Home and (not so) dry
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
So I’ve arrived back in London and preparation begins for a job I’m starting tomorrow… The rain is on and off and the good weather of Cannes seems a million miles away after the ordeal of yesterday’s journey.
After a frankly horrible TGV ride in which I was verbally abused and threatened by a very angry English hating man (despite that I’m half welsh), I ended up having to stay in a hotel in Paris, as the Eurostar had finished. So I’ve an insurance claim to put in too.
This evening will be spent following up all the wonderful contacts I made in Cannes. Which is what it was really all about – fun as all those premieres and parties were!
Gwyn.
Tags: Cannes, London, Work
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Cannes. S*** I’m still only in Cannes
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Right about now I should be crossing Paris, on my way home to sleep and start preparing for an upcoming job.
Those who follow me on twitter know that I’m still in Cannes due to a rail strike. Not really sure where I’ll end up tonight but I have to try and board the 5pm train. Along with everyone else. I suspect with my bags that won’t be possible, but for the same reason a flight from Nice is also a bad idea.
No matter. I love adventure. Just not so much at the end of a trip after waking at 5am to pack the tent.
Oh and it’s raining here again…
Gwyn.
Tags: Cannes
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Last day in France
Monday, May 25th, 2009
So… It’s all over. Today I spent my birthday chilling out on the lovely island of Saint Margeurite just off the coast of Cannes.
The quiet reflection the place afforded was seriously welcome – going straight back to the London smoke after the insanity that is ‘Festival De Cannes’ would be madness for a simple country boy like myself.
Joking apart, I’ve had a truly fabulous time and when I arrive home tomorrow I’ll be replying to all those of you who’ve emailed in the last few days and hassling everyone else I met with some emails of my own. I would reply sooner but making my iPhone battery last is a mission and a half (it’s plugged in while I write this).
So the last day of the competition on Saturday, I saw the film ‘Map of the sounds of Tokyo’. To be honest, I was pretty disappointed as it was meant to focus on the friendship between a sound engineer and a hitwoman. From the title I’d hoped that the engineer’s obsessive recording of every sound would somehow connect to the hitwoman’s story but it never did and the film quickly descended into an account of the sexual relationship between the hitwoman and her target. Then the sound engineer was all but forgotten…
Last night the awards were announced. As I mentioned before I was fairly nonplussed by Haneke’s ‘Das Weisse Band’ so wasn’t overjoyed when it won the Palme d’Or. Of course the film has it’s merits so I’ll have to respect the jury on that one! More pleasing was the Jury prize. I didn’t see ‘Thirst’ which shared it with Andrea Arnold’s ‘Fish Tank’ but for the latter it was certainly well deserved.
The awards for best actress and actor going to Charlotte Gainsbourg for ‘Antichrist’ and the German guy in ‘Inglourious Basterds’ also couldn’t have been more spot on.
I’m disappointed that Elia Suleiman didn’t get a nod but perhaps he’s too quirky. Suffice to say – at the premiere the reaction was a lot better than that of ‘Das Weisse Band’ although it’s hard to tell with Cannes audiences as they seem to walk out of anything. Probably for a party they’ve just been texted about. Did I mention a lot of folk don’t bother switching off their phones?!
Last night’s screening of ‘Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky’ – the closing film of the festival was particularly bad for that. This said, whilst I really enjoyed it, it seemed to focus much more about Stravinsky than Chanel, which may have been too much for those unfamiliar with his work (let’s be honest here – who’s the bigger household name?). It was also quite slow and long – which at an 11pm screening makes it hard to stay awake. I’m looking forward to watching it again when I’m feeling fresher.
So. I’m going to change and head out for dinner and drinks now – it won’t be a late one though. I have a TGV to catch early in the morning and a tent to pack before that!
See you all soon.
Gwyn.
Tags: Cannes, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Coco Chanel, Haneke, Igor Stravinsky, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, Palme d'Or
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Flash Mobs, Imaginariums and not much time remaining
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
I’m sitting here at the Camping Parc Bellvue watching a group of young campers dancing behind their van in the middle of the street. Wearing noise cancelling headphones as I listen to Arve Henriksson makes this a most perculiar sight… But lovely nonetheless.
Since my last blog I’ve been to see three premieres. The last of which was so good I went again today.
First up was Michael Haneke’s ‘Das Weisse Band’. An ambitious film chronicling the perculiar events that took place in a small German village just before WW1 the film is visually stunning in it’s monochromatic bleakness and formality, but for me, having not drunk any Espresso
prior to the screening, was a very difficult film on which to concentrate.
It seemed quite clear to both the audience and the films protagonist, a young schoolteacher, that the children in the village are behind a significant number of atrocities that occur, but this notion is stamped out by the authoritative vicar before they can be investigated. The lack of any solution or payoff, to what is initally set up as a mystery, is after 2h40 really rather frustrating.
Last night I attended two premieres, the first of which, Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus’, I arrived late for, thanks to the appalling local bus service in Cannes. Suffice to say, I and my companions were herded into an overflow room to watch the film, an enjoyable visual feast that harks back in many ways to Gilliam’s earlier ‘Baron Munchausen’ in style, something of a delight for me – as a child I enjoyed that film hugely. ‘Parnassus’ has attracted a lot of attention from the media for being Heath Ledger’s final film, but he will be much more clearly remembered as having bowed out as the joker. This is largely due to his role being shared here by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, into whom Heath’s character transforms as he enters the ‘Imaginarium’ – a world created inside Dr Parnassus’ mind by a persons imagination when they enter through a magic mirror.
Christopher Plummer is marvellous as Parnassus, with excellent support from the ever watchable Verne Troyer, but the real surprises for me were supermodel Lily Cole as Parnassus’ daughter and singer / Jim Jarmusch film actor Tom Waits on top form as the devil. Cole is a real treat to watch and at no point did I cringe at her performance, which is a lot more than can be said for many of her contemporaries attempts at gracing the big screen.
The world created by Gilliam is incredibly beautiful, and while hugely CG rich, it doesn’t ever grate as from the off it’s evident that these scenes are entirely imaginary.
Following a mad rush I then made it to the premiere of Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s new film ‘The Time That Remains’. A requiem to his parents, the film starts by following Suleiman’s father’s plight during the Israeli ‘liberation’ of Nazereth in 1948, and ends in the present day as Elia returns from exile to visit to his elderly mother as she lives out her last days.
Fans of Suleiman’s work will be familiar with his autobiographical casting of himself, here taken to new heights as he focuses on his own family history an the Palestinian fight becomes more of a
backdrop than the central message of his earlier works ‘Chronicle of a disappearance’ and ‘Divine Intervention’.
Like those films this film uses static locked off shots to great effect, allowing perfectly choreographed action to unfold in every sequence. Due to the gentle humour and warmth evident in this film the technique is here almost reminiscent of the work of Swedish auteur Roy Andersson but unlike those films Suleiman focuses on creating a tableaux for every shot rather than restricting himself to one shot per scene. This provides a very interesting experience as the editing could doubtless throw one off the thread when hard cutting between two wide shots that are the direct opposite of each other. It doesn’t though, and it would be easy to think that Suleiman has truly mastered his craft and perfected his style in this film.
Interestingly, the film was associate produced by Danny Glover, who was present at the premiere and I found it truly heartwarming to see a childhood hero investing in real global talent.
For me this has been the most inspiring film so far, but I’m not placing any bets on it winning the Palme d’Or tomorrow!
Right. I’m off to don my tux for the penultimate time…
Gwyn.
Tags: Danny Glover, Das Weisse Band, Elia Suleiman, Lily Cole, Michael Haneke, Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus, The Time That Remains, Tom Waits
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Winding down…
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Tomorrow the Market and pavilions will start shutting down, or at least so I’m told, and everyone is gradually disappearing from Cannes…
After endless parties and hustling and bustling and throwing business cards into the pool it’s high time for some R&R. There’s still lots of films to get to but some sunny beach time is definitely in order before I head back to rainy old London…
Tonight I’m going to see Haneke’s new film and I’ll try and give you my impressions tomorrow.
Gwyn.
Tags: Cannes, Film Festival
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Inglourious Darkness
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
So the last few days have been spent watching some pretty extreme cinema.
Most notable was Lars Von Trier’s ‘Antichrist’ which I won’t review here because you’ve heard me going on about it on Twitter and probably seen the reviews elsewhere. I’ll give you my opinion though – it’s a great film but it’s so dark and so utterly, utterly twisted that I don’t want to watch it again. Cynics out here have used the words ‘torture porn’ but I think that’s missing the point. The violence isn’t really torture – it’s not calculated enough – it’s a more schizophrenic, random evil that causes it, and due to the sense of brooding and sheer nastiness of it all, it certainly isn’t titillating so you can throw away the porn label too. It’s a very depressing, dark and moody film that leaves one with little hope for humanity, and seems particularly misogynistic. Others see it as an allegory for the death of misogyny. The main thing is – everyone’s talking about it. And I heard it just picked up a distro in the states. Will they cut it I wonder?
Yesterday I didn’t see any films, choosing instead to focus on business. I’ve met some truly wonderful folk out here in Cannes and I can’t wait to get back and follow up our conversations about projects.
After a long day’s networking I went to the Straight 8 party in the Kodak tent. They screened 8 films shot on 1 cartridge of Super-8 film and there was some interesting work there, though as an editor it’s often frustrating watching films that have been ‘edited in camera’. Editing was invented for a reason! That said it’s a noble idea and there was one film in particular, starring two jugglers, that was absolutely inspired. After Straight-8 it was on to a few more parties, one of which was so utterly debauched, bizarre and loud that I and my companions had to leave and go to the far more sophisticated Absolut vodka sponsored party. I really had intended an early night though and tonight should make good on that promise to myself. It’s not too much fun going to bed in a tent at 5am only for the sun to start streaming through the canvas a few hours later.
I’ve just today come out of a screening of Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’. A thoroughly enjoyable romp that the audience seemed very warm to despite being 2h44. The time raced by, keeping good pace. There were a few points I’d pick up on the editing – some of it seemed a little forced and obvious (most notably a totally unnecessary and heavy-handed flashback reminding you who one character is – why????) but I doubt most will notice this. It is a totally imagined history of the end of WW2 and though it certainly doesn’t make light of the atrocities of the Nazi’s in occupied France, handling them with his usual ‘gangster chic’ style might not have been Mr Tarantino’s most sensitive move ever… When you consider that real people were killed by characters like these.
I suppose there are those who would argue that Jools and Vince from ‘Pulp Fiction’ are stylised versions of real gangsters who’ve killed people too, but I doubt their real world counterparts were responsible for killing thousands of Jews. Just a thought…
As I write I’m just charging up my phone in the UK pavilion so I can make a few calls, then I think I’ll be off to bed stupidly early tonight so I can book up to see the premiere Elia Sulieman’s ‘The Time That Remains’ early tomorrow. Here’s keeping fingers crossed for that, though somehow I think a party thinly veiled as ‘networking’ may get in the way. Apparently the Icelandic Film people are doing something tonight… And I did write my thesis on Icelandic cinema at university so it would be rude not to!
Gwyn.
Tags: Antichrist, Cannes, Inglourious Basterds, Lars Von Trier, Quentin Tarantino, Straight 8
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Another beautiful day… Another awesome movie
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
Right now I’m writing from the Irish Pavilion at Cannes. I felt a little guilty about heading here for the free wifi and coffee but as my friend Conor Barry of Yon Cassius, and producer of ‘Mr Crocodile in the Cupboard’ pointed out, after editing two very demanding short films in Ireland I’ve most definitely made a contribution.
The sun is shining and I’ve just left an early screening of ‘Agora’, Alejandro Amenábar’s Epic film of religious questioning. It had every ingredient of a future Bank Holiday TV movie and is sure to be repeated as often as ‘Ben Hur’ or ‘El Cid’ in 30 years. In every respect it’s an absolute delight. Yes it’s long, but it’s a classic epic, though I expect there to be a considerable backlash from certain religious groups when it goes on release.
Set against the fall of the Roman Empire in Egypt, and a powerful allegory for our oft disturbing times, Agora tells an imagined personal history of the Roman philosopher Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) as she attempts (1200 years early) to subvert Ptolemy and prove that the Earth rotates around the sun. Desiring her affections, yet unable to tempt her away from her theorising, are her slave Davus, a Christian torn between his unrequited love and the prospect of freedom Christianity brings, and Orestes, a brother in her philosophy class and later prefect of the falling province.
Her rational atheism and questioning nature result in her being branded a witch by the rising power of the increasingly bloodthirsty church, and both men go to considerable trouble to attempt to protect her. The film is unrelentingly violent, but never gratiutious. I doubt the raving anti-semitism and anti-paganism exhibited by the so-called early Christians here will be well recieved by all, but it’s certainly a poignant reminder of the blood shed by man through the ages by competiting religious doctrines.
The scale and breadth of this movie is unbelievable. Phenomenal cinematography, costume design and locations, a thankful lack of the glaringly obvious CG that has plagued recent attempts at such Epic films (e.g. Gladiator’s Amphitheatre crowds) and beautifully unnoticable and well paced editing (despite the film’s 2h20min length) combined with excellent performances from the films trio of Weisz, Max Minghella and Oscar Isaac produce a film that is a delight to watch from start to finish.
It’ll be interesting to see the reaction after tonight’s evening performance. I would be there myself but it’s getting increasingly difficult to get evening tickets and after queuing for 45 mins for Ang Lee’s ‘Taking Woodstock’ last night only to not get in, I’m not taking chances without having a shiny silver invitation!
More updates soon…
Gwyn.
Tags: Agora, Alejandro Amenábar, Cannes, Film Festival, Irish Pavilion, Rachel Weisz
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Tents, Tuxes and [no] Tetro
Friday, May 15th, 2009
Yes, I know I promised an update of headjar goings on at Cannes the other night, but I’ve been ridiculously busy settling into the rhythm of the festival.
So far I’ve been to two screenings, Pixar’s magnificent ‘UP’ and Andrea Arnold’s ‘Fish Tank’. Both are great movies – though obviously completely different.
Seeing ‘UP’ in full 3D is something I can’t recommend enough. It’s opening 10 minutes will drive all but the hardest of souls to tears when seen as an almost real world in front of your eyes.
Following recent situations with my own elderly relatives, I could not help but be completely charmed by the story of a little old codger avoiding incarceration in an old folk’s home by flying his whole house to the place in South America his wife had always dreamed of.
‘Fish Tank’ is an altogether different beast. I attended last night’s screening in the esteemed company of Morgan Bushe, Macdara Kelleher and Ben Keenan of Dublin’s fantastic Fastnet Films and they all seemed to be seduced by the film’s excellent direction and charm.
The wonderful performances of Michael Fassbender and youngster Katie Jarvis also seemed to do it for the audience who gave Arnold a standing ovation as the credits rolled. Personally I am still undecided.
The film had my total attention throughout and kept me on the edge of my seat most of the way through with it’s brooding inevitability. From the off it was clear where the relationship between Fassbender’s character and the young girl, daughter of his ‘girlfriend’ was going and this only made the film darker and more interesting. But I’m also not sure how many more films like this I can sit through. Kitchen sink drama is all very well but I can’t help having a nagging feeling that British cinema can reach great heights without everyone pretending to be Ken Loach on the one hand and Richard Curtis on the other, great as those directors are. In short – I like the film a lot – I’m just not too sure yet whether it offered me a cinematic experience I haven’t already had again and again…
After last nights film I enjoyed a drink at the Petit Majestic with my Irish friends and then battled my way back to my campsite through the pouring rain. Unfortunately my plans to see Coppola’s ‘Tetro’ earlier in the evening were scuppered by a bus that was over 50 minutes late but I wasn’t too bothered after a very pleasant evening so I fell asleep relatively easily to the sound of falling raindrops on canvas.
So that brings us to this morning where I was pretty much literally throwing buckets of water out of the tent as the rain continued to pour. It’s stopped now so I hope it’ll dry out soon.
This afternoon I have a meeting with skillset to discuss strategies for finding more editing work while I’m out here and then I’ll be off to a few more screenings no doubt.
Watch this space for more news!
Gwyn.
Tags: Andrea Arnold, Camping, Cannes, Editor, Film Festival, Fish Tank, Pixar, Skillset, UP
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All packed and good to go
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Well this is it – I’m almost ready to leave for St Pancras and begin the long journey to the south of France for the next few weeks.
I’ve never been to Cannes before and I’ll be blogging from there because I thought it would be interesting to share my experiences with you all while I’m there…
If you’re going, I’m giving away free business cards, so come and say hello before they all go!
Gwyn.
Tags: Cannes, Film Festival
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