Cannes || ||

Harvey Weinstein: The Best Masseuse at Cannes?

His competition premieres fizzled a bit, but perhaps Harvey Weinstein controlled the message where it counts: "As I surveyed the room, I found that Gossip Girl’s Kelly Rutherford also held the rather odd opinion that Weinstein was secretly the gala’s best masseuse. 'I mean, there are guys that are really cute but you don’t know if they’d be good givers. And a massage, you have to be giving,' she told me. 'I bet Harvey would give a great massage. I think he’s so sexy and smart and he’s very giving. Plus, whatever he does, you know he’s going to do it well.'" [Vulture]

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Cannes Winners: Michael Haneke's Amour Takes Palme d'Or

Michael Haneke's Amour won the Palme d'Or Sunday night in Cannes, capping the 65th edition of the festival. The film follows Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emanuelle Riva) a couple in their 80s who must endure a long demise after Anne suffers an attack.
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Después de Lucia Wins Cannes Un Certain Regard Top Prize

Después de Lucia by Michel Franco took the top prize in Cannes Un Certain Regard section this weekend. Also honored were Benoit Delépine and Gugstave Kervern's Le Grand Soir, winning a Special Jury Prize, while Emilie Dequenne and Suzanne Clément both won Best Actress prizes for their performances in A Perdre La Raison and Laurence Anyways respectively. Djeca (Children of Sarajevo) by Aida Begic received a "Special Distinction of the Jury nod.
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Cannes Bans Controversial Comedy The Anti-Semite

A year after Lars von Trier was publicly castigated for making a Hitler joke at Cannes, the festival has banned a controversial comedy by French comedian/provocateur Dieudonné. Entitled The Anti-Semite, the film was scheduled to play not in the official festival but in the Cannes Film Market, but outrage over its content — including mockery of Auschwitz and Dieudonné in Nazi dress — led the organization to scrap screenings.
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Cannes || ||

Wes Anderson on the Fantasy of Moonrise Kingdom — and the Myth of His 'MO'

A week and a half after its world premiere kicked off the 65th Cannes Film Festival, Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom arrives Stateside this weekend in limited release. Starring Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwartzman and Bob Balaban, acting novices Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward steal the show kids on the cusp of their teens who fall in love on an island off New England in 1965. To stay together, the couple make a pact to make a dash for the wilderness, but the authorities are on their trail.
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Biz Break || ||

Alexander Payne's Film Fest Two-Fer, Luc Besson Makes a Deal: Biz Break

Also in this week-capping edition of Biz Break: Frank Langella to be honored at Nantucket, Harvey Weinstein scores laurels from UCLA, Ken Loach's latest lands Stateside, another Tribeca premiere finds a distributor, and more...
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Cannes || ||

Aquí Y Allá Leads Cannes Critics Week Winners

You might not know it from the blinding, white-hot happenings du jour, but the Cannes Film Festival has begun winding down its 2012 iteration with awards for its Critics Week sidebar. Few if any will likely come to a theater near you in the near future, but if Cannes completism is your thing, I am nothing if not obliging. Read on for the winners, and congrats to all.
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Cannes: Robert Pattinson Holds Court in David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis

Moments before David Cronenberg, Robert Pattinson and the rest of the team from Cosmopolis appeared in a packed press conference room, a Cannes Film Festival spokesman said he had one request: "Please keep the conversation focused on Cosmopolis and not on vampires or bats or the such." "But what about blood-sucking capitalists?" a journalist asked.
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Cannes: Kylie Minogue Sets Aside Pop for Offbeat Holy Motors

Pop star Kylie Minogue is in Cannes, and she's showcasing a career move: Starring in a film. Not just any film mind you, but Leos Carax's Holy Motors, which attendees here are calling the wackiest selection to hit the festival in years, a pretty amazing feat. With cyber-monsters, talking machines and a story that is a complete trip, Minogue plays two characters in Carax's tale, which centers on Monsieur Oscar — who himself is in fact many characters: a captain of industry, assassin, beggar, monster, family man and a half-dozen more.
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Kanye West's Cannes Bash, Ethan Hawke's Time Traveler: Biz Break

Also in Thursday morning's briefs: Bill Clinton heads to Monaco for celebrity fundraising, Obama is criticized for helping Kathryn Bigelow's latest film on Osama bin Laden, and a pair of fan-friendly sites team up for ticket initiative.
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Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron and Lee Daniels's Polarizing Paperboy Storms Cannes

This is Thursday in Cannes: Zac Efron in tighty-whities, Nicole Kidman as a luscious sex kitten, Matthew McConaughey as a journalist with a sexual secret and a very creepy John Cusack. Such was just the tip of the iceberg this morning in Lee Daniels's outrageous The Paperboy, which will have its world premiere tonight as the festival hits its final swing. Opinions seemed to range wildly in all directions following the film's early morning screening: Applause and cries of "Bravo!" mixed with boos, laughter and a swift rush out of the huge Lumière Theatre to get reaction from Daniels and the cast at the press conference. The conversation in the press room took cues from the film's flamboyant flare, and then it went from there.
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On the Road Clips: Kristen Stewart Drives, Kirsten Dunst Dances in First Extended Glimpses

I know, I know — to paraphrase a popular rejoinder to the overexposed, "How can I ever anticipate On the Road if it won't go away?" Nevertheless, consider the two new clips released by IFC Films as complements to Brian's coverage from Cannes, where the long-awaited Jack Kerouac adaptation premiered this morning.
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GALLERY: Brad Pitt, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and More Hit Cannes 2012

The French Riviera got a triple dose of star power as Brad Pitt breezed into town for his Killing Me Softly premiere, where the goofy Pitt got snap-happy with the paparazzi. The Andrew Dominik debut was followed by another star-studded to-do as Twilight's Kristen Stewart and her On the Road co-stars hit the red carpet, joined by Robert Pattinson (who will unveil his own Cannes flick, David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis, on Friday). Check out Movieline's updated Cannes gallery for pics from the fest!
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Kristen Stewart and Co. Finally Go On the Road at Cannes

More than half a century has passed since Jack Kerouac's On the Road was published and over 30 years since Francis Ford Coppola bought the rights to the book. Only today, in one of the Cannes Film Festival's most anticipated events, has director Walter Salles's adaptation finally screened for its first audience.
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AFI Fest || ||

Shirley MacLaine Earns AFI Honors, IFC Eyes Cannes' Sightseers: Biz Break

Also in Wednesday morning's news briefs: Lee Daniels finds his Jacqueline Kennedy for The Butler, Harvey Weinstein and Karl Lagerfeld seek a star at amfAR auction, Cannes Film Market reports an increase in attendance and screenings, and more...
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