The Screengrab : va savoir

Cannes 2008: Late-Breaking News!

Paul Clark — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:19:00 GMT

One week ago today, the Cannes Film Festival powers that be unveiled this year's selection of films in Competition. But while there was plenty on that list to get excited about, it seems they weren't finished, as today they announced three more selections in the official Competition lineup.

True to form, one of the latecomers was a French entry, and it proved to be a pretty interesting choice: Entre les murs, the latest film by celebrated filmmaker Laurent Cantet, whose previous works included the 2000 film Time Out. Another American film was added today as well- Two Lovers, the latest from We Own the Night's James Gray, a Cannes favorite. Two Lovers, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, is said to be a romance, making it something of a change of pace for Gray, who has to date specialized in crime stories.

But the big news today was the announcement of this year's opening-night film, Fernando Meirelles' Blindness. The film, which stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, will screen in competition, with its pedigree the hope is that it improves on the dicey precedent set by recent Cannes openers such as Fanfan la Tulipe and The Da Vinci Code.

Added out of competition was the opener of the festival's Un Certain Regard sidebar, Hunger, directed by Steve McQueen (no, not that one). Finally, the closing film of the festival was officially announced as being Barry Levinson's What Just Happened?. Sadly, this star-studded film (the cast includes Robert DeNiro, Bruce Willis, and Robin Wright Penn) is a Hollywood satire, not a big-screen adaptation of the long-forgotten sitcom Wha'Happened?. So all you Mike LaFontaine fans in the audience will be sorely disappointed.

But wait, there's more! Two more names were added to the Official Competition Jury (also announced last week), which brings the jury up to nine members. The additions were French actress Jeanne Balibar (who worked with fellow jury member Sergio Castellitto in Va Savoir)...

... and Iranian writer/director Marjane Satrapi, who directed last year's Jury Prize-winner Persepolis and collaborated with jury prez Sean Penn on the English-language version of the film.

The Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 14 through the 25th.

Cannes 2008: Meet the Jury!

Paul Clark — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Yesterday, The Screengrab was the 152nd blog on the web to post the Competition slate for next month's Cannes Film Festival. But before you start predicting the winners sight unseen, we suggest you get to know the members of the Competition jury. That way you'll know whose names to curse when your favorite filmmaker gets smoked by some little-known furriner whose name you can't pronounce.

This year's Cannes Competition Jury:

Sean Penn (Jury President) is a filmmaker of some note, directing four films since his 1990 debut, The Indian Runner. His most recent film is the memorably Oscar-snubbed Into the Wild. When not behind the camera, Penn is also known for his political and charitable work, which has taken him to Iran and to the post-Katrina New Orleans. Penn has also been known to act on occasion.

Sergio Castellitto has appeared in several films in Competition, including 2001's Va Savoir and 2002's The Religion Hour (My Mother's Smile). Once referred to by Screengrab favorite Mike D'Angelo as "maybe the most underrated thesp alive," he also starred in the popular Mostly Martha, better known as No Reservations, Except Good. Castellitto has also directed two features, including the 2004 film Don't Move, in which he exercised his director's clout in order to give himself several love scenes with Penelope Cruz.

Natalie Hershlag, alternately known as Natalie Portman, made her big-screen debut at age 13 in Luc Besson's The Professional, sometimes referred to as Léon by various talkbackers on Ain't It Cool News. Since that time, she has become one of the most sought-after actresses of her generation, particularly among horny fanboys who despair that she will never get completely naked onscreen. Hershlag is set to make her directorial debut in this year's omnibus film New York, I Love You, where her short film will appear alongside new works by such acclaimed filmmakers as Brett Ratner and Scarlett Johansson. She also wants you to know that the Shins will totally change your life.

Alfonso Cuaron first gained international critical attention with his 1995 film A Little Princess, and subsequent films like Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men have proven him a formidable talent (he also allegedly made a low-budget adaptation of a little-known English fantasy novel, but no one knows what became of this). In 2006, his high-profile friendship with fellow Mexican filmmakers Guillermo Del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu let to the trio briefly becoming known as "The Three Amigos" for several months before they were sued by Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Steve Martin.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul has such a long name that I run the risk of hitting my character limit simply by typing it. Luckily for me, he prefers to simply be called "Joe." Joe has garnered widespread critical acclaim for his whimsical, magical-realist films, which include Mysterious Object at Noon, Blissfully Yours, and Syndromes and a Century. His 2004 film Tropical Malady won the Jury Prize at Cannes, and Roger Ebert called the film "a meditation on portentous but incoherent themes." By which we're guessing he meant "awesome."

Alexandra Maria Lara, a ravishing Romanian who moved to Germany at age 4, made her movie debut at 16. However, the role that brought her international acclaim came in 2004's Downfall, in which she portrayed Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge. Since then, she costarred in Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth and in last year's Ian Curtis biopic Control, where she met current boyfriend Sam Riley (isn't that cute?). Lara will next appear in Stephen Daldry's The Reader, as well as taking a supporting role in Spike Lee's WWII drama Miracle at St. Anna, a role you won't find out about by looking her up on IMDb.

Rachid Bouchareb is a French director-producer who last appeared at Cannes with his 2006 drama Days of Glory. In addition to his own films, he has also produced the work of numerous other filmmakers, including all four features to date by Bruno Dumont. Sorry, I have nothing humorous to say about this guy.

So there you have it. Seven jury members, down from nine last year. How will they vote? Will Penn insist on a political bent, or at least something appeals to his artier side? Will Cuaron stump for his fellow Latin Americans? Which Bouchareb will show up- the one who directed the rousing WW2 or the guy who produces Bruno Dumont movies? Will Joe gravitate to fellow talking-primate lover Charlie Kaufman? Will the paparazzi devote most of their attention to Portman and Lara (yes, they will)? Let the blind prognosticating commence in 5, 4, 3...

World Film Beat: "The Duchess of Langeais"

Phil Nugent — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:00:00 GMT

The legendary French director Jacques Rivette is almost eighty now, but age seems to be speeding up his internal clock; his newest film, The Duchess of Langeais is two hours and seventeen minutes long, which, coming from the man who made Out 1 (773 minutes in its "restored" version), La Belle noiseuse (236 minutes), L'Amour fou (252 minutes), and Celine and Julie Go Boating (193 minutes), is kind of like Martin Scorsese reading the Bible in ten minutes while on crack. Rivette's 2001 romantic comedy Va Savoir actually set off concerned muttering among long-time fans who were worried about him because he'd only managed to get 154 minutes of movie into theaters; everybody was greatly relieved when word got out that there was also a 220-minute director's cut that he'd love to show you. (The concept of the director's cut might have been invented with Rivette in mind; he recut the four-hour La Belle noiseuse into a two-hour-five-minute film that was released to theaters as Divertimento, though it was not explained why anyone would want a shorter version of a movie that largely consisted of Emmanuelle Béart standing around buck naked.) Speaking as someone who has sometimes emerged from a Rivette movie feeling as if both my ass and my eyeballs were in need of a vigorous massage and possibly a chemical skin peel, I've always admired his willingness to test the boundaries of an acceptable running time for narrative films. It was as if he were saying to the audience for art movies, "Hey, you care about cinema, huh? You believe in the personal expression of the filmmaker? You're here because you think you might get something different than what you get from mainstream movies, is that right? That's great. So sit down, shut up, and prepare to pay the babysitter overtime!" Except that it would sound a lot better if Rivette said that, since everything sounds better in French. Although The Duchess of Langeais is much shorter than the frisky Va Savoir, I doubt that it will strike anyone as ominously lightweight. The good news for veteran Rivette fans is that while it's only a little more than two and a quarter hours, it feels at least twice that long.

The movie is based on a Balzac novel whose original title, which is also the movie's title in France, is "Touch Not the Axe," words that might be Rivette's motto in the editing room. It is not so much a love story as an exploration of the deranging possibilities of thwarted expectations and unrequited desire. Set mostly in Paris in the 1820s, the movie stars Guillaume Depardieu as a general who has become a fashionable celebrity because of his adventures, and Jeanne Balibar as the Duchess, who invites him to visit her at home in the evenings. Talking to his imaginary friend while he stands outside the Duchess's home, the general boasts of his intention to "make her my mistress." But once he gets indoors, the Duchess, who has carefully laid herself out for his delectation, asks him to tell her stories of his heroism, then, having gotten him all worked up, sends him homr frustrated night after night. Finally he cracks and declares that he can't take it anymore and will never visit nor have anything to do with her again — which, naturally, causes her to snap and begin moaning about how she can't bear to be without him. At one point she scandalizes the neighborhood by sending her coach to stay outside the general's house all night and into the morning, so that people will at least think that she's his fallen woman. It's a little like Les Liaisons dangereuses, except that instead of using the rules of love and seduction to wage cold-blooded war on others, the characters are flaunting how desperately they're at the mercy of their passions. At the same time, nobody's actually getting any. Most of the movie is a flashback from a scene where the general finds the Duchess, who has disappeared from Paris and his life, holed up in a convent on a Spanish island, serving as a Carmelite nun. They converse for a while in French, while chaperoned by a nun who doesn't speak the language, who thinks that the general is the Duchess's brother — though from all the heavy panting that he does when in his "sister's" presence, she must think the poor guy is about to drop dead of asthma. Finally, the Duchess can't take it anymore and cries out, "Sister, I have lied to you! This man is my lover!" When I saw the movie, that line brought down the house. A lot of people in the theater burst out laughing, though it isn't supposed to be funny, and I don't think it was mocking laughter, either. It was obvious that we were about to see what had gone on between these two now, and it felt like people were laughing at relief and eager anticipation that now we were getting to the good stuff. Little did we know...

Rivette has made a terrific show of being faithful to his source. Most of the movie consists of carefully composed scenes where the actors speak their dialogue, and much of what narrative information can't be conveyed through these means is simply given to us written out on title cards. The movie is...well, it's kind of boring, but in a kind of fascinating way. The actors are up there smoldering away in these tight, frozen frames, and the emotions are over the top yet seem to be contained under glass. Balibar's performance, which has to run the gamut from cruel, controlling minx to helpless victim of love, is phenomenal; Depardieu's isn't as sturdy, but he's still hard to take your eyes off, if only because he looks enough like his father that watching him is like seeing a vision of what Gerard Depardieu might have looked like in his late thirties if he'd had his stomach stapled. Still, there's a sequence towards the end when the general is on a ship with some mates of his who want to help him abduct his beloved from the nunnery. The men in his posse don't have much to do, but just from the way they pull together on their mission and they way they grin while drawing straws to see which of them has to dress up in a habit and go undercover, they seem like a fun bunch of guys, and it's amazing what a relief it is to spend some time with them after two hours trapped inside with two neurotic, self-denying romantic masochists. The Duchess of Langeais goes into U.S. theatrical release next week, but tonight it begins its run at Walter Reade Theater in New York as part of the "Film Comments Selects" series. Some of the people seeing it tonight sure did pick a hell of a date movie for Valentine's Day.

Movies We Missed: Va Savoir (Who Knows?) (2001)

Peter Smith — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:00:00 GMT

Va Savoir is the exact kind of film that I had in mind when I started writing this feature — the kind that, when you finally do find it, you feel like you’ve discovered a beautiful but rarely traveled island. These are the kind of films that inspire you to lead others to the hidden treasure, and tend to hold a more personal place in your viewing history.

Why we missed it: Although he was working consistently, it had been since 1991 with La Belle Noiseuse that people had paid attention to French master Jacques Rivette.

The cast may be familiar to foreign-film connoisseurs, but none of the actors would turn heads in the States.

Why we should have known: Was well-received at Cannes, with Rivette nominated for the Palme D'Or director’s award, and was also the New York Film Festival’s opening night selection in 2001. But other than that, there's no reason to feel guilty for missing this one.

Why we ended up kicking ourselves: What could very easily have looked like a Meg Ryan vehicle (French Kiss, anyone?) in the hands of a lesser director, is a perfect balance of comedy and drama with Rivette in charge.

The protagonists are all either actors, artists or intellectuals that take themselves inherently seriously, which makes it all the funnier when they find themselves repeatedly stuck in ridiculous situations.

It's light-hearted but not without weight; even at its most outrageous, the film always comes back to a measured story about love in real life.

Why we may have been better off without it: A little long at two-and-a-half hours, this should be viewed as a hard edit from a director whose Out 1 notoriously clocked in at thirteen.

Bound to make you wonder why gorgeous women aren’t working at your local library (it’s a movie!), and could possibly induce feelings of slight depression that your own love life isn’t written by an old-soul romantic out of the French New Wave. Again, it’s really just a movie. . .

— Bryan Whitefield