It's Lisa Taylor, practically frothing at the mouth now, just over 24 hours b efore take off from DFW to Nice, France, where I'll board a shuttle with other press from around the world to bring the news and events from the
Cannes Film Festival 2012. Be sure to check back here often for mylive reports and watch for reports from Cannes on GOOD MORNING TEXAS. Cannes Live Reports brought to you by th main Event and Metro PCS. Why Cannes is still king
It is famous for its A-list stars and champagne-soaked soirées, but Cannes remains the cinephile’s festival of choice.
The Cannes film Festival kicks off on Wednesday and the perennial question arises: what’s it really about? Is it the stars, the frocks, the red carpet, or even – and here’s a radical thought – the films themselves?
We already know the paparazzi will be kept busy, with Brad Pitt, Sharon Stone, Bill Murray and Marion Cotillard all likely to attend. There’ll be glamour, gossip, mild hysteria and acres of bare tanned flesh. But it’s a fair bet the films at Cannes will prove every bit as interesting.
One often feels the organisers of Cannes can’t win. Each year they select a score of films to contend for the prestigious Palme d’Or – and each year commentators find reason to fault their judgment.
The root of controversy usually lies in the proportion of English-language films (especially American productions) in competition. If there are too many, we can expect sniping about Cannes selling its soul to Hollywood by inviting a glut of American stars to the Croisette to promote their movies.
If too many English-language films are overlooked, the argument flips. Cue widespread moaning that the selection is too “obscure”. It happened in 2010 when Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the Palme d’Or with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. And it wasn’t just American journalists doing the sniping.
This year’s selection, at first glance, is impeccably balanced in this regard. Out of 22 contenders, eight films are English language. And that doesn’t just mean American. Britain’s veteran Ken Loach is in the pack with The Angels’ Share, John Hillcoat (Lawless) is Australian and Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly) is from New Zealand. And while the long-awaited adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is, naturally, in English, it comes from the great Brazilian director Walter Salles.
But the entries from the non-anglophone world are impressively varied. Apart from Loach, three other former Palme d’Or winners will display their new work: Romania’s Cristian Mungiu (Beyond the Hills), Iranian Abbas Kiarostami (Like Someone in Love) and Austria’s Michael Haneke (Amour). Mexico’s Carlos Reygadas, a 2007 contender with Silent Light, returns with Post Tenebras Lux.
Italian director Matteo Garrone, who made the brilliant Neapolitan crime drama Gomorrah, has a new film, Reality, in competition. So does Dane Thomas Vinterberg, a founder of the Dogme 95 movement. There are also films from Egypt (Yousry Nasrallah’s After the Battle), Ukraine (Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog) and two from South Korea: Hong Sang-soo’s In Another Country and Im Sang-soo’s The Taste of Money.
What more could any lover of world cinema reasonably wish for?
TOP FIVE COMPETITION
1 Moonrise Kingdom
(This is the Film that will open the Cannes Festival this year with it's screening Wednesday evening. I will be interviewing it's Director, Wes Anderson, and it's stars. Look for more videos and pictures on the Lisa Taylor page here on 995thewolf.com, as well as more information after meeting them!)
The opener. Wes Anderson’s latest sounds like a charming fairy tale: a young couple flee from their small New England town, prompting the formation of a search party. Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and Tilda Swinton head the star-strewn cast.
2. Rust and Bone
French director Jacques Audiard’s magnificent prison drama A Prophet put him firmly on the global film map: this time, Marion Cotillard plays a trainer of killer whales in an aquatic park who befriends a penniless single father with a young son.
3. Killing Them Softly
Director Andrew Dominik won plenty of admirers (if not awards or huge audiences) for his stylish biopic The Assassination of Jesse James, starring Brad Pitt. He reunites with Pitt, playing a gun-toting enforcer hired by the Mob after a heist in a high-stakes card game.
4. Cosmopolis
No film by David Cronenberg is dull, and this one packs promise: Robert Pattinson plays a young money-markets mogul, cruising Manhattan in a stretch limo, trying to hold his life together. Also starring Juliette Binoche.
5. On the Road
Salles finally does what no one else has managed in 40 years: to bring Jack Kerouac’s Beat classic to the screen. Starring roles go to young, promising Sam Riley (Control) and Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) who burn rubber along the highways of America, looking for kicks.
