You have to love Spike Lee for crashing Thierry Frémaux’s insiders party at the line-up press conference… via social media of course!
Read MoreLaetitia Ky in a still from Erige Sehiri’s ‘Promised Sky’
Laetitia Ky in a still from Erige Sehiri’s ‘Promised Sky’
You have to love Spike Lee for crashing Thierry Frémaux’s insiders party at the line-up press conference… via social media of course!
Read MoreMany women-directed gems were snubbed, in favor of a story about a sex worker written and directed by a male filmmaker.
Read MoreThis year’s Palm Dog winner Kodi with his director and co-star Laetitia Dosch
The Palm Dog winners, that is…
Read MoreA still from ‘The Girl with the Needle’, courtesy of the Festival de Cannes
There is a trick to this festival. If you stand still long enough in Cannes — something a bit difficult to do on a weekend as crowds are bustling all around you — you’ll run into everyone who is anyone in the film universe.
Read MoreA still from ‘Maria’ by Jessica Palud
Plus, their selection of short films from all over the world and an immersive program which includes fantastic works featuring the voices of Cate Blanchett, Indira Varma, Tahar Rahim and Colin Farrell.
Read MoreAnya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Village Roadshow Pictures’ action adventure “FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
And these aren’t for the faint hearted, you’ll see.
Read MoreA still from ‘Family Romance, Llc’ by Werner Herzog
In ‘Family Romance, Llc’ Werner Herzog finds a new way to work through the difficulties life throws our way — outsource them to an agency specializing in family connections. He does it with his usual flair for our human ridiculousness and making the impossible seem real. During the junket following the screening, I loved listening to my esteemed colleagues’ confused explanations of stories they thought they’d seen like this one in documentaries, or even completely convinced this was a reality film, instead of fiction. And Herzog himself quite perfectly, calmly and smoothly shooting down each and all of their perplexed ideas.
‘Family Romance, Llc’ was a Special Screening at this year’s Festival de Cannes.
Read MoreAlain Delon, photo courtesy of the Festival de Cannes
As a young girl, I remember watching anything that had Alain Delon in it. I had a super crush on him and, lucky me, no film of his was deemed inappropriate by my parents. So along with Luchino Visconti’s ‘The Leopard’ and ‘Rocco and his Brothers’, I also caught Delon in films like ‘The Swimming Pool’, ‘Zorro’ and yes, even ‘The Concorde… Airport ‘79’. In fact, from the latter I required that a friend of the family who knew how to knit make me a royal blue crew neck wool sweater that looked just like his. I would find you a photo but I would have to watch that entire film all over again and well, I’ve moved on from my pre-pubescent crush. And my taste in film has highly improved.
But Alain Delon remains the fascinating man, the sultry sex symbol that could even steal women away from Mick Jagger. And this year’s he’s the Festival de Cannes honorary Palme d’Or recipient. Kudos to the festival for finally getting the reclusive actor to accept their coveted lifetime award.
Read MoreVictor Polster in a still from Lukas Dhont's 'Girl'
At the center of filmmaker Lukas Dhont's groundbreaking first feature 'Girl' -- screening at this year's Festival de Cannes in Un Certain Regard -- is a teenager who wants to be a ballerina. Complex, as all teenagers typically are, beautiful, painfully honest and exquisitely feminine, the only twist here is that Lara was born a boy. And it's obvious from her very first moments on the screen that having that part of the body which separates the boys from the girls is something utterly unbearable for Lara.
But instead of creating conflict around this beauty, be it coming from her family, friends and the world at large, Dhont brings us instead into a world where a girl born into a boy's body who begins treatment to transition to her true self when we first meet her, has all the support she could ever hope for. And yet, her own passions, her self discipline, her sense of displacement inside the body fate dealt her at birth create enough strife, hold-your-breath moments and emotions to fully charge a one hour and forty-five minutes film. And fill our dreams for days and days to come.
Read MoreAll of us may remember that last year's Palm d'Or winner 'The Square' was not in the original lineup announced at the press conference for the Festival de Cannes 2017. So a few more titles may come in the later days, like Sorrentino's 'Loro' -- a tricky release date for the first half of this six hour movie in Italy at the end of April is probably puzzling the festival organizers -- and the infamous Lars Von Trier. I mean, today with the kind of fascist governments that are in place all over the world, his words and behavior seem meek and subdued. And the visionary that is Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux I'm sure realizes that.
Personally, I'm proudest of the two Italian films in the Official Competition this year, Matteo Garrone's 'Dogman' and Alice Rohrwacher's 'Lazzaro Felice'. And of course, Nadine Labaki's 'Capernaum' and Jafar Panahi's 'Three Faces'. Not to mention the excitement at both Spike Lee and Jean-Luc Godard being in Cannes -- two grand Maestros of world cinema.
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