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We Wuz Robbed! Winners and Losers at Cannes
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Features
- Published on Monday, 26 May 2014 19:50
- Written by Marian Masone
After twelve days in the not-so-warm breezes of Cannes, the awards are finally given out, which always leads to much opinionating on the part of observers. Who is right? The jury, who have been wheeling and dealing (so to speak) behind closed doors? Or the rest of us, who have very strong opinions that don’t stay hidden. The competition jury president was filmmaker Jane Campion and her fellow jurors included actors Carole Bouquet, Leila Hatami, Jeon Do-Yeon, Willem DaFoe, Gael Garcia Bernal and writer/directors Sofia Coppola, Jia Zhangke and Nicolas Winding Refn.
The Camera d’Or is given out for the best first feature film and is selected from debuts in all the sections of the festival. It even has its own jury, made up of French actors, directors, cinematographers, critics and led by actor/director Nicole Garcia. This year the prize went to “Party Girl,” a French film that opened the Un Certain Regard section and was directed by a triad of first timers: Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis. Refreshingly the main character is a 60-year-old woman – rare for young filmmakers – maybe that’s what intrigued the jury. While another first feature, “The Tribe” swept the Critics’ Week awards (the section that presented the film), I would have chosen “Next to Her,” a wrenching drama of love and loyalty by Israeli director Asaf Korman.
Back to the feature awards. The jury doesn’t always give out the same amount of prizes. For instance, awards have been given for cinematography but not so this year. If the jury doesn’t find something worthy of the award, it won’t be given out – although that only happens with the more technical awards. And you’re not likely to see one film sweep the prizes; there’s a lot of sharing going on, by unofficial decree, it would seem.
And share they did: Eight awards were given out to eight different films. Bennett Miller took the Best Director prize for “Foxcatcher.” Not a bad choice, but I though Mike Leigh’s direction of “Mr. Turner” was perfection. I would have gone in that direction. But “Mr. Turner” wasn’t forgotten: Timothy Spall received Best Actor accolades and I cannot disagree. Spall’s turn as a feral-like creature who churned out beautiful works of art was one of the highlights of the festival.
Julianne Moore was given the Best Actress award for her work in “Maps to the Stars.” She is always a pleasure to watch and her work in David Cronenberg’s film is by turns funny, sad and a bit creepy. But I would have been happy to see Anne Dorval singled out for her role as a mother at the end of her rope in Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy.” Maybe Juliette Binoche – or Kristen Stewart – in the Olivier Assayas drama “Clouds of Sils Maria.” Just a thought.
Assayas himself most certainly was a contender for the Best Screenplay prize with his story of an actress of a certain age (Binoche) who is forced to see herself past present and future by way of two younger women (Stewart and Chole Grace Moretz), but that honor went to Russian writer/director Andrey Zvyagintsev for his incisive yet funny – and politically dangerous – script for “Leviathan.”
Jury prizes and the Grand Prix are usually seen as recognition for runners-up, and it’s not a terrible idea. I, for one, am not captivated by the idea that one film (or anything, for that matter) is the absolute best. However, the idea of a Cannes with no prizes is not exactly sweeping the nation (France or the U.S.) So spread the wealth. Just make sure it doesn’t approach kids’ sport teams, where every member of every team – win or lose – takes home a trophy!
Two jury prizes were given out. One to the oldest filmmaker in the competition: Jean-Luc Godard, for his extravagant 3D think piece “Goodbye to Language” and one to the youngest: Xavier Dolan for “Mommy,” wherein he continues to mine his own (I’m sure) mother issues, to great effect. Godard, naturally, was not on the premises, but Dolan gave a wonderfully heartfelt acceptance. Also grateful was Alice Rohrwacher, who won the Grand Prize for her second feature “The Wonders.” And she had to give her acceptance speech with Sophia Loren looming large onstage beside her!
Finally, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s three hour plus opus “Winter Sleep” won the Palme d’or, the top prize. In 2011 his film “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” won the jury grand prize, so he has worked his way to the top of the festival award food chain. I would submit that his previous film should have received the Palme d’or, but this film is worthy also.
However, a film that received no love at the awards and is, in my book, the best film of the festival, was “Timbuktu,” Abderrahmane Sissako’s stinging portrait of a community stuck in the grip of Islamic fundamentalists. Beautifully shot (there’s your cinematography prize) and acted (though I fear no one in this ensemble will win an acting prize as they are not well known at all), this film moved me as no film has in a very long time.
Was he “robbed” of a prize? Maybe. But prizes are just gifts – pretty certificates or trophies. What will count down the road is the impact any of these films make on screens around the world. Let’s hope they all make that journey.
Coming Up on the Croisette
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Features
- Published on Monday, 05 May 2014 12:14
- Written by Marian Masone
Mr. Turner
As soon as the competition lineup is announced for the Cannes film festival, the handicapping begins: Who will win the top prize (Palme d’or); who are contenders for the acting awards; what first feature film will win the coveted Camera d’or? In addition to the above mentioned honors and acting, writing, directing and technical trophies, the jury can hand out its own prizes, which is a way of honoring films that may have missed out on a larger prize, although more often it seems a way for all jury members to show their favorites some love.
Debate at this point seems premature: There are ten days between Opening and Closing nights and a lot can happen. But a look at some of the repeat visitors on the Croisette is a more interesting concept. Who are making return trips to Cannes?
The most anticipated film for this writer is “Mr. Turner,” Mike Leigh’s film about the life of 19th century English painter J.M.W. Turner. Leigh won the Palme d’or in 1996 for “Secrets and Lies” and is equally at home with his salt of the earth characters as he is with historical (and artistic) figures. Nuri Bilge Ceylan is a great storyteller, so “Winter Sleep” is high on the must-see list. His last Cannes entry, “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” won the grand prize at the festival in 2011.
Actor Tommy Lee Jones is in the competition as a director with “The Homesman,” which he also stars in alongside Hilary Swank. This is Jones’ second theatrical feature as a director; his first film, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,” also premiered in the Cannes competition in 2005: The film won a screenplay award and Jones walked away with the best actor prize.
Alice Rohrwacher is in the competition with her second feature, “The Wonders.” Her first feature, “Corpo Celeste” premiered in the Directors Fortnight section of Cannes. She is an intriguing filmmaker; let’s see what she does next. David Cronenberg makes another trip to Cannes with his “Map to the Stars.” In 1996 he was awarded a Special Jury Prize for his film “Crash.”
Any film by the Dardennes brothers is worth a look and Marion Cotillard, who has the lead in “Two Days, One Night” may be the highest profile star ever to appear in their films. They have had numerous films in the competition at Cannes, and their films have garnered many awards, including the top prize two times (“Rosetta” in 1999 and “L’Enfant” in 2005). Jean Luc Godard is in Cannes again (no surprise), this time with a 3D film, “Goodbye to Language.” His films are always controversial, but for that reason they are also required viewing.
Xavier Dolan is young and prolific. At 25, he’s in the competition (finally!) with “Mommy,” his fifth feature in five years. He made his Cannes debut with a Directors Fortnight screening of “I Killed My Mother” and moved up to the Un Certain Regard section two years ago with “Laurence Anyways.” Ken Loach shows up again, with a historical piece, “Jimmy’s Hall.” He won the 2006 Palme for “The Wind that Shakes the Barley.”
Naomi Kawase has made a number of trips to the festival. “Suzaku” won the camera d’or for first feature in 1997. Ten years later her film “The Mourning Forest” won the jury’s grand prize. This year she’s in the competition with her latest film “Still the Water.” Cannes veteran Michel Hazanavicius is back with “The Search” – “The Artist” garnered an acting award at the festival before the rest of the hardware (including a couple of Oscars™).
Canadian Atom Egoyan won the Grand Prize in 1997 for “The Sweet Hereafter.” This year he’s back with “Captive.” Olivier Assayas had a few trips up the red carpet with films in the competition. “Clean” won acting honors for Maggie Cheung in 2004. Now he’s back with “Sils Maria,” with Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart.
Bertrand Bonello has been to Cannes before, both in the competition (with “House of Tolerance” in 2011) and elsewhere (his film “The Pornographer” won a prize at Critics Week in 2001). This year he arrives with “Saint Laurent,” another take on the famed designer.
“Waiting for Happiness,” by Abderrahmane Sissako, was honored by international film critics when it screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2002. His new film “Timbuktu” will screen in the competition this year. And Andrey Szyagintsev, whose film “Elena” won a special jury prize in Un Certain Regard in 2011, now has “Leviathan” in the competition.
This illustrious group will be joined by Bennett Miller, with “Foxcatcher,” and Damian Szifron, with “Wild Tales.” Both are making their first appearance at the festival, but each has a healthy body of work behind them already. More will come for most of these filmmakers, as their films unspool in the Lumiere Theater. The fun is just beginning.
Artist Brings Cannes Alive on Ink
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Features
- Published on Sunday, 15 December 2013 10:32
- Written by Marian Masone
In addition to the more than 80 feature films (a very loose count) in the various sections –Compétition, Un Certain Regard, Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, Semaine de la Critique, and those films that, for various reasons, show up out of competition, there’s a world of media and images at the Festival de Cannes. From press kit photos to the paparazzi pix and shots from the red carpet, there’s an official photograph overload. But go to the festival’s website and look for a section titled Hors-champ and you will find, among a selection of shots of festival preparation – the streets of Cannes before opening night, and some great candid photos taken by M. Gilles Jacob - a wonderful series of line drawings (“trait continu”) signed by the artist Dgé Paris (Geraldine Goldenstern Demey), who has drawn a veritable picture-book story of off-camera moments in and around the festival. After the festival ended, we met in Paris to talk about her style, her art, and how she came to tell the “off-camera” story of the festival.
She’s a self-taught artist whose work also includes sculptural pieces. And even before Cannes, she was showing her work in the Muriel Guépin Gallery in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood. (The gallery has since relocated to Manhattan) Now that Brooklyn is the hippest place in the universe, one could say she was well ahead of the trend! She has also worked in the theater – one of her first jobs in France was as an assistant for a stage director. It was there (trying to figure out a way to present weekly reports) that she began to hone her sketching style. She found that theater is linked to cinema, especially in the way the teams work: very intense work, very focused – working for concentrated period of time with a new family, of sorts.
And it is in cinema where she does much of her work now – mostly as a script consultant, although she works for the Festival de Cannes for a few months a year. And so it was that she “drew” the festival – on her lunch hour, in the evenings. While we call her work line drawings, she has a spontaneous style that is almost like poetry: She does not look at her paper or her pen, but at the scene before her, that she wants to describe. And since she is also a writer (she has written poems and short stories), she creates poetic descriptions for each drawing. Although each illustration is accompanied by text, the pictures by themselves form a sort of narrative of their own. These fabulous festival drawings – of a press conference, of a security guard, of an old section of Cannes, away from the glitz of the Croisette – also create a diary; one drawing for each day of the festival.
Of course, she does more than these beautiful pen and ink drawings, some of which adorn this posting. To see more of her black and white sketches, as well as color drawings and sculptures, go to her Facebook wall (Dgé Paris), or click on these links:
http://diablosantiag.free.fr/encres
http://diablosantiag.free.fr/sculptures
http://diablosantiag.free.fr/aumuseelorsait
Geraldine loves cinema. She loves to draw. And she loves to write. And in a corner of a website, she is able to combine all of her passions – and take us out of the frantic pace of the festival in the process.
Digital vs. Film: NYFF 51 Filmmakers Continue the Conversation
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Features
- Published on Monday, 21 October 2013 09:38
- Written by H. Nazan ışık
At almost every film festival or film-related event I attend, I still hear the same question: digital or film? In this regard, New York Film Festival 2013 wasn’t different, and a number of the filmmakers at the NYFF 51 talked about their films, which medium they preferred and why.
Now with the upcoming PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo 2013 — North America’s largest photography and imaging show introducing new products (October 23-26, 2013 at the Jacob Javits Center) — right around the corner, here are several opinions addressing this issue:
Director James Gray ("The Immigrant")
Director James Gray’s film The Immigrant takes audiences to 1920s New York as people are making the voyage to the United States in hopes of starting a new life. Among the immigrants landing at Ellis Island is a young Polish woman, Ewa (Marion Cotillard), joined by her ailing sister. Things turn unexpectedly bleak when their aunt and uncle don’t show up to meet them. Ewa's sister is quarantined because she is infected with tuberculosis. Then Ewa herself is blocked from entry and is threatened with deportation as a “wayward woman.” Into this Gray zone steps Bruno Weiss (Joaquin Phoenix), who, through his connections, gets her released under his protection. Whether this turns out to be good or bad is revealed during the film.
At the press conference held a few days before The Immigrant's premiere, Gray responded to the issue of shooting with digital or film cameras.
As excerpted below, Gray described his point of view:
The decision about [using] digital or film is going to be made for us. Film is going to be gone. Although I think it may make a comeback, it will be like vinyl record, or something.
This movie was shot on 35 mm film, but what cinematographer Darius Khandji, (Se7en, Midnight in Paris, Amour) and I did was test [shooting it] on Alexa, Red, Kodak, and Fuji. Fuji doesn’t make any film any more, by the way. To my mind Kodak looked incredible. But I think [the success of digital] is in the power of what is new. That is in some ways damaging.
Let’s say everybody shot in digital; the whole world used only digital. All of a sudden I came out with a new product and said, “Well, this thing, it doesn’t see in pixels; it sees in grain, which is more like your eyes see. It has better contrast ratio than digital. It has better representation of color than digital and the blacks are better.
Everyone would be like, “Wow, this new thing, film, I am going to change to it.” I don’t understand why everyone wants to migrate to a new medium. That is, in my mind, objectively worst. And it is not even cheaper.
Now, there are some advantages. I think it comes from cinematographers being fearful. What happens is that on digital you can see everything you are getting from the monitor. So, there is no night of terror [waiting to see the rushes the next morning].
I remember when we shot in the sewer system where Joaquin and Marion have been chased by the police, and Darius said, “I did all that but I don’t know what you are going to see.” You can tell [he had a] sleepless night worrying about the lab, the image on the negative and all that. But when the audience sees the movie it doesn’t care about the sleepless night you had."
Two other NYFF directors who discussed the digital vs. film issue were the co-directors of Manakamana -- Stephanie Spray and Pacho Veles. This film details the travels of pilgrims and tourists who go to see the Manakamana Temple in Nepal. Shot in a cable car that carries them back and forth from the Temple, the film was done on film.
Explained co-director Veles:
The film was shot on 16 mm. We both felt the film is beautiful and we had the budget to afford it. There are advantages that film has over video. Film has a very wide latitude, a bigger range. We were dealing with dark skin in shadows and bright backgrounds. So film let us expose both the characters and these backgrounds. Also 16 mm film has a very rich depth of field to it. We were able to have the characters in focus as well as the backgrounds.
Added co-director Spray:
I’ll talk about the conceptual interest. The length of the trip and the roll of the film were the same. There was a correspondence between the media and the duration of the trip. They were all 11-minute takes.
Another noted director was Jim Jarmusch, whose vampire genre film Only Lovers Left Alive is a love story between the undead Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and his Eve (Tilda Swinton); it was shot digitally.
Director Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive):
Jarmusch, who has made all of his previous movies on film, explained his decision: This was the first time I worked with digital photography. We used this camera, the Alexa, which was eeeehhh…
I don’t like digital for several reasons, the depth of field, which is very deep; I don’t like [how it handles] the exterior daylight and it’s effect on skin tones. How it looks was not appealing to me.
But [these issues] weren’t problems [for us]. We didn’t have any exterior daylight shots since we were shooting interiors with very low light. We were lighting the scenes with light bulbs and these little LED square lights, and it was very, very minimal.
We didn’t have any depth of field problem. So, the photography here, I found it very beautiful -- lit very delicately because of the small lamps.
NYFF51 showcased work shot in both film and digital. No doubt the format debate voiced at the Festival will continue both for filmmakers and still photographers alike.
