Here’s to the 70th edition – and my 11th – of the Cannes Film Festival! – to sharing teeny-tiny apartments with teeny-tiny flights of stairs and no elevator – to forgoing late-night parties for early-morning miles with breathtaking views – to Tilda, and Jake, and, Will, and Isabelle – to dancing to Justice with a recovering knee – to a 33-year old street artist & an 88-year old film legend taking a moving road trip together – to being blown away by Inarritu & Lubezki and the possibilities of VR – to red carpets for porta potties, and in the press room, and outside churches – to drinking rose while…
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#Cannes16 – My Favourite Films
It’s always a big comedown to go back to a life not spent watching 2-3 movies a day, running from one interview to the next. And so it is with Life After Cannes. But there is the knowledge that many of the films seen will start to make their way out into the world and take their place within cinemas around the world. Here are my favourite films from this year’s festival, which I hope to be watching again very soon… And for more on them, I present their trailers: Paterson The Handmaiden Captain Fantastic
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Cannes on the Run – It’s a Wrap
Just before I left New York for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, I had Valerie, the Amy Winehouse track by Mark Ronson stuck in my head. It stayed there throughout my time on the French Riviera thanks to seeing a film that became one of my best at the fest. The Amy Winehouse documentary, simply titled Amy, earned heaps of praise when it debuted early on in the fest. There’s a quote in it that also stayed with me, uttered by the inimitable Tony Bennett: “Life teaches you how to live it, if you live long enough.” Words that could probably only be said by someone like him who has been there and done that when…
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Cannes on the Run – Day 2 and 3
You may be as happy as I was to discover that I didn’t oversleep on Thursday and so made it to the Hotel du Cap in Antibes, about 30 minutes outside of Cannes, to interview Charlize and the Mad Max: Fury Road co. Instead of sleeping too much, I actually didn’t under-slept and got about maybe 20 minutes of full sleep if I was lucky. Ah, jet lag. Wearing a knockout of an LBD, Charlize Theron was, as always a pleasure to interview. But I did notice that she wasn’t as friendly or as easy to make casual conversation before the interview as she has been in the previous occasions…
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The Cannes Diaries: My Week with Marcello
I dubbed this year’s Cannes Film Festival, “My Week with Marcello” because I usually cover Cannes until the end of the 12 days, when the Palme d’Or is handed out and the last film is shown at the Grande Theatre Lumiere, but this year, due to to a cosmic forces beyond my control, I had to leave halfway through. So I only had a week spent in the south of France, with Italian film star Marcello Mastroianni’s sunshaded-portrait providing the backdrop for this year’s fest. Of the films I did see, my three favourites were: The Salvation, a co-production between Denmark and South Africa, in which Mads Mikkelsen plays a vengeful…
