Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Day 1 at Cannes 2014
Today the cinema party begins with the opening ceremony followed by the screening of the out of competition opening film, Grace of Monaco and the day closes with the first official party. Also today the main jury is presented to the press as well as the fest host. Tomorrow the parallel sections begin and the festival goes into full force.
There are three versions of the Opening Ceremony with three different lengths and if you can't see the first two, I am sure you will be able to watch the video at the bottom of the post that has the red carpet plus the opening ceremony. Enjoy!!!
It was a very busy day at Cannes with too much happening and there was just one movie screened! So I'm leaving the not-serious news plus the parties for tomorrow, but imagine how is going to be tomorrow when all sections start to screen movies, crazy, crazy. Sigh.
The Jury
Watching live the Jury press conference. Why press wants to talk about women in the industry so much? Just because the president is female and/or there are more women than men in the jury? Finally a couple of questions to Jia Zhang-ke and were not interesting. Sigh. But he said something like "at Cannes being part of the Festival is like falling in love with films everyday". The best comment came from Nicolas Winding Refn when he said that he will take time to see Ryan Gosling's film that he's sure will be wonderful! Well, bet you that Gosling learned a lot from him and from the few film stills can say that Gosling's movie tends to look/feel like Nicolas Winding Refn's movies, which is great because I like his very violent movies.
As a summary, if you wish to skip the jury press conference and Canal+ interview is okay, you will not miss much. Sigh.
The Host: As we know Lambert Wilson is the opening and closing ceremonies host and today he had his photocall so enjoy a photo below.
Out of Competition
Grace of Monaco
Photocall
Watching the photocall that spends lots of time with Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth and the director, Olivier Dahan. Lots of noise and you can't avoid to notice how tall Nicole is. With them two women that is not until the end I recognize. Yes, I keep forgetting that in this movie there is another actress that I enjoy seeing in the big screen, Paz Vega and she is playing none other than Maria Callas, she is in the green dress. I think that in the white dress is Geraldine Somerville but will wait until the press conference to confirm is her; no it is Jeanne Balibar that plays Countess Baciocchi.
Interview
The Canal + interview with Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth and Olivier Dahan is more about the characters each play, even the questions to the director rotate around the same. Somehow feel that interviewer was "painfully" avoiding any controversial subject.
Press Conference
Haven't been able to find the video with the press conference and is no fun to just listen to the audio file but from news here are some comments.
In the press conference Kidman responds to the Monaco Royal Family that from the trailer issued the following statement: “The trailer appears to be a farce and confirms the totally fictional nature of this film.” Also Dahan clears the air by saying that there are NO disputes between Weinstein Co. and him. So the two major controversies surrounding the film were "dispersed" right from the press conference. As a matter of fact I turned on my TV to the morning news and to my huge surprise ABC had a in Cannes reporter that started to talk about both of the above controversies! So that's what media wants to cover, sad.
Press reaction to film
Please remember that the press has already seen the movie so here are some of their reactions. If you wish to read the full articles then go to my Pinterest board for the movie that is here.
French press
Grace de Monaco, d'Olivier Dahan, un biopic d'opérette (Telerama)
Grace de Monaco provoque une tempête sur le Rocher (Le Monde)
Un mauvais remake méditerranéen du Discours d'un roi (Premiere)
Accueil glacial pour Grace de Monaco (La Parisienne)
Grace de Monaco: Son Altesse Sérénissime Nicole Kidman (Cineuropa)
English-speaking press
Nicole Kidman Is a Solid Grace Kelly In 'Grace of Monaco,' But Is It Fact Or Fiction? (Eric Kohn-Indiewire)
Cannes opens with a royal biopic worse than Diana (Peter Bradshaw-The Guardian)
Nicole Kidman plays Grace Kelly in the fantastically silly Cannes Film Festival 2014 opener (Robbie Collin -The Telegraph)
Nicole Kidman excels in fairy tale film (Geoffrey Macnab-The Independent)
Grace Kelly's post-Hollywood life may not have been the fairy tale some thought it to be, but you wouldn't know it from director Olivier Dahan's cornball melodrama. (Scott Foundas-Variety)
Other press
Filme sobre Grace: A Princesa de Mônaco' é recebido com desprezo em Cannes (Brazil -Folha)
Cannes, principio y final de un idilio real (Spain-El Pais)
Silencio y protestas marcaron debut en Cannes de Grace de Monaco (Chile-Cooperativa)
Nicole Kidman abre Cannes con un endulzado retrato de la princesa Grace Kelly (EFE)
Adembenemende catastrofe (breathtaking catastrophe-Belgium)
Perhaps the most (for me) disturbing news come from Belgium, that had an embargo until today as saw the film in a "secret" screening a while back, they say that the distributor was right to be concerned with film. Ouch! But it is Peter Bradshaw's commentary what kills the movie for me as I didn't like Diana at all and calling Grace of Monaco worst than Diana creates a very bad picture in my mind. Sigh.
The Red Carpet
Red carpet is in full force with many photographers and the usual loud noise from them plus fans and the announcer. Jane Fonda greets Gilles Jacob and now are allowing a bunch of people that will NOT pose for photos (lol). The Camera d'Or Jury just came in; the main jury is getting ready ... think I missed the other two juries as was doing something else -I like to multitask. (lol) In photo to the right: Gong Li.
The main jury is walking the red carpet, perhaps only Carole Bouquet brings some glamour to the jury this year. The top of the stairs jury group photo then proceed to greet Gilles Jacob. Chiara Mastroianni with photographers going nuts, she is wearing a cocktail dress (even I know that-lol). Audrey Tautou, no idea what is she doing in Cannes but she also is wearing a cocktail dress. So is that a current French fashion? No idea! A good looking young woman I have no idea who she is but the photographers obviously know- LOL! just found who she was: Kendal Jenner! lol.
And here they come, the Grace of Monaco group. The only thing you can hear is Nicole, Nicole... but Paz Vega is also there looking very nice. Oh! Paz also has a cocktail dress, same length as Chiara and Audrey plus the other European women. So surely has to do with the hour of the opening ceremony as is too early to wear a long dress. Ok, enough fashion but sorry, I also notice that! LOL.
Nicole Kidman is really statuesque, no one around her is as tall as he is and I'm watching them entering the Palais. Gee, think is the first time I see the opening film team coming inside the Palais and all clapping and they haven't cut the transmission. Now they did and watching ads.
The opening ceremony is about to start in a few minutes. Great!!!
The Opening Ceremony
Haven't seen the opening ceremony but have no idea why Alfonso Cuaron will open the ceremony and yes I do understand why Chiara Mastroianni will open the ceremony. Let see if watching the ceremony clarifies this issue for me. Nope there is no reason or at least they didn't say it but I know Chiara is there because his father is the visual identity for the 67th Festival de Cannes.
Lambert Wilson does a brief homage to Alain Resnais with the names of monsters/masters of great cinema of the past and adding his to that list. The camera constantly goes to Adèle Exarchopoulos, more than anyone else, it is okay I do not mind. The Jury is entering the stage. Michael Nyman introduces the work of Jane Campion with clips from her fantastic films and yes, also the great TV series. It is an impressive body of work and the clips collage seemed epic.
As every year the best part is the clip collage that I was able to watch completely before losing the connection and missing a few minutes from the ceremony when Wilson was dancing with Nicole Kidman, she can really dance Latin music, that's a huge surprise for such a stiff woman. Will watch later but I am very happy that finally saw some moving images for Saint Laurent, Sils Maria, Leviathan, The Search, and L'Home qu'on aimait trop. Okay will admit that have seen the opening ceremony several times in one particular spot, where gorgeous Juliette Binoche talks with Kristen Stewart! There is already a clip around the net with this short scene but has awful quality!
Here is the opening ceremony in full (35 mins)
Or if you wish to see a shorter version (10min) with the Best of the Opening Ceremony, check this one.
News
-Today was the opening of the Cannes Fait Le Mur exhibition with 18 large format posters placed around the Ville de Cannes. The expo is a joint venture between La Ville de Cannes and Getty Images and has photos of Léa Seydoux -in the main location where once was Catherine Deneuve-, Adèle Exarchopoulos and more. To see photos from the opening and more go here.
-Check my twitter to see the two posters from Macbeth, one with Marion Cotillard and the other with Michael Fassbender. Directed by Justin Kurzel known for very disturbing Snowtown. A distrubing MacBeth?! With this director and those two actors it is a possibility.
-Emma Thompson and Daniel Bruhl confirmed to star in Vincent Perez's Alone in Berlin.
-Not sure how I feel about the remake of Argentinean Oscar winner The Secret in Their Eyes with Gwyneth Paltrow and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
-Remember that tomorrow Cate Blanchett will present to Adèle Exarchopoulos and Logan Lerman with Trophée Chopard 2014.
Not-so-serious News
Already in Cannes: Joanne Moore, America Ferrera, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and more. To be continued tomorrow as want to publish right now. À demain.
Photos of the Day
A very handsome Lambert Wilson
Beatiful B&W Nicole Kidman photo from Photocall
Nicole Kidman and Paz Vega
Here is a 1 hour 27 minutes video with the Red Carpet and the Opening Ceremony.
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