Monday, May 29, 2023

Cannes Winners / Cannes and the Critics / NEON and Perfect Days

CANNES WINNERS




The 76th Cannes Film Festival came to a close with its awards presentation on Saturday night.  Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall took the top prize, the Palme d'Or.  Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest took the Grand Prix, essentially the runner-up prize and Aki Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves landed the Jury Prize, regarded as the third place prize.

Other awards went to:

Director: The Pot  au Feu/Tran Anh Hung
Screenplay: Monster/Sakamoto Fuji
Actress: About Dry Grasses/Merve Dizdar
Actor: Perfect Days/Koji Yakusho


Molly Manning Walker's How to Have Sex won the top award in the Un Certain Regards section.

You could make a relatively good case for most of the prize winners making the jump from Cannes to Telluride.  



CANNES AND THE CRITICS




Here's where a number of the critics polls from Cannes landed for the Palme d'Or competition films at the end of the two weeks:


1) Fallen Leaves/Kaurismaki 3.2
2) Anatomy of a Fall/Triet 3.0
2) May December/Haynes 3.0
4) Perfect Days/Wneders 2.9
4) La Chimera/Rohrwacher 2.9

Glazer's The Zone of Interest was just outside of the top five.


1) The Zone of Interest/Glazer 4.24
2) Anatomy of a Fall/Triet 3.85
3) Fallen Leaves/Kaurismaki 3.76
4) Last Summer/Breiliat 3.70
5) May December/Haynes 3.50


1) The Zone of Interest/Glazer 3.9
2) Fallen Leaves/Kaurismaki 3.7
3) Anatomy of a Fall/Triet 3.5
3) La Chimera/Rohrwacher 3.5
5) The Old Oak/Loach 3.4

Once again, connection issues have prevented access to Reini Urban's massive Cannes crtics compilation.

NEON AND PERFECT DAYS




Wim Wenders Perfect Days was taken by distributor NEON toward the end of the Cannes fest.  The acquisition probably increases the chance that the film makes an appearance at Telluride in three months.



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Thursday, May 25, 2023

Couple of Deals to Note / Cannes and the Critics / Trailers and Clips: May/December, La Chimera, Perfect Days

A COUPLE OF DEALS OF NOTE



Two acquisition deals of note occurred at Cannes since last Monday's post.  

Netflix nabbed North American rights for Todd Haynes' May/December for $11 million.  May/December has long been  on the MTFB radar as a possible TFF #50 selection and while the Netflix action doesn't guarantee a TFF berth it sure doesn't hurt.

The other deal that caught my eye was from NEON which took North American rights for Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall.  Anatomy began the festival as just another Cannes title that I had not focused on regarding its TFF chances but with a very solid critical response (88 on Metacritic, 100% on RT),  Plame d'Or buzz and this acquisition from NEON, which has become a frequent contributor to the TFF lineup (Parasite, Broker, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed), I have to think that Anatomy of a Fall has emerged as a serious candidate for TFF inclusion.

Here is reporting from The Hollywood Reporter on the Netflix May/December deal and for the NEON deal for Anatomy of a Fall.


CANNES AND THE CRITICS

As the 76th Cannes Film Festival makes its turn into the final stretch...awards are Saturday night, here's a snapshot of where the critical reaction has been to films that have played thus far in the Palme d'Or competition.


1) Fallen Leaves 3.2
2) Anatomy of a Fall 3.0
2) May/December 3.0
4) The Zone of Interest 2.8
4) The Pot Au Feu 2.8
4) Youth 2.8
4) About Dry Grasses 2.8


1) The Zone of Interest 3.9
2) Fallen Leaves 3.8
3) Anatomy of a Fall 3.5
4) About Dry Grasses 3.4
5) May/December 3.3.


1) The Zone of Interest 4.21
2) Fallen Leaves 3.88
3) Anatomy of a Fall 3.50
4) About Dry Grasses 3.42
5) Youth 3.33

Normally I would be including the massive critical compilation from Reini Urban but that link is currently down.


TRAILERS AND CLIPS

MAY/DECEMBER



LA CHIMERA

From NEON's Twitter account:



PERFECT DAYS






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Monday, May 22, 2023

More Venice Rumblings / Cannes Critics Respond / Ten Bets in a Month

MORE VENICE RUMBLINGS



Now that Cannes is well and truly underway...see the critical reactions so far in the next bloc...speculation about what films that might be playing Venice is heating up.  As Venice spec heats up, so does the speculation about which films will play Venice and Telluride.  As I have mentioned before, the two fests now commonly share 6-7 titles per year.

Variety's Nick Vivarelli posted on Thursday a piece titled:  Beyond Cannes: Are Zendaya, Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper Already Packing Their Bags for Venice Film Festival?  

His claim is that there are a number of films already lined up for Venice.  Of the films mentioned in the article, a good number of them could be reasonable candidates to double-dip at Venice and T-ride including:

Poor Things/Lanthimos
Challengers/Guadagnino
Priscilla/S. Coppola
The Captain/Garrone
Maestro/Cooper
Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi
Saltburn/Fennell
The Book of Clarence/Samuels



CANNES CRITICS RESPOND




As Cannes is essentially at its midway point, here's a look at the critical response thus far with an eye toward what seem to be contenders for the Palme d'Or as well as a few other films a few other films of interest.

First, among the Palme d'Or competition films that have jumped to the fore in as far as the general critical reaction, at the top is Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest.

Reini Urban's Critics compilation has Zone with an 8.22 average (on a 10 point scale) and the top comp film with more than 10 reviews averaged.  Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster is second meeting that same criteria with a 7.69 average.  Regular readers will know that I have been tracking both of those films as TFF #50 possibilities for some time.  Also making some noise according to the Urban metric are Nuri Bilge Ceylan's About Dry Grasses (7.65),  Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall (7.50) and Todd Haynes' May/December (also on the MTFB TFF #50) watch list.

Among other films that I am watching that also meet the above criteria are the ecstatic reactions for Martin Scorsese's Killers of the flower Moon (8.57)

Michel Gondry's The Book of Solutions 7.48
Steve McQueen's Occupied City 6.45
Wim Wenders Anselm 6.41

Other films from Cannes that are on my TFF radar but that haven't screened yet or have fewer than 10 reviews as yet:

Perfect Days (Wenders)
The Old Oak (Loach)
La Chimera (Rohrwacher)
Strange Way of Life (Almodovar)

I have my eye on a couple of other critical compilations that focus exclusively on Palme contenders.  Those are from Ioncinema and the International Cinephile Society.  Ioncinema uses a four point scale while ICS uses a five points scale.


1) The Zone of Interest (Glazer) 3.9
2) About Dry Grasses (Ceylan) 3.4
3) May/December (Haynes) 3.3
3) Anatomy of a Fall (Triet) 3.3
5) Monster (Kore-eda) 3.2
5) Youth (Bing) 3.2


1) The Zone of Interest (Glazer) 4.18
2) Anatomy of a Fall (Triet) 3.67
3) May/December (Haynes) 3.50
4) About Dry Grasses (Ceylan) 3.46
5) Youth (Bing) 3.33

And finally from Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes

Killers of the Flower Moon  Meta: 91  RT: 97
The Zone of Interest  Meta: 99  RT: 100
May/December  Meta: 82  RT: 93
Anatomy of a Fall  Meta: 90  RT: 100
Monster  Meta: 79  RT: 100


TEN BETS IN A MONTH




Mark it on your calendars...MTFB's first Ten bets for the 50th edition of the Telluride Film Festival is headed your way on June 22nd.  What might you expect?  Mid-level prediction success!  I looked back over the last 11 years (leaving out the Covid year of 2020) and here is my accuracy for each of the first time "Ten Bets" since I began formatting my predictions this way in 2011:


2011: 8/10
2012: 5/10
2013: 6/10
2014: 7/10
2015: 4/10
2016: 3/10
2017: 7/10
2018: 5/10
2019: 4/10
2020: No Fest
2021: 8/10
2022: 6/10

My average over the 11 years of "Betting" is 5.7 correct films from the first Ten Bets each year.  Not bad but also not burning the house down either.



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Thursday, May 18, 2023

All About Cannes and Telluride: The Critics / The Palme d'Or and Telluride / Killers Trailer!!!

ALL ABOUT CANNES AND TELLURIDE

THE CRITICS




As the 76th Cannes Film Festival ramps up (it opened on Tuesday) I thought I'd focus a bit on things I look at to gauge a film's chances at playing T-ride after debuting in France.  As I have written before, there are, on average, 7-8 films that premiere at Cannes and then have their North American Premiere in the San Juans over Labor day weekend.

One data point I pay attention to is Reini Urban's collection of the critical response to Cannes' films.  Urban has been doing this annually since 2010.  So, to get a sense of what those critical composite ratings can tell us, I ran down the results of the last ten years (excluding the Covid year of 2020).  Turns out that an average of four films from the Cannes critical top 25 make the trek to Telluride.  The Cannes/Telluride connection from this top 25 each year ranged from a high of seven films in 2013 to a low of two in 2012 and 2016.  Here's the breakdown with a film's position in the ratings:

2012:
1) Amour
6) No

2013:
1) Blue Is the Warmest Colour
4) Inside Llewyn Davis
5) The Missing Picture
11) All Is Lost
15) The Lunchbox
20) The Past
25) Nebraska

2014:
9) Two Days, One Night
15) Red Army
23) Leviathan
24) Mr. Turner

2015:
3) Carol
14) Son of Saul
15) Hitchcock/Truffaut

2016: 
1) Toni Erdmann
11) Graduation

2017:
5) Faces/Places
8) Tesnota
24) The Rider

2018:
4) Shoplifters
7) Cold War
9) Girl
19) Birds of Passage
20) Border

2019:
1) Parasite
3) Pain and Glory
5) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
23) A Hidden Life

2021:
13) Red Rocket
15) A Hero
19) The French Dispatch
21) Bergman Island

2022:
1) La Pupille
2) Aftersun
6) Close
11) Broker
15) Godland
18) One Fine Day

So, I'll be keeping an eye on Urban's composite critical response.  As a matter of fact, the collection has already started even this early in the fest with some critics already having benefited from pre-fest access.  

Early, early films that I have on my T-ride watch list that are in the top 25 (with only 6-10 critics collected thus far) include: May/December, La Chimera, The Book of Solutions, The New Boy, The Old Oak and Club Zero.

Stay tuned.


THE PALME D'OR AND TELLURIDE




Someone usually asks me every year about the odds of Cannes' Palme d'Or winning film making the Telluride lineup and that answer is about half the time.  Since 2003, here are the Palme winners that have crossed the Atlantic and screened in the mountains of southwest Colorado:

2003: Elephant
2005: L'enfant
2007: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
2009: The White Ribbon
2012: Amour
2013: Blue Is the Warmest Colour
2018: Shoplifters
2019: Parasite

So, by this metric, it would seem that this year's Palme winner might be a film to keep an eye on for Telluride since we haven't had that occur since 2019.


KILLERS TRAILER!!!








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Monday, May 15, 2023

Cannes Opening Imminent - Top Possibilities / WOR and the Best of the '60's -Part Two / Looks At: Poor Things and Cobweb

CANNES OPENING IMMINENT-TOP POSSIBILITIES


Set photo from Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest



The 76th Cannes Film Festival is just hours away from its opening and MTFB continues to monitor the pre-fest buzz for films that could make the trans-Atlantic crossing from France to southwestern Colorado on Labor Day weekend.

As frequent readers know, traditionally many films make the Cannes/Telluride Two-Step each year.  On average (based on the last 12 years) there are 7-8 films that make that double-play.  Last year nine films made the trip including Aftersun, Armageddon Time, Broker, Close, Holy Spider and The Pupils.

As we near the start of this year's fest on The Croisette, Indiewire has published their list of "Most Anticipated" titles.  Looking at that, here's another stab from that list at what might SHOW up at T-ride:

La Chimera/Rohrwacher
Fallen Leaves/Kaurismaki
Killer of the Flower Moon/Scorsese
May/December/Haynes
Monster/Kore-eda
Strange Way of Life/Almodovar
The Zone of Interest/Glazer


As always, I'll be keeping track of the critical reaction from Cannes as that can sometimes point to the viability of films moving forward. Here are the dates that some of the films of interest will be having their initial public screening:

In Palme competition:

Monster 5/17
The Zone of Interest 5/19
May/December 5/20
Perfect Days 5/25
La Chimera 5/26
The Old Oak 5/26

Others not in Palme Competition:

Occupied City 5/17
Strange Way of Life 5/17
Anselm 5/17
The New Boy 5/19
Killers of the Flower Moon 5/20
Cobweb 5/25

Closing night ceremonies will take place on May 27th.


WOR AND THE BEST OF THE 60'S -PART TWO




Last Thursday I wrote about participating in World of Reel's poll of the greatest films of the 1960's.  Since that post WOR head man Jordan Ruimy has published the individual ballots of all 130+ people who participated.  That let me see how my list of ten great films of the 60's stacked up with everyone else.

 Here's my list of ten and where they landed within the top 40 that Ruimy posted last week:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1)
The Apartment (9)
Cool Hand Luke
Dr. Strangelove (3)
The Graduate (5)
The Hustler 
Lawrence of Arabia (4)
Midnight Cowboy (17)
To Kill a Mockingbird
They Shoot Horses Don't They

As to the films that I listed that did not make the Top 40, here's the number of ballots they had with this note, it took 7 ballots to make the Top 40.:

Cool Hand Luke-5
The Hustler-5
To Kill a Mockingbird- 6
They Shoot Horses Don't They-3



LOOKS AT: POOR THINGS, COBWEB AND  ANSLEM

POOR THINGS TEASER

I will admit that I am fascinated by what this Yorgos Lanthimos film might be.  Additionally, I'm a big fan of Emma Stone  The IMDb description:

"The incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Dafoe)."

Here's the teaser from YouTube that was released by Searchlight on May 11th:






COBWEB

I have Director Kin Jee-woon's Cobweb as an outside shot to make the lineup for TFF #50.  It play's in an Out-of-Competition slot.

The IMDb Desription:

"an experimental and genre-defying drama shot entirely on sound stages in support of a film-within-a-film narrative."

Here's the trailer with subtitles from YouTube:





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Thursday, May 11, 2023

Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves Has a Trailer / Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey Tops WOR Poll / McQueen's Occupied City Is Four Hours Long

KAURISMAKI'S FALLEN LEAVES HAS A TRAILER

Aki Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves has been on the MTFB TFF #50 watch list for some time.  For moths it was rumored to be a choice for Cannes and that proved to be true as it was announced as a part of the Palme d'Or competition lineup back on April 13th.  

The film is set to be screened in Cannes on May 22nd.

Sales agent The Match Factory has released a trailer for the film ahead of its screening at Cannes.  Here it is from YouTube:





KUBRICK'S 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY TOPS WOR POLL




I wrote on Monday that I had participated in World of Reel's latest "decade" poll.  This one called on a group of critics, bloggers and such to name the best films of the 1960s. Well, the results are in and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey topped the poll with 53 votes.  Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was #2 which was just outside the ten films I submitted.

Here's the top ten from World of Reel:

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) 53 votes
2) Psycho (Hitchcock) 50
3) Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick) 35
4) Lawrence of Arabia (Lean) 34
5) The Graduate (Nichols) 27
6) Bonnie and Clyde (Penn) 27
7) Persona (Bergman) 27
8) Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski) 22 
9) 8 1/2 (Fellini) 21
10) The Apartment (Wilder) 20

And a reminder of my top ten:

2001: A Space Odyssey
The Apartment 
Cool Hand Luke
Dr. Strangelove
The Graduate
The Hustler 
Lawrence of Arabia
Midnight Cowboy 
To Kill a Mockingbird
They Shoot Horses Don't They



MC QUEEN'S OCCUPIED CITY IS  FOUR HOURS LONG




The program for Cannes screenings reveals that Steve McQueen's documentary about Amsterdam and the effect World War II had on that city-Occupied City- is listed as being 4 hours and 6 minutes long.  That seems daunting but I can still see it as a TFF #50 selection. 

Here's the IMDb description of the film:

"The past collides with the present in this excavation of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam: a journey from World War II to recent years of pandemic and protest and a provocative, life-affirming reflection on memory, time and what's to come."

McQueen has some Telluride history-Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave.  The film is being distributed by A24 which certainly has had a presence at Telluride in recent years. 

Additionally, McQueen's other project-Blitz- which is a feature film focused on the Blitz of London during WW II,  may not be ready in time for TFF.  Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel indicated as much in his Venice post on May 5th. Absent its availability for TFF/Venice/TIFF Occupied City may be a hot commodity for the fall fests.






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Monday, May 8, 2023

Venice Thoughts / The Killer Not Playing? / Photos: May/December and The Zone of Interest / Trailer for Squaring the Circle / Assessing the 60's

VENICE THOUGHTS




News this week that writer/director Damien Chazelle (whose La La Land and First Man both played TFF) has been named the Jury President for the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion competition.  As a part of reporting that story Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel included a compilation of films he says have a real shot at making the Venice lineup.  TFF watchers take note as the Venice/Telluride connection is historically almost, but not quite, as pronounced as the Cannes/T-ride connection.

Over the past ten years Venice and Telluride have, on average, shared 6-7 films per year.  As a consequence, paying attention to Venice titles and also when they get scheduled for their initial screening in Italy can often give us clues as to what may play both places.  Thus, the interest in Ruimy's ruminations.  He lists 25+ films.  Here's my take on the Telluride prospects for some of them if Ruimy is correct.

Most Likely: The Holdovers (Payne)
Decent Chance: Strangers (Haight), Poor Things (Lanthimos), The Royal Hotel (Green), El Condo (Larrain)
Could Be: Priscilla (Coppola), Challengers (Guadagnino), Saltburn (Fennell), The Bikeriders (Nichols)
Wishes: Maestro (Cooper)



THE KILLER NOT PLAYING?


Photo via IMDb



One of my "most hoped for" titles for TFF #50 is David Fincher's The Killer starring Michael Fassbender but World of Reel reported this week that the buzz is that it may skip fall fests altogether.    In his latest update about the film, WOR 's Jordan Ruimy writes:

"Last month, I posted a reaction to Fincher’s upcoming film. It was very positive. From what I understood, Netflix hadn’t made a decision on whether or not this would go to festivals such as Venice and Telluride, but they’re leaning towards skipping them."

Now, I have always thought that The Killer's TFF chances were slim but this latest dash of cold water seems to make it even more unlikely.  I guess it's worth noting that the tidbit from WOR is not definitive as the phrase is "leaning towards skipping'...but...well...



PHOTOS

First looks at:

MAY/DECEMBER (Haynes)



THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Glazer)




TRAILER FOR SQUARING THE CIRCLE

We have a trailer for Anton Corbijn's Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) that played at TFF #49:



ASSESSING THE 60'S




Speaking of World of Reel, Jordan has asked me to submit a ballot for his upcoming post about the greatest films of the 1960's.  I think that is likely to be posted this week sometime.  Previously Ruimy has posted lists for the 1970's, 80's, 90's, 00's and the 2010's.  I've been fortunate enough to have been included in all but the 80's list.

I started with a list of around 20 films and then culled it down to the ten that Ruimy requested.  Here's what I voted for in alphabetical order:

2001: A Space Odyssey
The Apartment 
Cool Hand Luke
Dr. Strangelove
The Graduate
The Hustler 
Lawrence of Arabia
Midnight Cowboy 
To Kill a Mockingbird
They Shoot Horses Don't They

We'll see where they end up later this week.  My guess is that 2001 comes in at the top spot.

Here's Jordan's last post teasing the 1960's poll which includes links to all of the previous decades' polls.



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MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Thursday, May 4, 2023

I'm Back / Trailers: Next Goal Wins, Strange Way of Life, Desperate Souls / Photos: Flower Moon, Poor Things, New Boy / News of Drive-Away Dolls

 I'M BACK


Well hello.  I've been away for awhile.  

Actually, the last three weeks I've been away has been the longest that NTFB has been dormant at any one time since I started writing the thing back in August of 2008.  What was up?  The wife and I went on a quick tour of  Europe.  But we're back now...as of Tuesday evening... and I'm here to crank MTFB up as we stare down the barrel of the Cannes Film Fest (starting in 11 days!)  We'll see what the results there, both critically and in terms of award winners, tell us about clues to films we could see in the San Juans on Labor day weekend.


TRAILERS

Over the past three weeks we have seen trailers released for two films that could show up on the TFF #50 playlist and one from TFF #49.  Looking ahead to the potential TFF #50 titles:

NEXT GOAL WINS



 

And STRANGE WAY OF LIFE from Pedro Almodovar (his short film that will be opening the Cannes fest in a few days):



And from TFF #49 the trailer for the documentary Desperate Souls: Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy:



PHOTOS

New stills have been released from three films that I have on my TFF #50 watch/wish list.  Take a look:

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (Scorsese)





POOR THINGS (Lanthimos)





THE NEW BOY (Thornton)




NEWS OF DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS

Ethan Coen (of Coen Brothers fame) has been quietly working on his first solo feature film, Drive-Away Dolls and now we know when it will be leased and some other interesting tidbits from a number of outlets.  The film has been set to release on Sept. 22nd which means it's possible for Telluride as well as Venice and Toronto. The 9/22 date means that it will not play NYFF as it doesn't open until Sept. 29th.  The film is distributed by focus Features.

The film stars Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo and Bill Camp.

IMDb Pro describes it as follows:

"Jamie regrets his breakup with his girlfriend while Marian needs to relax. In search of a fresh start they embark on an unexpected road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals."

Articles from Ioncinema and The Film Stage have speculated that TFF is a possible landing spot for the film.  Coen was part of a three-headed tribute along with his brother Joel and music man T. Bone Burnett at the 40th Telluride Film Festival in 2013.  It would be a nice return to TFF for its 50th fest this year.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays