFC's specific plans for distribution.

Cinematical has received two brand new exclusive Blindness images ahead of the film's world premiere tonight at the 2008 Festival de Cannes. Directed by Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener), Blindness was selected as the opening night film for this year's Festival de Cannes, and it stars Julianne Moore as the wife of a doctor (Mark Ruffalo) who suddenly becomes the only one who can see in a town where everyone is struck with a mysterious case of blindness. Based on the novel by José Saramago (adapted by Don Mckellar), Blindness also stars Gael García Bernal, Alice Braga and Danny Glover.

Cinematical is on the ground in Cannes, and both James and Kim have already seen Blindness. We'll have our review of the festival's opening night film later on in the day. Check out our second exclusive photo below, then head to the gallery for more. Blindness arrives in theaters on September 19.