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Tag: cannes film festival

  • Johnny Depp Is the Least Interesting Part of ‘Jeanne du Barry’

    Johnny Depp Is the Least Interesting Part of ‘Jeanne du Barry’

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    If the recent queen’s funeral and king’s coronation weren’t enough royal reverence for you, the Cannes Film Festival’s opening night selection, actor-director Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, ought to satisfy the craving. The film, about King Louis XV’s last official mistress, is lavishly devoted to the grandeur of pre-Revolution Versailles, both its opulent charms and its titillating social drama. The film was an odd choice to open France’s biggest film festival, as anti-austerity protests roil the nation. Is such slavish 1 percent worship really what the people want?

    Still, the movie is as engaging as it is sinisterly ridiculous. Its costumery is luxe and eye-popping, its courtly intrigue pleasingly low-stakes. The looming Revolution is only mentioned, in somber tones, in voiceover at the very end. Otherwise, Jeanne du Barry wants you to feel the fantasy.

    Jeanne du Barry was a commoner who worked as a courtesan, a witty and well-read looker who had the attention of many of France’s male elite before she was introduced to Louis. Maïwenn renders Jeanne as playful and seductive, a passionate woman whose only crime was trying to rise above her station. And, of course, falling in love with the king. We’ve had less serious versions of this story in plenty of films before, from Pretty Woman to The Prince & Me, and Maïwenn shrewdly delivers many of the genre’s treasured trappings: fashion reveals, kindly servants who flash Jeanne warmly conspiratorial smiles (think Hector Elizondo), and of course a cadre of bitter haters determined to put Jeanne back in her place.

    Maïwenn certainly made a bold casting choice when she hired herself to play this beautiful, vivacious woman scorned by shrewish ladies of the court and defended by adoring men. Still, Maïwenn sells it. Despite everything one knows about the horrid, greedy excesses of Versailles, Jeanne du Barry invests us in its romance-novel version of things. Jeanne, in Maïwenn’s telling, is kind and noble, a hero worth rooting for.

    Which isn’t to say the film is without its galling indulgences. Jeanne was gifted a Black child, a slave, by her loving beau, a gruesome act that the film uses to demonstrate Jeanne’s open-minded compassion. Does she free the boy, called Zamor? No, but she does let him become her servant. How kind. In real life, Zamor made claims of treason against Jeanne during the Revolution, leading to her beheading. But the film is coy about that, simply noting that Zamor renounced his master when everyone had to “choose sides.” Maïwenn’s strenuous disinterest in the politics of her story is never more glaring than in that instance, a haughty dismissal of such a pesky thing as context.

    There is also the matter of Maïwenn’s personal controversies, which include public anti–#MeToo statements and an incident in which she spit on a journalist, who claims that it was retaliation for reporting on the sexual assault accusations against Maïwenn’s ex-husband, director Luc Besson. (Besson has denied all allegations, and a Paris judge dismissed a rape case against him following an investigation.) It’s difficult to separate all that from Jeanne du Barry’s routine suspicion of women and favoring of men, the way the film luxuriates in sexual capital and frames Jeanne’s detractors as jealous harpies.

    And there is the fact that Maïwenn cast Johnny Depp, no stranger to ugly scandal himself, to play Louis. Looking pallid and tired, Depp haunts the film like a grim specter—he’s not exactly a dashing love interest. To those who remain fans of Depp, I can say that he seems to speak French well. To those no longer enamored of the actor, well, at least Louis gets smallpox and dies.

    Despite those ugly associations, Jeanne du Barry is guilty entertainment, preening and ahistorical and basely compelling. In that sense, it succeeds—just as it has succeeded as a ploy for media attention to kick off Cannes with a queasy bang.

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    Richard Lawson

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  • At Cannes Film Festival, Johnny Depp says ‘I have no further need for Hollywood’

    At Cannes Film Festival, Johnny Depp says ‘I have no further need for Hollywood’

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    CANNES, France — Appearing at the Cannes Film Festival the day after premiering his first film in three years, Johnny Depp said Wednesday that he has “no further need” for Hollywood.

    Depp made a rare public appearance to face questions from the press following the opening-night premiere of “Jeanne du Barry,” in which Depp plays King Louis XV. The film, directed by and starring Maiwann, is Depp’s first film since a jury last year largely sided with him in his legal battle with his ex-wife, Amber Heard.

    Part of Depp’s argument in that 2022 defamation trial was that he had lost work due to Heard’s allegations. Heard was ordered to pay Depp $10 million in damages, vindicating his allegations that Heard lied about Depp abusing her before and during their brief marriage.

    “Did I feel boycotted by Hollywood? You’d have to not have a pulse to feel like, ‘No. None of this is happening. It’s a weird joke,’” Depp told reporters. “When you’re asked to resign from a film you’re doing because of something that is merely a function of vowels and consonants floating in the air, yes, you feel boycotted.”

    Depp was most notably asked to step down from the “Harry Potter” spin-off franchise “Fantastic Beasts.” Now, though, he says he’s not interested in returning to studio projects.

    “I don’t feel boycotted by Hollywood, because I don’t think about Hollywood. I don’t have much further need for Hollywood, myself,” Depp said. “It’s a strange, funny time where everybody would love to be able to be themselves, but they can’t. They must fall in line with the person in front of them. If you want to live that life, I wish you the best.”

    The “Jeanne du Barry” press conference was among the most circus-like in recent years at Cannes. The press conference began unusually late and started with Maiwann and other cast members there, but no Depp. He arrived about 20 minutes into the press conference and quickly took the spotlight.

    Depp called the majority of what’s been written about him in recent years “fantastically, horrifically written fiction.”

    “It’s like asking the question: ‘How are you doing?’ But the subtext is, ‘God, I hate you,’” said Depp.

    Some have raised questioned about whether Cannes ought to have given Depp such a prominent platform. Asked how he would respond to such critics, Depp made a comparison that suggested few people feel that way.

    “What if one day, they did not allow me to go to McDonald’s for life because somewhere there’d be 39 angry people watching me eat a Big Mac on a loop?” pondered Depp. “Who are they? What do they care?”

    “Jeanne du Barry” opened Tuesday in French cinemas. It doesn’t have U.S. distribution as of yet.

    “I’ve had my 17th comeback, apparently,” said Depp. “I keep wondering about the word ‘comeback.’ I didn’t go anywhere. As a matter of fact, I live about 45 minutes away. Maybe people stopped calling out of whatever their fear was at the time. But I didn’t go nowhere.”

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  • Johnny Depp Gets 7-Minute Standing Ovation On Opening Night At Cannes

    Johnny Depp Gets 7-Minute Standing Ovation On Opening Night At Cannes

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    Johnny Depp got a collective pat on the back at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, nearly a year after his high-profile legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard. (Watch the video below.)

    The actor received a seven-minute standing ovation after the premiere of the French-language film “Jeanne du Barry,” in which Depp plays Louis XV, Variety reported.

    Depp teared up and applauded back to the opening-night audience in a clip shared by the show business outlet.

    The film is Depp’s first prominent movie since his bitter legal struggle with Heard that centered on claims of abuse from both parties. Depp was awarded $10 million in a defamation suit against Heard in June, and Heard was awarded $2 million in a countersuit. The two later settled for less.

    Depp got an enthusiastic reception outside the Palais des Festivals as well. He signed autographs and took photos with fans, some carrying signs that read “Congrats, Johnny” and “We are sorry,” Reuters reported.

    The burst of goodwill apparently has yet to translate into Hollywood work for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star, who was asked to resign in 2020 from the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise as Grindelwald. That happened after he lost a libel lawsuit over a Sun story headlined, “How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film after assault claim?”

    A protest called #CannesYouNot previously emerged online to raise objections to Depp’s presence at Cannes.

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  • Cannes Film Festival kicks off Tuesday with Johnny Depp and ‘Jeanne du Barry’

    Cannes Film Festival kicks off Tuesday with Johnny Depp and ‘Jeanne du Barry’

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    CANNES, France — The Cannes red carpet springs to life again Tuesday as the 76th Cannes Film Festival gets underway with the premiere of the Louis XV period drama “Jeanne du Barry,” with Johnny Depp.

    This year’s festival promises a Cote d’Azur buffet of spectacle, scandal and cinema set to be served over the next 12 days. It’s unspooling against the backdrop of labor unrest. Protests that have roiled France in recent months over changes to its pension system are planned to run during the festival, albeit at a distance from the festival’s main hub.

    Meanwhile, an ongoing strike by screenwriters in Hollywood could have unpredictable effects on the French Riviera festival.

    But with a festival lined with some much-anticipated big-budget films, including James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of the Destiny” and Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the party is sure to go on, regardless. Stars set to hit Cannes’ red carpet in the next week and a half include Natalie Portman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Sean Penn, Alicia Vikander, the Weeknd and Scarlett Johansson.

    The festivities Tuesday will include an opening ceremony where Michael Douglas is to receive an honorary Palme d’Or. (Later, one will also be dished out to “Indiana Jones” star Harrison Ford). The jury that will decide the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, will also be introduced.

    This year, the jury is led by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, a two-time Palme winner who last year won for the social satire “The Triangle of Sadness.” The rest of the jury includes Brie Larson, Paul Dano, French director Julia Ducournau, Argentine filmmaker Damián Szifron, Afghan director Atiq Rahimi, French actor Denis Ménochet, Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Tourzani and a Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni.

    The opening night selection has attracted some controversy. “Jeanne du Barry,” directed by and co-starring the French actor-director Maïwenn, co-stars Depp as Louis XV. It’s Depp’s first new film since his trial last year with Amber Heard, his ex-wife. After both Depp and Heard accused each other of physical and verbal abuse, a civil jury awarded Depp $10 million in damages and $2 million to Heard.

    In remarks to the press Monday, Cannes director Thierry Fremaux defended the choice, saying Depp is extraordinary in the film and he paid no attention to the trial.

    “To tell you the truth, in my life, I only have one rule, it’s the freedom of thinking, the freedom of speech and the freedom to act within a legal framework,” said Fremaux. “If Johnny Depp had been banned from acting in a film, or the film was banned we wouldn’t be here talking about it.”

    ___

    For more coverage of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival

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  • Cannes director defends festival after Adèle Haenel slams French film industry’s #MeToo response

    Cannes director defends festival after Adèle Haenel slams French film industry’s #MeToo response

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    CANNES, France — After one of France’s top actors, Adèle Haenel, announced she was quitting a French film industry that she denounced for “complacency toward sexual aggressors,” Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux rejected her criticisms while addressing members of the media Monday.

    Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes entry “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” last week published an open letter in the Telerama magazine in which the 34-year-old said Cannes and other pillars of the French film industry are “ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs.”

    Fremaux strongly disagreed while speaking to journalists before the festival kicks off Tuesday with the premiere of Maïwenn’s historical drama “Jeanne du Barry,” starring Johnny Depp.

    “No doubt for somewhat radical reasons, she had to make this comment about Cannes, which was obviously false,” said Fremaux.

    In 2019, Haenel accused French director Christophe Ruggia of sexually harassing her for years beginning from the age of 12. Ruggia has denied it. Since then, Haenel has often vocally protested what she’s called an insufficient response sexual abuse in French filmmaking. At the César Awards in 2020, she walked out of the ceremony after Roman Polanski won best director.

    In his remarks, Fremaux only specifically addressed Haenel’s criticism of Cannes. When she came to the festival with Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” he said: “She didn’t think that when she came to Cannes unless she suffered from a crazy dissonance.

    “The proof is that if you believed it, you would not be here, listening to me now, taking your accreditations and complaining about the press screenings for a festival of rapists,” Fremaux said the gathered reporters.

    How the #MeToo movement has reverberated in Cannes, one of the world’s oldest and most glamorous film festivals, has been a subject of debate. Harvey Weinstein was for years a prominent presence in Cannes, and some of the incidents of sexual abuse alleged against the producer took place during the festival.

    Cannes also has traditionally had a low rate of female filmmakers in its prestigious competition lineup, where only two female directors have won the Palme d’Or: Jane Campion in 1993 with “The Piano” and Julia Ducournau in 2021 with “Titane.” In 2018, 82 women led a protest on the Cannes red carpet. The following year, Fremaux bowing to pressure, signed a pledge promising to strive toward greater gender parity.

    Fremaux acknowledged that the festival once had a problem in gender inclusivity. “Maybe I was clumsy,” he said. This year, there are a record seven films directed by women out of the 21 movies in competition, which he said reflects the growing prominence of female filmmakers around the world.

    Now, he added, “when we hesitate between a film made by a man or a film made by a women, we’ll select the film made by the woman. But only when we hesitate.

    “This all denotes progress,” said Fremaux.

    At the same time, Cannes has sometimes been accused of being too welcoming to some of the men who have been accused of misconduct. Polanski returned to the festival in 2017. This year, some had been expecting Woody Allen’s latest film to premiere in Cannes but it didn’t make the lineup. Asked about it, Fremaux said he would only address films in the selection.

    Fremaux was, though, questioned about the selection of “Jeanne du Barry” as the opening night film. The film, which co-stars Maïwenn, is Depp’s first since his high-profile trial with Amber Heard, his ex-wife. After both Depp and Heard accused each other of physical and verbal abuse, a civil jury awarded Depp $10 million in damages and $2 million to Heard. In December, they reached a settlement.

    “To tell you the truth, in my life, I only have one rule, it’s the freedom of thinking, the freedom of speech and the freedom to act within a legal framework,” said Fremaux. “If Johnny Depp had been banned from acting in a film, or the film was banned we wouldn’t be here talking about it.”

    ___

    For more coverage of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival

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  • Cannes director defends festival after Adèle Haenel slams French film industry’s #MeToo response

    Cannes director defends festival after Adèle Haenel slams French film industry’s #MeToo response

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    CANNES, France — After one of France’s top actors, Adèle Haenel, announced she was quitting a French film industry that she denounced for “complacency toward sexual aggressors,” Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux rejected her criticisms while addressing members of the media Monday.

    Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes entry “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” last week published an open letter in the Telerama magazine in which the 34-year-old said Cannes and other pillars of the French film industry are “ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs.”

    Fremaux strongly disagreed while speaking to journalists before the festival kicks off Tuesday with the premiere of Maïwenn’s historical drama “Jeanne du Barry,” starring Johnny Depp.

    “No doubt for somewhat radical reasons, she had to make this comment about Cannes, which was obviously false,” said Fremaux.

    In 2019, Haenel accused French director Christophe Ruggia of sexually harassing her for years beginning from the age of 12. Ruggia has denied it. Since then, Haenel has often vocally protested what she’s called an insufficient response sexual abuse in French filmmaking. At the César Awards in 2020, she walked out of the ceremony after Roman Polanski won best director.

    In his remarks, Fremaux only specifically addressed Haenel’s criticism of Cannes. When she came to the festival with Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” he said: “She didn’t think that when she came to Cannes unless she suffered from a crazy dissonance.

    “The proof is that if you believed it, you would not be here, listening to me now, taking your accreditations and complaining about the press screenings for a festival of rapists,” Fremaux said the gathered reporters.

    How the #MeToo movement has reverberated in Cannes, one of the world’s oldest and most glamorous film festivals, has been a subject of debate. Harvey Weinstein was for years a prominent presence in Cannes, and some of the incidents of sexual abuse alleged against the producer took place during the festival.

    Cannes also has traditionally had a low rate of female filmmakers in its prestigious competition lineup, where only two female directors have won the Palme d’Or: Jane Campion in 1993 with “The Piano” and Julia Ducournau in 2021 with “Titane.” In 2018, 82 women led a protest on the Cannes red carpet. The following year, Fremaux bowing to pressure, signed a pledge promising to strive toward greater gender parity.

    Fremaux acknowledged that the festival once had a problem in gender inclusivity. “Maybe I was clumsy,” he said. This year, there are a record seven films directed by women out of the 21 movies in competition, which he said reflects the growing prominence of female filmmakers around the world.

    Now, he added, “when we hesitate between a film made by a man or a film made by a women, we’ll select the film made by the woman. But only when we hesitate.

    “This all denotes progress,” said Fremaux.

    At the same time, Cannes has sometimes been accused of being too welcoming to some of the men who have been accused of misconduct. Polanski returned to the festival in 2017. This year, some had been expecting Woody Allen’s latest film to premiere in Cannes but it didn’t make the lineup. Asked about it, Fremaux said he would only address films in the selection.

    Fremaux was, though, questioned about the selection of “Jeanne du Barry” as the opening night film. The film, which co-stars Maïwenn, is Depp’s first since his high-profile trial with Amber Heard, his ex-wife. After both Depp and Heard accused each other of physical and verbal abuse, a civil jury awarded Depp $10 million in damages and $2 million to Heard. In December, they reached a settlement.

    “To tell you the truth, in my life, I only have one rule, it’s the freedom of thinking, the freedom of speech and the freedom to act within a legal framework,” said Fremaux. “If Johnny Depp had been banned from acting in a film, or the film was banned we wouldn’t be here talking about it.”

    ___

    For more coverage of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival

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  • Cannes Film Festival readies a blockbuster edition, with Indy, ‘Flower Moon,’ Depp and more

    Cannes Film Festival readies a blockbuster edition, with Indy, ‘Flower Moon,’ Depp and more

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    The Cannes Film Festival, which will kick off Tuesday, is such a colossal extravaganza that taking measure of its ups and downs is notoriously difficult. It’s a showcase of the world’s best cinema. It’s a red-carpet spectacular. It’s a French Riviera hive of dealmaking.

    But by at least some metrics, Cannes — following a canceled 2020 festival, a much-diminished 2021 edition and a triumphant 2022 return — is finally all the way back.

    “Let’s just say it’s gotten very hard to get restaurant reservations again,” says Christine Vachon, the veteran producer and longtime collaborator of Todd Haynes.

    When the 76th Cannes Film Festival opens Tuesday with the premiere of “Jeanne du Barry,” a historical drama by Maïwenn starring Johnny Depp, the gleaming Cote d’Azur pageant can feel confident that it has weathered the storms of the pandemic and the perceived threat of streaming. (Netflix and Cannes remain at an impasse.)

    Last year’s festival, a banner one by most judgments, produced three Oscar best-picture nominees (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis” and the Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness” ), again proving Cannes as the premiere global launching pad for films big and small.

    A BLOCKBUSTER CANNES

    This year’s festival is headlined by a pair of marquee premieres: Martin Scorsese’s Osage Nation 1920s epic “Killers of the Flower Moon,” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, and James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” starring Harrison Ford in his final performance as the character.

    But as blockbuster as Cannes can be, even those films suggest the wide spectrum of cinema on hand. Both Scorsese and Mangold were first in Cannes decades ago to premiere their early breakthrough films in the Directors Fortnight sidebar. Scorsese with 1973’s “Mean Streets,” Mangold with 1995’s “Heavy.”

    This time, though, they’ll debut much bigger films, sure to be the hottest tickets on the Croisette. Scorsese has his $200 million epic for Apple TV+. And Mangold will premiere, as he says, “a more splendiferous project” than his minimalist debut.

    The “Indy” celebration will include a tribute to Ford. He, along with Michael Douglas, will be given honorary Palme d’Ors. To Mangold, it’s a chance for Ford to embrace the franchise’s international following. The “Indiana Jones” films’ essence, the director says, is rooted in golden-age cinema.

    “These are things where you’re taking your guidance from the classics,” Mangold says. “That’s something that’s really appreciated by the French about American cinema. In many ways, they revere the old pictures more than even the audience in the United States do. That makes it a really wonderful platform.”

    A RECORD HIGH FOR FEMALE FILMMAKERS

    This year, 21 films are competing for the Palme d’Or, which will be decided by a jury led by last year’s winner, Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund. Seven are directed by women, a new high for Cannes in its nearly eight decades of existence. Among the most anticipated is Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera,” starring Josh O’Connor and Isabella Rossellini.

    The festival, running through May 27, will unspool against the backdrop of labor unrest on both sides of the Atlantic. France has been beset in recent months by protests over pension reforms, including raising the retirement age. In the U.S., screenwriters are on strike to seek better pay in the streaming era.

    The prospect of a prolonged work stoppage could potentially drive up prices for finished films at Cannes, the world’s top movie market. Among the titles seeking distribution is Haynes’ “May December,” which stars Natalie Portman as a journalist who embeds with a couple (Julianne Moore, Charles Melton) once renown for their age discrepancy.

    Though arthouses have struggled to match the box-office recovery at multiplexes, Vachon, a producer on “May December,” says her company, Killer Films, and the indie stalwart Haynes are accustomed to “pivoting endlessly and finding opportunities no matter what the sea winds bring.”

    AUTEURS AND A-LISTERS

    As usual, this year’s competition lineup returns plenty of Cannes heavyweights, including Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Monster”), Wim Wenders (“Perfect Days”), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (“About Dry Grasses”), Ken Loach (“The Old Oak”) and Nanny Moretti (“A Brighter Tomorrow”).

    Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” shot in Auschwitz, is one of the festival’s most eagerly awaited films. It’s his first since 2013’s “Under the Skin.” Pedro Almodóvar will premiere the short “Strange Way of Life,” with Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke. Wes Anderson, flanked by another starry ensemble, will debut “Asteroid City.”

    There’s also the upcoming HBO series “The Idol,” from “Euphoria” filmmaker Sam Levinson starring the Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp; “Firebrand” with Alicia Vikander as Catherine Parr and Judd Law as Tudor King Henry VIII; and the Pixar movie “Elemental,” which closes the festival.

    Steve McQueen, the “12 Years of Slave” filmmaker, will debut the longest film playing at Cannes and one of its most thought-provoking. “Occupied City,” which McQueen made with his wife, Dutch author Bianca Stigter, is a four hour-plus documentary that combines narration detailing violent incidents across Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation with present-day footage from those locations.

    McQueen, too, began his feature filmmaking career at Cannes. His 2008 debut,” Hunger,” won the Camera d’Or, a prize for best first film. “It’s never as good as the first time,” McQueen says.

    “But it’s the most important film festival,” continues McQueen. “Our film is asking questions. This is where you want to premiere films that challenge and films that ask questions. You’re right on the front line.”

    POTENTIAL BREAKTHROUGHS

    While many eyes will be on reactions to the new Scorsese or “Asteroid City,” Cannes will, as it does every year, bring new directors to wider film audiences. Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s “Banel & Adama” is the rare first feature in Palme competition.

    Argentine filmmaker Rodrigo Moreno, 50, will be making his first trip to Cannes with “The Delinquents,” a heist drama sprinkled with existentialism and cinematic flourishes. It’s one of the highlights of the Un Certain Regard section.

    The film took Moreno five years to make, partially because of the pandemic. But its Cannes selection is a long time coming in another way. Moreno’s first feature as a solo director was invited to both Un Certain Regard and main competition at Berlin. The producers chose Berlin.

    “At this point of my career. I’m focused on: If this allows me to keep on working and make the next film, to me, that’s OK. It’s the only thing I really want,” says Moreno.

    “The shooting of this film spanned almost five years, which is crazy,” he adds. “But the nice side of that is that every year, I had to shoot. The one thing I knew was that a new year began, and I had to shoot. And the following, I had to shoot.”

    ___

    Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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  • Cannes Film Festival readies a blockbuster edition, with Indy, ‘Flower Moon,’ Depp and more

    Cannes Film Festival readies a blockbuster edition, with Indy, ‘Flower Moon,’ Depp and more

    [ad_1]

    The Cannes Film Festival, which will kick off Tuesday, is such a colossal extravaganza that taking measure of its ups and downs is notoriously difficult. It’s a showcase of the world’s best cinema. It’s a red-carpet spectacular. It’s a French Riviera hive of dealmaking.

    But by at least some metrics, Cannes — following a canceled 2020 festival, a much-diminished 2021 edition and a triumphant 2022 return — is finally all the way back.

    “Let’s just say it’s gotten very hard to get restaurant reservations again,” says Christine Vachon, the veteran producer and longtime collaborator of Todd Haynes.

    When the 76th Cannes Film Festival opens Tuesday with the premiere of “Jeanne du Barry,” a historical drama by Maïwenn starring Johnny Depp, the gleaming Cote d’Azur pageant can feel confident that it has weathered the storms of the pandemic and the perceived threat of streaming. (Netflix and Cannes remain at an impasse.)

    Last year’s festival, a banner one by most judgments, produced three Oscar best-picture nominees (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis” and the Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness” ), again proving Cannes as the premiere global launching pad for films big and small.

    A BLOCKBUSTER CANNES

    This year’s festival is headlined by a pair of marquee premieres: Martin Scorsese’s Osage Nation 1920s epic “Killers of the Flower Moon,” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, and James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” starring Harrison Ford in his final performance as the character.

    But as blockbuster as Cannes can be, even those films suggest the wide spectrum of cinema on hand. Both Scorsese and Mangold were first in Cannes decades ago to premiere their early breakthrough films in the Directors Fortnight sidebar. Scorsese with 1973’s “Mean Streets,” Mangold with 1995’s “Heavy.”

    This time, though, they’ll debut much bigger films, sure to be the hottest tickets on the Croisette. Scorsese has his $200 million epic for Apple TV+. And Mangold will premiere, as he says, “a more splendiferous project” than his minimalist debut.

    The “Indy” celebration will include a tribute to Ford. He, along with Michael Douglas, will be given honorary Palme d’Ors. To Mangold, it’s a chance for Ford to embrace the franchise’s international following. The “Indiana Jones” films’ essence, the director says, is rooted in golden-age cinema.

    “These are things where you’re taking your guidance from the classics,” Mangold says. “That’s something that’s really appreciated by the French about American cinema. In many ways, they revere the old pictures more than even the audience in the United States do. That makes it a really wonderful platform.”

    A RECORD HIGH FOR FEMALE FILMMAKERS

    This year, 21 films are competing for the Palme d’Or, which will be decided by a jury led by last year’s winner, Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund. Seven are directed by women, a new high for Cannes in its nearly eight decades of existence. Among the most anticipated is Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera,” starring Josh O’Connor and Isabella Rossellini.

    The festival, running through May 27, will unspool against the backdrop of labor unrest on both sides of the Atlantic. France has been beset in recent months by protests over pension reforms, including raising the retirement age. In the U.S., screenwriters are on strike to seek better pay in the streaming era.

    The prospect of a prolonged work stoppage could potentially drive up prices for finished films at Cannes, the world’s top movie market. Among the titles seeking distribution is Haynes’ “May December,” which stars Natalie Portman as a journalist who embeds with a couple (Julianne Moore, Charles Melton) once renown for their age discrepancy.

    Though arthouses have struggled to match the box-office recovery at multiplexes, Vachon, a producer on “May December,” says her company, Killer Films, and the indie stalwart Haynes are accustomed to “pivoting endlessly and finding opportunities no matter what the sea winds bring.”

    AUTEURS AND A-LISTERS

    As usual, this year’s competition lineup returns plenty of Cannes heavyweights, including Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Monster”), Wim Wenders (“Perfect Days”), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (“About Dry Grasses”), Ken Loach (“The Old Oak”) and Nanny Moretti (“A Brighter Tomorrow”).

    Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” shot in Auschwitz, is one of the festival’s most eagerly awaited films. It’s his first since 2013’s “Under the Skin.” Pedro Almodóvar will premiere the short “Strange Way of Life,” with Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke. Wes Anderson, flanked by another starry ensemble, will debut “Asteroid City.”

    There’s also the upcoming HBO series “The Idol,” from “Euphoria” filmmaker Sam Levinson starring the Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp; “Firebrand” with Alicia Vikander as Catherine Parr and Judd Law as Tudor King Henry VIII; and the Pixar movie “Elemental,” which closes the festival.

    Steve McQueen, the “12 Years of Slave” filmmaker, will debut the longest film playing at Cannes and one of its most thought-provoking. “Occupied City,” which McQueen made with his wife, Dutch author Bianca Stigter, is a four hour-plus documentary that combines narration detailing violent incidents across Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation with present-day footage from those locations.

    McQueen, too, began his feature filmmaking career at Cannes. His 2008 debut,” Hunger,” won the Camera d’Or, a prize for best first film. “It’s never as good as the first time,” McQueen says.

    “But it’s the most important film festival,” continues McQueen. “Our film is asking questions. This is where you want to premiere films that challenge and films that ask questions. You’re right on the front line.”

    POTENTIAL BREAKTHROUGHS

    While many eyes will be on reactions to the new Scorsese or “Asteroid City,” Cannes will, as it does every year, bring new directors to wider film audiences. Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s “Banel & Adama” is the rare first feature in Palme competition.

    Argentine filmmaker Rodrigo Moreno, 50, will be making his first trip to Cannes with “The Delinquents,” a heist drama sprinkled with existentialism and cinematic flourishes. It’s one of the highlights of the Un Certain Regard section.

    The film took Moreno five years to make, partially because of the pandemic. But its Cannes selection is a long time coming in another way. Moreno’s first feature as a solo director was invited to both Un Certain Regard and main competition at Berlin. The producers chose Berlin.

    “At this point of my career. I’m focused on: If this allows me to keep on working and make the next film, to me, that’s OK. It’s the only thing I really want,” says Moreno.

    “The shooting of this film spanned almost five years, which is crazy,” he adds. “But the nice side of that is that every year, I had to shoot. The one thing I knew was that a new year began, and I had to shoot. And the following, I had to shoot.”

    ___

    Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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  • Martin Scorsese set to stir Cannes again, 47 years after ‘Taxi Driver’

    Martin Scorsese set to stir Cannes again, 47 years after ‘Taxi Driver’

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    When Martin Scorsese premieres his latest film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20th, it will return Scorsese to a festival where he remains a key part of its fabled history.

    Scorsese premiered his masterpiece of urban alienation, “Taxi Driver,” in Cannes in 1976. Its debut was one of the most fevered in Cannes history, drawing boos and some walkouts for the violence in Scorsese’s tale of the disillusioned New York cab driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro). The playwright Tennessee Williams, then the jury president, condemned the film.

    “Films should not take a voluptuous pleasure in spilling blood and lingering on terrible cruelties as though one were at a Roman circus,” Williams said.

    Yet “Taxi Driver” nevertheless won Cannes’ top honor, the Palme d’Or. Having heard of Williams’ disapproval, Scorsese and company had already flown home, with dashed hopes of any big award.

    “I got a call from (publicist) Marion Billings around five in the morning saying, ‘You’ve won the Palme d’Or,’” Scorsese later recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. “We thought we might get screenplay or best actor for De Niro, so it was very surprising.”

    “Taxi Driver” wasn’t Scorsese’s first time in Cannes. Two years earlier, he had premiered his breakthrough feature, “Mean Streets,” in Directors Fortnight, a selection of films typically from up-and-coming directors that plays outside Cannes’ main stage, the Palais des Festival.

    “Cannes was the international platform for ‘Mean Streets,’ a film I didn’t think would even get distributed,” Scorsese said in a 2018 Cannes talk commemorating the film’s debut.

    “My visit was almost the best time, in terms of anonymity. And trying very hard to change that!” he said. “I was able to go from table to table on the Croisette and meet actors, directors, and so many others. It was still a period of discovery, not just for new filmmakers but older, neglected filmmakers.”

    Between “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver,” Cannes played a pivotal role in announcing Scorsese’s arrival as a major filmmaking talent. He has ever since maintained a close relationship with the festival, though it’s become rarer for Scorsese to launch a film there.

    “Killers of the Flower Moon,” his much-awaited adaptation of the David Grann bestseller, is his first new film to premiere in the Cannes official selection since “After Hours” in 1986. That film, a darkly comic nocturnal New York escapade, won Scorsese best director.

    His latest, which Apple, in partnership with Paramount Pictures, will open in theaters Oct. 6, isn’t playing in competition in Cannes. Festival Director Thierry Frémaux, in announcing this year’s lineup, said he urged Scorsese to put it into competition for the Palme d’Or but was rebuffed.

    “Killers of the Flower Moon,” with a 206-minute runtime, is about a series of murders of Native Americans in 1920s Oklahoma and the FBI investigation that followed. The cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion and Tantoo Cardinal.

    In between, Scorsese has often attended Cannes in other capacities. He was president of the jury in 1998 that chose Theo Angelopoulos’ “Eternity and a Day” for the Palme. He also chaired the Cinéfondation jury in 2002.

    And Scorsese has regularly been connected with other films at Cannes, either as an executive producer (for, among others, Joanna Hogg’s two-part “The Souvenir” ) or to unveil newly restored classics by the Film Foundation, the film preservation nonprofit he founded. This year, the Film Foundation, with the Walt Disney Co., will debut a stored “Spellbound,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 thriller.

    Before a Cannes screening in 2009 of Film Foundation’s screening of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 masterpiece “The Red Shoes,” Scorsese said restoration only matters if people see the work.

    “The more audiences see these films, the more they want to see other films like them, and then what happens is the audience changes which means the movies that are being made change,” Scorsese said. “There is an audience for special movies, and good movies, for a different way of looking at the world — and not just blockbusters.”

    ___

    Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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  • Oscars 2023: Deepika Padukone sets another milestone; joins Dwayne Johnson, Michael B Jordan as Presenter

    Oscars 2023: Deepika Padukone sets another milestone; joins Dwayne Johnson, Michael B Jordan as Presenter

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    Deepika Padukone is setting the bar high! She has become a well-known celebrity across the globe. While she has featured in one Hollywood film, Deepika Padukone has found a space for herself among the international stars. After becoming the first Indian to unveil the FIFA trophy, now she has made her way to the Oscars. The latest announcement is that Deepika Padukone will be one of the Presenters at Oscars 2023. Also Read – Katrina Kaif, Malaika Arora and more celebrities breakfast menu is all things delicious

    The 95th Academy Award is set to take place on the 12th of March, 2023. In India, it will telecast on 13th of March at 5.30 am. Deepika Padukone has joined the likes of Emily Blunt, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Janelle Monáe, Zoe Saldana, Jennifer Connelly, Riz Ahmed, Melissa McCarthy and many others to be a presenter for the event. The Academy made the announcement by sharing a post on social media. This is definitely huge! Also Read – Deepika Padukone FINALLY opens up on staying calm amidst Pathaan controversy; says, ‘Don’t know any other…’

    Deepika Padukone has made many proud by being the Indian face representing the country at many international events including Cannes Film Festival. Last year, she was also chosen as the jury for the prestigious award ceremony. Also Read – Fighter: Hrithik Roshan begins shooting for the third schedule in Hyderabad sans Deepika Padukone [Exclusive]

    Check out the announcement below:

    Earlier, from India, it has been Priyanka Chopra who has become a presenter for Oscars. She has also hosted the pre-Oscars in 2022.

    This year, Oscars is special as RRR has bagged a nomination. Jr NTR and Ram Charan‘s song Naatu Naatu from SS Rajamouli’s film has been nominated in the Best Original Song Category. Apart from this, two Indian docudrama, All That Breathes and The Elephant Whisperer have also bagged nomination. Everyone has fingers crossed.

    Stay tuned to BollywoodLife for the latest scoops and updates from Bollywood, Hollywood, South, TV and Web-Series.
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  • The 10 Best Movies of 2022

    The 10 Best Movies of 2022

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    This year, the nervous clench of the pandemic eased up (to some extent), with movie theaters fully reopened and film festivals carrying on like they used to before 2020.  The industry, and moviegoing itself, is still in trouble, but, at least, there was a host of thrilling work to celebrate and enjoy throughout all that tumult. So many, in fact, that plenty of worthy films—the hushed memoir piece Aftersun, the prickly fable The Banshees of Inisherin, the scrappy found-family drama Broker—had to be left off this list, for brevity’s sake. The ten films listed below shone brightest for me in 2022.  

    Courtesy of A24

    On paper, Dean Fleischer Camp’s film sounds like a mistake. Based on viral shorts from a decade or so ago, Marcel could easily have been lazy, cloying nostalgia, a too-late attempt to cash in on a bygone era of internet quirk. Instead, Marcel is a wistful wonder of a children’s film, one that carefully balances the silly with the serious. The film’s visual invention and graceful writing distinguish it from many of its peers; Marcel speaks to little ones on their level while gently encouraging them to think and feel more expansively about their lives and the life of the world around them. Anchoring the project is the invaluable voice work of co-writer Jenny Slate, who gives the adorable creature of the title some necessary pepper lest he become too cute. Melancholy without being sappy, mordant without being cynical, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On was the poignant surprise of the year, a marvelous debut feature from a director who, I hope, will take us on many more humane adventures in the future.

    9. Saint Omer

    Courtesy of Super LTD

    Alice Diop’s quiet and somber film is a courtroom drama, but not in the familiar sense. There is no lawyerly speechifying, no sudden discovery of salient evidence. Instead, Saint Omer is a measured consideration of a tragedy: the death of an infant whose mother, Laurence (a forceful Guslagie Malanda), stands accused of murder. Diop, a documentarian making her narrative debut, based her film on the real-life case of a Senagalese immigrant convicted of killing her child. She  patiently and compassionately listens to Laurence in the form of Rama (Kayije Kagame), a pregnant writer who sits in on the trial in search of a story. As these two women mull over, publicly and privately, their lives as Black women in France—and as mothers—Saint Omer whispers with the voices of so many drifting in the margins of what is meant to be a progressive and egalitarian society. The slow build of this precisely structured film is remarkable, as if we are watching the reinvention of a hoary genre. Saint Omer is another sterling entry in the recent spate of films, like Mati Diop’s Atlantics and Nikyatu Jasu’s Nanny, that have addressed the West African diaspora with resounding power.

    8. Hit the Road

    ©Kino International/Everett Collection.

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  • Pakistan blocks national release of ‘Joyland,’ a story of sexual liberation | CNN

    Pakistan blocks national release of ‘Joyland,’ a story of sexual liberation | CNN

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    Islamabad, Pakistan
    CNN
     — 

    Pakistan’s government has blocked the nationwide release of “Joyland,” the first Pakistani movie shown at the Cannes Film Festival, just one week before it was due to hit theaters in the South Asian country.

    “Joyland” tells a love story between the youngest son of “a happily patriarchal joint family” and a transgender starlet he meets after secretly joining an erotic dance theater, according to a synopsis on the Cannes Film Festival website.

    In August, the country’s Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) granted a certificate allowing the movie to be released, but on Friday Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a notice saying it was now “uncertified.”

    The official notice said written complaints had been received that the movie contains “highly objectional material” that does not conform with the “social values and moral standards of our society.”

    The ministry’s notice said cinemas that fall under the CBFC’s jurisdiction cannot show the movie.

    “Joyland” won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and the unofficial Queer Palm at Cannes in May. It was then submitted to the Oscars as Pakistan’s official entry for the international feature film award. However, it needs to be in theaters for at least seven days before November 30 to remain in contention for the awards.

    Despite being banned from release in Pakistan, “Joyland” could still qualify in this category if it is “theatrically exhibited outside of the U.S. and its territories for at least seven consecutive days in a commercial motion picture theater for paid admission,” according to the official Academy rules.

    On Tuesday, a close aide to Pakistan’s Prime Minister tweeted that a “high level committee” was assessing the complaints against Joyland and reviewing its ban.

    “The committee will assess the complaints as well as merits to decide on its release in Pakistan,” said adviser Salman Sufi.

    The review comes after the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan released a statement on Sunday, condemning the government’s withdrawal of certification for “Joyland” as “rabidly transphobic” and a violation of the movie producers’ right to freedom of expression.

    “Pakistan’s audiences have the right to decide what they will watch,” the statement said.

    Saim Sadiq, the movie’s director, argued in a post on Instagram that the ministry’s reversal was “absolutely unconstitutional and illegal,” and urged them to reconsider.

    “Return the right of our citizens to be able to watch the film that has made their country’s cinema proud world over,” Sadiq wrote.

    “Our film got seen and certified by all three censor boards in August 2022. The 18th amendment in the Pakistani constitution gives all of provinces the autonomy to make their own decision. Yet the Ministry suddenly caved under pressure from a few extremist factions – who have not seen the film – and made a mockery of our federal censor board by rendering their decision irrelevant.”

    The ban has sparked a public outcry and social media campaign using the hashtag #releasejoyland.

    Rasti Farooq, one of the actresses in the movie, posted on Instagram supporting efforts to have it released.

    “I stand by my film, and everything that it says, with every fibre of my being,” Farooq said.

    Pakistani actor Humayun Saeed, who stars in the fifth season of Netflix series “The Crown,” has also weighed in.

    “Joyland has made Pakistan proud by becoming the first South Asian film to win the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It is a story of our people told by our people for our people. Hoping for it to be made accessible to these very people #ReleaseJoyland,” he tweeted.

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