Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, San Sebastian, Hong Kong, New York, Telluride - and Pyongyang? The end of Summer brought on the annual big tentpole festivals in Venice and Toronto as well as industry and celeb-heavy Telluride, ushering in the annual awards race and many of this year's fall releases. But don't expect North Korea's international film festival, which opens Thursday to factor too deeply into Oscar. In fact, Americans are apparently banned. Held every two years, the Pyongyang International Film Festival is a chance for residents of the so-called Hermit Kingdom to view foreign films on the big screen.
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Following last week's unveiling of the Cannes Film Festival competition lineup, sidebar Critics Week today revealed its own 2012 slate. Opening the event is the world premiere of Broken, British director Rufus Norris's story of a young girl in North London whose life changes after witnessing a violent attack, co-starring Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy.
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The late Claude Miller's Thérèse D will close the 65th Festival de Cannes, the festival announced today. The adaptation of François Mauriac's 1927 novel (adapted previously in 1962 by Georges Franju) stars French favorite Audrey Tautou (Amelie) in the title role as a free-spirited woman trapped in an unhappy marriage in 1920s France who poisons her husband out of desperation, then must suffer the consequences. more »
Grainger David's The Chair is the only American filmmaker to make the shorts lineup cut for this year's upcoming Cannes Film Festival, though U.S. territory Puerto Rico also made the list for the first time with Mi Santa Mirada by Alvaro Aponte-Centeno. The Chair debuted last month at South by Southwest where it won the Short Film Jury Prize. The 12-minute film revolves around a mysterious outbreak of poisonous mold in a small town and one boy's attempt to understand his mother's death, his grandmother's obsession with a discarded recliner and the roots of this mysterious plague.
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Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti’s films speak for introverted individual concerns at work in a group dynamic. In Dear Diary, a 40 year-old Moretti rides around Rome on his motorcycle trying to figure out just how much of a part he wants in a society where legendary poet/filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini has died and soap operas are insanely popular. Similarly, his latest film, We Have a Pope (a.k.a. Habemus Papum), concerns a reluctant cardinal (an excellent performance by Michel Piccoli) elected to be the next pope but is too nervous to assume the role. Pope, which opens Friday in limited release, originally screened in competition at last year’s Cannes Film Festival — to which Moretti is planning his return next month as the president of this year’s competition jury. Talk about group dynamics.
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Get ready for some twee twinkling on the Croisette -- Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom is set to open the 2012 Cannes Film Festival! Last year's opener, Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, went on to enjoy a rousingly successful theatrical run on its way to a Best Picture nomination; Anderson's comedy, about a pair of pre-teen lovebirds on the lam in 1960s New England, will open stateside just over a week after its May 16 Cannes debut and marks his return to live-action film after his most recent film, the Oscar-nominated Fantastic Mr. Fox.
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Earlier in the day at the Cannes Film Festival without her infamous co-star and friend Mel Gibson on hand, Jodie Foster put on a brave face for press, anticipating that their dark comedy The Beaver might be better received in Europe than it was stateside where it's grossed only $311, 588 in limited release since May 6. Open minds in Cannes might also be why Gibson did in fact make a rare public appearance Tuesday night at the film's premiere.
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Although he's avoided public appearances and kept press engagements to a minimum in the lead up to the premiere of The Beaver, Mel Gibson might yet show up at the Cannes Film Festival. According to a rep for The Beaver's French distributor, Gibson "is coming to Cannes," though his camp says it's still up in the air. Gauging public support, perhaps? Will the French lead by example and embrace the embattled filmmaker with open arms? [THR]
