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Cannes: Oscar-Worthy Cotillard and Director Gray Talk Divisive 'The Immigrant'
12 hours ago
Characteristic of a number of Cannes competition titles, "The Immigrant" has divided audiences, although its morning screening Friday did not receive the audible boos that greeted the credit roll of "Only God Forgives" the day before. A poll of random badge holders who saw the film suggests that it has won over more moviegoers than not. And Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard, who Gray said was "just made to be a movie star," has received near universal praise for her role in the film as the young Polish émigré Ewa, even from "Immigrant" detractors. Harvey Weinstein will likely try to fetch Cotillard a second gold statue. To be sure, the part was a challenge. Cotillard had 20 script pages of Polish to learn -- and for her character to be believable, she had to pull it off without a discernible accent (her Slavic skills seemed to pass muster). "There aren't a lot of »
- Brian Brooks
'Fast & Furious 6' Revs Up Holiday Weekend Box Office, 'Before Midnight' Starts Strong
12 hours ago
After months of grosses that often fell short of last year, Friday's results indicate a huge uptick in business just as the summer season revs into high gear. With three new films joining three May hits, the top 10 yesterday grossed around $84 million, nearly double the Friday of Memorial Day weekend last year ($44 million). 1. "Fast and Furious 6" (Universal) floored the second best opening day gross of 2013 (including Thursday late night shows) of $38 million, more impressive with no 3-D surcharges to pad its gross. The "Fast" series has been a goldmine for some time -- "Fast Five" in 2011 had a late April opening day figure (also including Thursday shows) of $34 million, although with far less competition among new and current films. 2. "Hangover Part III" (Warner Bros.) did $14.5 million, good enough for #2 for the day. The two day total though is down more than a third from the first Thursday/Friday of "Part »
- Tom Brueggemann
Cannes Interview: Mexican Director Amat Escalante Talks Violent Love Story 'Heli'
13 hours ago
When it screened at Cannes last week, the Mexican film “Heli” raised eyebrows and some hackles for its unsparing evocation of Mexico’s drug-war violence, including torture. A compelling story of one simple family who, through no real fault of their own, stumble into a nightmare, “Heli” is director Amat Escalante’s third film at Cannes, and his first in competition. A native of Barcelona who spent several formative years in the L.A. area, and in Austin, Texas, Escalante (34) lives and shoots film in Guanajuato, Mexico. We sat down a couple of days after his film premiered, on the terrace of the Francesco Smalto store opposite the Palais, where absurdly fashionable people did absurdly fashionable things while the plain-dressed and-mannered Escalante sipped some tea and talked about his film. There have been a lot of negative responses at Cannes to the violence in “Heli,” and with one scene in »
- Tom Christie
Cannes Un Certain Regard Awards: 'Missing Picture,' 'Omar,' 'Stranger by the Lake,' 'Fruitvale Station'
13 hours ago
The Cannes sidebar Un Certain Regard 2013 presented in competition 17 films from 15 different countries, six of which were first films. Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring" opened the program out of competition. The jury led by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg ("The Hunt") included actresses Zhang Ziyi (China) and Ludivine Sagnier (France) as well as Ilda Santiago, the Head of Festival do Rio, and Enrique Gonzalez Macho, the Spanish producer, distributor, exhibitor. Vinterberg's letter is below: “Dear Thierry, dear Gilles Jacob, dear Cannes Film Festival, Thank you for giving us the responsibility of choosing and celebrating films from a very powerful Certain Regard selection 2013. It is a great honor for us, and the selection has been outstanding in many ways. One of the finest achievements in filmmaking is to create unforgettable moments - moments that stay with us - as a collective memory - as a collective mirror of our existence. Clay figures, »
- Anne Thompson
Cannes Deal: Sony Pictures Classics Picks Up Jarmusch's 'Only Lovers Left Alive,' Starring Swinton
24 May 2013 5:07 PM, PDT
"It would take a stake through the heart to keep Barker, Bernard and Leiner away from a good movie,” said producer Jeremy Thomas as Cannes 2013 drew to a close. Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all North American rights to Thomas and Jim Jarmusch's competition title "Only Lovers Left Alive," starring Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton, which played well for the press corps Friday in advance of its Saturday Cannes gala premiere. The film was produced by Thomas's Recorded Picture Company and Reinhard Brundig's Pandora Film. Christos Konstantakopoulos of Fairilo House served as executive producer. Mia Wasikowska, John Hurt, Anton Yelchin and Jeffrey Wright also star in "Only Left Alive," which is set in Detroit and Tangier and involves both vampires and guitars. The film's synopsis is below: It follows an underground musician, deeply depressed by the direction of human activities, who reunites with his resilient and enigmatic lover. »
- Anne Thompson
Best of the Week: Cannes Continues, Talking 'Before Midnight' with Delpy, Hawke and Linklater, Reviews, News and More
24 May 2013 1:38 PM, PDT
The top stories of the week from Toh! Cannes: Cannes Review and Roundup: James Gray's "The Immigrant" Is Unengaging But Cotillard, Photography Shine Cannes Interview: Chandor Directed Silent Redford in "All Is Lost," Press Conference The Coens, Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac Give Seven Easy Steps to Get to Know "Llewyn Davis" Cannes Film Festival Diary: Le Dernier Jour Cannes Review Roundup: Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" a Wistful but Slight Father-Son Road Trip Film Cannes: James Toback Talks "Seduced and Abandoned," Double Act with Alec Baldwin and More "Only God Forgives": Gosling No-Show at Press Conference, Review Roundup Interviews: "Before Midnight" Interview with Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and Richard Linklater (Exclusive Video) Brit Marling Writes and Toplines Anarchist Thriller "The East," "an action film for a girl" (Exclusive Video) Reviews: Review: Rama Burshtein's Luminous "Fill the Void" Looks at the Strange, Painful Romance of »
- TOH!
Women in Hollywood, from Tough Rodriguez, Studio Chief Pascal, to 'Expendabelles' (Video)
24 May 2013 1:29 PM, PDT
Sylvester Stallone has put out a call on Twitter, presumably with his latest iteration of "The Expendables" in mind: "A young Sigorney Weaver anywhere out there?" The misspelling of her name aside, Weaver became one of Hollywood's few female action stars because Ridley Scott cast her as androgynous astronaut Ripley in "Alien," and another director who likes strong women, James Cameron, encouraged her to kick ass in the sequel "Aliens," at which point he passed the baton to David Fincher, who continued the tradition in "Alien 3." Stallone has plenty of tough action femmes to choose from now, from Gina Carano and Michelle Rodriguez, who memorably fight each other in "Fast & Furious 6" and Jennifer Garner ("Alias") to Cate Beckinsale ("Underworld"), Zoe Saldana ("Star Trek Into Darkness") and Gwyneth Paltrow ("Iron Man 3"). Rodriguez herself recently complained about the lack of female superheroes. Check out the interview below with Sony chief Amy Pascal, »
- Anne Thompson
Meet Andrea Riseborough: Rising Star of 'W.E.,' 'Oblivion,' 'Shadow Dancer,' 'Birdman' (Exclusive Video)
24 May 2013 12:17 PM, PDT
I like meeting actors for the first time, when their careers are starting to take off, before they've erected that protective coating that movie stars often need to survive. I was curious to check out Andrea Riseborough, especially, because she's one of those actresses--much like Meryl Streep-- who vanishes into every role. She's a chameleon, utterly unrecognizable from one movie to the next. She explains why in our flip cam interview below. Like most folks, I first discovered the Brit stage actress in 2011 as Wallis Simpson in Madonna's "W.E.," and was astonished at how she not only embodied this familiar woman but carried the film, which was critically drubbed, but Riseborough emerged unscathed. Casting directors have jumped on the Rada-trained actress, who is now 31 and lives in Boise, Idaho with her artist boyfriend. This spring she's starred in back-to-back movies "Disconnect," "Welcome to the Punch," replaced Jessica Chastain »
- Anne Thompson
Watch: First Trailer for Lyrical Western 'Ain't Them Bodies Saints,' Starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara
24 May 2013 11:45 AM, PDT
The first trailer for David Lowery's lyrical Western and festival favorite "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" has landed. The film, which hits theaters August 16 and VOD August 23 via IFC Films, stars Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara and Ben Foster in a tale centered on an outlaw's dangerous ordeal to reunite with his wife and child. Watch below. Check out our Toh! interview with director Lowery, and our review and roundup out of Sundance when the film first premiered. The film had its European unveiling at Cannes earlier this week. Nate Parker and Keith Carradine co-star. Here's a more detailed synopsis:Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie (Rooney Mara), an impassioned young outlaw couple on an extended crime spree, are finally apprehended by lawmen after a shootout in the Texas hills. Although Ruth wounds a local officer, Bob takes the blame. But four years later, Bob escapes from prison and sets out »
- Beth Hanna
Whither Women Film Critics? Study Says 78% of Film Critics Are Male, 22% Female
24 May 2013 11:44 AM, PDT
Yet another fascinating if depressing report from Martha M. Lauzen looks at, among other things, the percentages of women film critics as compared to their male counterparts. The numbers don't lie: In Spring of 2013 (i.e. right now), 78% of top critics (as defined by guidelines laid out by Rotten Tomatoes, below) are male, with only 22% female. The essay goes on to look at three perceptions about gender in popular film criticism, and then the realities. Highlights below. The purpose of the study: In an effort to better understand how gender may influence popular film criticism, this study tracked over 2,000 reviews penned by 145 writers designated as “top critics” on the film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes over a two-month period in the spring of 2013. The study examined the percentages of male and female critics, the numbers of reviews they wrote during that period, and the length and nature of their reviews. »
- Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
Immersed in Movies: Craft-Talking David Fincher's Emmy-Contender 'House of Cards'
24 May 2013 11:22 AM, PDT
From the very first moment that Kevin Spacey broke the fourth wall as the devilishly charming House Majority Whip Frank Underwood in "House of Cards," Netflix's first original TV series, we knew that we were in for "Richard III" in D.C. It's so David Fincher, who signed on as exec producer and director of the first two episodes, while writer-showrunner Beau Willimon ("The Ides of March") plotted the political machinations with transcendent glee. (Our in-depth interview with Willimon is here.) No wonder the series has induced binge viewing and Emmy buzz. I recently spoke with the three Bs of below-the-line craft on the acclaimed, $100 million political thriller, which is in pre-production on its second season: cinematographer Eigil Bryld ("You Don't Know Jack"), costume designer Tom Broecker ("Saturday Night Live"), and composer Jeff Beal ("Blackfish"), whose two-disc soundtrack is available on Varese Sarabande. They all attest to the fact that »
- Bill Desowitz
Cannes Review Roundup: Epic, Explosively Sexy Lesbian Romance 'Blue Is the Warmest Color' Is a New Fest Favorite
24 May 2013 10:46 AM, PDT
The latter half of Cannes has brought another fest favorite to the fore. With a bold three-hour running time, French director Abdellatif Kechiche's "Blue Is the Warmest Color," starring Lea Seydoux and relative newcomer Adele Exarchopoulous, is receiving raves for its daring, intimate portrayal of a teen lesbian romance. And one more thing: the film contains "the most explosively graphic lesbian sex scenes in recent memory." Review roundup below. Variety:“I have infinite tenderness for you,” one woman tells another in “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” and it’s a sentiment that also describes director Abdellatif Kechiche’s attitude toward his characters in this searingly intimate, daringly attenuated portrait of a French teenager and her passionate relationship with another femme. Post-screening chatter will inevitably swirl around not only the galvanizing performances of Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, but also the fact that they spend much of this three-hour emotional epic. »
- Beth Hanna
Cannes Review and Roundup: James Gray's 'The Immigrant' vs. 'Nebraska'
24 May 2013 10:14 AM, PDT
A pair of films addressing very different aspects of the American experience, and set 92 years apart, have screened in Competition over the last couple of days: Alexander Payne’s "Nebraska" and James Gray’s "The Immigrant." Sad to say, I had expectations for both but didn’t engage with either, although admittedly my perceptions may be tainted by the cumulative effects of a nine-day onslaught of early morning screenings and inevitable late nights. Festival fatigue has arrived! While they exist on opposing ends of the spectrum in terms of genre, tone and narrative ambition, both films do depict, in their own ways, an America that’s dog eat dog, money-obsessed and not especially harmonic despite any surface niceties expressed or warm embraces offered. The lead character in "The Immigrant" (Marion Cotillard) is trying to survive in a new world, and ends up trying to make money or steal it. At »
- Matt Mueller
Cannes Deal Update: Sony Pictures Classics Gobbles Up 'The Lunch Box,' Critics Week Audience Winner
24 May 2013 9:58 AM, PDT
-Sony Pictures Classics has picked up all North American distribution rights to Ritesh Batra's "The Lunchbox," starring Irrfhan Khan ("The Life of Pi"). The film centers on a mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system, and the budding relationship between a young housewife and an older stranger that this mix-up brings. The film won the Viewers Choice Award, the Rail d'Or, at Cannes Critics Week. (You can read more about the recently announced Cannes prizes here.) -Earlier, Spc won Us rights to "The Past," the new film by Asghar Farhadi (director of 2012 Best Foreign Language Oscar winner "A Separation") starring Tahar Rahim, Berenice Bejo and Ali Mosaffa. The film, which centers on the complex divorce between a French woman and an Iranian man, premiered in competition at the festival on May 17, and has garnered rave reviews. (Toh! "A Separation" Q & A with Farhadi here; Anthony Kaufman »
- Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
Cannes: Winners Announced for Critics Week, Cinefondation and Europa Cinemas Label Prize
24 May 2013 8:52 AM, PDT
A number of awards are being announced out of Cannes. "Salvo," a Mafia romance co-directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, has nabbed the Critics Week Grand Prize, while Ritesh Batra's "The Lunch Box" has nabbed the Viewers Choice award, the Rail d'Or (acquisition news here); UK director Clio Barnard's "The Selfish Giant," an update of the Oscar Wilde short story focusing on the friendship between two boys, has taken the Europa Cinemas Label prize as Best European Film in the Directors Fortnight section; and the Cinefondation and Short Films Jury, headed by Jane Campion, has awarded the 2013 Cinefondation prizes. Full list below.The Cinefondation Selection consisted of 18 student films, chosen out of nearly 1 550 entries coming from 277 film schools around the world. The awarded films will receive €15,000 for the first prize, €11,250 for the second and €7,500 for the third. The first prize winner is also guaranteed that her first feature film will be. »
- Beth Hanna
Trailers from Hell: Josh Olson on 'Invasion of the Bee Girls'
24 May 2013 8:29 AM, PDT
Femme Fatales Week! concludes at Trailers from Hell with screenwriter Josh Olson introducing "Invasion of the Bee Girls," which centers on a bevy of sultry sirens turned mutated insect women. Trailer below is Nsfw.No, really--not B-Girls, but Bee Girls! Bzzzzzz! "They'll love the very life out of your body!" These women prey on the male population in this gonzo sci fi epic, the last feature from usually sober-minded director/documentarian/Oscar winner Denis Sanders. Reissued as Graveyard Tramps(!). The full movie can be seen at the Internet Archive. (Nsfw) »
- Trailers From Hell
San Francisco Silent Film Festival's July Program of Classics Stars Brooks, Garbo, Fairbanks and Films by Pabst, McCay, Ozu and More
23 May 2013 8:17 PM, PDT
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival ticks all of my boxes when it comes to enjoyable filmgoing experiences: it's brilliantly programmed, takes place in a dazzling and comfortable setting, unspools over a compact and encompassable time span, and has a respectful and joyous audience that enriches the experience. And (bonus) it's located in a neighborhood full of enticing and affordable eateries. It's also value for money: for $210, you get a pass to the entire festival, which includes 16 different programs, each featuring live music, ranging from the celebrated English pianist Stephen Horne (a Pordenone regular) to the Matti Bye Ensemble from Sweden, with appearances by the famed Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, as well as other musicians suited for the occasion. I learned a long time ago to attend every program, because even if I'd seen the movie in question before, the live music made it a unique, and uniquely appealing, »
- Meredith Brody
Rock Center: Brian Williams Grills The Emanuel Brothers (Video)
23 May 2013 1:58 PM, PDT
Brian Williams digs into the three remarkable Emanuel brothers who grew up outside of Chicago. Wme chief Ari Emanuel was the model for Ari Gold on "Entourage." Rahm was chief of staff for President Barack Obama, and now is facing the heat as Chicago Mayor for closing down some 40 schools. Zeke the doctor wrote a memoir "Brothers Emanuel"about the family. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy »
- Anne Thompson
Cannes Interview: Chandor Directed Silent Redford in 'All Is Lost,' Press Conference
23 May 2013 1:25 PM, PDT
Following the Cannes debut of "All Is Lost," many have been left wondering why J.C. Chandor’s man-vs-sea saga wasn’t selected for Competition. The film’s compelling and increasingly harrowing narrative, about a man on a solo ocean voyage who ends up in dire straits after his sailboat collides with a cargo container, played tremendously well with critics and the black-tie crowd attending its red-carpet gala, who gave it a nine-minute standing ovation. Redford, who is the only actor in the film and hardly says a word, delivers a performance of astonishing and emblematic potency. As for Chandor, he’s two-for-two now, with "All Is Lost" joining his impressive debut "Margin Call." We sat down with Chandor on the Majestic Beach to discuss "All Is Lost," working with Redford and the fear of dying. Were you moved by the reception the film received last night at its red-carpet gala? »
- Matt Mueller
Paramount, Pitt Reach Out to Fans and Celebs to Build Buzz for 'World War Z' (Video)
23 May 2013 12:47 PM, PDT
Paramount has always been innovative about going straight to the fans with its films, from "Paranormal Activity" to Jason Reitman's "Young Adult." (Last year Weinstein Co. borrowed a page from their playbook with a series of 70 mm previews of Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" before it could screen at film festivals.) This week, Paramount took Brad Pitt on the road to New York's Museum of Modern Art Wednesday night for an early sneak peak at Marc Forster's long-delayed "World War Z," in order to build some early buzz with celebrity guests, from Katie Couric and Bruce Willis to Jimmy Fallon and Gayle King. Pony-tailed Pitt--who has had much on his plate with Angelina Jolie's surprise announcement last week) also schlepped to Hoboken, New Jersey to introduce the film before surprised moviegoers. From what I saw of the movie at CinemaCon, Forster's picture looks expensive, which is »
- Anne Thompson
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