11 posts tagged “cannes”

European cinema is where I find myself increasingly turning in order to see something satisfying and interesting these days - I think Hollywood has become chained up in the yard by commercialism.
On Friday evening I got my first taste of Austrian director Michael Haneke's work: The White Ribbon.
Set in a village in northern Germany in the lead up to the outbreak of the First World War it tells the story of a series of strange events that unsettle the peace of the towns strict protestant community: The doctor is thrown from his horse after it trips on a wire strung between two trees, the Baron's son and a local disabled child are tortured and a barn is burned down.
It is told through the eyes of the school teacher, who is from a neighbouring village.

The White Ribbon of the title is what the Minister uses by way of a humiliating punishment to remind his two eldest children of innocence and purity.
The film starts silently with the opening titles, is shot in black and white and finishes with silent titles. Indeed Haneke embraces silence twisting it from what should be a peaceful, law abiding and Christian community into a uneasiness.
There are some startlingly natural performances from both the adult and child cast. There is certainly no saccharin-coated Disney-club over acting with which we've become so familiar in watching US and British films.
When the film was over and the credits began their silent ascent up the screen, no one stirred for a moment or two. And no one uttered a word until they were well out of the screen. In fact Haneke had created yet another stony silence.
I'd like to see a Hollywood film have that effect on an audience.
It won the Palm d'Or at Cannes this year and the critics seemed to have enjoyed it as much as I did:

Guardian The White Ribbon has an absolute confidence and mastery of its own cinematic language, and the performances Haneke elicits from his first-rate cast, particularly the children, are eerily perfect.

Independent Superbly and sparely acted, The White Ribbon is a remarkable achievement. It reads like a sprawling modernist novel with its extensive cast, dense narrative and systematic refusal to answer questions.

Screen Daily It’s a rich, detailed work pregnant with the sinister undertones and evil deeds for which the film-maker’s work is legendary and won’t disappoint Haneke fans waiting for fresh material after his experimental US remake of Funny Games.

Just wading through the reams of media coverage I've been collecting on Bright Star since it first premiered in Cannes in May and I came across this interview with Ben Whishaw.
It's probably the most relaxed I've seen him in an interview, normally he just comes across as a bag of nervous tension. In it he just oozes with enthusiasm for the role and experience of making it in a way I haven't seen from him before.
Just want to ruffle his hair, pinch his cheeks and give him a large slice of cake to eat.
(Interview is in two parts)

Have been avoiding Cannes reviews but came across this lovely piece on Jane Campion's Bright Star with lots of clips and a good interview with Ben Whishaw about the film. Sorry no code to embed so click here if you are interested. Still no release date grrrr.

He looks just like Ariel in The Tempest should look in this pic. Spooky that.

The google alerts (yep I'm sad) have been a little thin on the ground with any news of what Ben Whishaw might be up to next. He has two films in post production, Bright Star and The Tempest but with no release dates as yet although there are reports that the former will show at Cannes this year followed by general release in the Summer.
I was starting to think that he 'resting' and kind of hoping that he would be announcing some stage work soon.
Well it's not the latter, much to my disappointment, although I maintain hope of him treading the boards before the year is out, but it is a film about poet Allen Ginsberg.
Whishaw will play Lucien Carr in the flick which is called Kill Your Darlings and centres around Ginsberg and the beginings of the beat generation.
All sounds very interesting and as it's not a cultural phenomenom that I know much about its a good excuse to do some reading.
More details also here on MTV movie blog

It seems slightly perverse to be excited about my job when so many in my industry are being made redundant but the winds of change have be blowing the through the office. 
The subject matter we write about has been turned on it's head in recent months. Our editor announced he was retiring at the end of last year and hung up his notepad and keyboard a week ago. And then over the last few weeks the social media projects that have been long talked about and prepared have started coming to fruition.
A few of us started work-twitters a couple of weeks ago, our formerly subscription-only website has just given birth to a free-to-access blog and today the first podcast went live, again outside the firewall.

Exciting times. Exciting because I feel like I've been sitting on sidelines watching while a lot of other publications grasped the web 2.0 nettle. Exciting because we are being encouraged to experiment, use different means of getting information across and are finding ways of sharing information that would rarely had an outlet in print.
Next week I head down to Cannes for the week-long annual property industry trade fare where previously I had lots of meetings and came back with lots of ideas and contacts.
This time I have lots of meetings and expect to come back with lots of ideas and contacts but I'm also going to be able to share the experience more fully with our readers. I will be tweeting the entire time, post pics of people I see, the parties, launches and events. I'll also be blogging and vodcasting and podcasting. In fact I've coined my own term for what I'll be doing: twigcasting.
I won't just have a notebook and my blackberry, I'll have my new blackberry camera phone, a flip camera and a posh digital dictaphone thingy.
It's going to be a baptism of fire. I've never recorded or filmed anyone before while asking them questions. I've never really taken pictures for our readers to see. I only got given the equipment today. But I'm excited to be given the opportunity and in an environment that will no doubt be the most fruitful I could wish for.

I probably used that title last year and yep it's come around again. The lack of lottery/premium bond win during the last 12 months means I'm still working for a living and in the same job visiting the same trade fair for the fourth time.
I don't mind really, there are worse places to go for work certainly. And while I'll spend 70% of my time trying to eek something half interesting out of some generally dull people to justify the expense of me going it does give me a bit of a buzz dashing around Cannes from a meeting on a yacht to another in a marquee on the beach to a lunch on balcony overlooking the seafront. Beats having a meeting in Swansea that's for sure.
It is a shameless show of extravagance, one-up-manship and general lack of taste in the name of generating business and sadly much of what I'll be 'enjoying' will be at the British tax-payers expense. (I'll make sure I eat up every morsel offered and drink every drink to ensure good value)
Am trusting my suitcase and myself to the train once again. Fingers crossed there are no disasters like last year journey home. The storm that has been raging for the last 12 hours seems to be heading up north to spread headlines and news copy up there so I'm hoping the line through Kent will stay tree-free between now and 9 o'clock tomorrow morning when should be safely on French tracks.
My taxi is booked for 5-oh-joy in the morning so I'd better try and get some sleep because there is going to be scant little of that for the rest of the week.

So the Cannes carnival of indulgence and shameless display of wealth and one-up-manship is over for another year.
It was great fun but bloody hard work. I think it is going to take me a week for my liver to recover and to catch up on sleep, thank criminy I've got Monday off work.

Highlights:
Getting the train
Beautiful sunny, hot weather
Chocolate souffle
Hotel room
Chauffeur driven boat ride across the marina
Guitarist in band at Brum do - see picture collection ;0)

My dream train journey to and from Cannes is rapidly turning into a nightmare.
Got to Lilles to pick up the Eurostar for the homeward leg through the tunnel only to find out the service has been suspended for 24 hours due to a trackside fire....in London!
Am currently on a train heading (hopefully) to Calais where the plan is to try and catch a ferry to Dover. Failing that will have to stay overnight in Calais and get a ferry in the morning.
Having just had one of the most sleep deprived working weeks of my life I'm feeling surprisingly calm and chipper not sure how long it will last.

Tomorrow is D-Day, I'm heading off to the south of France for the annual trade fair for the industry I write about. Some 20,000 people attend and more champagne is drunk during this week than during the Cannes film festival.
I'm not sure what the primary purpose of the event is except to be seen and to drink and eat as much free stuff as possible. Except the food is never that good because there are 20,000 people needing to be fed and it's not exactly like they have somewhere else to go.
People launch stuff, the private sector blow their marketing budgets and local governments from all over Europe spend tax-payers money to be there and wine, dine and entertain people in the hope of attracting investment and press coverage.
One British city is flying out its 'best' Indian chefs to cook at a beach side restaurant, another has, according to a good source of a colleague, booked ELO to play. Last year they had Squeeze, the year before the Stranglers.
Now the private sector can spend all they want but I can't help but wonder if it the best use of tax payers money. I'll do my best to enjoy myself, for their constituents sakes if nothing else.
I'm getting the train down this year for the first time which I'm quite excited about as I've never been on such a long train journey. Managed to wrangle myself some cheap first class tickets otherwise I'd be straight on the ozone killers of the sky.
I've also lucked in on my hotel and been allocated one that is both central and not a shit hole, although I believe it when I'm safe in my room. Normally some of Cannes worst rooms are reserved just for the journalists and some are in a town up the coast half an hours cab ride away.
It all sounds very glam and it is I suppose but the pay off is that I will inevitably end up doing three 18-hour days. Still at least the weather is forecast to be good.