Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Doug Pratt
Ray Pride

Cannes: Day Three

It only took three days for a running theme to be detected in the films that have been selected for this year's film festival. Lemming had somebody commit suicide, Bashing is about an Iraqi hostage that returns to Japan only to be ridiculed, Woody Allen's Match Point featured a man whose ambition and lust lead him to commit terrible acts of crime, and on Friday festival programmers premiered Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies and Gus Van Sant's Last Days, both in competition. It's a little dark on the Croissette.

Egoyan, who is visiting Cannes for the eighth time, claims his film isn't dark at all. So does his producer, Robert Lantos. "Certainly I think the last time Atom and I were here with a film it was dark," referring to Egoyan's 2002 entry about the Armenian genocide, Ararat. "From that perspective, this film is sheer joy."

On the other hand, Egoyan did cop to his film being a modern day take on a film noir. He says he watched tons of them before sitting down to adapt Rupert Holmes' novel into a screenplay.

The film opens in 1959, a time when Lanny Harris (Kevin Bacon) and Vince Collins (Colin Firth) are the biggest comedy duo working in America. They are best known for putting on an annual telethon that raised millions for children with polio. However, when the naked body of a beautiful woman (Rachel Blanchard) winds up drowned in their hotel suit bathtub, things take a turn for the worse. (Told you it was dark).

Cut to 15 years later and a young award-winning journalist named Karen O'Conner (Alison Lohman) is attempting to write a book about how the famous comedy team broke up. In the process, she manages to uncover what really happened in that hotel room all those years ago. The film's narrative unfolds like a Chinese box, with stories inside of stories. Eventually Karen learns not only more than she really wanted to know about the comedians she idolized as a child, but also about herself.

After seeing the film at an early morning press screening, most of my contemporaries in the press pool had the same question I did. How on earth did Egoyan think he was ever going to get this film released in the United States? Not that it's bad. It's actually quite entertaining. Egoyan had created a sexy mystery with outstanding production value, wonderful music and above average cinematography. The only issue was all the naked bodies . . . and not just the dead one.

Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not complaining about gorgeous women like Lohman and Blanchard running around naked on screen in sex scenes with Bacon and Firth, I'm just wondering if Egoyan really considered the MPAA when he was making Where the Truth Lies.

Apparently not, Egoyan admits. "I always saw this as a really sensual movie in terms of the sex in the movie. I wanted to create this world that was intoxicating. I never think about censors."

Nor will he be cutting any of the scenes despite being contractually obligated to deliver a rated R movie. "That sense you feel that it's going too far is absolutely essential to the dramatic intention of the piece," he said. "The viewer has to experience a sense of violation. I wanted to make that sex as vivid and corporeal as possible."

Well, give that filmmaker a cigar! Based on the chatter at the press conference Egoyan attended after showing his film to the media, he definitely succeeded.

What he finds most interesting is how audiences keep commenting on the sex and nudity and not on the violence in the film. Maybe I can help him out with three words; Alison Lohman naked! Google that why don't ya?!

Kevin Bacon accompanied the director to the conference and quickly jumped to Egoyan's defense. "That's what I've always found strange about the rating system, that violence is often overlooked," he said. "Another thing is that sex is alright to see as long as the participants are clothed or some sort of piece of furniture is put in the way of nudity."

In the process of defending the film, Bacon recalled, "When we have sex, we're naked, and that's what kind of flips people out. I don't know, in real life sometimes I leave some of my clothes on, but it is unfortunate that people find that so disturbing."

Gus Van Sant's Last Days doesn't really have any nudity in it to speak of, but it also features a dead body. It would be that of the main character, who shoots himself in the head in the final scene of the film.

Aren't you pissed off that I just ruined the film for you? Well don't worry, Last Days is "inspired" by the days leading up to musician's Kurt Cobain's suicide. Besides, I couldn't ruin the film any more than Van Sant himself did. And if I were the only person who saw the film at yesterday's press screening that felt that way, then I would hesitate to even say such a harsh thing. However I stand amongst the many.

Though Van Sant toyed around with the idea of doing a biopic, he decided it just wouldn't work for him. What did work for him was making another film with an elliptical plot like both Gerry and Elephant. Except in Last Days even less happens. Michael Pitt plays Blake, who is a rock star (just like Cobain), who has long shoulder length blond hair that covers his face (just like Cobain), and who is addicted to heroin (kinda like Cobain was). Blake spends most of him time walking around in a drug induced stupor. He walks through the forest, to the lake. He cooks macaroni and cheese. He passes out and in all has less than a dozen lines of dialogue. He lives in an old dilapidated mansion with a couple of hangers on who are always asking for favors. As if that weren't bad enough, he also has the managers of his band calling up to ask about an upcoming tour.

Of course, we all know how it ends.

Probably the best scene in the film, you know the one in which people talk, featured Kim Gordon, one of the founders of Sonic Youth, who just happened to be an old acquaintance of Cobain's before he died. She really couldn't (or wouldn't) say whether the film was accurate. "I think everyone had their own idea and thoughts about who Kurt was and what happened," she said. "I think part of the idea of the film is that you can never really know somebody and that disparity between image and what goes on in a person's life day to day is very different."

Van Sant is still waiting to hear what die hard Cobain fans will have to say about the film, and is still waiting to hear what Cobain's former wife Courtney Love has to say about it. "Courtney did know about this project for many years during the period that I was working on it," he said. "I talked to her about it along the way."

Michael Pitt, who was with Van Sant when the filmmaker was talking ot the press, was either stoned, drunk or both. He looked like he hadn't bathed in about two years and was wearing something out of the Salvation Army's dumpster. When reporters asked him questions he mumbled nearly incomprehensibly. Comments like, "I played it as though he was remembering his death probably for a lot of his life," made no sense at all.

Even good old Henri Behar, the press conference moderator, gave up trying to ask him questions. One day, Henry has to deal with the hard of hearing. The next day, Henri has to deal with the hard of speaking. Poor Henri.

Day One
Day Two

May 13, 2005
- by J. Sperling Reich