News Analysis India

Tag: Cannes

  • Britain’s Molly Manning Walker wins Cannes newcomer prize for ‘How to Have Sex’

    By AFP

    CANNES: British director Molly Manning Walker won the coveted Un Certain Regard newcomer prize at Cannes on Friday for her much-praised feature debut “How to Have Sex”.

    “This film was the most magical moment of my life,” the 29-year-old Londoner said after receiving the prize, which she dedicated to “all those who have been sexually assaulted”.

    The film follows three best friends getting drunk in Crete, with one of the girls, Tara, on a mission to lose her virginity — but things soon go wrong.

    All the stereotypes of Brits abroad feature in the film but Manning Walker also sought to break them by digging deeper into the thorny issues of rape and consent.

    It caused a storm at this year’s festival and drew rave reviews.

    Variety found it “chillingly dark”, The Guardian admired its “complex chemistry” and The Hollywood Reporter dubbed it a “hidden gem”.

    ALSO READ | 

    Drawing from her own experience, Manning Walker speaking to AFP earlier during the festival, said she was inspired by “the best times of my life”, but also the sexual assault she suffered at 16 — and wanted to show it all without judgement.

    Shot in a fly-on-the-wall style, she resisted showing graphic assault scenes.

    “I think we as women know that experience way too much — we don’t need to be re-traumatised,” she said.

    Instead, she focused on her characters’ emotional experiences.

    “Everything was from her eyeline and everything was on her face and reading her emotion,” she said.

    Manning Walker is one of an emerging crop of exciting British woman directors alongside the likes of Charlotte Wells whose “Aftersun” was last year’s unexpected breakout at Cannes, earning an Oscar nomination for star Paul Mescal.

    Before directing she was a cinematographer for nearly a decade and shot films for other young British talents including Charlotte Regan’s “Scrapper” that won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival this year.

    She has also made music videos and adverts, as well as two short films including “Good Thanks, You?” that screened at Cannes in 2020.

    CANNES: British director Molly Manning Walker won the coveted Un Certain Regard newcomer prize at Cannes on Friday for her much-praised feature debut “How to Have Sex”.

    “This film was the most magical moment of my life,” the 29-year-old Londoner said after receiving the prize, which she dedicated to “all those who have been sexually assaulted”.

    The film follows three best friends getting drunk in Crete, with one of the girls, Tara, on a mission to lose her virginity — but things soon go wrong.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    All the stereotypes of Brits abroad feature in the film but Manning Walker also sought to break them by digging deeper into the thorny issues of rape and consent.

    It caused a storm at this year’s festival and drew rave reviews.

    Variety found it “chillingly dark”, The Guardian admired its “complex chemistry” and The Hollywood Reporter dubbed it a “hidden gem”.

    ALSO READ | 

    Turkey’s Merve Dizdar wins best actress at Cannes for ‘About Dry Grasses’
    The real winner at Cannes was actress Sandra Hueller
    ‘Protests over pension reforms in France repressed in shocking way’: ‘Palme’ winner Justine Triet
     Japan’s Koji Yakusho wins best actor at Cannes for ‘Perfect Days’, an ode to a toilet cleaner
    Drawing from her own experience, Manning Walker speaking to AFP earlier during the festival, said she was inspired by “the best times of my life”, but also the sexual assault she suffered at 16 — and wanted to show it all without judgement.

    Shot in a fly-on-the-wall style, she resisted showing graphic assault scenes.

    “I think we as women know that experience way too much — we don’t need to be re-traumatised,” she said.

    Instead, she focused on her characters’ emotional experiences.

    “Everything was from her eyeline and everything was on her face and reading her emotion,” she said.

    Manning Walker is one of an emerging crop of exciting British woman directors alongside the likes of Charlotte Wells whose “Aftersun” was last year’s unexpected breakout at Cannes, earning an Oscar nomination for star Paul Mescal.

    Before directing she was a cinematographer for nearly a decade and shot films for other young British talents including Charlotte Regan’s “Scrapper” that won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival this year.

    She has also made music videos and adverts, as well as two short films including “Good Thanks, You?” that screened at Cannes in 2020.

  • Japan’s Koji Yakusho wins best actor at Cannes for ‘Perfect Days’, an ode to a toilet cleaner

    By AFP

    CANNES: Japan’s Koji Yakusho won best actor at Cannes on Saturday for “Perfect Days” by German director Wim Wenders, a touching tale about a Tokyo toilet cleaner.

    “I want to specifically thank Wim Wenders… who truly created a magnificent character,” he said as he received the award.

    Yakusho, 67, appears in most scenes of “Perfect Days” as a mysterious, bookish man without friends, content to spend his spare time reading, watering his plants, taking photos and listening to songs on his car stereo.

    Director Wim Wenders, left, and Koji Yakusho pose at the photo call for the film ‘Perfect Days’ at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 26, 2023. (AP)

    The versatile actor’s roles in over four decades of movie-making have ranged from warlords and gangsters to killers and cops — and now an everyman who keeps the public washrooms of Tokyo pristine.

    He has also crossed over to Hollywood for “Memoirs of a Geisha” in 2005 and “Babel” a year later.

    “Wim had given me very little information… There was a lot of mystery. Even today, it’s a character I know almost nothing about,” he said of his role, which involved almost no dialogue.

    Koji Yakusho (AP)

    “It was the first time I shot like that, over a very short period, without rehearsal,” he said about working with one of the giants of European cinema.

    Germany’s Wenders, 77, won the top prize Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1984 for “Paris, Texas”.

    Born in 1956 in Isahaya, Nagasaki prefecture, Yakusho first worked as a town hall employee before turning to acting in 1979, after following up on an ad in a newspaper.

    Out of 800 candidates he was one of four selected, “and today I am the only one to be an actor”, he told French media in 2003.

    His first big role that helped propel his career was in the popular hit “Tampopo” (1985) about the hunt for a noodle soup recipe.

    Since then among his notable films have been “The Eel”, winner of the Palme in 1997, and “The Third Murder” in 2017.

    In 2009 he made his first and only feature “Toad’s Oil” in which he also played the lead role.

    Asked what keeps him going in the trade, he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019: “I always think I haven’t got it quite right, but in the next film I’ll finally nail it. I guess that’s the drug of this business for me, which has kept me going for 40 years.”

    ALSO READ | 

    Turkey’s Merve Dizdar wins best actress at Cannes for ‘About Dry Grasses’

    The real winner at Cannes was actress Sandra Hueller

    ‘Protests over pension reforms in France repressed in shocking way’: ‘Palme’ winner Justine Triet

    CANNES: Japan’s Koji Yakusho won best actor at Cannes on Saturday for “Perfect Days” by German director Wim Wenders, a touching tale about a Tokyo toilet cleaner.

    “I want to specifically thank Wim Wenders… who truly created a magnificent character,” he said as he received the award.

    Yakusho, 67, appears in most scenes of “Perfect Days” as a mysterious, bookish man without friends, content to spend his spare time reading, watering his plants, taking photos and listening to songs on his car stereo.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Director Wim Wenders, left, and Koji Yakusho pose at the photo call for the film ‘Perfect Days’ at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 26, 2023. (AP)

    The versatile actor’s roles in over four decades of movie-making have ranged from warlords and gangsters to killers and cops — and now an everyman who keeps the public washrooms of Tokyo pristine.

    He has also crossed over to Hollywood for “Memoirs of a Geisha” in 2005 and “Babel” a year later.

    “Wim had given me very little information… There was a lot of mystery. Even today, it’s a character I know almost nothing about,” he said of his role, which involved almost no dialogue.

    Koji Yakusho (AP)

    “It was the first time I shot like that, over a very short period, without rehearsal,” he said about working with one of the giants of European cinema.

    Germany’s Wenders, 77, won the top prize Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1984 for “Paris, Texas”.

    Born in 1956 in Isahaya, Nagasaki prefecture, Yakusho first worked as a town hall employee before turning to acting in 1979, after following up on an ad in a newspaper.

    Out of 800 candidates he was one of four selected, “and today I am the only one to be an actor”, he told French media in 2003.

    His first big role that helped propel his career was in the popular hit “Tampopo” (1985) about the hunt for a noodle soup recipe.

    Since then among his notable films have been “The Eel”, winner of the Palme in 1997, and “The Third Murder” in 2017.

    In 2009 he made his first and only feature “Toad’s Oil” in which he also played the lead role.

    Asked what keeps him going in the trade, he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019: “I always think I haven’t got it quite right, but in the next film I’ll finally nail it. I guess that’s the drug of this business for me, which has kept me going for 40 years.”

    ALSO READ | 

    Turkey’s Merve Dizdar wins best actress at Cannes for ‘About Dry Grasses’

    The real winner at Cannes was actress Sandra Hueller

    ‘Protests over pension reforms in France repressed in shocking way’: ‘Palme’ winner Justine Triet

  • The real winner at Cannes was actress Sandra Hueller

    By AFP

    CANNES: She may not have won an award, but many will agree that the big winner at Cannes this year was German actress Sandra Hueller, who starred in the festival’s top two films.

    Hueller confirmed her reputation as one of Europe’s most versatile and fearless actresses as she gave a gripping performance in courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall”, which won the top prize Palme d’Or for French director Justine Triet on Saturday.

    She also starred in Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” by Britain’s Jonathan Glazer, which won the runner-up Grand Prix.

    “I think about human beings as vessels for all sorts of feelings and emotions… it’s just a question of how to channel that and show that,” Hueller told reporters.

    Triet praised Hueller, telling AFP: “Everything that comes out of her is 100 percent strong. Due to her theatre training, she has a completely different way of working. When she arrives, she has already been working for months on the film so her first takes are very strong,” she said.

    “She is an actress who has a real point of view on her character, there is a real exchange.”

    Sandra Huller, left, and director Justine Triet at the photo call for the film ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 22, 2023. (AP)

    ‘A responsibility’Born on April 30, 1978, in East Germany, Hueller trained in theatre in Berlin after the end of the Cold War.

    She gained international acclaim for “Requiem” (2006), playing a woman with epilepsy in a religious community that believes she is possessed, which won her the best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.

    Her lead role in black comedy “Toni Erdmann” (2016) confirmed her status as a star of the festival circuit, showing she had comic timing to match her dramatic chops.

    Many felt “Toni Erdmann” was robbed of the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, but that was more that compensated in 2023.

    Her performance in “The Zone of Interest” was particularly disturbing as she took on the role of Hedwig Hoess, wife of Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Hoess.

    She told reporters in Cannes that she “felt a responsibility as a German” to play the role.

    “There was no real way to do it right,” she said. “It was never about being good at something or doing something extraordinary. It was so little to do with acting, but with presence, with listening, being respectful for those around us.”

    Sandra Huller poses for photographers upon arrival at the awards ceremony during the 76th international film festival, Cannes, May 27, 2023. (AP)

    Both films at the festival showcase Hueller’s “flinty intelligence, her emotional ferocity and her utter fearlessness,” wrote the Los Angeles Times, calling her the “queen of Cannes”.

    Hueller said the two directors were “completely different” in their approach.

    “But both are so focused on what they do,” she added. “Some directors are a bit manipulative… don’t give you all the information you need for a character, but with these two everything was on the table — what they wanted to achieve, what they wanted to tell.”

    Also known for her stage work, Hueller has collaborated frequently with renowned theatre director Thomas Ostermeier, trying her hand at everything from Shakespeare to avant-garde experimentalism.

    ALSO READ | 

    Japan’s Koji Yakusho wins best actor at Cannes for ‘Perfect Days’, an ode to a toilet cleaner

    Turkey’s Merve Dizdar wins best actress at Cannes for ‘About Dry Grasses’

    CANNES: She may not have won an award, but many will agree that the big winner at Cannes this year was German actress Sandra Hueller, who starred in the festival’s top two films.

    Hueller confirmed her reputation as one of Europe’s most versatile and fearless actresses as she gave a gripping performance in courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall”, which won the top prize Palme d’Or for French director Justine Triet on Saturday.

    She also starred in Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” by Britain’s Jonathan Glazer, which won the runner-up Grand Prix.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    “I think about human beings as vessels for all sorts of feelings and emotions… it’s just a question of how to channel that and show that,” Hueller told reporters.

    Triet praised Hueller, telling AFP: “Everything that comes out of her is 100 percent strong. Due to her theatre training, she has a completely different way of working. When she arrives, she has already been working for months on the film so her first takes are very strong,” she said.

    “She is an actress who has a real point of view on her character, there is a real exchange.”

    Sandra Huller, left, and director Justine Triet at the photo call for the film ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 22, 2023. (AP)

    ‘A responsibility’
    Born on April 30, 1978, in East Germany, Hueller trained in theatre in Berlin after the end of the Cold War.

    She gained international acclaim for “Requiem” (2006), playing a woman with epilepsy in a religious community that believes she is possessed, which won her the best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.

    Her lead role in black comedy “Toni Erdmann” (2016) confirmed her status as a star of the festival circuit, showing she had comic timing to match her dramatic chops.

    Many felt “Toni Erdmann” was robbed of the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, but that was more that compensated in 2023.

    Her performance in “The Zone of Interest” was particularly disturbing as she took on the role of Hedwig Hoess, wife of Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Hoess.

    She told reporters in Cannes that she “felt a responsibility as a German” to play the role.

    “There was no real way to do it right,” she said. “It was never about being good at something or doing something extraordinary. It was so little to do with acting, but with presence, with listening, being respectful for those around us.”

    Sandra Huller poses for photographers upon arrival at the awards ceremony during the 76th international film festival, Cannes, May 27, 2023. (AP)

    Both films at the festival showcase Hueller’s “flinty intelligence, her emotional ferocity and her utter fearlessness,” wrote the Los Angeles Times, calling her the “queen of Cannes”.

    Hueller said the two directors were “completely different” in their approach.

    “But both are so focused on what they do,” she added. “Some directors are a bit manipulative… don’t give you all the information you need for a character, but with these two everything was on the table — what they wanted to achieve, what they wanted to tell.”

    Also known for her stage work, Hueller has collaborated frequently with renowned theatre director Thomas Ostermeier, trying her hand at everything from Shakespeare to avant-garde experimentalism.

    ALSO READ | 

    Japan’s Koji Yakusho wins best actor at Cannes for ‘Perfect Days’, an ode to a toilet cleaner

    Turkey’s Merve Dizdar wins best actress at Cannes for ‘About Dry Grasses’

  • ‘Protests over pension reforms in France repressed in shocking way’: ‘Palme’ winner Justine Triet

    The French director's debut “Age of Panic” was set around the presidential elections in France in 2012 and caused a sensation when it premiered at Cannes the following year. CANNES: French director Justine Triet hit a stridently militant note in her acceptance speech for the Palme d’Or on Saturday. Triet became the third woman to win the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday with her gripping and icy “Anatomy of a Fall”.

    “The country suffered from historic protests over the reform of the pension system. These protests were denied… repressed in a shocking way,” she said.

    She also criticised the “commercialisation of culture” by President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

    Her speech provoked a swift response from Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak, who said she was “gobsmacked” by Triet’s “unfair” comments.

    Victory for the tense courtroom drama about a writer accused of her husband’s murder capped a strong year for women directors at the French Riviera festival.

    “I have always made films about women and here, I went even further in the idea of showing a woman character who is not easy to understand in the first instance,” Triet told AFP ahead of Cannes.

    The 44-year-old follows two previous women winners of the prestigious Palme d’Or — Jane Campion for “The Piano” (1993) and Julia Ducournau for “Titane” (2021).

    Born on July 17, 1978, Triet grew up in Paris and studied arts in the French capital.

    “My mother had a fairly complex life, worked and raised three children, two of whom were not her own. My father was very absent”, she told AFP.

    She ditched her studies after a few years to devote herself to film and made her first documentary in 2007 about student protests that were taking place at the time.

    “Anatomy of a Fall” is her fourth feature.

    Le discours engagé de Justine Triet, réalisatrice de “Anatomie d’une chute”, au moment de recevoir la Palme d’Or de ce 76ème @Festival_Cannes.#Cannes2023 pic.twitter.com/yEQXaCIlrX
    — france.tv cinéma (@francetvcinema) May 27, 2023

    Her debut “Age of Panic” was set around the presidential elections in France in 2012 and caused a sensation when it premiered at Cannes the following year.

    Her next movie, the romcom “In Bed With Victoria” (2016) was nominated for multiple Cesars, France’s equivalent of the Oscars.

    Absolutely incredible moment when Jane Fonda, having awarded Justine Triet the Palme d’Or, rushes after her to hand her the traditional scroll that all winners receive, and, when Triet doesn’t hear her, simply… lobs it right at her. Weeping https://t.co/B7BFAP0jpJ
    — Caspar Salmon (@CasparSalmon) May 27, 2023

    Triet co-wrote her Palme-winning film with her partner Arthur Harari, an actor and director.

    “For a very long time when I watched films, I took myself for the boy, I identified with the male role”, she said, referring to the lack of options for women in the industry when she was young.

    “Anatomy of a Fall” features a show-stopping performance from German actress Sandra Hueller.

    Hueller also had a brief and comical role in Triet’s previous movie “Sibyl”, which competed at Cannes in 2019.

    “Everything that comes out of her is 100 percent strong,” Triet said of Hueller, who also starred in the runner-up at this year’s Cannes, Grand Prix-winner “The Zone of Interest”.

    “She is an actress who has a real point of view on her character, there is a real exchange.”

  • Shot in secrecy, Afghan film “Bread & Roses” on horrors faced by women gets Cannes premiere

    By PTI

    CANNES: Documentarian Sahra Mani’s “Bread & Roses”, produced by Jennifer Lawrence’s Excellent Cadaver, has brought to the Croisette the horrors that are being heaped upon women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

    “Bread & Roses”, which premiered in the Special Screenings section of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, pieces together stories of Afghan women fighting for freedom, education and employment at grave risk to their lives.

    “Bread & Roses” is composed of footage and videos shot in secrecy in Afghanistan, often by women themselves.

    “The primary purpose of my film,” says Mani, “is to amplify the voice of women activists in Afghanistan…We want to tell the world about their situation.”

    “As we set out to make the film, we searched for women who were happy to be in it. Many volunteered,” Mani recounts. “They are surviving against the odds. Life is tough but these women are incredibly brave,” she adds.

    The focus of “Bread & Roses” is on three women – two activists in Kabul, and one in a safe house in Pakistan.”They are now all out of Afghanistan but even those that have escaped to safety have someone or the other left behind in the country,” says Mani.

    ALSO READ: Martin Scorsese debuts ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ in Cannes to thunderous applause

    Mani had been filming in Kabul since 2012.

    In 2021, she was at the Venice Film Festival to pitch a film titled “Kabul Melody”, about Afghanistan’s only music school where boys and girls studied together. While she was there, Kabul fell to the Taliban and she could not return home.

    “My film cannot show even a fraction of what is going on in Afghanistan. I could capture only a small part of the reality,” she says, adding that it isn’t empathy that the women of Kabul are looking for.

    “I want the world to be in solidarity with them.”

    Lawrence was on the stage to present the film along with Mani and Dr Zahra Mohammadi, who features prominently in “Bread & Roses”.

    “Zahra represents all educated and gifted Afghan women, doctors and professionals who have been stopped from working and forced by a totalitarian regime to stay confined within their homes,” says Mani.

    Lawrence had seen Mani’s 2019 documentary, “A Thousand Girls Like Me”, at HotDocs Toronto. It was about a young Afghan woman seeking justice after having been sexually abused by her father for years. Impressed by the film, Lawrence came on board to produce “Bread & Roses” with Mani’s company, Afghan Doc Film House.

    The film was completed just ahead of the Cannes Film Festival.

    “We sent the link to the festival at the very last minute and explained why we were late. I was really happy when I learnt that the film had been accepted,” says Mani.

    CANNES: Documentarian Sahra Mani’s “Bread & Roses”, produced by Jennifer Lawrence’s Excellent Cadaver, has brought to the Croisette the horrors that are being heaped upon women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

    “Bread & Roses”, which premiered in the Special Screenings section of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, pieces together stories of Afghan women fighting for freedom, education and employment at grave risk to their lives.

    “Bread & Roses” is composed of footage and videos shot in secrecy in Afghanistan, often by women themselves.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    “The primary purpose of my film,” says Mani, “is to amplify the voice of women activists in Afghanistan…We want to tell the world about their situation.”

    “As we set out to make the film, we searched for women who were happy to be in it. Many volunteered,” Mani recounts. “They are surviving against the odds. Life is tough but these women are incredibly brave,” she adds.

    The focus of “Bread & Roses” is on three women – two activists in Kabul, and one in a safe house in Pakistan.”They are now all out of Afghanistan but even those that have escaped to safety have someone or the other left behind in the country,” says Mani.

    ALSO READ: Martin Scorsese debuts ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ in Cannes to thunderous applause

    Mani had been filming in Kabul since 2012.

    In 2021, she was at the Venice Film Festival to pitch a film titled “Kabul Melody”, about Afghanistan’s only music school where boys and girls studied together. While she was there, Kabul fell to the Taliban and she could not return home.

    “My film cannot show even a fraction of what is going on in Afghanistan. I could capture only a small part of the reality,” she says, adding that it isn’t empathy that the women of Kabul are looking for.

    “I want the world to be in solidarity with them.”

    Lawrence was on the stage to present the film along with Mani and Dr Zahra Mohammadi, who features prominently in “Bread & Roses”.

    “Zahra represents all educated and gifted Afghan women, doctors and professionals who have been stopped from working and forced by a totalitarian regime to stay confined within their homes,” says Mani.

    Lawrence had seen Mani’s 2019 documentary, “A Thousand Girls Like Me”, at HotDocs Toronto. It was about a young Afghan woman seeking justice after having been sexually abused by her father for years. Impressed by the film, Lawrence came on board to produce “Bread & Roses” with Mani’s company, Afghan Doc Film House.

    The film was completed just ahead of the Cannes Film Festival.

    “We sent the link to the festival at the very last minute and explained why we were late. I was really happy when I learnt that the film had been accepted,” says Mani.

  • Todd Haynes says he and Joaquin Phoenix are collaborating on period gay romance film

    By PTI

    CANNES: Director Todd Haynes, whose latest film “May December” received rave reviews at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, says he is collaborating with Joaquin Phoenix on a gay love story set in 1930s Los Angeles.

    The filmmaker said the script of his next film is based on some ideas pitched by “Joker” star Phoenix, who is credited as a story writer on the project alongside Haynes and Jon Raymond (“Mildred Pierce”).

    “The next film is a feature that’s an original script that I developed with Joaquin Phoenix based on some thoughts and ideas he brought to me,” Haynes said

    We basically wrote with him as a story writer.”Me and Jon Raymond and Joaquin share the story credit. And we hope to be shooting it beginning early next year.

    ALSO READ: Cannes 2023: ‘In the Rearview’ spotlights Ukrainians escaping war & Polish efforts to help them

    It’s a gay love story set in 1930s LA,” Haynes told entertainment website IndieWire during a conversation at the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival.

    The director said Phoenix was pushing him to “go further”. “This will be an NC-17 film,” he added.

    Haynes also said he has more features planned as well as “really exciting” episodic projects.

    “I’m going back to work with Kate Winslet with something she brought me for HBO,” he said.

    His latest is “May December”, starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman as a formerly scandalised teacher and the actress who connects with her as she prepares to play her in an independent film.

    CANNES: Director Todd Haynes, whose latest film “May December” received rave reviews at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, says he is collaborating with Joaquin Phoenix on a gay love story set in 1930s Los Angeles.

    The filmmaker said the script of his next film is based on some ideas pitched by “Joker” star Phoenix, who is credited as a story writer on the project alongside Haynes and Jon Raymond (“Mildred Pierce”).

    “The next film is a feature that’s an original script that I developed with Joaquin Phoenix based on some thoughts and ideas he brought to me,” Haynes saidgoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    We basically wrote with him as a story writer.”Me and Jon Raymond and Joaquin share the story credit. And we hope to be shooting it beginning early next year.

    ALSO READ: Cannes 2023: ‘In the Rearview’ spotlights Ukrainians escaping war & Polish efforts to help them

    It’s a gay love story set in 1930s LA,” Haynes told entertainment website IndieWire during a conversation at the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival.

    The director said Phoenix was pushing him to “go further”. “This will be an NC-17 film,” he added.

    Haynes also said he has more features planned as well as “really exciting” episodic projects.

    “I’m going back to work with Kate Winslet with something she brought me for HBO,” he said.

    His latest is “May December”, starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman as a formerly scandalised teacher and the actress who connects with her as she prepares to play her in an independent film.

  • Cannes 2023: ‘In the Rearview’ spotlights Ukrainians escaping war & Polish efforts to help them

    By Associated Press

    WARSAW: When Polish filmmaker Maciek Hamela first began evacuating Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war on their country, he wasn’t intending to make a film. He was one of the many Poles extending humanitarian aid to neighbors under attack, and had turned down an offer to film a television investigation there.

    But the reflections of the people he was transporting to safety in his van were so poignant that soon he began filming them. He asked a friend who is a director of photography to help him film — and drive — and directed his camera squarely back at his passengers as they traversed their war-scarred land.

    The result is “In the Rearview,” a documentary film being shown at the Cannes film festival in France as part of a parallel program devoted to independent cinema. It is not in competition.

    A Polish-French co-production, it takes place almost entirely in Hamela’s van, with the camera capturing the harrowed passengers, one group after another in countless journeys made between March and November of 2022.

    The result is a composite portrait of men, women and children traversing a devastated landscape of bombed-out buildings and past checkpoints with dangerous detours caused by mines and collapsed bridges and roads.

    The 84-minute film shows a little girl so traumatized that she stopped speaking. There is a Congolese woman who was so badly injured that she has undergone 18 operations since Hamela evacuated her. A mother with two kids who pass by the Dnieper River; believing it to be the sea, the kids ask their mother if she will take them there after the war.

    “The way we set up the film was to see the reflection of the war in these very small details of ordinary life and the life that we all have,” Hamela told The Associated Press in an interview in Warsaw before he flew to Cannes.

    There is also some humor, with one woman commenting ironically that she had always wanted to travel. A woman escaping with her cat saying it needed a bathroom break.

    The crew of the documentary ‘In the Rearview’, Maciek Hamela, from left, Kseniia Marchenko, Larysa Sosnovtseva, Yura Dunay, and Anna Palenchuk stand on a rug damaged by a bomb in the town of Lukashivka in Ukraine on the Boulevard de la Croisette during the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 21, 2023. (Photo | AP)

    In order not to exploit the people he was helping, Hamela told them a camera was in a car before he picked them up. And they only signed forms giving him permission to use the footage after they had arrived safely at their destinations so they would never feel that was a condition for his help.

    “In the Rearview” also documents one of the many Polish efforts to help Ukraine. When Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, there was a massive grassroots effort to help across Poland, with regular people taking time off work to travel to the border with Ukraine to distribute food. Some picked up strangers and took them to shelters or even into their own homes.

    Hamela began on day one to raise money for the Ukrainian army. By day three he had bought a van to transport Ukrainians from the Polish border and convinced his father to open his beloved summer home to strangers.

    Soon Hamela heard from a friend of people in eastern Ukraine needing to be rescued, and he began driving to the front lines of the war to pick them up. Some emerged from basements where they had been sheltering in terror.

    When the war began, Hamela had been working on a documentary about a crisis at Poland’s border with Belarus. Large numbers of migrants from the Middle East and Africa had been trying to cross that border in 2021. Poland and other European Union countries viewed that as an effort organized by Russia’s ally Belarus to destabilize Poland and other EU countries.

    Poland reacted by building a wall to stop the migrants, resulting in some dying in the forests and bogs of the area.

    The war in Ukraine led Hamela to drop that project, which was to have focused on the indifference in some Polish border communities to the plights of the migrants and refugees.

    Having observed both crises up close, he sees a connection.

    “This is my personal take on this, but I really think it was meant to antagonize Poles against all refugees in preparation for the war with Ukraine,” he said.

    Hamela, who is now 40, was also active in supporting Ukrainians involved in the pro-democracy Maidan Revolution of 2014, which led to Russia’s initial incursions into Ukraine.

    He says the world shown in his documentary could hardly be further from the glamorous world of Cannes, and he hopes it will remind people of how high the stakes are in Ukraine.

    “We’re trying to use this coverage to remind everybody that the war is still going on and lives need saving. And Ukraine is not going to win it without our help,” he said. “So that’s the ultimate task with this film.”

    WARSAW: When Polish filmmaker Maciek Hamela first began evacuating Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war on their country, he wasn’t intending to make a film. He was one of the many Poles extending humanitarian aid to neighbors under attack, and had turned down an offer to film a television investigation there.

    But the reflections of the people he was transporting to safety in his van were so poignant that soon he began filming them. He asked a friend who is a director of photography to help him film — and drive — and directed his camera squarely back at his passengers as they traversed their war-scarred land.

    The result is “In the Rearview,” a documentary film being shown at the Cannes film festival in France as part of a parallel program devoted to independent cinema. It is not in competition.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    A Polish-French co-production, it takes place almost entirely in Hamela’s van, with the camera capturing the harrowed passengers, one group after another in countless journeys made between March and November of 2022.

    The result is a composite portrait of men, women and children traversing a devastated landscape of bombed-out buildings and past checkpoints with dangerous detours caused by mines and collapsed bridges and roads.

    The 84-minute film shows a little girl so traumatized that she stopped speaking. There is a Congolese woman who was so badly injured that she has undergone 18 operations since Hamela evacuated her. A mother with two kids who pass by the Dnieper River; believing it to be the sea, the kids ask their mother if she will take them there after the war.

    “The way we set up the film was to see the reflection of the war in these very small details of ordinary life and the life that we all have,” Hamela told The Associated Press in an interview in Warsaw before he flew to Cannes.

    There is also some humor, with one woman commenting ironically that she had always wanted to travel. A woman escaping with her cat saying it needed a bathroom break.

    The crew of the documentary ‘In the Rearview’, Maciek Hamela, from left, Kseniia Marchenko, Larysa Sosnovtseva, Yura Dunay, and Anna Palenchuk stand on a rug damaged by a bomb in the town of Lukashivka in Ukraine on the Boulevard de la Croisette during the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 21, 2023. (Photo | AP)

    In order not to exploit the people he was helping, Hamela told them a camera was in a car before he picked them up. And they only signed forms giving him permission to use the footage after they had arrived safely at their destinations so they would never feel that was a condition for his help.

    “In the Rearview” also documents one of the many Polish efforts to help Ukraine. When Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, there was a massive grassroots effort to help across Poland, with regular people taking time off work to travel to the border with Ukraine to distribute food. Some picked up strangers and took them to shelters or even into their own homes.

    Hamela began on day one to raise money for the Ukrainian army. By day three he had bought a van to transport Ukrainians from the Polish border and convinced his father to open his beloved summer home to strangers.

    Soon Hamela heard from a friend of people in eastern Ukraine needing to be rescued, and he began driving to the front lines of the war to pick them up. Some emerged from basements where they had been sheltering in terror.

    When the war began, Hamela had been working on a documentary about a crisis at Poland’s border with Belarus. Large numbers of migrants from the Middle East and Africa had been trying to cross that border in 2021. Poland and other European Union countries viewed that as an effort organized by Russia’s ally Belarus to destabilize Poland and other EU countries.

    Poland reacted by building a wall to stop the migrants, resulting in some dying in the forests and bogs of the area.

    The war in Ukraine led Hamela to drop that project, which was to have focused on the indifference in some Polish border communities to the plights of the migrants and refugees.

    Having observed both crises up close, he sees a connection.

    “This is my personal take on this, but I really think it was meant to antagonize Poles against all refugees in preparation for the war with Ukraine,” he said.

    Hamela, who is now 40, was also active in supporting Ukrainians involved in the pro-democracy Maidan Revolution of 2014, which led to Russia’s initial incursions into Ukraine.

    He says the world shown in his documentary could hardly be further from the glamorous world of Cannes, and he hopes it will remind people of how high the stakes are in Ukraine.

    “We’re trying to use this coverage to remind everybody that the war is still going on and lives need saving. And Ukraine is not going to win it without our help,” he said. “So that’s the ultimate task with this film.”

  • Martin Scorsese debuts ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ in Cannes to thunderous applause

    By Associated Press

    CANNES: Martin Scorsese unveiled “Killers of the Flower Moon” at Cannes on Saturday, debuting a sweeping American epic about greed and exploitation on the bloody plains of an Osage Nation reservation in 1920s Oklahoma.

    Scorsese’s latest — starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro — is one of his most ambitious. Adapting David Grann’s nonfiction bestseller, it stretches nearly three and a half hours and cost Apple $200 million to make.

    Nothing has been more anticipated at this year’s Cannes Film Festival than “Killers of the Flower Moon” — a historical epic, a bitter crime film and a Great Plains Western — which appeared to meet those expectations. It drew a lengthy standing ovation and repeated cheers for Scorsese, 80, who premiered his first film at Cannes since 1985’s “After Hours.”

    “We shot this a couple of years ago in Oklahoma. It’s taken its time to come around but Apple did so great by us,” Scorsese said, addressing the crowd after the screening. “There was lots of grass. I’m a New Yorker.”

    The red carpet drew a wide spectrum of stars. Along with the film’s expansive cast, attendees included Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as actors Cate Blanchett, Salma Hayek, Paul Dano and Isabelle Huppert.

    William Belleau, from left, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tantoo Cardinal, director Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Cara Jade Myers, Lily Gladstone, and Jillian Dion at the premiere of the film ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ at Cannes. (Photo | AP)

    Though Grann’s book affords many possible inroads to the story, Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth center their story on Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio, in his seventh collaboration with Scorsese), a WWI veteran who falls for Mollie Brown (Gladstone), the member of a wealthy Osage family.

    Since finding oil reserves on their land, the Osage were then the richest people per capita in the country. But that wealth is closely controlled by appointed white guardians. A series of murders prompts increased panic among the Osage, who are preyed on by a host of greedy killers.

    Though Grann’s book devoted many pages to the connections between the cases and the birth of the FBI, less time is spent in Scorsese’s film on the murder investigations. (Jesse Plemons plays an agent from the just-formed Bureau.) Instead, “Killers of the Flower Moon” captures the manipulation and murders of Native American people through the dynamics in Ernest and Mollie’s relationship.

    “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which is playing out of competition in Cannes, opens in U.S. theaters on Oct. 6.

    CANNES: Martin Scorsese unveiled “Killers of the Flower Moon” at Cannes on Saturday, debuting a sweeping American epic about greed and exploitation on the bloody plains of an Osage Nation reservation in 1920s Oklahoma.

    Scorsese’s latest — starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro — is one of his most ambitious. Adapting David Grann’s nonfiction bestseller, it stretches nearly three and a half hours and cost Apple $200 million to make.

    Nothing has been more anticipated at this year’s Cannes Film Festival than “Killers of the Flower Moon” — a historical epic, a bitter crime film and a Great Plains Western — which appeared to meet those expectations. It drew a lengthy standing ovation and repeated cheers for Scorsese, 80, who premiered his first film at Cannes since 1985’s “After Hours.”googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    “We shot this a couple of years ago in Oklahoma. It’s taken its time to come around but Apple did so great by us,” Scorsese said, addressing the crowd after the screening. “There was lots of grass. I’m a New Yorker.”

    The red carpet drew a wide spectrum of stars. Along with the film’s expansive cast, attendees included Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as actors Cate Blanchett, Salma Hayek, Paul Dano and Isabelle Huppert.

    William Belleau, from left, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tantoo Cardinal, director Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Cara Jade Myers, Lily Gladstone, and Jillian Dion at the premiere of the film ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ at Cannes. (Photo | AP)

    Though Grann’s book affords many possible inroads to the story, Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth center their story on Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio, in his seventh collaboration with Scorsese), a WWI veteran who falls for Mollie Brown (Gladstone), the member of a wealthy Osage family.

    Since finding oil reserves on their land, the Osage were then the richest people per capita in the country. But that wealth is closely controlled by appointed white guardians. A series of murders prompts increased panic among the Osage, who are preyed on by a host of greedy killers.

    Though Grann’s book devoted many pages to the connections between the cases and the birth of the FBI, less time is spent in Scorsese’s film on the murder investigations. (Jesse Plemons plays an agent from the just-formed Bureau.) Instead, “Killers of the Flower Moon” captures the manipulation and murders of Native American people through the dynamics in Ernest and Mollie’s relationship.

    “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which is playing out of competition in Cannes, opens in U.S. theaters on Oct. 6.

  • Harrison Ford officially retires Indiana Jones, a role he’s essayed for 40 yrs

    By IANS

    CANNES: Hollywood star Harrison Ford is officially ready to retire his ‘Indiana Jones’ character — the swashbuckling, fedora-wearing adventurer — a legendary role he has inhabited in five films across 40 years, reports ‘Variety’.

    “Is it not evident?” the 80-year-old actor joked at the Cannes Film Festival’s Friday press conference for the action-adventure. “I need to sit down and rest a little bit.”

    In returning to the character for one last time, adds ‘Variety’, Ford expressed a desire to see “a completion of the five films”. He added: “I wanted to see the weight of life on him. I wanted to see him require reinvention. I wanted him to have a relationship that wasn’t a flirty movie relationship.”

    ALSO READ: ‘Indiana Jones’ swings into Cannes Film Festival; Harrison Ford honored before joyous festivalgoers

    Director James Mangold’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ isn’t playing in competition, but it’s one of the buzziest premieres at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It marks Ford’s return to the festival for the first time since the fourth chapter, ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ (2008), notes ‘Variety’.

    ‘Dial of Destiny’ premiered on Thursday night at the Palais, where, according to ‘Variety’, Ford was greeted with a movie star welcome, with thousands of fans screaming his name and the audience inside the theatre showering him with applause.

    He also received a tribute award to celebrate his lengthy Hollywood career, ranging from blockbusters such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’ to ‘The Fugitive’ and ‘Witness’.

    “It’s indescribable. I felt … I can’t even tell you,” an emotional Ford said while reflecting on the prior night. “It’s just extraordinary to see a relic of your life as it passes by. With the warmth of this place and sense of community, the welcome is unimaginable. It makes me feel good.”

    CANNES: Hollywood star Harrison Ford is officially ready to retire his ‘Indiana Jones’ character — the swashbuckling, fedora-wearing adventurer — a legendary role he has inhabited in five films across 40 years, reports ‘Variety’.

    “Is it not evident?” the 80-year-old actor joked at the Cannes Film Festival’s Friday press conference for the action-adventure. “I need to sit down and rest a little bit.”

    In returning to the character for one last time, adds ‘Variety’, Ford expressed a desire to see “a completion of the five films”. He added: “I wanted to see the weight of life on him. I wanted to see him require reinvention. I wanted him to have a relationship that wasn’t a flirty movie relationship.”googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    ALSO READ: ‘Indiana Jones’ swings into Cannes Film Festival; Harrison Ford honored before joyous festivalgoers

    Director James Mangold’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ isn’t playing in competition, but it’s one of the buzziest premieres at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It marks Ford’s return to the festival for the first time since the fourth chapter, ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ (2008), notes ‘Variety’.

    ‘Dial of Destiny’ premiered on Thursday night at the Palais, where, according to ‘Variety’, Ford was greeted with a movie star welcome, with thousands of fans screaming his name and the audience inside the theatre showering him with applause.

    He also received a tribute award to celebrate his lengthy Hollywood career, ranging from blockbusters such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’ to ‘The Fugitive’ and ‘Witness’.

    “It’s indescribable. I felt … I can’t even tell you,” an emotional Ford said while reflecting on the prior night. “It’s just extraordinary to see a relic of your life as it passes by. With the warmth of this place and sense of community, the welcome is unimaginable. It makes me feel good.”

  • ‘Indiana Jones’ swings into Cannes Film Festival; Harrison Ford honored before joyous festivalgoers

    By Associated Press

    CANNES: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford swung into Cannes on Thursday for the world premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” in one of the most anticipated events of the French Riviera festival.

    Fedoras abounded in the throngs of onlookers who watched Ford and company hit the red carpet.

    Ford walked hand in hand with his wife, Calista Flockhart, and later joined his cast mates as John Williams’ score played across the red carpet. Among those in attendance were Disney chief Bob Iger, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and filmmaker Steve McQueen.

    Ford, 80, who has said “Dial of Destiny” will be his last performance as the character, also received an honorary Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival. Last year, Cannes feted “Top Gun Maverick” and Tom Cruise in a similar manner.

    Inside the theater, Ford was greeted with thunderous applause. He beamed and looked around the theater before receiving the honorary Palme.

    This image released by Lucasfilm shows Harrison Ford in a scene from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (Photo | AP)

    “I’m very touched. I’m very moved by this. They say when you’re about to die, you, you see your life flash before your eyes. I just saw my life flash before my eyes,” Ford said after a clip reel of his career was played.

    “A great part of my life, not all of my life,” Ford continued, thanking Flockhart as well as “Dial of Destiny” director James Mangold and co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.It’s not the first “Indiana Jones” film to premiere in Cannes. The fourth installment, “Indiana and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” launched at the 2008 edition of the festival. Critics and fans alike dismissed “Crystal Skull” as a misjudged sequel, though it still made $790 million worldwide.

    This time, “Dial of Destiny” is hoping to make a similar if not larger global impact without its famous filmmakers. The new film, which the Walt Disney Co. will release June 30 in the U.S., is the first “Indiana” film not directed by Steven Spielberg or with a story credit to George Lucas. Instead, Mangold (“Ford vs. Ferrari,” “Logan”) takes the reins for a film co-starring Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas and Mads Mikkelsen.

    CANNES: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford swung into Cannes on Thursday for the world premiere of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” in one of the most anticipated events of the French Riviera festival.

    Fedoras abounded in the throngs of onlookers who watched Ford and company hit the red carpet.

    Ford walked hand in hand with his wife, Calista Flockhart, and later joined his cast mates as John Williams’ score played across the red carpet. Among those in attendance were Disney chief Bob Iger, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and filmmaker Steve McQueen.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Ford, 80, who has said “Dial of Destiny” will be his last performance as the character, also received an honorary Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival. Last year, Cannes feted “Top Gun Maverick” and Tom Cruise in a similar manner.

    Inside the theater, Ford was greeted with thunderous applause. He beamed and looked around the theater before receiving the honorary Palme.

    This image released by Lucasfilm shows Harrison Ford in a scene from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” (Photo | AP)

    “I’m very touched. I’m very moved by this. They say when you’re about to die, you, you see your life flash before your eyes. I just saw my life flash before my eyes,” Ford said after a clip reel of his career was played.

    “A great part of my life, not all of my life,” Ford continued, thanking Flockhart as well as “Dial of Destiny” director James Mangold and co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
    It’s not the first “Indiana Jones” film to premiere in Cannes. The fourth installment, “Indiana and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” launched at the 2008 edition of the festival. Critics and fans alike dismissed “Crystal Skull” as a misjudged sequel, though it still made $790 million worldwide.

    This time, “Dial of Destiny” is hoping to make a similar if not larger global impact without its famous filmmakers. The new film, which the Walt Disney Co. will release June 30 in the U.S., is the first “Indiana” film not directed by Steven Spielberg or with a story credit to George Lucas. Instead, Mangold (“Ford vs. Ferrari,” “Logan”) takes the reins for a film co-starring Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas and Mads Mikkelsen.