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Cannes 2015: The official 68th Cannes lineup is here!

OUT-OF-COMPETITION

La Tete haute (Head Held High) | France

Mad Max: Fury Road | Australia | George Miller

An Irrational Man | USA | Woody Allen
Inside Out | USA | Pete Docter
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) | France

The Opening Night film was announced yesterday... Emmanuelle Bercot's "La Tete haute" will open the most prestigious film festival in the world on May 13!

La Tête haute © Luc Roux

La Tête haute tells the story of Malony, and his upbringing from six to eighteen years, as a children's judge and social worker try to save him. It was filmed in the Nord-Pas de Calais, Rhône-Alpes and Paris area regions, with the participation of Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Magimel, Sara Forestier and Rod Paradot, who plays the main character.

The world première of La Tête haute will be shown in the Grand Théâtre Lumière in the Palais des Festivals, and will be released in French cinemas the same day, on Wednesday 13 May. The film has already been sold in multiple countries.

Emmanuelle Bercot is a film director, screenwriter and actress. She studied dance at Cours Florent before attending La Fémis film school. Her talent was discovered at the 1997 Festival de Cannes, where her short film, Les Vacances, received the Jury Prize. This was confirmed two years later with a second Cinéfondation Prize for La Puce, her final-year student film. In 2001, her first feature film, Clement (Clément), in which she plays the main character, made the Un Certain Regard Official Selection. Since then, she has directed several films, including On my Way (Elle s'en va) in 2014, in which Catherine Deneuve gave one of her best performances.
Emmanuelle Bercot also co-wrote the script for Maïwenn's Polis (Polisse), which earned her the main role in her latest film, Mon Roi.

La Tête haute was written by Emmanuelle Bercot and Marcia Romano, with Guillaume Schiffman as director of photography. It is produced by Les Films du Kiosque, and co-produced by France 2 Cinéma, Wild Bunch, Rhône-Alpes Cinema and Pictanovo with the participation of Nord-Pas de Calais Region. It is sold by Elle Driver and distributed in France by Wild Bunch.

The 68th edition of the Festival de Cannes will take place from 13 to 24 May 2015. The Jury of the Competition will be chaired by American directors Joel and Ethan Coen, the Un Certain Regard Jury by the Italian-American actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini, and the Cinéfondation and Short Film Jury by Mauritian Film Director Abderrahmane Sissako.

Earlier, George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" was also announced as one of the Official Selection Out-of-Competition films and will screen May 14!

After a gap of 30 years, the hero of the legendary saga returns, this time played by Tom Hardy after his first epoch-making appearance courtesy of Mel Gibson.

Mad Max: Fury Road transports us to a post-apocalyptic world in which gangs clash over scare petrol and water resources. Max Rockatansky, played by Tom Hardy, comes face to face with the Empress Furiosa (Charlize Theron), who is fleeing a gang in hot pursuit…

It also marks the long-awaited return of Georges Miller to the realm of action and science fiction films. The Australian writer launched the series in 1979 before filming Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985).

Produced by the Kennedy Miller Mitchell Company, Mad Max: Fury Road is distributed internationally by Warner Bros Pictures, and in certain regions by Village Roadshow Pictures.

The film will go on release worldwide following its Cannes preview, on 14th May.

Watch the trailer of Mad Max below.

See you at the festival!

XXX
Raymond Lo

Cannes 2015: Isabella Rossellini to preside Un Certain Regard Jury!

The Italian-American actress and director Isabella Rossellini has kindly agreed to preside the Un Certain Regard Jury, the Official Selection of the Festival de Cannes made up of twenty films to be announced, along with the films In Competition, at the press conference on 16th April.

The daughter of Italian director Roberto Rossellini and Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, to whom this year’s Festival de Cannes is to pay tribute, Isabella began her cinematic career alongside her father as a dresser, before becoming acting for the Taviani Brothers – family friends who gave her a role in The Meadow (1979). Her career quickly took an international turn, with White Nights by Taylor Hackford (1985), Tough Guys Don’t Dance by Norman Mailer (1987), Les Yeux noirs (1987) by Nikita Mikhalkov, Blue Velvet (1986) and then Wild at Heart (1990) by David Lynch, for whom she played a number of mysterious and tortured female roles.

She went on to star in a wider variety of guises for both television and film in Italy and America but returned to arthouse cinema with Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral (1996), and Two Lovers by James Gray (2008), in which she played a role of remarkable intensity. In 2010 she appeared in The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Saverio Costanzo.

In 2008 following a request from Robert Redford, she threw herself into directing a miniseries devoted to the reproduction, seduction techniques and maternal behaviour of animals. Green Porno, Seduce me and Mammas – all produced by SundanceTV – revealed her irresistible comic talent and off-beat sense of humour.

Isabella Rossellini and Jean-Claude Carrière then made a scenic version entitled Animals Distracted Me, which toured the world to great acclaim.

At the Festival de Cannes, Isabella Rossellini will take part in the tribute to her mother by attending the screening of Ingrid Bergman, in Her Own Words‏, a documentary by Stig Björkman being shown as part of the Cannes Classics.

She will also launch her own ‘Ingrid Bergman Tribute’ to celebrate the centenary of her mother’s birth. The show, directed by Guido Torlonia and Ludovica Damiani, will be based on both her autobiography and her correspondence with Roberto Rossellini and will play on some at the world’s major theatres.

With the help of a soon-to-be-announced Jury made up of artists, journalists and festival directors, Isabella Rossellini will award the Un Certain Regard Prize and meet the winners on Saturday 23rd of May, on the eve of the closing ceremony.

The 2014 Un Certain Regard was awarded by President of the Jury Pablo Trapero to White God directed by Kornél Mundruczó.

News: Olivier Assayas' "Clouds of Sils Maria" opens in Los Angeles on April 10!

Award-winning film "Clouds of Sils Maria" will finally open in US theaters on April 10, 2015, nearly a year after its sensational debut at last year's Cannes Film Festival and more than a month after one of its stars, Kristen Stewart, made history by winning as the year's Best Supporting Actress at the Cesars, France's top acting awards!

The movie is a modern-day update of the classic "All About Eve" and tells the story of Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche), who, at the peak of her international career, is asked to perform in a revival of the play that made her famous twenty years ago. But back then she played the role of Sigrid, an alluring young girl who disarms and eventually drives her boss Helena to suicide. Now she is being asked to step into the other role, that of the older Helena. She departs with her assistant (Kristen Stewart) to rehearse in Sils Maria; a remote region of the Alps. A young Hollywood starlet with a penchant for scandal (Chloë Grace Moretz) is to take on the role of Sigrid, and Maria finds herself on the other side of the mirror, face to face with an ambiguously charming woman who is, in essence, an unsettling reflection of herself.

The film is written and directed by one of the world's leading filmmakers, Olivier Assayas, and produced by Charles Gillibert. If you can't wait for April 10, a special screening of the movie will be held at the USC campus on April 1 and it's going to be free!!!

Here's the sked:

Time: 7:00 P.M. on Wednesday, April 1st, 2015

Venue: The Ray Stark Family Theatre, SCA 108 | 900 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007

You have to RSVP here: https://cinema.usc.edu/events/reservation.cfm?id=14936

Meantime, you can watch the trailer of the movie below...

Oscars 2015: "Wild Tales"

I waited half a year for "Wild Tales" to finally reach the US after it received spectacular reviews at Cannes and after i have heard so many journalists, who have seen the movie and who I have been with in junkets, raving madly about the Argentine film. All of them were one in saying that it was perhaps the best film this year.

And after watching a screening the other night, all i can say is, I agree.

All the buzz was warranted. All the great reviews were earned. All the superlatives heaped on the film were absolutely well deserved. "Wild Tales" is incredibly great and, if not for Richard Linklater's cinematic masterpiece "Boyhood", I would easily declare the film my favorite this year. But it is my second favorite now and i don't think its place in my ranking is in any danger of ever being dislodged.

The movie is an anthology of six short stories that share a common theme: Violence and Vengeance. If you are in the mood for some wicked time at the movies, this movie is perfect. But even if you want to just have a good fun at the movies, to be entertained without being dumbed down by poor writing, this is the perfect movie for you. It's the kind of film that successfully mixes high art with commercial filmmaking!

Written and directed by Argentine filmmaker Damián Szifrón and co-produced by the award-winning Agustín Almodóvar and Pedro Almodóvar, "Wild Tales" take the audience through a literal wild ride when men and women have finally succumbed to their desire for vengeance without regard of what the outcome might be. The satisfaction is in carrying out the plan notwithstanding the end results and that frees the movie from ever having to drag itself by tidying up each of the short stories weaved in this monumental film.

The formula is simple. Get angry, get back. The end. And you get six of these stories in one!

The film begins with a panicked passengers on an airplane who discovers that they were duped into flying on the plane by a common man whom they all committed some form of bad act at some point before. When they finally came to realize all these, it was already a minute too late. This happens even before the opening credits roll and if you don't find yourself howling and applauding something is wrong with you.

Five more stories will be introduced after the opening credits. The stories are independent of each other but each story contributes to make the entire movie an experience something movie buffs and ordinary moviegoers will collectively enjoy.

Each short story is presented as a provocation and I tremendously enjoyed what each one of them had to offer. My favorite though was the final story about a bride discovering on her wedding day, during the reception mind you, that her groom has been carrying on an affair with a woman co-worker who happened to be present at their wedding. This discovery sets off a wild roller-coaster chase of who gets to ruin who in front of their unknowing but shocked guests. This last piece confirmed for me what i have believed all along: That the depth of one's love for another is in equal measure to the depth of hate the same person can have for someone they purport to love. The final story ends differently from the previous five and it somehow offers a collective redemption for all of them.

"Wild Tales" is the official submission of Argentina to the Oscars. It could win!

Rating: 5 Stars

XXX
Raymond Lo

Film Review: "Mr. Turner"

If i can count how many times i turned in my seat and forced my eyelids to stay open during the first hour of Mike Leigh's Cannes-winning film "Mr. Turner", i would probably give the film a better review. But I can't.

The film is gorgeous but boring as hell!

I am not English and i don't know who the eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner was before i went to a screening the other night. Timothy Spall won best actor at Cannes for his performance and was recently awarded the same accolade by the New York Film Critics but i was not wowed. Perhaps because i had a bad stomach the night i saw the movie? Or perhaps the movie was just really bad that i didn't appreciate (outside of the cinematography and production design) everything else that have countless critics lavishing the movie with praises. I left the screening after one hour.

The film opens with an extended shot of two country maids walking leisurely by a swamp with a majestic windmill in the background. The scene ends with a gorgeously composed shot of Mr. Turner in the middle of the golden field drawing on his notebook his rendition of the scenery before him. Then it heads to a beautifully rendered title credits.

After the title credits, the movie jumps to a scene in the city with Mr. Turner returning to his home where his maid welcomes him full of sexual longing. He responds by touching her breast and feeling her crotch area. The act was enough to bring a satisfactory smile to the maid. And i dozed off.

When i awoke, Mr. Turner was in the company of fellow artists in the Royal Academy with a lady trying to play the piano. And i dozed off again.

When i awoke, Mr. Turner was on a ship, where i first noticed the impeccable costumes worn by the cast. The ship docks in an English island where Mr. Turner meets an innkeeper who i believe would later become his mistress. And i dozed off again.

When i awoke, I decided to leave the theatre. On my way out, two other guys were quietly leaving the cinema as well.

Rating: No Rating. Kudos stars for the impressive technical elements.

XXX
Raymond Lo

Quick Review: BENDS

I saw last night this outstanding 2013 HK drama about a socialite and her driver and the unlikely friendship they share as they try to navigate the challenges in their respective lives. The film deftly examines the controversial one child policy in China and its impact to the poor working class in contrast to the seemingly vulgar lifestyle of the rich set of the more affluent HK society... The movie opens with a wide shot of the HK-Shenzhen border suggesting perhaps the wide divide between the two cities but ends with a more hopeful shot of lush greeneries in a road in the middle of nowhere --- why hopeful? You'll have to watch it to know why...

Rating: 5 Stars　

XXX

Raymond Lo

Quick Review: "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Saw again last night Lynne Ramsay's 2011 Cannes entry, "We Need to Talk About Kevin."

I always had the DVD and has not seen the movie since I saw it more than three years ago but I decided to watch it again in the wake of that awful rampage in Santa Barbara over the weekend. Not that i wanted to diminish the horrific nature of the actual crime but I thought I needed to be consoled somehow by watching Tilda Swinton's Eva's travails again. (My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims.)

This psychological thriller is a masterful attempt to piece together the motivating factors behind such atrocious act. It also deftly examines the repercussions of such act to the perpetrator's surviving parent. A very difficult film to watch but it is nevertheless an important treatise on what ails society (and the family, for that matter) in the present.

The film is never meant to be timely but there's a specific resonance and significance watching this movie today given the lurid headlines dominating the news lately.

Watch this movie if you haven't yet. Rent it. Stream it. And let's all pray that the violence depicted in the film remain only in movies.

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars

XXX
Raymond De Asis Lo

Cannes 2014: Winners!

The most prestigious film festival in the world has drawn to a close. The jury headed by Jane Campion ("The Piano", "Bright Star") has chosen the winners in tonight's suspenseful, glittering and star-studded presentation.

And the winners are ---

Short Film Palme d'Or: "Leidi"

Camera d'Or: "Party Girl"
Best Actor: Timothy Spall, "Mr Turner"

Timothy Spall, "Mr Turner"

Best Actress: Julianne Moore, "Maps to the Stars"
Best Screenplay: "Leviathan"

Best Screenplay, "Leviathan"

Jury Prize: TIE "Mommy" and "Goodbye to Language"

Xavier Dolan, "Mommy"

Jean-Luc Godard, "Goodbye to Language"

Best Director: Bennett Miller, "Foxcatcher"

Grand Prix: "The Wonders"

The Wonders - Alice Rohrwacher

Palme d'Or: "Winter Sleep"

Winter Sleep - Palme d'Or Winner

Congratulations to the winners!

XXX

Raymond De Asis Lo

Cannes 2014: Hungary's "White God" is Un Certain Regard Winner

The Hungarian allegorical tale featuring a pack of dogs as lead stars won the Un Certain Regard prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

“White God,” described by the New York Times as "a fierce and beautiful Hungarian parable about a girl, her dog, and the uprising that’s sparked after they are separated" is the 6th film from director Kornel Mundruczo who describes the film as an allegory about the treatment of minorities and immigrants in Europe.

"Turist" (dir. Ruben Ostlund) won the jury prize.

The popular Un Certain Regard opening film " Party Girl" won an ensemble prize while the best actor prize was awarded to actor David Gulpilil for his role in "Charlie's Country" (dir. Rolf De Heer). Wim Wenders and Juliano Salgado shared a special prize for their film "Salt of the Earth."

The festival's top prizes including the much coveted Palme d'Or will be announced Sunday.

Films in the running for the top prize include "Two Days, One Night", "Winter Sleep", "Wild Tales", "Leviathan" and Xavier Dolan's "Mommy".

xxx
Raymond De Asis Lo

In Photos: 2014 Cannes Competition Films

The 2014 Cannes Film Festival is past its halfway mark and the current favorite to win the prestigious Palme d'Or is the the new film from Cannes favorite brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, "Two Days, One Night". We'll know by Sunday if this holds true. Other movies getting good buzz are "Foxcatcher", "Mr Turner", "Clouds of Sils Maria" and "Winter Sleep."

The Search

Timbuktu

Wild Tales

Leviathan

Winter Sleep

Saint Laurent

Mr Turner

XXX

Raymond Lo

Film Review: Johnnie To's Vengeance

Vengeance

Saw Johnnie To’s 2009 Cannes competition film "Vengeance" last night and I was completely enthralled again by how the master director hooks his audience to the story that he wants to tell until he sets you free with another unexpected finale – actually, the unpredictability of his narrative is almost predictable already. And don’t consider it a criticism; it’s just an observation coming from an awe-struck fan.

This is only the 2^nd film that I have seen from the director and I now consider myself a super fan. I first saw his "Drug War" two weeks ago on DVD and that one was so impressive that I watched it twice in one night! Johnnie has this uncanny ability that only a few masters are able to do: He can set the tone of the movie by the very first minute! It’s amazing!

"Drug War" is the more superior film between the two but "Vengeance" is by no means a lesser film. It’s a suspense-thriller filled with spectacular action set pieces and enigmatic performances.

The main plot is about a father trying to avenge the murder of his son-in-law and his two grandchildren upon the request of his severely paralyzed daughter. He hires a group of assassins to locate the killers and determine the mastermind behind the hit but there’s a minor problem: He has a bullet lodged in his brain from a shootout twenty years earlier that’s causing him to lose his short-term memory.

The action sequences are impressively choreographed specially the nighttime shootout between his hired assassins and the killers he was after. The fight is like a ballet held in a forest with the moonlight and the shadows of the trees and the fleeting flame ignitions from gunfire completing the dramatic vista.

I am not very familiar with the French actor Johnny Holiday but his presence and performance along with another of Anthony Wong’s indelible characterizations provide the movie’s weightiest points.

Rent it. Buy it. Stream it. Watch it.

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

XXX

Raymond De Asis Lo

Cannes 2014 Official Line-up

Here's the 49 official films screening at Cannes. There are 18 Competition films and notably missing are films from China and Korea although both countries are represented well in the Un Certain Regard section. Australian filmmaker Jane Campion is head of jury this year.

Oh, I wish i could go to Cannes this year. :(

One day, someday.

List below:

OPENING NIGHT

1) "Grace of Monaco" (dir. Olivier Dahan, France-U.S.-Belgium-Italy) Nicole Kidman stars.

COMPETITION

2) "The Captive" (dir. Atom Egoyan, Canada)

Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson

3) "Clouds of Sils Maria" (dir. Olivier Assayas, France-Switzerland-Germany)

Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloe Grace Moretz

4) "Foxcatcher" (dir. Bennett Miller, U.S.)

5) "Goodbye to Language 3D" (dir. Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland)

6) "The Homesman" (dir. Tommy Lee Jones, U.S.)

Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank

7) "Jimmy’s Hall" (dir. Ken Loach, U.K.-Ireland-France)

8) "Leviathan" (dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia)

9) "Le Meraviglie" (dir. Alice Rohrwacher, Italy-Switzerland-Germany)

10) "Maps to the Stars" (dir. David Cronenberg, U.S.)

11) "Mommy" (dir. Xavier Dolan, France-Canada)

12) "Saint Laurent" (dir. Bertrand Bonello, France)

13) "The Search" (dir. Michel Hazanavicius, France)

Berenice Bejo, Annette Bening

14) "Still the Water" (dir. Naomi Kawase, Japan)

15) "Mr. Turner" (dir. Mike Leigh, U.K.)

16) "Timbuktu" (dir. Abderrahmane Sissako, France)

17) "Two Days, One Night" (dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium)

Marion Cotillard

18) "Wild Tales" (dir. Damian Szifron, Argentina-Spain)

19) "Winter Sleep" (dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey-Germany-France)

OUT OF COMPETITION
20) "Coming Home" (dir. Zhang Yimou, China)

21) "How to Train Your Dragon 2" (dir. Dean DeBlois, U.S.)

22) "Les Gens du Monde" (dir. Yves Jeuland, France)

UN CERTAIN REGARD
23) "Party Girl" (dir. Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis, France)
24) "Amour Fou" (dir. Jessica Hausner, Austria-Luxembourg-Germany)
25) "Bird People" (dir. Pascale Ferran, France)
26) "The Blue Room" (dir. Mathieu Amalric, France)
27) "Charlie’s Country" (dir. Rolf de Heer, Australia)
28) "A Girl at My Door" (dir. July Jung, South Korea)
29) "Eleanor Rigby" (dir. Ned Benson, U.S.)
30) "Fantasia" (dir. Wang Chao, China)
31) "Force Majeure" (dir. Ruben Ostlund, Sweden)
32) "Harcheck Mi Headro" (dir. Keren Yedaya, Israel)
33) "Hermosa Juventud" (dir. Jaime Rosales, Spain)
34) "Incompresa" (dir. Asia Argento, Italy-France)
35) "Jauja" (dir. Lisandro Alonso, Denmark-U.S.-Argentina)
36) "Lost River" (dir. Ryan Gosling, U.S.)
37) "Run" (dir. Philippe Lacote, France-Ivory Coast)
38) "Salt of the Earth" (dir. Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, France-Italy-Brazil)
39) "Snow in Paradise" (dir. Andrew Hulme, U.K.)
40) "Titli" (dir. Kanu Behl, India)
41) "Xenia" (dir. Panos Koutras, Greece-France-Belgium)

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

42) "The Rover" (dir. David Michod, Australia)

43) "The Salvation" (dir. Kristian Levring, Denmark

44) "The Target" (dir. Yoon Hong-seung, South Korea)

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

45) "Bridges of Sarajevo" (dir. Aida Begic, Isild le Besco, Leonardo di Constanzo, Pedro Costa, Jean-Luc Godard, Kamen Kalev, Sergei Loznitsa, Vincenzo Marra, Ursula Meier, Vladimir Perisic, Cristi Puiu, Marc Recha, Angela Schanelec)

46) "Caricaturistes: Fantassins de la democratie" (dir. Stephanie Valloatto, France)

47) "Maidan" (dir. Sergei Loznitsa, Ukraine)

48) "Red Army" (dir. Polsky Gabe, Russia)

49) "Silvered Water" (dir. Mohammed Oussama and Wiam Bedirxan, Syria-France)

XXX

Raymond

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