I was looking for some music on iTunes when, by some coincidence, I ran into the “Carnival of the Animals” suite by French romantic composer Camille de Saint Saëns. In fact, I was looking for some house music for my morning jog at the gymn.
The arrangement I found was by Barry Wordsworth and the London Symphonic Orchestra. The melodies had a pleasant, cinematic quality to them. The titles--“Kangaroos,” “People with long ears”—sounded as if they’d been lifted from Michel Gondry’s scrap book.
And then, the unpredictable occurred: “Aquarium,” the better-known piece from "Carnival of the Animals" came on the loudspeakers. I couldn’t believe it; this was the same music that’s been used by the Cannes Film Festival for the opening title sequence which plays before every screening (see video player below).
The same fairytale-like splendor, the whirlwind-like glissandos, it was all there—I was spellbound by it. Here I was, right back in my seat at the Lumière Theatre, waiting for the first screening to start.
The same day I contacted Gilles Jacob to ask him about this all came to be.
The beautiful Marisa Tomei will be starring opposite George Clooney and Ryan Gosling in "Ides of March," which will premiere at the next Venice Mostra.
Venice is gearing up for its 68th Mostra, scheduled to run from August 31 to September 10 and opening with George Clooney’s “The Ides of March,” in competition. The film, based on the play “Farragut North” by Beau Willimon, is the timely story of a U.S. governor, the democrat Mike Morris, running for president.
The much-awaited biopic on French President Sarkozy, “La Conquête” or “the Conquest,” presented outside the competition, fizzled out on Wednesday. The audience expected an intelligent story with revelations and analysis of the French political class. What it got instead it was a made-for-TV wooden narrative with nothing new or original and actors who are exact copies of the actual people they represent. The story is that of Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power from 2002 when he becomes Interior Minister under Jacques Chirac to 2007 when he wins the presidential elections. The two threads followed are one, the fierce in-fighting with another member of government who absolutely hates his guts, Dominique de Villepin, and two, the breaking apart of his marriage to Cecilia Sarkozy, uninterested in the trappings of power and in love with another man whom she will go away with just as Sarkozy wins the elections. We cannot be remotely interested in these people as there is no larger perspective, no analysis of politics or of the strange motivations of the men and women who pursue success in the fraught and ultimately unrewarding corridors of power. No Nanni Moretti’s “Il Caimano” (about Berlusconi) here, nor “W,” Oliver Stone’s study of Bush.
"The Conquest" generally fails except in illustrating what is well known: the tight ranks of the “legitimate” political class in France, tall graduates of the famous ENA school, well-bred and moneyed, for whom a short, ordinary man born to a Hungarian Jewish family, even when elected president, will always remain a figure of ridicule, certainly unfit to lead the French Republic.
Spotlight on this year's Cannes Selection and who the Palme winner will be. What's playing out in the jurors' hotel suite as I type these words is anyone's guess. How Robert De Niro will steer his jury is hard to tell. When Tim Burton was at the helm last year, people guessing "Uncle Boonmee" by Apichatpong Weerasethakul wouldn't have been too far off. Burton responds to dream-like, fantasy-related content, and the bewitching but slow movie by the Thai filmmaker was right up his alley. And "Boonmee" did win in the end. But De Niro? "Taxi driver," along with "Easy Rider," was one of the best-known movies out of the first independent cinema surge. Since then the "Meet the Parents" actor has usually worked with large, well-heeled movie productions. At the same time, he and Jane Rosenthal started Tribeca Film Festival which tends to showcase little-known filmmakers.
The buzz on the street has Lars Von Trier winning for "Melancholia." That's unlikely, considering what took place earlier this week (see our News article). I don't think De Niro would hand him the Palme given the Danish director's outrageous comments during the film's press conference.
Twelve year-old Cyril (Thomas Doret), abandoned by his father (Jérémie […]
The 8:30am screening at the Cannes Festival is the most important one of the day, for a number of reasons. It's held in the Lumière Theatre, which sits over 2,200, it's early, and is bound to be attended by serious cinephiles and journalists (parties-bound festival-goers can't be expected to roll out of bed until about 11am and will try and catch Competition films later on in the day, if they make it). Finally, and because of the previously cited reasons, that screening is also a good yardstick for a movie's success for the remainder of the festival, and, often, beyond. In this case, Terrence Malick's "Tree of life," which was expected last year but not delivered (at Grand Hotel press conference, the single question raised by a fearless journalist was, "why is Terry Malick's Tree of Life not included in the selection?"), and which was shown on Monday, was the film-event of the still-ongoing Cannes Festival (and no, these sorts of events don't happen at every Cannes Festival) and a divisive one at that. Are all film-events divisive ones? No. When E.T. was shown, Steven Spielberg got a standing ovation that lasted nearly eight minutes. "Tree of life," with its overwrought message about the meaning of life and eminently-good Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, got boos, hisses, and plenty of applause. How that reaction will reverberate over the life of the movie is anyone's guess.
Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier has been declared “persona non […]
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