Just as Taiwan sits atop our latest headlines, with China once again threatening to squash the country’s need for independence, I sat down with KEFF, the young Taiwanese-American filmmaker whose latest work, his feature debut world premiering in Critics’ Week, sits very high on the list of my favorite films in Cannes this year. And that’s saying a lot, as masterpieces abounded!
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Phenomenal man: A conversation with Nabil Ayouch about the cinematic wonder that is 'Everybody Loves Touda'
As we spoke on the terrace of Unifrance during the Cannes Film Festival, a little tiny bird with a loud, rhythmical chirp decided it needed to chime in. Perhaps, I thought as I listened to the recording later, it was the spirit, the animal incarnation of a Sheikha, the beautiful, strong, freedom-loving tradition of women singers that the French-Moroccan filmmaker pays homage to in his latest masterpiece.
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Photo of Bruno Dumont by Locarno Festival/Samuel Golay
Bruno Dumont in Locarno: "I believe in the power of cinema"
Back in 1999, at the Festival de Cannes, Bruno Dumont presented 'Humanity' ('L'humanité') a film that caused an uproar among critics, who initially mocked and then went on to three of the top awards from the Competition jury headed by David Cronenberg.
So, in case you were wondering, Dumont seems to always manage the last laugh.
Fast forward almost two decades and Dumont is getting quite a lot of laughs indeed, this time from audiences at the Locarno Festival watching the world premiere of the latest installment of the TV series the French filmmaker started for ARTE in 2014. The original installment was 'Li'l Quinquin', now his characters are all four years older and the second season is titled 'CoinCoin and the Extra-Humans'.
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Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick
The "Youthquaker" and her Mentor: Edie Sedgwick and Andy Warhol finally reunite in a retrospective of their collaboration at FIDMarseille
"I'm in love with everyone I've ever met in one way or another. I'm just a crazy, unhinged disaster of a human being." -- Edie Sedgwick
You can have your Kim Kardashians, your Gigi Hadids, your newly transformed princesses and Instagram sensations, I'll take Edie Sedgwick every day over any of them. In fact, nearly fifty years after her death, she remains for this child of the 70s a favorite fashion icon, an "It Girl" like no other and an example whose style and attitude I always keep in my consciousness.
So why has Sedgwick remained such a star, even though she could appear to have done little more than be born a socialite and die at age 28, of an overdose-slash-suicide after several stretches in mental institutions? Because she once met Andy Warhol, whom with his usual flair for discovering the broken yet utterly fascinating -- see Jean-Michel Basquiat and Candy Darling among many many more -- made of Sedgwick the original reality star. She is the predecessor of the Kardashians, only her reality was captured on film, by Warhol, a master artist of creation.
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Photo courtesy of the Doha Film Institute
Omar Sharif: The Last Great Arab Movie Star?
On what would have been the late Egyptian actor's 86th birthday, I wanted to revisit an interview from seven years ago, one of my favorite pieces and most beloved encounters. And for me, since then, there have been many. But Omar Sharif was, is and forever will be the greatest Arab movie star. Unequaled and inimitable.
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Photo courtesy of the Venice International Film Festival
"That feeling, to say NO!" -- Three Questions with Penelope Cruz
This coming March, Cruz will receive an honorary prize from France’s Academy of Arts and Techniques of Cinema during the 43nd Cesar Awards ceremony, the country's equivalent to the Oscars. And she deserves that and more, in my book. So here are three questions with a woman who represents the spirit of "duende" that je-ne-sais-quoi only genuine Spanish women possess.
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