Larry Ratliff

A 'Tree of Life' grows in Cannes

 

Brad Pitt as a domineering Texas father in "The Tree of Life."   (Courtesy:  Fox Searchlight Pictures)

This is why we should all realize that reclusive Austin-based filmmaker Terrence Malick ("The Thin Red Line," "The New World") may never again be ready for his close-up, Mr. DeMille.

Malick's sprawling, gentle drama about creation of the universe, the afterlife and family life in 1950s Waco took the Palme d'Or (best picture) at the Cannes Film Festival Sunday night and Mr. Malick was nowhere to be seen.

Brad Pitt stars as a strict father who is especially tough on his oldest boy in "The Tree of Life."  Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain share the screen as the grown-up son and Pitt's on-screen wife, respectively.

"The Tree of Life" drew somewhat equal parts praise and catcalls from the vocal Cannes press when it was screened last week.

According to a post on the Hollywood Reporter Web site, the "press-shy Malick was not on hand at the Palais ceremony, so the award was accepted by producers Dede Gardner and Bill Pohlad."

"Later, at the closing-night dinner, Pohlad explained that Malick was back home in Austin. 'He’s very excited. He’s thrilled,' the producer said. 'He’s a good guy and just likes to be private; no insults to anybody. That’s his way,'” the Hollywood Reporter article states.

Click here to read the full story.

It should shock no one that outspoken, controversial Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier lost out as best director to Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive"), or that von Trier's doomsday sci-fi drama "Melancholia" didn't make the winner's list despite von Trier's after-the-fact apology for calling himself an Adolf Hitler sympathizer.

Kirsten Dunst did score best actress honors for her work in "Melancholia," however.

(Terrence Malick photo from some time in the past courtesy:  Hollywood.com.)

Cannes Film Fest to get an opening night Woody

It's coming up on six years since I hopped up the red-carpeted steps and basked in the bright spotlight and the French Riviera sun at the Cannes Film Festival.

Frankly, I'm a little surprised they're still having it since I won't be able to get over to France to be part of the festivities this year.

I have my memories, though; scampering up the elegant steps of the Grand Théâtre Lumière as scores, possibly hundreds of photographers muttered to each other, "Relax.  He's no one, oui?"

The photogs wisely held their flash fire for Tommy Lee Jones ("The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada") and Robert Rodriguez ("Sin City"), among many others in 2005.

This year they'll be aiming at confirmed New Yorker Woody Allen and his "Midnight in Paris."

Allen's "love letter to Paris," according to festival director Thierry Fremaux, will do the opening night Cannes Cannes May 11, states a Web post from the Hollywood Reporter.

"The romantic comedy will premiere at the Lumiere theater in Cannes on the same day of its release in France.

"The romantic comedy, shot last summer in Paris, stars a Franco-American mix of talent including Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Lea Seydoux, Adrien Brody, Gad Elmaleh and France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy," according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Make no mistake about it, I should be the last person in the world to give Woody Allen advice.  But I'll just throw this out there, in case Mr. Allen (Aw, let me call you Woody) reads this blog:

When you finally get to the top of the red-carpeted steps at the Lumiere theater and either turn or glance over your shoulder at the assembled masses in tuxedos and elegant evening dresses down below, you can get an adrenalin rush you won't soon forget by mentally channeling James Cagney's shout of accomplishment in the classic 1949 gangster flick "White Heat."

"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"

(Cannes Film Fest 2005 photo courtesy:  flickr.com)

Cannes Film Fest '11 gets a Woody

"Start spreading the news," a story proclaims on the Hollywood Reporter Web site, Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" will open the 64th Festival de Cannes in the South of France on May 11.

"The romantic comedy will premiere at the Lumiere theater in Cannes on the same day of its release in France," the article adds.

Shot last summer in Paris, "Midnight in Paris" stars a Franco-American mix of talent including Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Lea Seydoux, Adrien Brody, Gad Elmaleh and France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy," sez the Hollywood Reporter article.

Festival director Thierry Fremaux makes no secret of his appreciation of Allen's 41st feature film.

"'Midnight in Paris' is a wonderful love letter to Paris," Fremaux said, adding:

"It's a film in which Woody Allen takes a deeper look at the issues raised in his last films: our relationship with history, art, pleasure and life."

(Woody Allen photo at a "Cassandra's Dream" event in 2007 courtesy:  WireImage.com)

Keeping up with The Jones

 

Tommy Lee Jones (Courtesy:  dailystab.com)

It looks like San Antonio's Tommy Lee Jones, who made his feature-film directing debut with the modern border Western "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" in 2005, is about to hop behind the camera again.

And it's not likely to be for a reboot of Ernest Hemingway's "Islands in the Stream," Jones' long-nurtured pet project that he shopped around the Cannes Film Festival last year.

According to a post on the Hollywood Reporter Web site, the Alamo City's resident Oscar-winning actor is in negotiations to direct and co-star in "The Lincoln Lawyer" opposite fellow Texan Matthew McConaughey.

"The Lincoln Lawyer" appears to be a starring vehicle for McConaughey.  Set up at Lakeshore Entertainment, the story revolves around Mickey Haller, "a wheeler-dealer Los Angeles lawyer who operates out of the back of his Lincoln," according to the Hollywood Reporter story.

"Haller is content with a career defending garden-variety criminals until he lands the case of a lifetime: defending a Beverly Hills playboy accused of murder.

"McConaughey is on board to play Haller. It's unclear what role Jones would play; the playboy character, which could be the second male lead, is described in the book as somewhat younger than Jones, though the part could be adjusted to accommodate an older interpretation," the article states.

It'll be interesting to see how all this plays out in Hollywood.

Jones, who appears next in the timely unemployment drama "The Company Men" alongside Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner and Maria Bello, sued Paramount Pictures for $10 million in Sept., 2008 over compensation and other issues related to the Coen Bros. drama "No Country for Old Men."

 

  

Heath Ledger's final film headed to U.S.

 

 

The late Heath Ledger in "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus."  (Courtesy:  Comingsoon.net)

There's good news today for fans of the late Heath Ledger.

Sony appears to be in final talks to distribute Ledger's final film, Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," which Ledger was filming at the time of his death in Jan., 2008.

The film wasn't complete at the time of Ledger's death.  So with a little screen magic and the help of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who stepped in for their departed friend in fantasy segments, Gilliam got his film done.

No deal was made when "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Fest in May.  According to an item posted on the Variety Web site, however, the deal may be getting done.

"Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group is in advanced talks to pick up 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,' with plans for it to go out theatrically, likely this year, via Sony Pictures Classics," the article says.

Pattinson breaks 'Breaking Dawn' news

Back in November, when I sat down with "Twilight" co-star Robert Pattinson in a Dallas hotel suite, the British actor was about to face hundreds of screaming fans (mostly teenage girls) at a shopping mall. 

Many of them had stood in line in the rain all night to get a glimpse, or, if things went really well, to even touch the soon-to-be marquee idol who would portray vampire Edward Cullen in the movie version of Stephenie Meyer's popular novels.

At the time, I called Pattinson a rock star without a guitar.  He offered:

"I never got the whole vampire thing.  I watched a few movies.  I really liked 'Nosferatu.'"

Well, it appears young Mr. Pattinson has gotten into the whole "vampire thing" more than just a little bit. 

He showed up at the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France on Tuesday and confirmed there will be a fourth installment in the hot ticket vampire franchise.  It'll be based on Meyer's "Breaking Dawn," according to an item posted on the Hollywood Reporter Website.

"Pattinson told The Hollywood Reporter that he is committed to starring in the final outing to date but doesn't know when backers Summit Entertainment will begin production because of the actor's jam-packed shooting schedule," the Web post says.

Committing to No. 4 in the franchise is a pretty gutsy move since only "Twilight," the first vampire romancer, has hit screens so far.  No. 2,"New Moon," is set for release this November.

(Photo:  Kristen Stewart, left, tries to figure out the hypnotic animal attraction of Robert Pattinson in last year's "Twilight."/Summit Entertainment)  

Tommy Cannes they hear you?

 

Well, guess what Tommy Lee Jones film is on the seller's block at the Cannes Film Fest this year?

If you guessed "In the Electric Mist," which went directly to video stores in the U.S. in early March, you'd be correct.  But only partially.

Actually, it was a bit of a trick question.  "In the Electric Mist" is screening at the Arcades 2 Theater in Cannes today in hopes of sparking international sales.

There's other Tommy Lee Jones-related activity in the South of France this week.  A second film is looking for funding, according to an item posted on the Hollywood Reporter Web site:

"On the prestige end of the spectrum is 'Mother and Child' -- which sees Rodrigo Garcia direct and Annette Bening and Naomi Watts star in an adoption drama -- and 'The Company Men,' John Wells' feature directorial debut about the lives of downsized employees played by Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones.

"The film, which CAA is repping for domestic, has just entered production and is splitting buyers, who are either attracted to or skeptical of the recession hook," according to the Hollywood Reporter piece.

Jones, San Antonio's resident Academy Award winning actor, is no stranger to the Cannes Film Fest.  He was there last year, looking for up-front money to fund "Islands in the Stream." Jones' pet project is a re-imagining of the 1977 drama based on Ernest Hemingway's novel.

Jones was the aw-shucks toast of Cannes in 2005.  I was in the house and in a rented tuxedo (although I forgot my shiny rented shoes) at the Grand Theatre Lumiere when the Texas-born Jones was noticeably moved by a frenzied scene upon his arrival and, later, a sustained standing ovation for "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada."

Jones' feature film directing debut also earned him Best Actor honors that year.

(Photo:  Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Electric Mist."/Image Entertainment)
 

What's up at Cannes? Well, 'Up'

  

The Cannes Film Festival in the South of France has always been a cartoonish, animated affair with larger than life star-gazing and celebs engulfed in blaze-of-glory color as they smile into the flashing cameras.

So perhaps it's appropriate that this year's opening night selection is as animated as the world-class film fest itself.  Disney/Pixar's "Up," featuring the gruff voice of 80-year-old Ed Asner, kicks things off Wednesday night.  In 3-D no less.

That's never happened before.  

Animated movies are no stranger to Cannes.  Jerry Seinfeld, dressed as a bee and held up by a wire, flew over gasping attendees on the Croisette to promote "Bee Movie" two years ago.

"Up" draws opening night, though.  The black tie formal event is usually reserved for, shall we say, more serious cinema fare.  Last year went a little goofy with Fernando Meirelles' white blindness thriller "Blindness."

In 2007, the same year Seinfeld was beeing more than a little silly to promote his animated flick, opening night honors went to Wong Kar's eccentric and sultry "My Blueberry Nights," which co-starred Jude Law and Norah Jones.

It's a different toon this year, notes a Variety Web site article:

"The Mouse House is happy to use Cannes as a way to hype 'Up,' about a 78-year-old man (Asner) who embarks on a series of adventures after tying thousands of balloons to his house and flying off to South America."

(Photo:  Dug, stowaway Wilderness Explorer Russell and Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) get high in "Up."/Disney/Pixar)