Well, here's Euro-AICN's 5th report from the CANNES FILM FESTIVAL from the southern coast of France, there's lots of info in it so once again ol' Father Geek will just fade into the background and let Edgard take over...
CANNES # 5
Hello people... Edgard here with the Sunday report on
Cannes... Man !! It's already Sunday, why week-ends
feel soooooo short all the time... Anyway, here're
reports from Grozilla and Ozymandias...
First here's Grozilla, one of our men in Cannes !!
This morning, five minutes of the BROTHERHOOD OF THE
WOLF (note from Edgard, it's the new film from
Christophe Gans, director of CRYING FREEMAN... we
talked about it in our Euro AICN News) has been shown
on the film market. The Christophe Gans' epic seems to
excite everyone here. At least 200 people were waiting
to see this promo reel in front of a 70 seats
screenroom. Gans was there and told just before to
show the images that these were taken from the eight
weeks of shooting he's put in the can so far.
Ten more weeks have to go. This promo reel, which has
nothing to do with the trailer soon to be seen in
French theaters was shown on video. Even on this
format, it's obvious that the photography will be
quite amazing. It starts with a shepherdess in
mountains, obviously attacked by an invisble
monster - Gans told that his monster is still on
creation at Creature's shop and will include CGI and
animatronic. A voice over explains the plot : In the
18th century France people and sheeps are killed by a
monster, the king send someone to investigate. In fact
there's two guys Samuel Le Bihan & Mark Dacascos. We
all know by now that Le Bihan is the major part of
this film, but curiously this trailer shows much more
of Dacascos and lets understand he's the hero. Three
scenes of action sequences were included , Gans told
there will be ten in the film, Dacascos seems truly
unbelievable, this guy got an incredibly strong
présence on screen. This promo shows also many crowd
scenes, some in a church, a few images with Jean
François Stevenin as a priest let think that he has a
taste for choirboys. Monica Belluci, Emilie
Dequenne are also there. They seemed to be some white
Queen (Dequenne) and Black queen (Belluci), anyway, a
few scenes show some sexual tension. There's another
scene which remained the taste of Gans for Mario Bava
: in a large room, Samuel Le Bihan seems to be on a
kind of incantation, surrounded by a beautiful light
as the italian master made. This reel is full of
energy, promises some great great epic, even if I'm
not fond of the "bullet-shots" (camera runs to faces
in a mix of accelerate and freezed frame). The
costumes, the sets, the photography seems exceptional,
but in some ways (maybe the video format) this promo
reel reminds of Laurent Boutonnat's work for Mylene
Farmer. I just hope the film will be more raw
than the Boutonnat's work, which I always found too
"léché" (over-polished). A sign a the end
of reel says that the film will be released (I guess
in France) by next October.
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM - When PI, Darren Aronfosky's
first effort, was released in France, the buzz he was
the new Lynch's here was too Hot. I found PI
interesting. Not much More. REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is
much more powerful. Based on a Hubert Selby Jr text,
it follows Harry, a young junky and his mother. Harry
will do anything to get dope, his mom will do anything
to be on television, even a diet. The film follows in
parallel the "drifts" of Harry and his mother. He
tries with Ty, one of his buddies and Marianne his
lover to raise a drug business so they could open a
clothes shop. His mom becomes hooked on amphetamines
prescripted by a doc so she could lose weight. From
there, the gates of hell could be opened. All the
characters will fall lower and lower. In three acts
(Summer, Fall, Winter), REQUIEM... locks its
characters in their distubirng nightmares where hope
doesn't exists -well, guys that's pure Selby's Stuff.
The mother will goes to bad trip on worse trip,
hallucinating that her fridge is persecuting her or
that she could exits her lonely life, Harry will go
from bad action to bad action. Without forgetting
Marianne and Ty who will also take a plunge in
suffering and dependancy. If the screenplay and the
cast (Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connely,
Marlon Wayans) are exceptionnel what makes REQUIEM...
one of the first big shock of Cannes is its visual
form. More than in PI, Aronofsky mixes long intimate
scenes of dialogues and more expirimental things
(split screen or sequences purely sensitive expressing
the drug addiction effects). It's very close of the
visual frenesy of David Fincher in FIGHT CLUB but in a
random way, like a techno music piece (music from
Clint Mansell and the Kronos quartet is brilliant).
The photography (sometimes clearly inspired by
Magritte) is also beautiful. Still there's a problem,
as much as this film is hard, people might only
remember the amazing form of it. In other words didn't
Aronofsky make a maybe perturbating movie but very
"fashion", very "in" (which is opposed to the
message). REQUIEM is like a TRAINSPOTTING with higher
standards. Aronofsky could have become the Danny Boyle
from New York. That means a Danny Boyle more hardcore.
Problem is we all know what happened to Boyle with the
bad A LIFE LESS ORDINARY and THE BEACH. Aronofsky
confirms himself as a great film-maker on the form.
For the rest, we will have to wait for his third film.
Grozilla (heading now quickly to see BRUISER, the
Romero film)
And now some news from Ozymandias... from his hidden
castle in Ireland...
- Madonna is poised to star as a femme fatale in a new
multi-media movie project by British film-maker Peter
Greenaway. The pregnant superstar is in talks to
appear as Trixie in the controversial director's THE
TULSE LUPER TRILOGY according to Moving Pictures
magazine. Among the others set to sign up are British
actor David Thewlis and Hollywood stars Vincent Gallo,
Kathy Bates and Isabella Rossellini. Those already
committed to the project include Blondie singer Debbie
Harry, Lothaire Blutheau and British stars Dawn
French, Celia Imrie, Richard Griffiths and Amanda
Plummer. Greenaway last year saw disgusted critics
storm out of a Cannes screening of his most recent
film, "Eight and a Half Women". "The Tulse Luper
Trilogy" will take the form of three movies, two
back-to-back CD Roms, a 52-part international TV
series and 1,001 stories on a special internet site.
The first movie is due to start filming in the Utah
desert this autumn.
- Also a bit more on BIGGLES..... (note from Edgard :
see also Euro-AICN #10). Shooting is due to start next
year on location in the UK, Malaysia and Canada. A
source at the Cannes film festival told the Daily
Mail: "It is very much a British movie, although some
funding is from overseas, and will provide a vital
shot in the arm for the British film industry."
Although the project has yet to find a director or a
star, an insider told the Mail that Hugh Grant would
be perfect for the role. Other contenders are said to
be former EastEnders actor Paul Nicholls and Oscar
nominee Jude Law. The film's co-producer Scott
Millaney, whose credits include "Sid and Nancy", said
from Cannes: "Discussions are well-advanced with
A-list directors and actors who recognise the ability
to make Biggles the action hero of the next
millennium," said Millaney from Cannes yesterday.
Mackenzie added that the lead actor would have to be
someone prepared to commit to a three or four-picture
deal. "We can't keep changing our Biggles," he said.
- Kevin Spacey has long expressed an interest in
playing the Pink Panther's Inspector Clouseau, and he
may get his dream thanks to 'Six Days, Seven Nights'
director Ivan Reitman. Reitman tells Popcorn that he's
gearing up to work on the movie and may even direct
it.
Reitman says he wants to do the movie because "there
hasn't been a good one in, like, 30 years". He also
reveals he has been working on a script with Len Blum,
but that the film won't go ahead "unless we can get a
really brilliant script and a brilliant actor"
(although that didn't stop him from making 'Six Days,
Seven Nights'). According to the producer Kevin Spacey
isn't the only interested party, though he wouldn't
name any names at this point. As to whether the
actor would simply recreate Peter Sellers' classic
Clouseau, Reitman explained, "I think the actor would
have to create something out of himself that would be
reminiscent of what Sellers did but also his own."
Full audio of the interview is available at
This Site .
- A British actor who spent two years as a busker has
landed an unprecedented deal with a leading film
company. Paul Bettany is to star as the male lead in a
$10 million movie inspired by the book Morality Play.
And his fee is guaranteed even if the film is not
completed. The film is based on Barry Unsworth's 1995
book. It is being made by Renaissance films, the
company founded by Kenneth Branagh, reports The
Times. The new film's executive producer, Stephen
Evans, describes 29-year-old
Bettany as the new Jude Law. He spotted him in the
movie Gangster No.1.
- Two-times Oscar nominee Emily Watson is to star in a
science fiction thriller about a world in which all
forms of feeling are banned. The British star, who
missed out on best actress Oscars for her roles
in "Breaking the Waves" and "Hilary and Jackie", will
appear in LIBRIUM, according to Variety magazine.
Watson will star alongside Taye Diggs, who plays a man
who ends up rebelling against the laws of a fascist
dictatorship he is supposed to be enforcing.
- Gwyneth Paltrow and Ralph Fiennes are set to star in
a movie based on UK writer AS Byatt's Booker
Prize-winning novel POSSESSION. The bestseller, a
literary detective story which jumps between Victorian
England and the present day, is on the brink of being
co-financed by film giants Warner Brothers and USA
Films, according to Variety magazine. Fiennes, Paltrow
and Aaron Eckhart are in talks to star in the movie,
which American Neil LaBute is poised to direct.
"Possession" focuses on the growing relationship
between two academics who become obsessed with the
clandestine love affair of two 19th century
poets.
- And a great one to finish : Director Menahem Golan,
who specialises in low-budget movies, is making a film
about Elian Gonzalez - the boy at the centre of the
tug-of-war between Cuba and America. Golan has taken
out full-page adverts in the trade press at the Cannes
Film Festival to push his latest project. They
announce that "Elian: The Gonzales-boy Story" is
"shooting now in a secret location" and will be ready
to hit the screens in September. The six-year-old was
seized by US federal agents from the home of his
great-uncle following a shipwreck in November in which
he lost his mother.. The boy's family had been defying
a ruling by the immigration authorities that he should
be with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, in Cuba
Good night... we will be back tomorrow !!
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