It wouldn’t be surprise if French prison drama “A Prophet” directed by Jacques Audiard win the race for best picture. Another favorite is New Zealand’s Jane Campion with her biopic “Bright Star,” who won the Golden Palm in 1993 with “The Piano,” as is Pedro Almodovar and his “Broken Embraces” starring Penelope Cruz.

Among the other frontrunners for the Palme d’Or is Austrian Michael Haneke for his “The White Ribbon.” Italian entry “Vincere” about Mussolini’s secret marriage was broadly popular. Ken Loach’s “Looking for Eric,” featuring former football star Eric Cantona also is one of this festival’s most popular entries.

Quentin Tarantino is thought to be an outside prospect for Cannes’ biggest prize, as his film “Inglourious Basterds” received a mixed reaction when it was shown in competition but we’ll see, because even Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist” is a contender despite offending and angering many who watched it.

The official Cannes Festival awards are always preceded by the announcement of prizes for the films which screened in two other Cannes selections.

The First Cannes Awards

For now, “The White Ribbon” by Michael Haneke, presented in Competition won FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) prize. FIPRESCI Jury also awarded Un Certain Regard film “Police, Adjective” by Corneliu Porumboiu and “Amreeka” by Cherien Dabis.

The Palme d’Or for the Best Short Film was awarded to “Arena” by João Salaviza. A Special Mention went to “The Six Dollar Fifty Man” by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland.

In a rare triumph for Greek cinema at Cannes, Yorgos Lanthimos’ unsettling repression drama “Dogtooth” took the top Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes.

FINALLY:

Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” received the Palme d’Or from the jury of the 62nd Cannes Film Festival.

“Thank you very much. Sometimes my wife asks me a very feminine question: that is, am I happy. Well, let me say that at this moment in time, I am very happy. Much thanks also to Thierry Frémaux for including me in this prestigious competition; to my producers, for letting me do what I wanted; to the funding sources which financed the film, and to the children, who were an enormous gift to me. A thousand thanks!”

Jacques Audiard’s won the Grand Prix for “A Prophet.”
The top two prizewinners – Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” and Audiard’s “A Prophet” had been predicted and largely well received during the festival.

Christoph Waltz took the actor prize for his multilingual turn in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds.”

Eighty-six-year-old French veteran Alain Resnais, in competition with “Wild Grass,” received a lifetime achievement award from the jury.

Best Director: Brillante Mendoza – “Kinatay” (Philippines)

Jury prize: “Fish Tank” (Andrea Arnold, U.K.) sharing with “Thirst” (Park Chan-wook, South Korea-U.S.)

Best Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds” (U.S.-Germany)

Best Actress: Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Antichrist” (Denmark-Germany-France-Sweden-Italy-Poland)

Best Screenplay: Mei Feng, “Spring Fever” (Hong Kong-France)

UN CERTAIN REGARD JURY AWARDS

Main Prize: “Dogtooth” (Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece)

Jury Prize: “Police, Adjective” (Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania)

Special Prize: “No One Knows About Persian Cats” (Bahman Ghobadi, Iran), “Father of My Children” (Mia Hansen-Love, France)

OTHER MAIN JURY AWARDS

Camera d’Or: “Samson and Delilah” (Warwick Thornton)

Special Mention: “Ajami” (Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani, Israel-Germany)

Critics’ Week Grand Prix: “Farewell Gary” (Nassim Amamouche, France)

CINEFONDATION

First Cinéfondation Prize:
“Bába” by Zuzana Kirchnerová-Špidlová (FAMU, Czech Republic)

Second Cinéfondation Prize:
“Goodbye” by Song Fang (Beijing Film Academy, China)

Third Cinéfondation Prize (ex aequo)
“Diploma” by Yaelle Kayam (The Sam Spiegel Film & TV School, Israel)
“Nammae Ui Jip” (Don’t Step out of the House) directed by Jo Sung-hee (Korean Academy of Film Arts)

Ledger died after completing the real-world portions of the film. Gilliam finished the film with Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell taking Ledger’s role in three trips to make-believe realities. Gilliam’s first thought when Ledger died in New York was to ditch “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” which was only half finished.

“The choice I made was to close the film down,” Gilliam told reporters at the Cannes film festival, where the out-of-competition movie has its world premiere.

“I couldn’t see how we could finish it without Heath because we were in the middle of production. Fortunately, I was surrounded by really good people who insisted that I shouldn’t be such a lazy bastard and I’d better go out and find a way of finishing the film for Heath. That’s what we did.” I started calling friends, Johnny Depp, and he said ‘I’m there’. And I basically was just calling people who knew and loved Heath.

“Everyone in the cast and everyone in the crew was determined that this film would be finished and everybody worked longer, harder and somehow we got through. It was really … people’s love for Heath that propelled this thing forward.”
The movie closes with the dedication: “A film from Heath Ledger and friends.”

The fantasy adventure is orchestrated by the ageless Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), who has the power to project people into their own imagination. However, the fascinating journey always ends with a choice, which can lead to the best or the worst. And Parnassus, as an inveterate gambler, has his own problems. Having won a wager with the Devil, he has made two successive deals with Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) over the ages. Granted immortality first and eternal youth next, he once agreed to deliver his first-born to the Devil when he or she reached the age of 16. And now that Valentina (Lily Cole) is only days away from the fatal age, the Devil is already prowling in the vicinity.

“…This is the purest expression of Gilliam’s distinctive sensibility in a long while, complete with outbursts of Pythonesque humour, entrancing dream landscapes, strange creatures, a dapper devil and a wise midget. It is an incredibly rich stew of a film and an often wilfully eccentric proposition for a mainstream audience. Despite the attractions of a stellar cast, its appeal will be largely confined to loyal Gilliam fans and those seeking a last look at the legacy of the late Heath Ledger, who died during the film’s production. The end credits for Imaginarium bill it as a film from Heath Ledger and friends…” ScreenDaily

“…The first shot of the actor is of him hanging from a bridge, seemingly dead. Dramatic in any situation, it’s particularly poignant for the audience…All eyes are naturally on Ledger’s performance for the time he remains on screen…
…It’s bittersweet to see him in the flesh and to hear lines spoken to him in the film about those who go before their time: “They are forever young, they won’t grow old.” It’s also hard to judge his performance as the film cuts between his replacements – Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. However, Gilliam’s multiple choices work well, with Ledger and Depp actually looking curiously similar…” BBC

“Marred by shoddy special effects and half-formed fantastical conceits, Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” has the feeling of a comic fantasia desperately seeking to find its rhythm. Nearly abandoned after the sudden death of leading man Heath Ledger prior to completing production in January of last year, the final result reflects the frantic cobbling together of missing pieces…” IndieWire

“…Many Ledger fans certainly will turn out just to see his final performance. But it’s genuinely interesting to see how, under duress, Gilliam contrived to work the other actors into the role. The way it plays out in the finished picture is that Ledger’s incarnation of Tony, a man rescued from death who provides a possible way for Doctor Parnassus to win a wager with the devil, occupies the London-set framing story, while his three successors play versions of the character in the CGI sequences set in fantastical other dimensions. It all comes off well, without terribly disruptive emotional-mental dislocations…

…It’s 66 minutes into the picture when Depp first appears, and you have to look twice to make sure it’s him, so closely has his pulled-back hair, moustache and beard been tailored to match Ledger’s. At one point, Depp’s Tony conducts a middle-aged woman to the river of immortality and says that there she can join the likes of Valentino, James Dean and Princess Di among those who never got old, which serves to ease Ledger’s unspoken admission to that group…” Variety

“The first big question about Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” involves how the filmmaker managed to complete the film when his star Heath Ledger died in the middle of shooting. The answer is with great imagination and skill.
The second big question is whether Gilliam has produced something to rank with his great fantasies “Time Bandits” and “Brazil,” and the answer is sadly no.

A carnival show with a mirror to the imagination allows Gilliam to employ his remarkable gift for imagery, but the worlds he creates will not take the breath away of children or grown-ups. The combined star power involved will generate a plentiful boxoffice return, but the film is neither intelligent enough nor silly or grotesque enough to become a lasting favorite…” HollywoodReporter

For more movie info and photos check out “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus” FF Movie Page

Take a look at Heath Ledger as Tony, Christopher Plummer as Dr. Parnassus, Lily Cole as his daughter Valentina, Verne Troyer as his sidekick Percy, and here’s a shot of Tom Waits as Mr. Nick.

“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary ‘Imaginarium’, a travelling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom.

Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr Nick…

After Ledger’s death, director Terry Gilliam cast Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp to replace him.

For more movie info and photos check out “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus” FF Movie Page

“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Preview Clip

Click here to view the embedded video.

“The White Ribbon” (”Das Weisse Band“) directed and written by Michael Haneke is in competition for Palme d’Or at 62nd Cannes Film Festival.
The movie stars Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Tukur, Theo Trebs, Michael Schenk, Leonie Benesch, Josef Bierbichler, Rainer Bock, Christian Friedel, Burghart Klaussner, Steffi Kuhnert and Ursina Lardi.

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Cannes best director winner Michael Haneke’s (“Cache,” 2005) latest focuses on a rural German school in 1913, which seems to be the sight of ritual punishment.
The story of the children and teenagers of a choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families: the baron, the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers.
Strange accidents occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Does the ritual punishment have an affect on the school system and is this a precursor to the rise of fascism?

Reviews sound fantastic so this could be easily Palme d’Or winner.

“…The film works on several levels – as a story of hypocritical adults and their unbalanced children, a picture of patriarchal community life and a snapshot of how 20th century Germany was shaped…
“…Of course, this being Haneke, there is nothing as simple as a reveal in which the culprits are unveiled. Instead, he takes pleasure in the tensions along the way and the catastrophic repression behind every sentence uttered. The villagers of The White Ribbon are quite the most disturbed ensemble of characters to emerge from a film-maker’s mind in some years…
“…But all is not as straightforward as it seems. The possibility that the children themselves have become monsters bears chilling implications for the events which will take place in Germany over the following 30 years.” ScreenDaily

“Pairing visual mastery with a quietly immersive story, “The White Ribbon” plays like a morbid version of “Our Town,” patiently revealing the inward discord beneath the surface of a settled community. It’s a frightening depiction of mortality.” IndieWire

“…This dark, dark indictment of the Protestent German psyche in a small rural village as Europe hurtles to war should be a must-see for arthouse audiences everywhere…” Screen DailyBlog – Fionnuala Halligan

“…Perhaps closest to his two-part 1979 TV film “Lemmings” that scrutinizes the ills passed down from generation to generation, but similar as well to a number of his other pictures, including his 2004 international hit “Cache” (Hidden), in its refusal to clearly solve the deadly central mystery, this ironically titled film goes beyond its general analysis of humanity to implicitly suggest some tendencies in the German character and culture that could point to certain developments in the subsequent three decades…

…Marbled in between such occurrences are slashing glimpses of village life, including the pastor’s brutal caning of his children over a mild disturbance; a woman’s frustration at a musical accompanist who can’t keep up; and a little boy’s questioning of his nanny about death, in the course of which he learns that his own mother, supposedly away on a long trip, is no longer living. The rare expression of genuine childhood innocence and good will is occasionally tolerated, but more often squashed, by the grown-ups, but even children’s own true nature comes increasingly under a cloud, to the point where “The White Ribbon” feels like a thematic companion piece to “Lord of the Flies.” Variety

“It’s turning out to be an uncommonly interesting Cannes competition. Festival regular Michael Haneke (Funny Games, Code Unknown, The Piano Teacher, Hidden) returns to the Croisette this year with an extraordinary, rigorous drama set in a small village in Protestant Northern Germany in the years before the First World War.

Shot in sober black and white, with no musical score and told with a stately and deliberate pace, The White Ribbon is infused with a fascinatingly austere cruelty.” TimesOnline

“…Once the film comes to a close, you might be asking the same questions as early on: why are we watching these people? Why do they behave as they do? Who is behind a series of crimes they suffer?…” TimeOut

Some clips are available but in German and with French subtitles.
In this clip below a little boy’s questioning about death, in the course of which he learns that his own mother, supposedly away on a long trip, is no longer living.
You can find more clips from “The White Ribbon” at Films Du Losange

More about 62nd edition of the fest you can find at Cannes Film Festival FF Movie Page

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tarantino and Basterds cast are currently at Cannes Film Festival with “Inglourious Basterds” movie in the race for Cannes’ Palme d’Or.
More about the movie you can find at “Inglourious Basterds” FF Movie Page

Quentin Tarantino who has already won a Palme d’Or at Cannes for “Pulp Fiction” in 1994, and his new movie is in contention for the top prize at Cannes, has said: “I’m expecting this to be one of the high moments of my career. There is nothing like it in cinema… Directors in my situation don’t normally go this direction, especially when they’re doing something really big.”

“It’s like a Quentin Tarantino movie on steroids and speed. It’s a movie that takes place in World War Two, but this is not a World War Two movie,” Eli Roth said of the film.

We are not in Cannes, unfortunately, so we haven’t seen Quentin Tarantino’s “Ingluorious Basterds” but you can read the reviews from other sites – both the positive and the negative ones. You can read the two contrasting opinions just from Totalfilm, Screendaily is very mixed too, but Variety gives positive review. However, we must wait “Inglourious Basterds ” August US release.

“Given what the world expects from Quentin Tarantino – the man, the myth, the pastiche-driven movie machine – his latest feature, “Inglourious Basterds,” stands out for its seemingly low ambition. Talked about for years by the filmmaker as his epic “guys-on-a-mission” movie, the final product, unveiled this morning in Cannes, certainly meets those standards.

The story of Nazi-hunting Jewish soldiers delivers on the colorful brand of unserious entertainment implied by the plot, but no matter how much extreme contextualization and heavily stylized techniques Tarantino introduced to the production, “Inglorious Basterds” feels like a bubblegum sidedish to the heavy dinner plate of his career.” IndieWire

“An intermittently-inspired World War II epic which illustrates both Quentin Tarantino’s brilliance and his tendency towards indulgence, Inglourious Basterds is composed of a series of long-running vignettes strung together by a slender story thread. The problem is that no one character or set of characters runs through the entire two-and-a-half hour running time, and, with some of the scenes running up to half an hour each, the thread of the drama is left disjointed and the focus ever-changing.

Above-the-title star Brad Pitt plays the captain of a troupe of Jewish American renegades dubbed the Inglorious Bastards, but Pitt is far from the centre of attention and both French actress Melanie Laurent and German actor Christoph Waltz both have more screen time and juicier roles…” ScreenDaily

“…It’s an audacious, and, when it comes to timing, indulgent work – some sequences (the prologue, a lengthy interlude in a cellar) run to more than 20 minutes; this comes after what must have been drastic cutting, as Maggie Cheung does not appear at all in the finished product shown in Cannes today, Mike Myers only has one scene and even Michael Fassbender comes and goes with alarming alacrity…” ScreenDaily Blog – Fionnuala Halligan

“I think this might just be my masterpiece,” says a character at the end of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, screening in Competition at Cannes. Is this what the director thinks about his film too?

The problem is that there’s not enough roaring or headhunting. Tarantino, one of the most exceptional choreographers of blood-ballet working today, should have wielded a cleaver to whole sections of this 154-minute non-epic. There is far too much yakking, some of it thickly accented and hard to follow, most of it without the rhythmic zing of his best work. The violence – Brad Pitt as one of the Basterds wiggling his finger inside Diana Kruger’s wounded leg – comes as a relief. A second plot, in which a Jewish woman whose family was butchered by Nazis organizes a film screening to assassinate Hitler and Goebbels – is more succinctly and powerfully handled…” Telegraph

“The film is by no means terrible — its running time of two hours and 32 minutes races by — but those things we think of as being Tarantino-esque, the long stretches of wickedly funny dialogue, the humor in the violence and outsized characters strutting across the screen, are largely missing…

…There are a few moments of classic Tarantino tension in the farmhouse when Col. Landa interrogates the French farmer hiding a Jewish family, in the bistro where an SS officer grows suspicious of a Basterd’s German accent and at the premiere where Col Landa appears to uncover one of the plots.

Otherwise the film lacks not only tension but those juicy sequences where actors deliver lines loaded with subtext and characters drip menace with icy wit. Tarantino never finds a way to introduce his vivid sense of pulp fiction within the context of a war movie. He is not kidding B-movies as he was with “Grindhouse” nor riffing on cinema as with “Pulp Fiction” and the “Kill Bill” films…” HollywoodReporter

“Inglourious Basterds” is a violent fairy tale, an increasingly entertaining fantasia in which the history of World War II is wildly reimagined so that the cinema can play the decisive role in destroying the Third Reich. Quentin Tarantino’s long-gestating war saga invests a long-simmering revenge plot with reworkings of innumerable genre conventions, but only fully finds its tonal footing about halfway through, after which it’s off to the races. By turns surprising, nutty, windy, audacious and a bit caught up in its own cleverness, the picture is a completely distinctive piece of American pop art with a strong Euro flavor that’s new for the director. Several explosive scenes and the names of Tarantino and topliner Brad Pitt promise brawny commercial prospects, especially internationally, as the preponderance of subtitled dialogue might put off a certain slice of the prospective domestic audience.” Variety

“…While the opening, gripping chapter – set in a French peasant house in 1941 – is excellent and a final cinema (where else?) foyer scene is epic in its grandeur with sweeping cameras and impeccable set design, much of Basterds felt flat, with a schizophrenic spaghetti western style that blasts Ennio Morricone at the start and then David Bowie later on.

It is hugely confident, sure, with Tarantino clearly making the film he wanted complete with much blood, more gore, lengthy chats and even his mate Eli Roth and the humour works more often than not. This is confidence that will be of massive appeal to QT’s yes-men fanboys…” Jonathan Dean – TotalFilm

“…I haven’t loved a QT flick since Jackie Brown, and here I was, expected to sit through two hours and forty minutes of what appeared to be a hobby movie, featuring Eli Roth barking orders in a whiny voice at a bunch of TV actors? Well, I was wrong to be cynical. Completely and totally.

Not only did I love every minute, if the French projectionist wanted to cue it up and roll it again from the start, I would have sat through the whole film again, with the biggest grin on my face. This is Quentin’s best film since Jackie Brown. It might even be his best film since Pulp Fiction…” Sam Ashurst – TotalFilm

“…Every bit as idiosyncratic as the spelling of its title, it’s a wonderfully-acted movie that subverts expectation at every turn. And it may represent the most confident, audacious writing and directing of QT’s career.

Forget what you think you know is such a cliché, but here it more than applies. Tarantino has made a career out of subverting expectations – this is the man who made a heist flick without a heist, after all – but he’s outdone himself with Basterds. It’s an action movie that has barely any action. The Basterds themselves, including Brad Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine, are off-screen for long periods of time…” Chris Hewitt – EmpireOnline

For more photos, posters, clips and trailers check out “Ingluorious Basterds” FF Movie Page
More about 62nd edition of the fest you can find at Cannes Film Festival FF Movie Page

Oscar-winning director Almodovar (for foreign-language film with “All About My Mother” and original screenplay for “Talk to Her.”) described his 17th film and with the highest budget yet of 11 million euros ($14.16 million), as “the story of my love for the cinema.”
“The film noir genre is one of my favorites. The fact this film was really “black” was what was very satisfying.”

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The film stars recent Oscar winner Penelope Cruz in the role of a tragedy-dogged aspiring actress.
“Broken Embraces” centers on a quartet of characters in the movie business whose lives are interwoven in a torrid tale of love, power, secrecy, betrayal and vengeance. There is the actress Lena (Cruz), script writer and director Mateo (Lluis Homar), film producer Judith (Blanca Portillo) and unscrupulous financier Ernesto (José Luis Gómez).

“While the movie as a whole is thoroughly engrossing and all the movie references and subplots involving the cinema world undoubtedly enrich his story, this is a pretty minor film from the filmmaker. It feels like more of an exercise in plotting and movie nostalgia than a story about real people…

…For all this window dressing, “Broken Embraces” remains a 1950s-style Douglas Sirk melodrama with breathless revelations in the final reel. One or two stretch credibility about as far as it will go. Cruz and Homar do play their parts with flair though. Cruz, who is given an Audrey Hepburn hairdo in the movie within the movie, is glamorous, ambitious and utterly in love with her new man.” HollywoodReporter

“Pedro Almodovar offers nothing new in his latest feature, “Abrazos Rotos” (“Broken Embraces”), but that’s probably enough for his devout followers. With solid performances and a script that’s never too hard on the ears, Spain’s superstar director merely repeats the themes and conflicts of his greatest hits. With secretive family issues, tortured artists, melodramatic events and slight humor all in play, Almodovar dutifully plays to his base…” IndieWire

“It’s curious to reflect that the great Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, once the enfant terrible of European cinema, turns 60 this year. In his maturity, he remains a distinctive stylist and a dazzling film-maker with technique to burn. Yet while his new film Broken Embraces parades his many virtues, it treads water rather than breaks new ground.
Despite its rich, vivid palette, Broken Embraces feels like Almodóvar’s take on noir dramas of the 40s and 50s…

…He is at his best in such films as Live Flesh, All About My Mother and Volver, with their personal, deeply felt narratives. Instead, Broken Embraces often feels like a schematic exercise, an ingenious puzzle that requires a film within a film to supply answers… One hopes Broken Embraces is a breather for Almodovar, a chance to take stock of the themes that intrigue him. Next time, a simpler, more affecting story would be welcome.” Telegraph

“The action unfolds in flashback. Mateo Blanco (a likeable, low-key Lluis Homar) is a blind screen writer and former film director who is now confined to his Madrid apartment where he grapples with his tumultuous past. He recalls in particular the mid-1990s, where he fell in love with Lena (Cruz), a tremulous, sad-eyed beauty who traded on her charms to become the mistress of a domineering magnate, Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez)…

…Fans of Almodovar will get plenty of what they expect here – rich saturated colours, hyper plotting, stylistic pyrotechnics and off-centre comedy. But there are carefully nuanced male characters too and the bleak, distant tone coupled with the unassuaged pain of the leads is a new departure for the director…” ScreenDaily

“Films about filmmaking are almost invariably deeply personal works for their director. Fellini’s 8 ½, Truffaut’s Day For Night: both movies contain the creative essence and the artistic insecurities of the filmmaker laid bare with a candour that is not always present in their other work. But the same is not true of Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces, a polished, handsomely-mounted picture which nevertheless leaves you with a sense of deflated emptiness…

…The layered structure of the story is echoed effectively by the use of reflections and images within images in the film. There is, it has to be said, no shortage of ideas here, and cineastes will have fun spotting all the movie references. Still, ultimately a fundamental problem stems from just that: the film feels like a mixed bag of smart ideas and nods to other pictures, rather than a coherent, distinct work of art.” TimesOnline

“Partly a film about films and partly a film about love, Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces” can’t quite decide where its allegiances lie. A restless, rangy and frankly enjoyable genre-juggler that combines melodrama, comedy and more noir-hued darkness than ever before, the pic is held together by the extraordinary force of Almodovar’s cinematic personality. But while its four-way in extremis love story dazzles, it never really catches fire…” Variety

“Pedro Almodóvar has always managed to combine elegance and exuberance, and his latest movie is no exception: a richly enjoyable piece of work, slick and sleek, with a sensuous feel for the cinematic surfaces of things and, as ever, self-reflexively infatuated with the business of cinema itself. Yet I wonder if Almodóvar isn’t in danger of retreading old ideas. It doesn’t quite match the heartfelt power of his 2006 Cannes film festival contender, Volver; Broken Embraces is always conspicuously concerned with passion, but without being itself fully passionate…

…The film-within-a-film motif is head-spinningly sophisticated, though the theme of cinema itself within cinema (traditionally rather overrated by cinephiles in terms of interest and importance) is kept fresh and alive through Almodóvar’s sheer energy.” Guardian

More movie info and teaser trailer you can find at “Broken Embraces” (”Los Abrazos Rotos”) FF Movie Page
More about 62nd edition of the fest you can find at Cannes Film Festival FF Movie Page

Rachel Weisz and director Alejandro Amenabar traveled back to ancient times to tell a modern story about a progressive woman standing against religious dogma and persecution. Hypatia struggles to preserve scientific knowledge amid the clash of zealots in Alexandria, whose rising Christian population grows increasingly militant toward Jews and worshippers of the Egyptian gods.

Amenabar dove into astronomy research but said he did not want to make a movie about a figure such as Galileo because everyone already knew his story. Amenabar’s studies eventually led him to Hypatia, a woman dealing with current issues in ancient times.

“We realized that this particular time in the world had a lot of connections with our contemporary reality,” Amenabar said. “Then the project became really, really intriguing, because we realized that we could make a movie about the past while actually making a movie about the present.”
A lot of stoning and sword-skewering goes on in “Agora” as Amenabar intersperses Hypatia’s philosophical musings with bloodletting in the streets. The story also creates a love triangle of sorts among Hypatia and her devoted slave (Max Minghella) and one of her students (Oscar Isaac).

“If Hypatia is the embodiment of a modern woman, ancient Rome is a symbol of a modern superpower at a turning point,” Amenabar said.

“I think now the United States is the Roman Empire, and we can tell now more than ever that we are in some kind of crisis. Social crisis, economical crisis. So this is time for change,” Amenabar said. “We all can tell that we are going to somewhere else. We don’t know exactly what. And since I am an optimist by nature, I don’t think we’ll go back to something like the Middle Ages, but we can feel that something is not quite fitting right now.”

The film is part of the festival’s official selection but not competing for the Palme d’Or.

Amenabar gets most of the epic staples out of the way relatively early: flatly acted scenes of textbook exposition, overly earnest extras, main characters who wander unscathed through hordes of butchery and, of course, frequently swelling music. The story then becomes a timely parable on religious intolerance, inexorable fundamentalist violence and the powerlessness of reason and personal freedom in the face of both…” HollywoodReporter

“The mother of all secular humanists fights a losing battle against freshly minted religious zealots in “Agora,” a visually imposing, high-minded epic that ambitiously puts one of the pivotal moments in Western history onscreen for the first time. Alejandro Amenabar’s first feature since “The Sea Inside” five years ago foreshadows the transformation of the Roman-dominated ancient world into Christian medieval times through the story of the much-celebrated astronomer and mathematician Hypatia in 4th-century Alexandria.

This elaborately produced English-language Spanish production is consistently spectacular and features enough conflict and action to make it marketable, but a certain heaviness of style and lack of an emotional pulse could pose problems for mass audience acceptance, at least in the U.S.

“Agora” has more on its mind than most costume pictures, and most other films, for that matter — mankind’s place in the universe, the human need to understand the cosmos and the debate over the existence of a single deity.

The central dramatic event is the sacking of Alexandria’s fabled library, the repository of “all the knowledge of the world” up to that time, and the parallel drawn between early-day Christian fundamentalists, who have just been legalized by the Roman Empire at the story’s start, and a certain other religion’s present-day fanatics is entirely clear. These issues and more echo throughout the story, which unfolds in a physical rendering of Alexandria that is vivid and extensive in its display of fabulous architecture, divide between the haves and have-nots and polyglot nature of one of the ancient world’s great melting pots…” Variety

“Sumptuously realized, blessed with a sterling cast and neatly balancing action with dramatic elements, Alejandro Amenabar’s Agora is an epic in every sense of the word.  A huge story set in a time long, long ago shot largely on location on huge scale, authentically detailed sets with a high profile international cast Agora hits all of its marks with precision and grace, succeeding both as education, social commentary and entertainment.

In a perfect world this would be assured of success on a scale to match the scope of the film itself but the sad reality is that the film embraces a blend of high cost and high concept that will make it a very hard sell in the multiplex.  Basically Amenabar’s backers are likely to lose their collective shirt on this film but, man, are they ever going to look good while doing it…” TwitchFilm

“Amenabar, the director of visually memorable features such as “The Others” and “The Sea Inside” clearly aimed to make an old school epic of Cecil B. Demille proportions, and ended up with a hollow reflection of one. It’s worth noting that “Agora” looks fantastic, with magnificent virtual camera movements that swoop down from space to a large scale replica of Alexandria, taking full advantage of the wide screen canvas. Frequent cutaways to the cosmos, which underscore Hypathia’s lectures, would look great on IMAX.

In the context of the movie, they overshadow the rest of the narrative. There’s too much forceful expression applied to scenes that don’t require it: Moments where Hypathia sketches planetary orbits in the sand and continually muses about their potential are hampered by a soaring orchestra that overemphasizes her delivery. The religious battles, meanwhile, suffer from incredulous and half-baked exchanges (“You’re not a Christian!” “I’m as Christian as you are!”)…” IndieWire

For poster, photos and trailer go to “Agora” FF Movie Page
More about 62nd edition of the fest you can find at Cannes Film Festival FF Movie Page

A father comes to Hong Kong to avenge his daughter, whose family was murdered. Officially, he’s a French chef. Twenty years ago, he was a killer…

Veteran French rocker Johnny Hallyday, who began his career in the 1960s, stars as a father out for blood in “Vengeance,” a stylish thriller from Hong Kong director. The movie made from script by Ka-Fai Wai also stars James Chalke, Anthony Wong and Simon Yam.

In To’s film Hallyday plays a French chef with a mysterious past who goes to Macau after his daughter and her family are gunned down there. Swearing revenge, he joins forces with a band of local gunmen to hunt down her attackers.

“The characters in the movies don’t have much dialogue and they are really cool, romantic action heroes and of course we have a French actor in the lead,” To told a press conference after the film’s screening at Cannes. “For me as a Hong Kong film director, I always hope I can find new ideas and new ways to bring films to the audience.”

There were no problems of working together on the film despite To’s relative lack of English and Hallyday’s complete unfamiliarity with China. The style of the movie meant that dialogue and characterization were kept to a minimum.

“I’m a believer in pure cinema,” To said. “I believe an image can tell a whole story.”

“…With atmospheric locations in Hong Kong and Macau and To’s signature set pieces of choreographed gunplay all accomplished with a bemused wink to his audience, “Vengeance” can penetrate just about any market in the world. Popcorn and art certainly can co-exist as this movie amply demonstrates…
A kicker here — which To and writer Wai Ka Fai make clear much too late in the story, to be honest — is that an old bullet lodged near the Frenchman’s brain is causing rapid memory loss. So rapidly, again illogically, that his sense of purpose when he sets foot in Macau and later Hong Kong abruptly vanishes at the mid-point. He must, as did the hero of “Memento,” take photos of people and label them so he knows friends from enemies and can recall his daughter’s tragedy.
So the philosophical question the film raises is what does vengeance really mean when you’ve lost all memory? Whatever the answer to that, everyone is programmed to continue. Which means that even the white man’s hired Triad assassins are willing to go up against their own boss and fellow assassins for the sake of this foreigner…” HollywoodReporter

“…Wai Ka-fai’s script gets down to its bloody business in the opening minutes, as a Chinese man and his French wife (Sylvie Testud) are gunned down in their Macau home. The violence — accompanied by the smoky, stylized bloodspray that’s become a To trademark — dispels the mood of domestic bliss with shocking suddenness. From there, “Vengeance” descends into a darkly beautiful Triad gang underworld, where every confrontation must be preceded by much slo-mo brooding and sizing up of one’s competition, often through sunglasses…
“Vengeance” isn’t exactly subversive, and it more than keeps the promise bluntly extended by its title. But it would be a mistake to overlook the ideas that occasionally penetrate its sleek surface. To acknowledges that the seven professional murderers onscreen (four good, three bad, for those who care to delineate) are in many ways interchangeable. He also foregrounds the desire to protect one’s children as the overriding motivation that governs the film’s universe, not only setting the plot in motion but unexpectedly complicating it along the way…” Variety

More about 62nd edition of the fest you can find at Cannes Film Festival FF Movie Page

International Teaser Trailer

International Trailer

In “Looking For Eric,” Cantona is not just actor but co-producer and part-financier.
The film is based on an incident in his career: a fan so smitten by Cantona that he committed apostasy and transferred his allegiance from Leeds United to Manchester United.

“It is not about me and it’s not about football,” he said. “All the same, a director who knew nothing about football could not have made it. No French director could have made it either. I was afraid it would be coarsened, caricatured, made stupidly commercial.”

The buzz on the film in France is positive. But an interesting question is: could Cantona become the first footballer to win the English championship five times, the FA Cup, twice and the Cannes Palme d’Or?

Loach’s “Looking for Eric,” tells a story about a troubled adolescent soccer fan who’s counselled by former Manchester United star Eric Cantona.
His wife has gone, his stepsons are out of control and the house was chaotic even before a cement mixer appeared in the front garden. Life is crazy enough, but it is Eric’s own secret that is driving him to the brink. How can he face up to Lily, the woman of his dreams that he once loved and walked out on many years ago?

Despite the comical efforts and misplaced goodwill of his mates, Eric continues to sink. In desperate times it takes a spliff and a special friend to help a lost postman find his way, so Eric turns to his hero: footballing genius, philosopher and poster boy, Eric Cantona.

“Seeing top-whack footballers at the Cannes film festival is becoming a bit of a tradition. Last year it was Diego Maradona, showing up for Emir Kusturica’s macho movie tribute, Maradona By Kusturica. The year before it was Zinédine Zidane, the subject of Douglas Gordon and Philippe Pareno’s Zidane: A 21st-Century Portrait. (Zidane didn’t turn up in person, but contributed a winning video intro for the premiere.) Now it is the turn of Eric Cantona, the gnomic philosopher-king of 90s Man U, and now hero of Ken Loach’s boisterous new picture; scripted by Paul Laverty, it is a lovably good-natured if erratic comedy about a depressed middle-aged postman and football fan called Eric, played by Steve Evets…

..We get a deeply enjoyable montage of Cantona goals, but when a saucer-eyed Eric asks the great man what was his best moment, Cantona replies that it was not a goal, but a pass: an inspired assist. From this, Cantona’s pupil begins to learn the selfless values of friendship and community, and finds the road back to happiness.” Guardian

Cantona explained how he learnt to play the trumpet during his nine-month suspension from football for attacking a Crystal Palace fan in 1995: “I decided I should do something productive, so I took up the trumpet.”

“In 2006, British director Ken Loach won Cannes’ top prize with a bracing chronicle of the Irish Republican Army’s struggles against the British in the 1920s. Three years later, he’s come up with a film that couldn’t be more different in tone and subject matter – a lighthearted dramatic comedy about a distraught middle-aged postal worker, Eric Bishop, who gets his groove back by channeling his favorite soccer hero, Eric Cantona, the legendary French star of UK team Manchester United.
Comparisons to Woody Allen’s “Play it Again, Sam” are inevitable…”

“Looking for Eric” belongs less to the tradition of hard-hitting British dramas that frequent Cannes and increasingly more along the lines of the sort of slight crowd-pleasing fare that does well in U.S. art-houses. And although Cantona may be less known in America than overseas, there’s no denying the comic fun of seeing a burly sportsman put on some rock n’ roll and cut a rug with another man.” IndieWire

“Ken Loach could not have painted a more perfect, bittersweet picture for Cannes. Looking for Eric stars the French football legend Eric Cantona in a rare Loach comedy.

Cantona is basically a ghost, visible only to the delusional Bishop. His vague advice about how to handle Lily and the boys is delivered like poetry. Indeed, Cantona’s quote about sardines and seagulls — after he kicked a Crystal Palace supporter in the chest, earning a nine-month suspension — is central to this barmy comedy. But the pleasure of watching a bearded Cantona playing life coach to the astonished and grateful Bishop is rigged, deliberately and brilliantly, with uncertainty…” TimesOnline

“A recent poll suggested that Ken Loach’s 2006 film The Wind That Shook the Barley is the most popular Palme d’Or winner of the past few years. Judging by audience response, Looking for Eric, screening in competition, will be even more beloved. Unsurprisingly, perhaps: the film is an ode to the footballing genius and life-coaching skills of a Frenchman – Eric Cantona. He is the hero of another Eric (Steve Evets), a divorced postman already struggling to keep himself together and whose two teenage sons are in trouble with a local gangster…” Telegraph

“No prior knowledge of either English soccer or one of its greatest stars of the ’90s, French-born Eric Cantona, is necessary to go “Looking for Eric.” But helmer Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty’s ninth feature together is a curious hybrid: Three movies — boilerplate, socially aware Loach; personal fantasy; romantic comedy — wrap around a central core of a hopeless soccer fanatic who’s given a second chance to sort out his life. As in many of Laverty’s scripts, problems of overall tone and character development aren’t solved by Loach’s easygoing direction, though when it works, “Eric” has many incidental pleasures…” Variety

“This being a Loach film, neither the comedy nor the fantasy comes at the expense of passionate realism. Eric (Steve Evets) is the single stepfather of two tearaway teenage boys.
The Frenchman becomes a life coach of sorts. He encourages his namesake to to appreciate his fun and caring colleagues, a likeable bunch of posties played by an entertaining group of Manchester actors and comedians including John Henshaw…

It’s Loach’s most accessible film in years, although those who express surprise at his comic touch have short memories: films like ‘Riff Raff’ and ‘Raining Stones’ in the early 1990s pitched laughs alongside tragic social comment.” TimeOut

“It is humorous but hagiographic in its portrayal of former Manchester United star Eric Cantona (who plays himself – or at least a spliff-smoking Manchester postman’s idealised vision of him). Funny and sharply observed, it nonetheless has a sentimentality and contrivance about it that stops it short of its director’s best work…

…Looking For Eric is an easy film to warm to. The Cantona conceit could have turned to whimsy – at times, it’s as if Clarence the Angel from It’s A Wonderful Life has stumbled into Loach’s universe, but Cantona plays his role with such conviction that you never question why he is sitting on Eric’s bed or jogging alongside him by the canal. Moreover, Looking For Eric boasts the most rousing finale of any Loach film. Loach and Laverty make a scene involving masked men terrorising their antagonists the stuff of uplifting comedy – and that’s an achievement in itself…” Independent

“Looking for Eric” also stars Steve Evets, John Henshaw, Lucy-Jo Hudson and Justin Moorhouse.
More about 62nd edition of the fest you can find at Cannes Film Festival FF Movie Page

Take a look at six movie clips from “Looking For Eric”

With sheer audacity and utter authenticity, director Lee Daniels tackles “Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire” and creates an unforgettable film that sets a new standard for cinema of its kind. Precious Jones (Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe) is a high-school girl with nothing working in her favor. She is pregnant with her father’s child – for the second time. She can’t read or write, and her schoolmates tease her for being fat.

Her home life is a horror, ruled by a mother (Mo’Nique) who keeps her imprisoned both emotionally and physically. Precious’s instincts tell her one thing: if she’s ever going to break from the chains of ignorance, she will have to dig deeply into her own resources. Don’t be misled – “Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire” is not a film wallowing in the stillness of depression – instead, it vibrates with the kind of energy derived only from anger and hope.

The entire cast are amazing. Starring Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Sherri Shepherd, Amina Robinson, Nealla Gordon, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and introducing Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious” directed by Lee Daniels from a screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher based on the novel Push by Sapphire.

Daniels has drawn from them inimitable performances that will rivet you to your seat and leave you too shocked to breathe. If you passed Precious on the street, you probably wouldn’t notice her. But when her story is revealed, as Daniels does in this courageous film, you are left with an indelible image of a young woman who – with creativity, humor, and ferocity – finds the strength to turn her life around.

“Sometimes actors get in a rut. They start playing the same character over and over again. And sometimes that character sucks. Mo’Nique is someone I’ve never liked. She’s obnoxious, grating, and has never been funny. But in this movie she pulls the opposite of a James Franco. You realize she never should have been doing comedies in the first place. She should have been tackling hard core dramatic roles.

She gives an impressive and intense performance in PUSH: BASED ON THE NOVEL BY SAPPHIRE. Her character is abusive, both verbally and physically, delusional, and a force of nature. The film takes place in 1987 and follows Precious, a teenage girl in Harlem on the verge of giving birth to her second child, the product of incest and rape, and struggling with her own insecurities and disastrous home life.” Collider.com

“The premise of Push: Based on a Novel by Sapphire is so unsettling and bleak that no one would blame you if you didn’t want to see it: It’s the story of an obese 16-year-old illiterate Harlem girl who’s pregnant (for the second time) by her own father, lives with her monstrously abusive mother, and has almost given up on life. But if you do see it, you’ll find that it’s compelling and artistic, punctuated with warm humor and masterful performances, and ultimately triumphant and hopeful.” Cinematical.com

“It may sound depressing — and at times it is — but Push is a lot more than that. The film is pulsating with an unexpected energy and vibrancy. While her home life is stunningly brutal and unforgiving, it is in Precious’ hopes and dreams where we see her true spirit. And through an incredibly well-adapted script by Damien Paul and an illuminating performance from Gabourey Sibide we are able to find a shining ray of hope in the stories central character, even as the most horrific things are happening to her.

It’s hard not to pay attention to a film that is as well-crafted and engaging as this one. And though its subject matter is sometimes off-putting, it is anchored by a character who — with creativity, humor, ferocity and charm — makes the decision to turn her life around.” FilmSchoolRejects.com

“Precious” is a horror movie, of course, and Mary is a monster, whose one glimmer of humanity – which Mo’Nique, who is utterly brilliant, reveals in a tour de force soliloquy at the finale – only makes her more horrible.

Second-time helmer Daniels (“Shadowboxer”) demonstrates a remarkable, balletic ability to juggle emotional extremes. Claireece has her fantasies, and their visualizations — of the girl as satin-clad pop star, movie star or supermodel – work as relief valves. They’re never funny, but they do humanize a character who has been reduced, by those who are supposed to love her, to a piece of meat, and who presents herself to the world as a very different, far less attractive creature than the Claireece we hear in voiceover.” Variety.com

More about 62nd edition of the fest you can find at Cannes Film Festival FF Movie Page

Precious Trailer

Precious Clip

UPDATE May 24, 2009 CANNES 2009 WINNERS

“Fish Tank,” the latest movie from Academy Award-winning British writer and director Andrea Arnold premieres at the Cannes film festival on Thursday in competition for the coveted Palme d’Or.

This is Arnold’s second feature following her 2006 Cannes Jury Prize winner “Red Road.”

“Fish Tank” tells the story of 15-year-old Mia whose life is turned on its head when her mother brings home a new boyfriend.
Arnold casts the same unflinching, unprejudiced gaze and touches on the themes of her Oscar-winning short “Wasp” to create an original and unsettling tale for our age.

Following his acclaimed central performance in “Hunger,” Michael Fassbender (”300,” “Inglourious Basterds“) stars opposite talented newcomer Katie Jarvis. Gritty, sassy and brutal “Fish Tank” also stars BAFTA-nominated Kierston Wareing (Ken Loach’s “It’s a Free World“), Harry Treadaway (”Control,” “Brothers of the Head“) and 12 year old Rebecca Griffiths making her film debut.

First review from Screendaily is positive, highlighting the performances of newcomer Katie Jarvis and Michael Fassbender – this was expected as Andrea Arnold manages to get topnotch performances from her actors.

“The heartbreaking tale of a teenage misfit has a grim inevitability to the plotting which is offset by Arnold’s talent for multi-layered characters and naturalistic dialogue and her eye for finding the poetic moments in even the bleakest of lives. Critical support should be strong for Fish Tank although positive reviews and festival prizes could not generate a significant commercial life for Arnold’s debut Red Road. …

We see a very different Mia when she meets her mother’s new boyfriend. Security guard Connor (Michael Fassbender) is sexy and soft-hearted. He takes an interest in Mia and her little sister Tyler. He is funny and flirtatious, generous with his money and his time. A wary Mia can’t help but blossom under his gaze. It is only a matter of time before Connor and Mia act on the gleam that sparkles invitingly in their eyes. …”

“Destined for festival acclaim, the film will attract audiences drawn by Arnold’s gift for unblinking observation and some  wonderfully naturalistic acting, particularly by Jarvis, who is onscreen throughout…Arnold presents the claustrophobic urban wasteland where they live as a breeding ground for anger and despair. The arrival of mother’s new boyfriend, Connor (Fassbender), brings some hope due to his charming confidence and caring manner…
Fassbender and Wareing give honest and open performances as the conflicted adults and young Griffiths, another first-timer, is memorably sharp as the kid sister. The film belongs to Jarvis, however, and she makes the most of it with expressive features that convey Mia’s mixed-up emotions from raging temper to sweet vulnerability. She will go far.” Hollywood Reporter

“Brit helmer Andrea Arnold’s sophomore feature, “Fish Tank,” offers such an entirely credible and — there’s no way around it — grim portrait of a sullen teenage girl living in a rough housing project in England’s Essex that it almost seems banal. However, what makes pic feel special is its unflinching honesty and lack of sentimentality or moralizing, along with assured direction and excellent perfs. Paradoxically, though immediately accessible to auds from the background depicted, “Fish Tank” is destined to swim only in arthouse aquariums, while likely adult-only ratings will keep teens — who really should see this — from getting in the door legally…

Elsewhere, the pic’s fine-grained detailing — from the totally naturalistic way the characters talk here (steeped in obscenity) to the production design and the musical choices — bolsters the sense of utter authenticity. Less naturalistic is the decision to lense (executed immaculately by Robbie Ryan) in what looks like Academy ratio, with film instead of digital stock. But although this is a little jarring at first, it makes a kind of emotional sense given the story’s claustrophobic atmosphere.” Variety

More about 62nd edition of the fest you can find at Cannes Film Festival FF Movie Page

Yahoo: Fish Tank Movie Clip

IN COMPETITION
“Bright Star,” Australia-U.K.-France, Jane Campion
“Spring Fever,” (”Chun Feng Chen Zui De Ye Wan”) China-France, Lou Ye
“Antichrist,” Denmark-Sweden-France-Italy, Lars von Trier
“Enter the Void,” France, Gaspar Noe
“Face,” (”Visage”) France-Taiwan-Netherlands-Belgium, Tsai Ming-liang
“Wild grass,” (”Les Herbes folles”) France-Italy, Alain Resnais
“In the Beginning,” (”A L’origine”) France, Xavier Giannoli
“A Prophet,” (”Un Prophete”) France, Jacques Audiard
“The White Ribbon,” (”Das Weisse Band”) Germany-Austria-France, Michael Haneke
“Vengeance,” Hong Kong-France-U.S., Johnnie To
“The Time That Remains,” Israel-France-Belgium-Italy, Elia Suleiman
“Vincere,” Italy-France, Marco Bellocchio
“Kinatay,” Philippines, Brillante Mendoza
“Thirst,” (”Bak-Jwi”) South Korea-U.S., Park Chan-wook
“Broken Embraces,” (Los Abrazos Rotos) Spain, Pedro Almodovar
“Map of the Sounds of Tokyo,” Spain, Isabel Coixet
“Fish Tank,” U.K.-Netherlands, Andrea Arnold
“Looking for Eric,” U.K.-France-Belgium-Italy, Ken Loach
“Inglourious Basterds,” U.S., Quentin Tarantino
“Taking Woodstock,” U.S., Ang Lee

At the press screening this morning in Cannes, fest chief Thierry Fremaux stood on stage with a small digital camera to welcome critics and journalists and snap a photo of everyone wearing their 3-D glasses.

“The thing I’m looking forward to the most is seeing that great image of all these people tonight in their tuxedos, bow ties and gowns, wearing 3-D glasses in that big theater. That’s going to be a good picture,” Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter joked at a news conference.

“We’ve always made our films in 3-D, but we’ve just shown them in 2-D,” Lasseter proclaimed during a post-screening press conference today in Cannes. “ All our films will be made in 3-D in the future,” Lasseter added.

The 10th feature by Disney’s Pixar studios was warmly clapped at its press screening and it should get a similar welcome at the formal ceremony that opens the festival in the evening.

The red carpet was unfurled and the 3-D glasses were at hand as the 62nd Cannes Film Festival opened Wednesday. A host of celebrities have jetted in to the French Riviera for the gala opening of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Stars including Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, Penelope Cruz and Johnny Depp are expected to attend while promoting their latest films.

Soon members of the jury, led by French actress Isabelle Huppert would be wrangling over which auteurs should receive Cannes’ coveted prizes – from Quentin Tarantino to Ken Loach and New Zealand’s Jane Campion, Pedro Almodovar, Ang Lee, Lars von Trier…

“I don’t think we are here to judge,” Huppert said. “I think we are here to love films, and to see what we love more than others.”

There are lots of cross-cultural films on offer – Ken Loach with “Looking for Eric,” a Spanish thriller set in Japan, a Taiwanese filmmaker’s travails in France and Johnny Hallyday as a French chef on the trail of vengeance in Hong Kong.
But while Asia and Europe have a strong showing, there’s a noticeable absence of films from Latin America.

The festival runs until 24 May when the Palme d’Or prize will be announced.

CANNES 2009 OFFICIAL LINEUP

48th CRITICS’ WEEK LINEUP

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT AND SHORT FILMS LINEUP

It is the first Australian film in Cannes competition since Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge” opened the festival in 2001.

Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” is not the most obvious Australian film, it is a period drama about the romance of 19th-century English poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Ben Whishaw and Australian Abbie Cornish star in the Australian-British co-production. It was filmed in England.

Campion’s first shorts screened in the UnCertain Regard section and “Sweetie” and “The Piano” in the official competition. Campion won Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1993 for “The Piano,” which won the best director award from the Australian Film Institute and an Oscar for best screenplay in 1994. At the 66th Academy Awards, she was the second woman ever to be nominated best director. Campion’s work since that time has tended to polarize opinion.

“The Portrait of a Lady“(1996), based on the Henry James novel, featured Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey and Martin Donovan. “Holy Smoke!” (1999) teamed Campion again with Harvey Keitel, this time with Kate Winslet as the female lead. “In the Cut” (2003), an erotic thriller based on Susanna Moore’s bestseller, with Meg Ryan.

The plotline, for the Oscar-winning director Jane Campion’s new film, hardly sounds original – a young couple meet, fall in love and overcome all obstacles until untimely death wrenches the man from his lover’s grasp – except that the boy in question is John Keats, the girl is Fanny Brawne, and their doomed love affair inspired some of the most beautiful lines in English poetry.

A secret love affair begins between 23 year old English poet, John Keats, and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of fashion. This unlikely pair started at odds; he thinking her a stylish minx, she unimpressed by literature in general. It was the illness of Keats’s younger brother that drew them together. Keats was touched by Fanny’s efforts to help and agreed to teach her poetry. By the time Fanny’s alarmed mother and Keats’s best friend Brown realised their attachment, the relationship had an unstoppable momentum. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers were swept into powerful new sensations, “I have the feeling as if I were dissolving”, Keats wrote to her. Together they rode a wave of romantic obsession that deepened as their troubles mounted. When Keats fell ill a year later, the two young lovers faced not marriage but separation and a painfully frustrated love. In Keats’ own poignant words, ‘forever panting and forever young’.

“Bright Star” directed by Jane Campion from her own script stars Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider and Kerry Fox.
More about 62nd edition of the fest you can find at Cannes Film Festival FF Movie Page

The film depicts the Montreal Massacre of 1989, where a young man murdered 14 women at Montreal’s Polytechnique school. It was the deadliest school shooting of the 20th century, and remains to this day the deadliest massacre in Canadian history.
Students were either studying, having a good time or just speaking each other in the cafeteria. In between, a troubled and rejected young man enters the Polytechnique institution in Montreal in search of killing some “feminists”, somewhat responsible for his ruined life…Easily one of the most controversial films in Canadian cinema history.

Here we have the English trailer for the Canadian-Quebec film “Polytechnique”, based on the true story, released by Alliance Vivafilm and Remstar, and directed by Denis Villeneuve from the script by Jacques Davidts. There are two version of the trailer. Both trailers feature no spoken dialogue, and the only difference between the French and English versions is the wording.

“Polytechnique” stars Maxim Gaudette, Sébastien Huberdeau, Karine Vanasse, Evelyne Brochu, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Jonathan Dubsky, Marina Eva, Nathalie Girard, Pierre-Xavier Martel and Johanne-Marie Tremblay.

Click here to view the embedded video.