Cannes Winners / Trailer for Hallelujah

CANNES WINNERS

Ruben Ostlund won his second Palme d'Or on Saturday for his Triangle of Sadness.  My expectation, at least for the moment is that likely means this will be a TFF that does not host the Palme winner. Ostlund's previous two Cannes films (Force Majeure and The Square) did not make the Cannes-TFF connection.  That doesn't mean it can't happen just that it is historically unlikely.

Films that could have a boost with Cannes accolades leading to a Telluride selection:

Lukas Dhont's Close (tied for the Grand Prix)

Claire Denis' Stars at Noon (tied for Grand Prix)

Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave (Best Direction)

Jerzy Skolimowski's EO (tied for Jury Prize)

The Dardennes Brothers' Tori and Lokita (Special 75th Anniversary Award)

Ali Abassi's Holy Spider (Best Actress-Zar Amir-Ebrahimi)

Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker (Best Actor-Song Kang-ho)

The Hollywood Reporter has details here.

TRAILER FOR HALLELUJAH

The documentary about Leonard Cohen's most famous song that played as a part of the TFF #48 lineup has a trailer now.  The release happened this week from distrib Sony Pictures Classics.  The film is scheduled for release on July 1st.

Additionally, here's a link to FirstShowing.net and further details about the film.

More later...

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Checking Cannes / Ethan Coen and Jerry Lee

 CHECKING CANNES

I'm continuing to monitor the critical reactions to films unspooling at the 75th Cannes Film Festival which hits its half way point today.  The fest is set to end on Saturday.

Looking at the combination of critical responses that is curated by Reini Urban here are some of the films that I have on my TFF #49 radar and their current combined rating (on a 10 point scale) as well as their position on the overall Cannes chart which includes virtually every film that is screening within any part of the festival:

10) Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook) 9.08

14) Close (Lukas Dhont) 8.40

24) Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi) 7.91

34) Final Cut (Michel Hazanavicius)

42) One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Love) 7.17

52) Armageddon Time (James Gray) 6.94

55) All the People I'll Never Be (David Chou) 6.84

59) Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt) 6.75

68) R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu) 6.66

Still waiting for enough critical responses to evaluate The Dardennes' Tori and Lokita and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker.

For a closer look at individual responses to the Palme d'Or competitors I have linked the charts for that from:

Screen Daily

Ioncinema

The Palme d'Or winner and Telluride cross over in recent years:

2019: Parasite

2018: Shoplifters

2013: Blue Is the Warmest Colour

2012: Amour

2009: The White Ribbon

2007: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, Two Days

2005: L'Enfant

2003: Elephant

ETHAN COEN AND JERRY LEE

Ethan Coen's documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind dropped yesterday at Cannes with a second screening scheduled for today.  The film is being produced (in part) and distributed by A24.  That and the fact that Coen and his co-producer T-Bone Burnett were co-recipients of a TFF Tribute for TFF #40-2013) gives a glimmer of hope that the doc could be a selection for TFF #49.

Coen was interviewed recently by Deadline's Mike Fleming, Jr. about the project.  That is linked here.

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Kino Lorber Acquisition Could Be a TFF Player / Cannes Has a New Palme / Initial Views of Holy Spider

KINO LORBER ACQUISITION COULD BE A TFF PLAYER

The Hollywood Reporter let us know on Friday that Kino Lorber had acquired the North American rights to Maggie Peren's The Forger.  The film was selection of the Berlin International Film Festival.  According to IDMb The Forger is:

"The true story of Cioma Schönhaus, a Jewish man who, during the Second World War, repeatedly escaped the Gestapo thanks to his ability to forge passports. But his other talent was perhaps even rarer: the gift for happiness."

The Kino Lorber buy and the film's Berlin lineage suggests at least some possibility that it could play at Telluride this Labor Day.

Kino Lorber has frequently landed films in the TFF lineup.  Some examples:

2020: (announced) Never Gonna Snow Again, There Is No Evil and Truman & Tennessee

2019: Beanpole

2017: Filmworker

2016: Fire at Sea

2015: Ixcanul, Sembene!, Taxi

The trailer for the film is linked here from YouTube:

THR says the film will be released later in 2022.

The complete THR story is linked here.

CANNES HAS A NEW PALME

I mean it literally.  The Cannes Fest has a new design for the physical award that will be handed out at the end of the month.  Awards Watch's Erik Anderson was who first drew my attention to that news with a Tweet this past Saturday.

Here's the new look Palme d'Or:

The Hollywood Reporter's Chris Gardner provided the details with this story that was posted Friday.

INITIAL VIEWS OF HOLY SPIDER

The Playlist provided some early stills from Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider.  The film is playing Cannes in the Main Competition section.  Abbasi previously played Cannes in 2018in the Un Certain Regard section with Border which then made the trip to Telluride later that September.  That opens the door to some serious speculation that this new film might also be a candidate for TFF #49.

The film's description per IMDb:

"In Holy Spider, we follow family man Saeed as he embarks on his own religious quest - to "cleanse" the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission."

Here's a taste from the images at The Playlist:

See the complete set of pics and the full post from The Playlist here.

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More Titles for Cannes / Netflix Adds Inarritu

MORE TITLES FOR CANNES

Since my last post a week ago the Cannes Film Fest has added the remaining titles for its 95th edition, named a Palme d'Or jury and an Un Certain Regard opening night film.  Despite all of the new selections I ma hard pressed to put my finger on a single film that is suggestive of a leap from France to Colorado in early September.

After the initial round of films were announced I landed on these as the most likely unseen candidates to add to the tradition of films doing the Cannes-Telluride tango:

The Stars at Noon

Tori and Lokita

Close

Armageddon Time

Broker

RMN

Showing Up

Upon further reflection I might add:

Armageddon Time

Holy Spider

Moonage Daydream

Click here to see the complete list of titles at Cannes (from Next Best Picture).

NETFLIX ADDS INARRITU

Multiple outlets reported yesterday that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths has been acquired for distribution by Netflix.  Most readers of this space know that I have had Bardo on a number of preliminary lists for a slot at TFF #49 for quite some time based on Inarritu's extensive relationship with the festival for many years dating back to Babel in 2006.

The acquisition by Netflix only adds to the likelihood as the streaming giant has become a major player at Telluride over the last several years with films such as The Power of the Dog,  Marriage Story and Roma all flying the Netflix banner at Telluride.

It seems likely enough that Ioncinema reported the story and included this comment:

"...expected to wrap by fall for what should be a Venice Film Festival premiere (plus Telluride), the Netflix folks are getting into the Iñárritu business landing the rights to revised title BARDO, Chronicle of a Handful of Truths."

In addition to the Ioncinema story, the acquisition was reported by:

The Hollywood Reporter

Deadline

Indiewire

The Playlist

World of Reel

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Lynch at Cannes? / A Couple of More Cannes Predictions

 LYNCH AT CANNES?

Lots of speculation within the last month or so, that David Lynch might launch a new film in May.  Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel (among others) has been among those that have suggested that a "surprise" inclusion will be a Lynch film.

Ruimy has posted a couple of times about the possibility.  Here's his March 10th post.  He wrote about it again last week.  Here's his April 8th post on the matter.

Over the years there has been a strong relationship between Cannes and Telluride with many films having premiered at the French festival and then screening three and half months later in southwest Colorado.

Which, of course, raises the question: Does Lynch return to Telluride?  Lynch has a history at the fest with Blue Velvet in 1986, a 1989 presentation of Twin Peaks and a Tribute to him in 1999 with a screening of The Straight Story.

We could know on Thursday if the film even exists and if it play Cannes when the the bulk of its lineup is announced.  which leads to...

 A COUPLE OF MORE CANNES PREDICTIONS 

From Ioncinema and Screen Daily come these titles that could be announced Thursday that seem to me to have potential as films that also might then screen as a part of The SHOW:

Armageddon Time

Asteroid City

Bardo

Bones and All

Broker

Crimes of the Future

R.M.N.

Showing Up

The Son

Tori and Lokita

The Whale

Women Talking

Look at the complete lists from both outlets at these links:

Ioncinema

Screen Daily

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