Festivals

Vilnius Sur La Croisette

Vilnius Sur La Croisette

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Cannes Competition review: Reality

There are comparisons to be made between “Reality” and “Bellissima” – they both heavily involve Cinecitta Studios, for example – but it feels somewhat unfair to pigeonhole “Reality” as simply a recreation of Visconti.

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Director Of Grass Muses Robert Altman Documentary

Director Of Grass Muses Robert Altman Documentary

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Hundreds Cast Petition Upon The Waters At Cannes For More Female Directors

Hundreds Cast Petition Upon The Waters At Cannes For More Female Directors

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SIFF 2012: Opening Weekend Preview

Because Seattle’s fest is so sprawling — we’re talking 25 days of movies here, folks — I’ve decided to try something a little different this year and do weekend previews of what’s coming up at the fest and my picks each week. I’m hoping that this will allow me to focus a little more on talking up films I’m excited about seeing and what you might want to check out at the fest as it rolls along.

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Dancing With Bill Murray At Cannes

Dancing With Bill Murray At Cannes

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Cannes Competition Review: Rust and Bone

Cinema math doesn’t always work out, as putting a group of talented people together on a film set doesn’t guarantee success. However, something about Rust and Bone felt extremely promising from the very beginning.

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Cannes iPhone Review: Rust & Bone

Yeah… you’ve seen this logline before. In fact, the awards season looks to be clogged with some of this. But you have never seen it done through Jacques Audiard’s pitiless, demanding, unrelenting eyes. The pair at the center of this journey are an impulsive muscle-head with no money with a 5-year-old he’s taken from his…

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Cotillard And Farhadi Engage On Next Project

Cotillard And Farhadi Engage On Next Project

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“Cannes is also the repetition of certain routines, some more pleasurable than others.”

“Cannes is also the repetition of certain routines, some more pleasurable than others.”

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Cannes iPhone Review: Moonrise Kingdom

A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one can talk to a horse, of course. That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Wes Anderson. Wes Anderson’s natural state as an artist is artificial… and yet, somehow, intimate.

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Anderson Talks Moonrise Kingdom

“Yeah, first time I’ve shown a film in Cannes and the first time I’ve been. I’ve never gone to even watch a movie there so, yeah, it’s very exciting.” Anderson Talks Moonrise Kingdom

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Cannes Competition Review: Moonrise Kingdom

Make no mistake—the true stars of this film are Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, and should be seen because of them. These newcomers are very talented and extremely photogenic (Hayward in particular looks strikingly like a younger Emma Watson), and hopefully Moonrise Kingdom’s trajectory bestows upon these kids a brilliant acting career.

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Morning in Cannes

And so it begins… There are few things odder than going to so many festivals every year and then not quite knowing which way is up as you start one. But here we go. The first line today is the line for credentials. You would think that journalists would know enough not to block the…

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You Still Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: At 89, Resnais Sets Out For Loving, Drinking, Singing

You Still Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: At 89, Resnais Sets Out For Loving, Drinking, Singing

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Eug Diaries His Cannes Ten

Eug Diaries His Cannes Ten

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Xan Brooks Decodes The Croisette

Xan Brooks Decodes The Croisette

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WeinsteinCo Acquires Cannes-Bound The Sapphires, 1950s Aboriginal Girl Group Musical

WeinsteinCo Acquires Cannes-Bound The Sapphires, 1950s Aboriginal Girl Group Musical

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Lim Preps For Cannes

“Cannes without veteran auteurs is like the Louvre without masters.” Lim Preps For Cannes

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Countdown to Cannes: Garrone, Seidl, Vinterberg

The ninth (and last) in a series of snapshots of the twenty-two filmmakers in Competition for the Palme d’Or at the sixty-fifth Festival de Cannes.

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“I’m in Locarno, my movie is premiering for 1,000 people, which is nuts. A huge-ass screening, second day of the festival, 7:30pm in the sidebar competition. It’s comparable to Un Certain Regard or Director’s Fortnight. Every movie I saw in that section was fun, brilliant movies from around the world. The main competition was like Aza Jacobs and Mia Hansen-Løve, people who have been around. And I was like, “This is crazy. What am I doing inside the bloodstream of this establishment? I’m 27. I don’t belong here.” Every person I talked to there couldn’t believe what the movie cost, and then couldn’t believe when I told them what other American movies cost. We were the cheapest movie there by 65%. The next cheapest movie cost I think three times as much as we did. And they were just like, “You can’t make movies for what you’re telling us your movie cost.” And I told them, “Well, I can, I’m here, I’m in the same section as you are, so you are wrong. People think I’m lying when I tell them my budget. And also everyone likes it. I’m having a great time and people are being very responsive. Maurice Pialat’s widow was like, “I heard your movie’s good, I want a copy of it.” I’m like, “Well this is f**kin’ crazy.” Pedro Costa saw it there and really liked it and I’m like, What am I doing? I had gone in two months from screening at BAM for a lot of friends to Pedro Costa? This is the exact sentence: “Pedro Costa saw your movie. He’s a huge Jerry Lewis fan. He wants to talk to you about your movie and also Jerry Lewis.” And I thought, “I’m out of my element. I cannot have that conversation because that’s ridiculous.” Because his retrospective was happening at Anthology when I worked at Kim’s, and his Criterion box set came out when I was working at Kim’s. He can’t want to talk to me. That’s not possible. That’s not allowed. There is no world where that makes any sense!”  Or like when you wrote me to say that David Gordon Green wrote you to say, “I’m watching The Color Wheel and then I’m going to see Tree of Life.” There is no world where this is allowed! Again, somebody whose DVDs I was putting on the shelf, as, like, a hero. And it’s just like, “Oh, I’ll watch this movie.” There’s just a very fuzzy area in the middle there and it happened very quickly and I don’t understand why.  I still have a voice-mail from Sean [Price Williams, cinematographer]. I wish he was here to talk about it, but the voice-mail is a long pause and he’s just like, “I don’t want to tell you this, because it’s gonna make you so insufferable. I hate having to tell you this, but Leos Carax watched your movie and he really loves it, and he wants to meet you when he comes to New York.” I can’t live in a world where Leos Carax knows who I am, watches my movie, likes it, and thinks, “I wanna meet that guy.”
~ It’s Alex Ross Perry’s World

“I don’t know. It’s been a lot harder than I thought it was going to be to make the films I really dream of making. I was in Italy a few years ago scouting for this very beautiful film I wanted to make with Richard Linklater. We worked really hard on the script for a couple of years and couldn’t get the money together. It was an expensive idea. It’s heartbreaking when that happens over and over again and then the movies that do get made are ones that have lots of women being beaten up or zombies being killed. It’s all fine, it’s all okay, but it’s hard. I remember when River Phoenix died, he was ahead of me on this curve. He kind of realized how hard it was to make serious movies. People like Sidney Lumet figured out how to walk that line, but it’s hard. And it requires patience. It’s a life’s work and I wonder if I’m up to the task.”
~ Weary, Wary Ethan Hawke

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