Tag Archives: Cannes

Can You Figure Out The Trailer For Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language?

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Jean-Luc Godard, that iconic and frustrating pioneer of the French New Wave, has a new film.  Goodbye to Language is 70 minutes long and it’s in 3D.  Knowing Godard (but does anyone really know Godard?), it’s probably going to be a film that’s going to be loved by many and hated by even more.

Goodbye to Language premiered at Cannes yesterday and, perhaps surprisingly given Godard’s lack of concern with traditional narrative, much of the response has been both positive and baffled.  Speaking as someone who hasn’t seen the film but who is somewhat familiar with some of Godard’s films, I think the best review so far was posted by A.A. Dowd over at the A.V. Club.  (Dowd also makes a very important point about why it is necessary to properly reflect on a film before passing judgment and why so many other critics fail to do just that.  Seriously, read the article.)  Dowd usually gives letter grades to the films that he reviews.  For Goodbye to Language, his grade is “?????”

All of this, needless to say, makes me very much want to see Goodbye to Language for myself.  Though I haven’t been able to find a release date, the film is apparently being distributed by 20th Century Fox so maybe it will eventually make its way over here to the States.  (That said, I’m a bit worried that even if it does, it will only be shown in New York and Los Angeles and will never make down to my part of the country.  There seems to be an elitist belief that people in middle America aren’t interested in seeing the latest from Jean-Luc Godard and, unfortunately, that’s probably true…)

But until it does, here’s the NSFW trailer for Goodbye to Language.  Can you figure out what’s going on?  I can’t and I speak French.  But that impenetrability is a part of what makes me want to see the film.

And here’s a version of the trailer with English subtitles.

And here’s the Cannes Teaser for Foxcatcher!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Speaking of Cannes, Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher has also been shown at the festival and it got a far more positive reaction than Lost River.  Below is the teaser that was released to coincide with its Cannes premiere.

I think everyone is pretty much assuming that both Foxcatcher and Steve Carell are going to be nominated for Oscars.  The big question, right now, seems to be rather Mark Ruffalo or Channing Tatum will join the list of nominees.  I’m also going to be keeping an eye on Vanessa Redgrave, who has a small role as Carell’s mother.  After all, a Redgrave nomination would be a chance for the Academy to honor a respected actress who might not be appearing in many more films.

(As well, it would be a perfect excuse to get Franco Nero to come to the ceremony!)

As for the trailer below — if nothing else, this movie looks intense.  It’s interesting to see Carell in such a dark role but I fully believe that he’s capable of pulling it off.

Here’s the Teaser Clip For Ryan Gosling’s Lost River!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here is the teaser clip for Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut, Lost River, which was released ahead of the film’s premiere at Cannes.

So far, the majority of the reviews out of Cannes have been mixed.  The film has been called self-indulgent, incoherent, and pretentious and, perhaps worst of all, it has been compared by more than one reviewer to Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales.

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian, a reviewer whose opinion I usually respect, writes: “Ryan Gosling’s Lost River is a conceited clunker – and yet there are great images and mad energy.”  That gave me some hope — I can forgive self-indulgence if it’s at least interesting to watch.  But then Jeff Wells had to pop up and start comparing it to Beasts of the Southern Wild.  As usual, Sasha Stone over at Awards Daily has some very strong feelings about the film, despite the fact that — as she readily admits — she hasn’t actually seen it.  (But Sasha’s so much smarter than the rest of us common people, so who are we to question her, right?)

Well, as you can probably guess, I don’t care what the critics think or say.  I’m still going to see it and judge it for myself.  Not only is the film directed by Ryan Gosling but it also stars three of my favorite actresses — Eva Mendes, Saoirse Ronan, and Barbara Steele.  Dr. Who fans will be happy to see Matt Smith while those of you who enjoy Agents of SHIELD can get a chance to apparently see a new side of Iain De Caestecker.

As for the teaser below — well, who knows what the Hell’s going on?  But aren’t you just a little bit intrigued to find out?

Here’s some news from Cannes and the trailer for Mr. Turner!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As much as I wish I was in Cannes right now, I’m not.  I’m stuck here in the States while everyone else gets to pose for the photographers, walk around topless on the beach, and see movies.  Oh well, there’s always next year.  Until then, I’m keeping up with Cannes via social media.

The festival opened last night with Grace of Monaco and guess what?  The reaction would appear to confirm that the film is just as much of a misfire as I think everyone assumed it would be.  It’s not so much that the film sounds terrible as much as it just sounds like it’s remarkably bland.

However, no sooner had everyone dismissed Grace than everyone started to rave about Mike Leigh’s latest film, Mr. Turner.  I’ve been intrigued by Mr. Turner ever since I first heard about it, largely because it’s a biopic of the great landscape painter J.M.W. Turner and I’ve got a degree in art history.  The enthusiastic reaction that both the film and star Timothy Spall have gotten at Cannes have only served to make me even more excited about seeing this film once it’s released here in December.  (My friends in the UK will get to see it in October.)

(Not to brag or anything — because you know I would never do that! — but quite a few of the reviews from Cannes are speculating that both the film and Spall could be Oscar contenders.  That’s something that I predicted way back in March.)

As the film premiered at Cannes, the official trailer was also released.

And here it is!

 

Blue Is The Warmest Colour and Bruce Dern Win At Cannes

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Bruce Dern in Nebraksa

Here are the official winners at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival:

Palme d’Or – Blue Is the Warmest Colour by Abdellatif Kechiche
Honorary Palme d’Or – Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux for Blue Is the Warmest Colour
Grand Prix – Inside Llewyn Davis by Joel & Ethan Coen
Best Director – Amat Escalante for Heli
Best Screenplay – Jia Zhangke for A Touch of Sin
Best Actress – Bérénice Bejo for The Past
Best Actor – Bruce Dern for Nebraska
Jury Prize – Like Father, Like Son by Hirokazu Koreeda

Both The Tree of Life and Amour were nominated for best picture after winning the Palme d’Or and, in fact, it could be argued that neither one of those films would have had the momentum necessary to score an Oscar nod if they hadn’t first won at Cannes.  It’ll be interesting to see if this trend will continue with Blue Is The Warmest Colour.

As for Bruce Dern — a Hollywood veteran who has appeared in a lot of iconic films but who has never won an Oscar — I have a feeling that he’ll be winning a lot of other awards before the Oscar season has ended.

 

2 Trailers: The Sessions and Alex Cross

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

A frequently asked question: When is John Hawkes going to win an Oscar?

Ever since I first saw Winter’s Bone back in 2010, I’ve wondered just when exactly John Hawkes is going to finally win an Oscar.  Unfortunately, he did not win for Winter’s Bone and his chilling work in Martha Marcy May Marlene was ignored.  This year, however, he’s back with The Sessions.  In this film, Hawkes plays a 38 year-old man who is confined to an iron lung and who is attempting to lose his virginity with the help of William H. Macy and Helen Hunt.

The Sessions has been getting a lot of buzz since it premiered on Sundance.  That, quite frankly, makes me wary because I’ve come to learn that you have to take Sundance acclaim with a grain of salt.  If Cannes is where people go to be insanely critical, Sundance has a deserved reputation for going overboard when it comes to praise.  However, I will take a chance on anything featuring John Hawkes and, just judging from the trailer, it looks like both The Sessions and John Hawkes could be contenders when it comes time to hand out Oscar nominations.

A less frequently asked question: When is Tyler Perry going to win an Oscar?

Most people would probably answer that question by replying, “Never,” and they could very well be correct.  I have to admit that I’ve never actually sat through any of Tyler’s Perry’s films and, to be honest, I’ve never really had any desire to.  That said, I’ve always been fascinated by Perry’s success and I can’t help but admire the fact that he’s not shy when it comes to self-promotion.

In the upcoming Alex Cross, Tyler Perry will step into a role that was previously played by Morgan Freeman and, if nothing else, it’ll add fuel to the debate as to whether or not Perry is a legitimate acting talent or just a smart businessman.  To be honest, the trailer for Alex Cross plays less like a movie trailer and more like a commercial for a movie on Chiller.  I think that’s largely because of the presence of TV-movie mainstays like Matthew Fox and John C. McGinley.  Still, chances are, Alex Cross will be the first exposure that I (and a lot of other people) get to Tyler Perry as an actor as opposed to just a personality. 

Cannes 2012: The Winners

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Earlier today, the winners of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival were announced:

Palme d’Or — Amour by Michael Haneke

Grand Prix — Reality by Matteo Garrone

Best Director — Carlos Reygadas for Post Tenabras Lux

Best Screenplay — Beyond the Hills by Christian Mungiu

Best Actress — Cristina Fluter and Cosmina Stratan in Beyond the Hills

Best Actor — Mads Mikkelson in The Hunt

Jury Prize — The Angels’ Share by Ken Loach

Interestingly enough, considering that a whole lot of the coverage of this year’s festival centered on the large number of American films in competition, not a single American film won any of the competitive awards.  Even the widely acclaimed Moonrise Kingdom was shut out.  It’s also interesting to note that this is 2nd of Haneke’s film to win the Palme d’Or in less than a decade and that all Ken Loach has to do to win an award in Europe is show up.

Personally, just from the reports coming out of the festival, Beyond the Hills is the Cannes winner that I am most enthusiastic about seeing in the future.

 

The Winners At Cannes

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The winners of this year’s Cannes Film Festival have been announced and it’s good news for Kirsten Dunst and Terrence Malick, the director of Palme d’Or winner Tree of Life..  I’ve seen the Tree of Life trailer about a thousand times at the Plano Angelika and to be honest, I haven’t been very enthused about it.  On the one hand, Terrence Malick is a legendary director and the film looks visually quite stunning.  On the other hand, the trailer also features a kid with a heavy country accent (and I’m not hating here, I’ve got quite a twang myself) going “Mother, Father, always you fight within me,” and when I hear dialogue like that, I’m just kinda like, “Uh-oh.”  The trailer itself features a lot of quite interesting and tense family scenes mixed in with a lot of scenes that seem rather New Agey.  I’d go into my feelings about new agey films but I don’t want to upset our readers in Vermont.

Kirsten Dunst (who may be on the verge of a comeback of sorts and good for her) won for a film directed by Lars Von Trier and I wonder if the award was, in any way, meant to protest Von Trier being previously declared a “non-person” at Cannes because of a press conference where he may or may not (I haven’t been following the story closely enough to take a side) have said he was a Nazi.  (While I can’t say whether or not Von Trier is a Nazi, I can say that I loved Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves, and Zentropa and I hated Dogville and I’m scared to see AntiChrist.)

Anyway, here’s the winners:

  • Palme d’Or: The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
  • Grand Prix(a tie): Le Gaumin au Velo (Dardennes brothers) & Once Upon a Time in Anataolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
  • Best Director: Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive)
  • Best Actor: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
  • Best Actress: Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia)
  • Prix du Jury: Polisse (Maïwenn)
  • Prix du scènario / Best Screenplay: Hearat Shulayim (Joseph Cedar)
  • Camera d’Or (Best First Film): Las Acacias (Pablo Giorgelli)
  • Un Certain Regard : Prix Spécial du Jury / Special Jury Prize : Elena (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
  • Best Short Film: Cross Country

Just a heads up, Arleigh — next year, I’m going to get down on my knees and crawl all the way over to California just so I can beg you to send me to Cannes. 🙂