It was a rainy day in Cannes putting a sort of dimmer on all the glitter and glow of yesterday's 50th anniversary party. Two films were in the running today - The Ice Storm by Ang Lee and Unagi (The Eel) by Shohei Imamura.
It is Ang Lee's first time in competition. This Taiwanese director, whose first film dates back only to 92, has already accumulated a number of prizes elsewhere : a Golden Bear at Berlin and three Oscar nominations. The Ice Storm is a cynical exploration into the universal subject of the family, in this case situated in America on the east coast and starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. It should have come out in the USA last fall, but is being blocked by the distributors for fear of public reaction.
Shohei Imamura is an old-timer to Cannes; Unagi (The Eel) is his fifth film in competition having already received the Palme d'Or in 83 for the Ballad of Naroyama and a special Cannes prize for technical excellence in 89 for Black Rain. Adapted from a Japanese best- seller by Akira Yoshimura, the title refers to the pet of an ex-murderer released after 8 years of prison.
Two out of competition films also made waves today - Branagh's Hamlet and Nirvana by Gabriele Salvatores. Kenneth Branagh has moved the century up to the XIXth and made a version that is more about to be than not to be. Of course Branagh himself plays Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark; a role he has played more than 300 times on stage. In all respects to the text, the integral version is four hours long; however, the two hour version will be distributed to movie theatres. The star list is copious : Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Charlton Heston, Richard Attenborough, Jack Lemmon, Gerard Depardieu, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, John Gielgud.
Nirvana by Gabriele Salvatore, whose Mediterraneo won an Oscar for the best foreign film in 93, takes us far from the classics, beyond even the present and into the future - 2005. The film is a box office hit in Italy with 5 million movie-goers in two months. A sort of cult movie already, Nirvana starring Christophe Lambert is a cyber-nightmarish, psychedelic voyage somewhere between the real and the virtual.
Dustin Hoffman was in Cannes as a producer launching 3 projects. He will be shooting one of these in Montreal in July entitiled Blouse Man. Bernardo Bertolucci chaired a movie symposium and a number of other Golden Palm winners made up the panel. The journalists were plentiful.
There are a number of official festival exhibitions at this year's festival : "50 Golden Palms Headlining International Press", "The Festival Seen By…" in hommage to Cannes photographers, and "When Fellini Drew".
The line-up for 13 May
Official Selection:
A Certain Regard:
Directors Fortnight:
Critics Week:
