Julia (Martina Guzman) wakes up, and it's clear things aren't right; there's blood on her hand, bruises on her body. She showers, dresses, goes to school, comes back home ... and realizes just how wrong things are, with a dead man on the floor of her kitchen and another badly-wounded man near death. She's arrested. Taken to prison. The charge is murder. She's alone. She's frightened. She's pregnant. She'll be kept in the special ward for pregnant prisoners or mothers who already have had their children, incarcerated along with them. Julia stands in her cell, in shock and in silence; on the wall behind her, you can see a child has drawn a house in crayon, bright red on the grey cinderblocks.
"They'll make hypocrite judgments After the fact But the name of the game Is be hit and hit back ... "
-- Warren Zevon, "Boom Boom Mancini"
Boxing is a brutal sport. Does that mean you have to be a brute to succeed in it? Mike Tyson was the youngest ever heavyweight champion in the world; when he stepped into the ring, it was as if he was in absolute control over everything that happened. And when he stepped out, it was as if he had no control over anything that happened. He had a marriage implode in public. He served three years in prison for rape. He became a nightmare-parody of himself, pathetic and terrifying, telling challengers he would eat their children. And now, as seen in James Toback's documentary Tyson, he is older, sadder, sober, off drugs and out of the fight game, trying to battle things you cannot simply strike with your fists.
Dressed in an impeccable suit and a pair of hip trainers, Joachim Trier looks like one of the characters in his acclaimed film Reprise. He seems like one of Reprise's characters, as well; bright, self-aware, given to both bold pronouncements and sly moments of self-deprecation. Trier's film won accolades on the festival circuit and even won Norway's Amanda award for best direction and best screenplay; chronicling the lives of two best friends with shared ambitions of literary glory, Reprise manages to be clever without being cool, hip without being insular, and conveys both the better natures and the human flaws of its characters. It's also startlingly funny, and while all the hip narrative touches in the film are clearly deliberate, they manage to be cool without ever for a moment seeming cold.
Trier spoke with Cinematical in Los Angeles about writing Reprise, the challenges of getting a European film to an American audience, the universal fashion code of Fred Perry shirts and how he's already said "No" to the idea of remaking his own film for American audiences. This interview, like all of Cinematical's podcast offerings, is now available through iTunes; if you'd like, you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:
Philip (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik (Espen Klouman-Hoiner) are best friends. They're both aspiring novelists. And at the beginning of Reprise, they both stand, hesitant, on the street in front of a mailbox, and put their manuscripts in. And the camera follows their hopes and aspirations into the darkness, and the film rockets forward, a narrator detailing the reception of their novels and what that does to their lives, who finds acclaim and who does not, the setbacks and triumphs of each of their careers, with jump cuts and film clips and rambling elaborations and bizarre left-field concepts and rapid-fire narration piled one atop the other. And then we're back in the here-and-now, as Phillip and Erik stand in front of the postal box, looking slightly abashed, wondering what exactly it is they're supposed to do next. Maybe what we saw was a dream, or a lie; we're going to have to wait and see what happens next, just like they have to.
Directed by Joachim Trier, Reprise is one of the most brilliant, heartfelt, exciting and exuberant feature film debuts in recent memory, and works not just as a demonstration of Trier's substantial talents but also as a superbly-made collaboration. Trier co-wrote alongside Eskil Vogt, and the film's ensemble (including Lie, Klouman-Hoiner and Viktoria Winge as Phillip's gamine girlfriend Kari) is also superb, down to seemingly-minute supporting roles that are nonetheless perfectly cast, like Eindreide Eisvold's all-seeing but hardly certain dry tone as the narrator.
When you hear journalists at Cannes bemoaning a lack of outlets, it turns out that, for once, they're not talking about firings and cutbacks in paying gigs; rather, they're talking about the crowded push of the Orange WiFi Press Cafe, where getting a socket to plug into between screenings is well-nigh impossible. That's the press room pictured above; not shown is the upper deck, to the right, crowded with couches and journalists sprawled on the floor with their laptops. At its busiest, the WiFi Cafe looks something like a Civil War hospital, if Gettysburg's fallen had carried laptops and cameras instead of rifles.
It seems hard to imagine it's only the second day of the Festival, but it is; journalists and filmmakers are still coming into town, and the tempo of buzz and anxiety is speeding up subtly under the stately glide of stars down the red carpet. I actually wound up, bizarrely enough, at the Kung Fu Panda press screening -- Kim had to cover the Blindness press luncheon -- and, as I said in my review, "Of course, I may be a little inclined to have liked Kung Fu Panda as it made for a bit of a break; my Cannes viewing before this morning's Kung Fu Panda screening included two stabbings, a riot, several acts of sexual aggression, a few beatings, assault with a deadly weapon, family tension, grinding poverty and child endangerment. (That's not the breakdown for the films before Kung Fu Panda, just to clarify; that's the breakdown for the film before Kung Fu Panda.)" Still, I was able to get out and about to take in the scene today; you'll find the gallery below, with more from the shore to come when I can find a place to plug in for my next Cannes dispatch.
Gallery: Live from Cannes: Scenes from the Power Struggle
Perhaps the best thing about Kung Fu Panda is that it's an action comedy that doesn't skimp on the action. Dreamworks Animation's latest effort may stick out a little on the Red Carpet at Cannes -- where it's screening out of competition -- but it's certainly a well-made kid's film that earns high points for how directors John Stevenson and Mark Osborne clearly crafted and contemplated its look and feel with ambition and style. Anyone can make a computer-animated cartoon with fuzzy animals doing kung fu; you have to be at least a little inspired to make a computer-animated cartoon featuring fuzzy animals doing kung fu in widescreen Cinemascope. ...
Kung Fu Panda opens with a rousing, stylish action sequence, as a narrator (Jack Black, in full-on Tenacious D exposition mode) explains how "Legend tells of a legendary kung fu warrior whose kung fu skills were legendary. ..." But then, the heroic panda we've seen unleashing paws of power on the big screen ... wakes up; it was just a dream. Then Po the panda (Black), whose dreams of kung fu glory are the counterpoint to his unsatisfying life, gets ready for his day of helping his father Mr. Ping (James Wong) sell noodles to the people of the Valley of Peace.
Fernando Meirelles's new film Blindnessbegins with the rush and push of urban life; traffic, crowds, activity, purpose. And then, one man cries out: "I'm blind." He eventually makes it to an ophthalmologist, but there's nothing physically wrong with his eyes; he simply can't see. "It feels like I'm swimming in milk," he explains, and we see, through his eyes, the blank, empty swirl of what used to be the world. And then another person says they are blind, and then another, and soon those few, frightened voices form a chorus of chaos as "the White Sickness" spreads like wildfire and leaves a ruined world in its wake.
Adapting Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's novel, Blindness feels like a curious mix of highbrow literary aspirations and lowbrow genre fiction; as the White Sickness spreads from person to person in a clear chain of connection and things fall apart, it'd be easy to dismiss Blindness as Dawn of the Dead for NPR listeners or Outbreak for grad students. Meirreles has taken a similar two-pronged approach before -- The Constant Gardener is an excellent critique of the failings of modern capitalism that also works as a strong, suspenseful thriller -- and while Blindness may not work as well as that film, it's also a clear case of a film, and filmmaker, failing to hit the mark occasionally only because they've set the bar so high for themselves.
A photographer (Campino) comes to Palermo, Italy, and tries to reconcile his career with his happiness. Including a host of luminaries (like Milla Jojovich, Patti Smith and Lou Reed) playing themselves, The Palermo Shooting promises to be a look at life and fame from a director whose previous looks at geography and personal history have included Wings of Desire, Buena Vista Social Club and Paris, Texas.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Because it's Wim Wenders -- really, what more reason do you need? Wenders is a brilliant filmmaker, and his previous movies have all managed to mesh very real senses of place with thoughtful, human explorations of the human condition; this film looks a little higher on the glitz-and-glam index than some of his earlier work, but that's not a cause for concern; Wenders has tackled everything from hard-bitten realism (Paris, Texas) to to rueful fantasy (Wings of Desire) to weird science fiction-ish mysteries (The End of Violence); if his take on the modern world of fame and fortune's as good as those, we'll be very lucky.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT It's a small, intimate, art-house film about feelings and regret ... oh, no; sorry: It's the return of one of the best-loved action-adventure franchises of all time, with Harrison Ford back as archaeologist Indiana Jones, dragooned into the hunt for a famed artifact of power by Cate Blanchett's raven-haired Russian agent Irina Spalko. Along for the ride are Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone and Karen Allen, and every trailer and advance piece suggests the fights, chases, insanely complex ancient deathtraps, globe-trotting international intrigue and narrow escapes we've come to love are all in the mix.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT To paraphrase Sir Walter Scott, breathes there the person with soul so dead that their heart doesn't beat just a little faster at the sound of John Williams' classic theme? Yes, Ford is older -- and, really, aren't we all? Some early mutterings have suggested that "the kids" aren't enjoying Crystal Skull; when you consider that "the kids' made Transformers and 300 box-office smashes, that seems more like a hearty endorsement than dire warning. Minority Report demonstrated that Spielberg's still got terrific action chops, and while a certain sense of nostalgia's certainly involved for many, there are fairly solid odds that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull might actually be good, too.
DIRECTED BY: Abel Ferrara STARS: Ethan Hawke, Bijou Phillips
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Combining fictional characters with archival footage, Chelsea on the Rocks is a look at the famous (or is that infamous?) Chelsea Hotel, where the bohemian clientèle has been immortalized in song and story. The Chelsea's history is both sparkling and squalid; it's where Bob Dylan wrote "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," it's where Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it's also where Sid Vicious' girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found stabbed in 1978. The Chelsea's been a temporary home for everyone from Mark Twain to Joni Mitchell, and considering how many things that have happened there have subsequently become legend, Ferrara's mix of fact and fiction seems like an excellent approach.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Because, love him or hate him, Abel Ferrara (King of New York, The Funeral) has never been boring; and for those cynics who suggest that Ferrara's glory days are behind him, well, you could say the same thing about the Chelsea -- and what could be more intriguing than one faded New York icon's look at another faded New York icon? Add in plenty of potential told tales and bohemian Manhattan gossip, and you've got the strong possibility of a chatty, catty flick about some of the most interesting (and troubled) writers, artists and hangers-on of American pop culture.
DIRECTED BY: Steven Soderbergh STARS: Benicio Del Toro, Franke Potente
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
A four-and-a-half hour long epic combining Soderbergh's Guerilla and The Revolutionary, Che looks at the life of Che Guevara (played by Benicio Del Toro). The first half examines Che's role in the Cuban revolution; the second, his later-life failed attempt to inspire similar events in Bolivia. With a supporting cast including Franke Potente, Lou Diamond Phillips, Benjamin Bratt and Julia Ormond, and shot with high-resolution digital cameras, Soderbergh's two Che films promise an intriguing take on the traditional bio-pic, as the life and times of a wildly controversial figure are brought to the big screen by one of our most talented directors.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Well, it's Soderbergh and Del Toro tackling a complicated topic; the last time that happened, with Traffic, the end result was fairly impressive. Add in the epic length, the possibilities offered by the use of high-definition video -- it's nearly impossible to imagine these films getting made with the cost dynamics of film -- add the on-screen presence of Del Toro, and you've got a series of elements that are guaranteed to get film fanatics ready, willing and excited to sit down for 278 minutes of storytelling about a revolutionary in the hope of enjoying some revolutionary storytelling.
DIRECTED BY: Fernando Meirelles STARS: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
When a mysterious affliction -- "The White Sickness" -- leaves over 90% of the population blind, people try and cope with the fractures left in society. Meanwhile, one woman (Julianne Morre), untouched by the illness, has to hide her ability to see so she can better help her husband (Mark Ruffalo) as everything falls apart around them. Will Moore's sight be their salvation, or their ruin? And is there any possible cure for "The White Sickness?"
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Meirelles (perhaps best known for City of God) is a director to watch; his first big-studio film, The Constant Gardener, was tragically overlooked. Blindness may have an impressive big name cast (Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Alice Braga), but the fact that the screenplay adaptation of José Saramago's Nobel Prize-winning novel is by Don McKellar is just as exciting. McKellar's demonstrated a warm-yet-weird sensibility with similarly apocalyptic material in his earlier film Last Night, and the literary and cinematic roots of this project promise a film worth getting excited about.
I've been fortunate enough to have been able to go to Cannes for the past four years now, and I'm getting ready for my fifth. And, as I often say when explaining film festivals to people who've never been to one, it's not just an adventure; it's a job. Cannes is a "get-away" the same way running from a burning building is "a tour of the grounds"; there are plenty of movies, plenty of work, and the overall emotional tone of the event is a mix of exhaustion and exhilaration. The heady moments of pure movie magic come fast and furious with the muck-and-money reality of international financing and distribution happening all about you.
Going to Cannes means seeing at least 40, maybe 50 or more movies in 10 days, never mind actually thinking and writing about them; you'd think that that kind of pace would soon turn into a blur, and it does, but it's a glorious one. Here's some of my favorite movie going moments (highly subjective, of course -- I've not included last year's ridiculously strong quartet of Persepolis, No Country for Old Men,The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, as they're still so fresh in my mind) from the past four years of the Cannes Film Festival; think of these as the rushed recollections of a film critic who knows exactly how lucky he's been.
At the Long Beach Grand Prix, the roar of high-powered race car engines fills the air, a deep bass thrum cutting through the smell of exhaust in the early summer heat. Tens of thousands of race fans have gathered to take in the metal-and-rubber reality of racing, but in the Long Beach Convention Center, a small group of journalists have gathered to talk about a big-screen fantasy vision of the spectacle roaring around us, Cinematical was there to speak with the people behind Speed Racer: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci and Matthew Fox, as well as producer Joel Silver.
Emile Hirsch, relaxed and fairly amused, is asked about embodying a classic character. "It's pretty cool." He laughs; "I was a very big fan of the show growing up ... I would just watch it every morning with cereal ... sometimes soda in the cereal. ..." I then asked Hirsch if, after reading the script, he was worried about being Mark Hamill to Matthew Fox's Harrison Ford, that Speed would be out-cooled by Racer X. "Well, now I am ..." The rest of the sentence is unprintable, but Hirsch then mocked Fox's masked mystery man and spoke sincerely about Speed's virtues: "Yeah, (Racer X) is so cool ... No, no, no; Speed's got the nobility; Speed does the right thing; Speed is ... Speed's cool."
When David Mamet's Redbelt was announced, the initial simple summary seemed bizarrely incongruous: A noted playwright and dramatist making a film about martial arts? But while Redbelt involves the worlds of Jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts, it's really just another way for playwright, screenwriter and director Mamet to look at the world. As martial arts instructor Mike Terry (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) is taken from his noble (but underfunded) studio and plunged into the greed and glitz of Hollywood and commercial fighting.
As Mike tries to hang on to the things that matter to him in a world that dismisses honor as unprofitable, Mamet's script and direction create a film that somehow puts a philosophical twist on traditional fight films while also embodying everything we love about them. Cinematical spoke with Mamet and Ejiofor in Los Angeles.
.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
Insert Caption: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian_thumbnail.jpg)
SCOOP: Spider-Man 4 and 5 Might be Shot at the Same Time!
Cinematical Seven: Disney's Awesome Live-Action Kid Adventures
