I spoke to Lars von Trier this morning about his new film The Boss of It All, which opens today through IFC First Take. The interview was fascinating and very revealing, and can be read here.
Von Trier also gave Filmmaker an exclusive picture showing his response to overhyped reports in the media that depression has all but ended his film career.… Read the rest
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Things are really gearing up here on the Croisette. Say hello to Pleasure Factory [pictured above] from Ekachai Uekrongtham, which just screened in the Un Certain Regard section. A Thai film from Singapore, in Mandarin with English subtitles, its language, to judge by the promo, is universal. The packaging — winner of the packaging prize from Screen International – features a pink box containing photos of Singapore’s pleasure givers from the Red Light district, and includes a pink-wrapped condom. The pamphlet offers another condom, this one armed for action, under the Fortissimo Films logo. “Here, I’m too old for this,” says a colleague, handing off the pink box. “Anyway, the condom’s too small for me.” There follows some ribaldry on the stallion’s dimensions in animal-lover doc, Zoo. Uh, yeah, guess the pressure is starting to tell …
In other exciting news, Edge of Heaven from Fatih Akin (Berlinale winner Gegen die Wand)
racked up healthy applause at the 8:30 A.M. Press screening. Wonderful title, part Rilke, part Douglas Sirk. Set in Hamburg, Bremen, and Istanbul, the film is a swallowed-its-tail affair that opens and closes with the same scene, a circular, and peculiarly satisfying device. Always engrossing,“Heaven” follows the interwebbed lives of 6 German and Turkish-German characters, who eventually find bittersweet versions — more bitter than sweet — of their heart’s desire. The theme of fathers/sons and mothers/daughters is inflected with issues of cultural identity, to make a package both emotionally resonant and topical. It’s tipped to join the race for the Palme (and will it help or hurt that Turkish writer and Nobelist Orhan Pamuk is on the jury?)
Unfortunately I missed The Diving Bell and the Butterfly from Julian Schnabel, also collecting much praise (“This year’s Barbarian Invasions”). I missed “Diving” because I had to wash my hair. I know this admission will seriously undermine my credibility as a critic, but the hair was about to leave for a screening without me.
Meanwhile, Cannes is bracing for tomorrow’s Oceans 13. Which puts me in mind of Robert Altman‘s immortal words when … Read the rest
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JENS ALBINUS AND IBEN HJEJLE IN LARS VON TRIER’S THE BOSS OF IT ALL. COURTESY IFC FIRST TAKE.Lars von Trier, the enfant terrible of world cinema, is always looking for the next thing to surprise or wrongfoot audiences. He made only three features in the first decade of his career, and though The Element of Crime (1984), Epidemic (1987), and Zentropa (1991) were all critical successes that ably demonstrated von Trier’s cinematic gifts, it is since then that he has truly excelled. In this period, not only has he founded the revolutionary Dogme 95 movement, but completed the Gold Hearted trilogy – made up of Breaking the Waves (1996), The Idiots (1998) and Dancer in the Dancer (2000) – and made the first two parts of his American trilogy, Dogville (2003) and Manderlay (2005). All of these have been provocative, emotionally intense and technically innovative movies, cinema which has challenged the norm and polarized opinion. Though hailed as one of the saviors of modern cinema, von Trier often seems more comfortable in his self-assigned role as villain, and reports of brutal, bullying treatment of his leading ladies (Björk and Nicole Kidman, in particular) have only compounded this image.
All of this makes The Boss of It All, his latest film, all the more surprising. Though flashes were visible in The Idiots, this is the first time we see von Trier’s subversive, almost zany, sense of humor really come to the fore. Ravn (Peter Ganzler), the head of an IT firm, has always told his staff that there was a mysterious, absent boss so that when difficult decisions needed to be made, he could put the blame on someone else. However when he wants to sell the company, he is required to get this shadowy CEO to appear and sign away the firm, and must get an unemployed actor, Stoffer (Jens Albinus), to play what becomes the role of a lifetime. The film deals with sex, power, and manipulation – all trademark von Trier themes – and is shot with Automavision, an innovation in which the camera … Read the rest
For those of you who, like me, didn’t make it to Cannes this year to see Harmony Korine’s new feature Mister Lonely, here’s a teaser: a couple of clips have popped up online on a site entitled Fest 21 and are embedded below:
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So how, past midpoint is the race for the Palme shaping up? According to the dailies, the Coen brothers crime thriller, No Country for Old Men, leads the pack, while 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, the miserabilist abortion drama from Romanian Cristian Mungiu, follows close behind.
Frankly, I’m hoping a beaut from the coming lineup will edge them both out. My own informal survey, conducted at the various A-list events clamoring for my presence, revealed no critical consensus. Some critics find the competish films weak overall; others consider them the most exciting in years; while a third group prefers what’s out of competition, such as Michael Moore‘s Sicko and Michael Winterbottom‘s A Mighty Heart.
Paranoid Park [pictured above] from Gus Van Sant may not be Palme d’Or material – too particular, too hermetic – but it’s damn brilliant anyway. Though the critics turned out in droves – with the overflow corralled into a newly erected theater — many feared a snore-mongering reprise of Elephant, and a camera fixated on boys-from-behind, loping down highschool halls. Well, there’s a bit of boys in halls in “Paranoid,” as a kind of Van Sant signature. But unlike “Elephant” and Last Days, this film packs an emotional wallop, generating sympathy for its adolescent Alex, a skateboarder who has inadvertently caused a horrendous death.
In Van Sant-land, 16-year-old boys don’t do much communicating, least of all with divorcing parents and girlfriends, so this kid is bottled up within himself, an accidental felon, unable to deal. The fractured narrative takes the form of a “letter” Alex is writing to sort out what happened, and the disordered sequence mirrors his internal disarray.
As in the past, Van Sant has shot the film in the so-called Academy ratio of l:33, an almost square frame, tighter than what we’re accustomed to, but one that enhances close-ups. As Alex, Gabe Nevins (plucked from MySpace and beautiful as a Renaissance prince), wears a blank mask of teen befuddlement that reminded me of No theater. Some critics faulted the character’s lack of affect. But … Read the rest
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Why go to the movies when you can read the newspaper? NY Times reporter David M. Halbfinger’s recent piece “In Court Files, Hollywood’s Mr. Fix-It at Work” includes snippets from the court case against detective-to-the-stars Anthony Pellicano. Halbfinger, along with co-reporter Allison Hope Weiner, has been shadowing the celebrity gumshoe for years. In this article, Halbfinger includes conversations that could be in any movie. Here’s an exchange between Courtney Love and and Pellicano.
“Listen, Courtney, if you come to me, that’s the end of that,” Mr. Pellicano said. “My clients are my family, and that’s it.”
Ms. Love indicated her approval.
“There is no other way around it,” he said. “I’m very heavy-handed, honey.”
“I need heavy-handed, baby,” Ms. Love said. “I like talking to an Italian.”
“Sicilian, honey,” he corrected.
“Well, that’s even better.”
Celebrity sighting! Following the screening of A Mighty Heart by Michael Winterbottom, Angelina Jolie is about to enter the Palais for the press conference. I don’t actually see Ms. Jolie, but I do see the the braying pack on hand for the photo call, as well as flashbulbs popping from the terrace out the window. Well, it’s a demi-sighting. And from here in the Orange (i.e. France Telecom) Wifi room, I see Brad Pitt on the telly, suited up, but resembling the hustler from Thelma and Louise. Wait a mo: according to my fave supermarket literature, didn’t the Brangelinas split? Come to think of it, I’d rather gawk at Dan Futterman of the sexy eyes, who plays Danny Pearl.
Today is Day 6 of the festival. That’s the thing about Cannes – Day 6 is the only day that exists, as if God were recreating the universe. Haven’t cracked a Times since Kennedy. It’s as absorbing here as downhill skiing. And almost as dicey — in fact, the swollen pack of journos, cinephiles and Sylvia Miles lookalikes trying to pour through narrow checkpoints is getting friggin’ dangerous. The local papers reported a “scrimmage” in the Palais at a screening of a film later judged mediocre.
So, it’s entirely fitting that Philip Zombardo has arrived on the Croisette. Zimbardo’s the researcher who set up the famous prison guard experiment to demonstrate that, given the circumstances, we all have the potential to deteriorate into sadistic louts.
INTERRUPTION FOR CELEBRITY ALERT. Marianne Pearl is at the Mighty Heart press conference. Angelina: “I was very nervous about getting it right.” Pearl: “I’m not going to describe my private emotions.” Brad: “the project was very important to us.” Ange: “it came from a very organic place, as most films do.”
Restylane alert: Angelina’s lips look ready to take over her entire face.
Back to Philip Zimbardo. As with the prison guards, Day 6 has brought a Cannes tipping point. People with normally pleasant manners, including myself, are turning loutish. Lined up in the cattle pens for No Country for Old Men … Read the rest
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Over at Bright Lights After Dark, the Weekend Moviegoer (aka Alan Vanneman) gives a rundown on the current releases. His assessment of Shrek the Third? “I think I got all the jokes the first time.”… Read the rest
Here’s U2 performing live on the red carpet of the Palais at Cannes to launch their new U23D concert film directed by Mark Pellington and Catherine Owens.
(Hat tip to Variety‘s Dana Harris and GreenCine, which has more links.)
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Producer Ted Hope sent in the below rumination on indie film and rock music for the blog. It was presumably prompted by two projects. Hope produced Hal Hartley’s latest, Fay Grim, which opened this weekend. As Hope notes, Hartley has made a “true rock gesture” in all of his films; he’s a director who seems to follow current music, incorporate it into his films, and, through his forays into music video, actively approach it on its own terms.. Also, this week Hope announced The Passenger an Iggy Pop bio-pic set to be directed by Nick Gomez and star Elijah Wood as the Stooges-era Pop.
Here’s Hope:
Most directors I know are music nuts. Many even play instruments. They all seem to make mix tapes. Or rather mix CDs. At least in between jobs. They pride themselves to some degree on their music taste and knowledge. But can anyone ever make a great film about music. Should anyone even try?
Music docs are another beast altogether. A performer, a performance, their music, even their process can be captured on film. Don’t Look Back and even Eat The Document give a glimpse, behind the curtain, at an artist beyond what I had imagined them as before. Cocksucker Blues may be the greatest rock and roll movie ever made, but not because of anyone’s performance but for the world, not of The Rolling Stones but of their hanger ons, that it exposes. And The Devil and Daniel Johnson, which I had the pleasure of aiding, reveals bits and pieces of an incredibly complex man who makes deceivingly simple seeming music and all which somehow elevates us and makes it seem more worth living (and isn’t that what the dream of all art is, to some degree).
But what of narratives? of fictions? Of recent times, Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People comes the closest to being a perfect rock film in that its failures feel like perfect rock moves. I probably have the most affection for Sid and Nancy by Alex Cox as I had the glorious pleasure of being a PA
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