No one can attract a crowd faster than Jack Nicholson. With his widely attended
press conference yesterday and grand entrance for the evening premier of
About
Schmidt, Nicholson is the talk of the Croisette. Famous for absorbing his
characters' personas, Nicholson commented to journalists: "I couldn't look
at myself the three months I was doing the movie …(It's) the least vain performance
I've done." Not surprising, his work in the Alexander Payne feature is generating
considerable buzz. Critical reviews thus far have praised Nicholson's latest offering
as one of his finest appearances on screen to date.
Though Nicholson dominated festival news coverage yesterday, two other films
broke through the About Schmidt media frenzy, gaining the attention of
industry players and critics. The Man Without A Past, by Finnish director
Aki Kaurismäki, and Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark, transcend the
boundaries of mainstream European cinema. Kaurismäki offers the story of
a man whose memory is stolen from him, necessitating a rebirth of life's joys
and struggles. The film has received good ratings in both the French and English
dailies in Cannes.
Russian Ark takes an innovative look at Russian history through the
great halls of St. Petersburg's Winter Palace. With the mid-point of this year's
festival having passed, these features add to the quality of films in contention
in this year's Official Selection competition.
Today's two most highly anticipated screenings could not be more thematically
different. In Le Fils (The Son), Belgian directing brothers Pierre and
Luc Dardenne offer a character study of a carpentry teacher who begins to stalk
a young student after turning down his request to attend his class. According
to Variety, The Dardenne's have kept a tight lip on the details of the film's
plot, hoping to keep the movie's ending a surprise. The brothers are not strangers
to success at Cannes, having received the Palme d'Or in 1999 for their highly
controversial piece, Rosetta.
From the Ardennes setting of Le Fils filmgoers travel to the bright
and mystical world of Bollywood. Devdas opens this evening as one of
India's largest productions to screen abroad. Within India, the film's story
line surrounding a tragic love affair is a cherished classic, stemming from
the popular 1917 novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. The novel has spawned
nine films in four different Indian languages. In a Moving Pictures article,
Devdas director Sanjay Leela Bhansali stated that "the film is a
tribute to a great story that transcends sexual love and makes emotion its hero."
Serious movie industry discussions took place in Cannes yesterday with the
arrival of Jack Valenti, president and CEO of The Motion Picture Association
of America (MPAA). Valenti came to town to discuss the problems generated by
the North American economic downturn and the negative effects of piracy, both
of which currently plague the movie industry. According to a Hollywood Reporter
article, the projected growth in digital technology and the greater use of broadband
will only further encourage movie piracy on the Internet. Valenti justified
his concerns with a presentation of research that states that over 500,000 movies
are illegally downloaded per day. Valenti's annual visit to Cannes will include
further meetings with international industry executives to channel various means
of dealing with the issue.
Parties continue to line the Croisette's beachfront bistros and hotels. On
Tuesday, the bash for the 25th Anniversary of the Camera d'Or was held at the
Carlton. Industry celebrities in attendance included directors Paul Thomas Anderson
(Punch Drunk Love) and Wim Wenders (Ten Minutes Older). The event
also doubled as a birthday party for actor Charles Aznavour, recently seen as
the protagonist in Atom Agoyan's Armenian epic, Ararat.
Supermodel-actress Iman arrives in Cannes today as a stylist for the diamond
company De Beers. Tonight she is set to attend the AMFAR AIDS benefit dinner.
About SchmidtThe Man Without A PastRussian ArkThe Son
