At Cannes: Ryan Gosling and Co. Clear the Air with Movieline Over Polarizing Blue Valentine

Having conquered Sundance (or at least gotten an earful from the critics), director Derek Cianfrance, Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling have now descended on the Cannes Film Festival with their film Blue Valentine -- screened in Un Certain Regard. Hey, wait a minute -- hasn't Movieline covered this film before? Like, viciously?

Sure, we here in the Movieline family can disagree, and that's just what happened with Blue Valentine. At Sundance this year, STV gave the film a veritable drubbing, calling it "emo-fascist twaddle." I don't share that rather misguided missive. The film, about a couple -- Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling -- who experience a marital implosion is replete with searing, brutally honest dialogue and muted performances by the leads.

Despite Movieline's Park City takedown, Williams, Gosling and Cianfrance were more than happy to sit down and talk with me about their latest project. This morning at Cannes' hotel Palais Stephanie -- as the skies darkened and rain encouraged African street sellers to hawk parapluies -- the three chatted about the project and being on the receiving end of criticism.

"We knew this film wasn't going to be test-screened," said Gosling. "When we were at Sundance we were reading bad reviews, and Derek was over the moon about them -- more excited about the bad ones than the good ones. He wanted to make a film that polarized people." He's clearly succeeded, though the buzz from Cannes is probably skewing more toward favorable.

One of those early reviews from Sundance, in particular, has stuck with Gosling. "When Movieline wrote, 'Emo-Fascists Attack,' said Gosling laughing, "it sounded like a real movement. It sounds like we were really doing something worthy."

"Hey, are you the guy that wrote the review?" Cianfrance asked. When I sheepishly said no, he said, "I quote the Movieline review all the time," said Cianfrance. "To me it's a compliment. Listen, I know this movie is polarizing. I thought the film must have worked for him. Clearly, the reviewer saw the entire film from Cindy's perspective -- I think it's a positive review from that perspective."

You might even call Cianfrance a film junkie -- or one of those rare filmmakers who actually likes to read film critics. "Ever since I was 6 years old, I would read movie reviews," he said. "I love learning about movies from critics."

Further expounding on film writers, he said, "I believe in what I make, but I love criticism and I admire critics. You can learn a lot from criticism. I remember one of the critiques from my student film. It said, 'This kid needs to have more life experiences.' So for 12 years I had life experiences, and I made Blue Valentine. But I don't take it personally."

We're glad, Derek.