The Critics Past the Cannes Half Way Point / Rasoulof Saga Continues / Deadline Details Film Fest Woes / Interviews and Profiles from Cannes: Gary Oldman

THE CRITICS PAST THE CANNES HALF WAY POINT:

Screen Daily has their top five thus far (on a four point scale):

1) Anora 3.3

2) Grand Tour 3.0

3) The Substance 2.7

4) Caught by the Tides 2.6

5) Emilia Perez 2.5

Link to the Screen Daily chart.

Ioncinema's panel's top five (on a five point scale):

1) Anora 3.5

2) Emilia Perez 3.4

3) Bird 3.0

3) Oh, Canada 3.0

3) Caught by the Tides 3.0

Link to Ioncinema's chart.

The International Cinephile Society's top five (on a four point scale):

1) Anora 3.55

2) Grand Tour 3.50

3) Caught by the Tides 3.28

4) Bird 3.0

5) The Substance 2.79

Link to the ICS chart.

RASOULOF SAGA CONTINUES

The latest wrinkle in the saga of Mohammad Rasoulof, his film, the government of Iran and Cannes is that the film maker will attend the 77th edition of the prestigious fest.

Multiple sources are reporting Rasoulof will be in Cannes in person for the screening of his The Seed of the Scared Fig.  Here's the story from Indiewire and The Hollywood Reporter.

The film is set to premiere tomorrow.

DEADLINE DETAIILS FILM FEST WOES

Deadline's Matthew Carey contributed to an article on Film Fests and their current tribulations that was published on Tuesday, May 21st.  The article focuses on European and North American fests and details some of the challenges facing a number of major festival including Telluride.

In the North American section of the story Carey writes of TFF :

"Both Sundance and the Telluride Film Festival benefit from the allure of their exclusive mountain settings, but the high price of travel and lodging have made it increasingly difficult for industry to attend.

“Telluride is really under pressure for the cost to house their own programmers and just to house the people who work for the festival,” says a senior sales agent and veteran Telluride attendee. “We feel that, just attending the festival alone. It is so high and it’s getting higher.”

The complete Deadline article is here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES FROM CANNES

Gary Oldman on Parthenope from The Hollywood Reporter.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Roger Corman 1926-2024 / Last Word on Cannes Before It Launches

 ROGER CORMAN 1926-2024

Film pioneer and legend Roger Corman died on Saturday.  Among other things, Corman was a Telluride tribute recipient in 2012.  That afforded me the opportunity to meet him and express my appreciation for what he had done for the universe of film.  It was a brief exchange and he graciously accepted my gratitude.  

I'm sure most of the readers of this space are abundantly aware of Corman's legacy in film.  The film Stage listed the following as film folk to whom Corman helped to launch:

Martin Scorsese
Francis Ford Coppola
Jack Nicholson
Robert De Niro
James Cameron
Jonathan Demme
Peter Bogdanovich
John Sayles
Dennis Hopper
Joe Dante
Ron Howard
Bruce Dern
Sylvester Stallone
William Shatner

Here's my photo of meeting Corman in 2012 just outside the Galaxy:

The eulogies and remembrances have been all over social media.  They have strongly reminded us of the legacy that Corman leaves behind.  You could make the argument that ne was as responsible as anyone for the greatness of the films of the 1970s.

A titan.

Here are Corman obituaries from:

Variety

The Hollywood Reporter

Indiewire

LAST WORD ON CANNES BEFORE IT LAUNCHES

Both The Playlist and The Film Stage have posted lists of Cannes films they regard as most anticipated and so as we head into the two week fest which traditionally crosses over around an average of eight films to TFF each year.

And so, with one more eye toward that here are the films that each source listed that, to me, feel like possibilities for The SHOW.

From both lists (including "Honorable Mentions":

Bird (Arnold)

Emilia Perez (Audiard)

Oh, Canada (Schrader)

The Apprentice (Abassi)

Megalopolis (Coppola)

Parthenope (Sorrentino)

Rumours (Maddin and Johnsons)

Additionally from The Playlist:

Meeting with Pol Pot (Panh) 

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Rasoulof)

The Most Precious of Cargoes (Hazanavicius)

Additionally from The Film Stage:

Napoleon (Gance)

Here are the complete posts from:

The Playlist

The Film Stage

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Cannes Lineup Revealed

CANNES LINEUP REVEALED

Early this morning the Cannes Film Festival officially revealed most of its lineup.  This is of particular interest to Telluride Film Fest followers because most years there is a substantial cross over from Cannes to T-ride.  The average is somewhere around 7-8 films per year.  So let's see what Cannes 2024 will be screening.  Per Variety:

OPENER

“Second Act,” Quentin Dupieux

COMPETITION

“All We Imagine as Light,” Payal Kapadia

“Anora,” Sean Baker

“Bird,” Andrea Arnold

“Caught by the Tides” (“Feng Liu Yi Dai”), Jia Zhang-Ke

“Emilia Perez,” Jacques Audiard

“Grand Tour,” Miguel Gomes

“Kinds of Kindness,” Yorgos Lanthimos

“L’Amour Ouf,” Gilles Lellouche

“Limonov: The Ballad,” Kirill Serebrennikov

“Marcello Mio,” Christophe Honore

“Megalopolis,” Francis Ford Coppola

“Motel Destino,” Karim Ainouz

“Oh Canada,” Paul Schrader

“Parthenope,” Paolo Sorrentino

“The Apprentice,” Ali Abbasi

“The Girl With the Needle,” Magnus von Horn

“The Shrouds,” David Cronenberg

“The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat

“Wild Diamond” (“Diamant Brut”), Agathe Riedinger

UN CERTAIN REGARD

“Armand,” Halfdan Ullman Tondel

“Black Dog” (“Gou Zhen”), Guan Hu

“The Damned” (Les Damnes”), Roberto Minervini

“L’Histoire de Souleymane,” Boris Lojkine

“Le Royaume,” Julien Colonna

“My Sunshine” (“Boku No Ohisama”), Hiroshi Okuyama

“Norah,” Tawfik Alzaidi

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” Rungano Nyoni

“Santosh,” Sandhya Suri

“September Says,” Ariane Labed

“The Shameless,” Konstantin Bojanov

“Viet and Nam,” Truong Minh Quy

“The Village Next to Paradise,” Mo Harawe

“Vingt Dieux!,” Louise Courvoisier

“Who Let the Dog Bite?” (“Le Proces du Chien”), Laetitia Dosch

OUT OF COMPETITION

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” George Miller

“Horizon, an American Saga,” Kevin Costner

“Rumours,” Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin

“She’s Got No Name,” Chan Peter Ho-Sun

CANNES PREMIERE

“C’est Pas Moi,” Leos Carax

“En Fanfare” (“The Matching Bang”), Emmanuel Courcol

“Everybody Loves Touda,” Nabil Ayouch

From these lists it seems like the most probable TFF choices might include:

Andrea Arnold's Bird

Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez

Francia Ford Coppola's Megalopolis

Paul Shrader's Oh, Canada

Paolo Sorrention's Parthenope

Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice

Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson's Rumours

Rithy Pahn's Rendezous with Pol Pot

I had been including Sean Baker's Anora but this past week World of Reel suggested that the film would be released this summer.

Here's the entire Variety story.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays