Cannes Film Festival

Seven years go I attended the Cannes Film Festival for the first time.  My then-employer was a major sponsor and each year there were a few tickets provided for employees.  In most years the tickets were handed out after a ballot of interested parties - so there was little chance of winning - but this year the company decided to set up a blogging competition.  I was one of the winners - and I haven't stopped yet.

The organising team were more keen to tell us about the logistics  for the trip, but they could not answer my first question: what screening were we due to attend?  So many films now regarded as masterpieces received their first screening at Cannes, but sadly what we saw was Les Chansons d'Amour:

I didn't manage to find a single review of it and inevitably it did not feature in any of the awards.

I still read all the reviews from Cannes avidly, and sometimes enjoy a good review of a bad film rather than a rave about a masterpiece.  This year Peter Bradshaw's description of Grace of Monaco featuring performances so wooden that they were a fire risk made me laugh our loud several times:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/14/grace-of-monaco-cannes-review-nicole-kidman
 

Best Adaptations of Novels

I think it was Phillip Pullman who commented on the close relationship between novels and cinema, in that both genres have the ability to direct the viewer/reader to what the director/author wants to focus on - as opposed to the the theatre where the audience is free to concentrate on whatever it wants to.

Thus it's interesting to see such a range of novels in this list of the best adaptations:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/books-life/6166774/25-best-book-to-film-adaptations.html

It's difficult to argue with most of them, and I'm particularly pleased to see The Remains of the Day, which I thought was one of the best adaptations ever, on the list.  It's also good to see the Harry Potter films as well as The Lord of the Rings trilogy included: both of these were epic in every sense of the word.

the only addition I'd like to make is to propose Notes on a Scandal, which is a brilliant version of an excellent novel that at first reading seems impossible to adapt.

 

Are these the best shots in cinema?

I like the idea of someone collecting the best shots in cinema and have just followed Geoff Todd on Twitter:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/10807513/Are-these-the-15-best-shots-in-cinema.html

I have David Thomson's Moments That Made the Movies on my shelf and I dip into it from time - it's that kind of book.

His slection of films is eclectic, although it does include the usual suspects.  But what makes it intersting is the choice of image to represent each film.  Some of them are truly unexpected.  It's an excellent book

I enjoyed Star Wars, but...

I enjoyed Star Wars and the two sequels in the original trilogy, but Doctor Who has always been my favourite sci-fi/fantasy saga - and the Doctor would have sorted out Darth Vader in two 45 minute episodes.

I'd  read about the influence of Kurosawa on the story in previous articles and had also clocked the Casablanca reference (although I'd also thought there was a little of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe in it), but this fascinating article lists ten films that influenced George Lucas:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/star-wars/10817059/10-films-that-influenced-Star-Wars.html

I particularly liked the weird parallels with The Wizard of Oz - although I preferred Zardoz.

Philomena

And suddently it's the end of another season.  We've been saving the best until last, or rather we had to wait until Philomena was avilavble on DVD.

To boost our audience numbers we're serving Irish stew and cheeses, and hopefully a load of Guinness will arrive here tomorrow.  Meanwhile I've just finished my notes:

Philomena

UK 2013                      98 minutes

Director:                      Stephen Frears

Starring:                        Judi Dench, Steve Coogan and Anna Maxwell Martin

Awards and Nominations

• Nominated for four Oscars, including Best Film, Best Actress (Judi Dench) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Steve Coogan)
• Won BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay (Steve Coogan) and nominations for Best Actress (Judi Dench), Best Film and Best British Film
• A further 19 wins and 36 nominations

“Philomena is something yearned for and lusted after by film-makers and journalists alike – a really good story.  It's a powerful and heartfelt drama, based on a real case, with a sledgehammer emotional punch and a stellar performance from Judi Dench, along with an intelligently judged supporting contribution from Steve Coogan.  Yet the film's apparent simplicity and force come to us flavoured with subtle nuances and subtexts, left there by the people who brought this story to the public.”

Peter Bradshaw

 Following his unexpected defenestration as New Labour Director of Communications in 2002 Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) is working as a freelance journalist when he comes across the extraordinary story of an elderly Irish woman called Philomena Lee (Judi Dench): as a teenage unmarried mother she had been placed in one of the Irish Republic’s notorious Magdalene Laundries (“Why do they call this heartless place Our Lady of Charity?”) and her son was put up for adoption by childless Catholic Americans, and now in her old age she wants to track him down.  Sixsmith then takes Philomena to America on a mission to America in search of her son.

The film received its premier at the Venice Film Festival where it received rave reviews, was nominated for the Golden Lion and won the award for Best Screenplay.  Judi Dench also won great praise for her performance, with Catherine Shoard in The Observer commenting:

"At 78, she skips through scenes, hitting a dozen bases a minute, raising laughs here, tears there, never breaking sweat. This might be the sort of thing she can do in her sleep, but Dench never gives anything less than full welly.”

However when it came to the awards season Judi Dench lost out in both the Oscars and BAFTAs to Cate Blanchett’s barnstorming performance as Jasmine in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine.  Steve Coogan as Martin Sixsmith proves himself to be a good actor, but it is Dench who is the dramatic focus of the film and director Stephen Frears, in his best film since The Queen (2006), uses a steady hand to guide the two of them on their odd couple road trip around Ireland and America.


And here's the trailer:

 

Once

We'd agreed at the beginning of the season to schedule a chic flick - and then the male portion of the committee held its collective breath while the female portion decided what to screen.

Fortunately the final choice was a film that appealed to our entire demographic - and the provision of cupcakes and the sale of Prosecco meant that we attracted a good audience.  I'd already seen Once on DVD, but it was far better second time around on a big screen.  Also, while writing my notes, it was good to read a review by Roger Ebert again - he was a superb critic.

Here are my notes:

Once

Ireland 2006                 86 minutes

Director:                      John Carney

Starring:                        Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova, Alistair Foley

Awards and Nominations

• Won Oscar for Best Original Song (“Falling Slowly”)
• A further 16 wins and 21 nominations

“I gave it my Special Jury Prize, which is sort of an equal first; no movie was going to budge Juno off the top of my list.  Once was shot for next to nothing in 17 days, doesn't even give names to its characters, is mostly music with not a lot of dialog, and is magical from beginning to end.  It's one of those films where you hold your breath, hoping it knows how good it is, and doesn't take a wrong turn.  It doesn't.  Even the ending is the right ending, the more you think about it.”

Roger Ebert

An unnamed Irish busker (Glen Hansard) meets a young Czech emigree (Marketa Irglova) on the streets of Dublin as he performs his music and they become friends.   He wants to go to London to find fame and meet up with his ex-girlfriend; she likes him and his music so she raises the money to help him achieve his ambition.

Once spent years in development with the Irish Film Board and finally, in a period when the Board had no chief executive, the board gave the film the go-ahead - but with a budget of just €150,000 rather than the higher budget originally requested.  This meant a the use of natural light and real locations, with the director’s friends and family performing as extras.   Originally Cillian Murphy (The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), The Dark Knight (2008) and Inception (2010)) had been cast in the lead role, but he withdrew as he was unwilling to act against non-professional Marketa Irglova.  Glen Hansard’s only previous acting experience had been a minor role in The Commitments (1991) although he was a member of Frames, a band he had founded in 1990 and in which director John Carney had once played bass.  Hansard wrote all the songs that he performs throughout the film.

After initial screenings at the Sundance and Dublin Film Festivals (where it received the audience award from both) the film went on general release in the US where it grossed $9.5 million and more than $20 million in the rest of the world.

Following its worldwide success in 2011 Once was adapted for the stage as a musical.  After opening off Broadway it subsequently transferred to Broadway where it won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Actor in a Musical.  In 2013 a production of the show opened in London and is scheduled to run until 2015.

Here is the trailer:

 

 

And here's the amazing song:

 



 

Analysing Film as Film

I guess I fall into the category of the numerous bloggers who write about film, but hopefully vering to the more thoughtful end.

This is a fascinating review article about Mark Kermode's new book:

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/art-books/film-as-film/#.UyCwiiePM24

It's definitely one to add to my reading list and I still have some book tokens left over from my birthday.