The Daily 2008

20 May

Rachid Bouchareb receives Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur decoration

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 20.05.2008 at 7:39 PM

Rachid Bouchareb, a member of this year's Jury and director of Indigènes ("Days of Glory"), the male cast of which was collectively awarded the prize for Best Male Actor at the 2006 Festival, was decorated with the insignia of the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur today by Claude Bébéar, former president of the board of directors of...
Competition: "Changeling" by Clint Eastwood

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 20.05.2008 at 1:13 PM

Five years after premiering Mystic River at the Festival de Cannes, Clint Eastwood returns to Competition with Changeling, a thriller which takes place in the late 1920s in a working-class suburb of Los Angeles. Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a mother whose son Walter mysteriously disappears one day. After an intensive...
Press Conference: "Changeling"

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 20.05.2008 at 5:47 PM

With his fifth film in competition at the Festival de Cannes, Changeling, Clint Eastwood was present to meet the press today, flanked by screenwriter Joe Michael Straczynski, actress Angelina Jolie and producers Brian Graze and Robert Lorenz. Highlights follow. Joe Michael Straczynski on how this case went from the archives to the...
Competition: "Delta" by Kornél Mundruczó

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 20.05.2008 at 3:35 PM

Although this is Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó's first selection in Competition, it is the third time he has participated in the Festival de Cannes. The Cinéfondation showcased Kis Apokrif n°2 in 2004, and Johanna was a 2005 Un Certain Regard choice. Delta is the story of the return of a taciturn young man to the...
Press Conference: "Delta"

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 20.05.2008 at 8:23 PM

For the in-Competition presentation of their feature Delta, Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó, scriptwriter Yvette Biró, and producer Viktória Petrányi, along with actors Orsi Tóth and Félix Lajkó, fielded questions from the journalists. Highlights follow: Kornél Mundruczó on the importance of the landscape in the film: "In...
Press Conference: "Two Lovers"

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 21.05.2008 at 8:33 AM

American director James Gray is presenting his third film in Competition at the Festival de Cannes, entitled Two Lovers. The press conference was held today and was also attended by actreses Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw, as well as producer Donna Gigliotti. Excerpts follow. Joaquin Phoenix could not make it to Cannes because of...
Press Conference: "Maradona by Kusturica"

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 03.06.2008 at 1:15 PM

The two stars of Maradona by Kusturica welcomed the press to the conference room at 3:30 to discuss the film. Excerpts follow: Diego Maradona, on freedom of speech: "When you become a well-known figure, you aren't allowed to talk about the United States or Bush; there's a whole lot of subjects you're not allowed to talk about...
Out of Competition: "Maradona by Kusturica" by Emir Kusturica

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 03.06.2008 at 1:11 PM

Emir Kusturica, the winner of two Palmes d’Or, for When Father Was Away on Business (1985) and Underground (1995), is back in Cannes for the out-of-Competition premiere of Maradona, a documentary about soccer's living legend. He had this to say about why he made the film: "The first reason is that I am one of the millions of...
Un Certain Regard: "Los Bastardos" by Amat Escalante

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 20.05.2008 at 2:42 PM

Presented by Un Certain Regard, Los Bastardos is the second feature-length film by Amat Escalante. Sangre, which premiered at Un Certain Regard in 2005, was highly acclaimed as a first film. Los Bastardos is a radical change in register, an examination of what happens to the "illegals" who sneak across the border into the US. Hoping to...
Un Certain Regard: "Johnny Mad Dog" by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 21.05.2008 at 9:39 AM

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire's Johnny Mad Dog, based on the book by the same name by Emmanuel Dongola, premieres today in Un Certain Regard. It examines the tragic fate of child-soldiers abandoned to themselves, in civil-war-ravaged Africa: a stolen childhood, a continent ablaze, and a people striving to survive and preserve its share of...
Special Screening: "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" by Marina Zenovich

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 21.05.2008 at 8:41 AM

Winner of the Documentary Editing Award at the 2008 Sundance Festival, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired was featured today in a Special Screening in the Salle du Soixantième. Produced and directed by Marina Zenovich, it is a fascinating investigation of the public scandal and private tragedy which drove the famous director to flee...
Special Screening: "Of Time and the City" by Terence Davies

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 21.05.2008 at 9:39 AM

British director Terence Davies welcomed the audience to the Special Screening presentation of his film Of Time And The City in the Salle du Soixantième with a grand merci (in French in the original) to the Festival de Cannes. Of Time And The City is a poem of love and praise to Liverpool, the city where Davies was born. A...
Cannes Classics: "Orphée" by Jean Cocteau

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 03.06.2008 at 1:03 PM

At 3pm today, the Cannes Classics program presented a restored copy of the Jean Cocteau masterpiece Orphée, starring Maria Casarès, Jean Marais, and François Périer. The excellent quality of today's print of the 1950 film transposing the famous Orpheus myth to the modern world necessitated considerable photochemical and digital...
Cannes Classics: "Le Voyage de la Hyène" by Djibril Diop Mambéty

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 03.06.2008 at 1:04 PM

Today's 5pm screening of a digitally-restored print of Voyage de la Hyène by director Djibril Diop Mambéty is a Cannes Classics tribute to the World Cinema Foundation, a non-profit agency founded last year at the urging of Martin Scorsese, to help developing countries preserve their film heritage. Yesterday, Susuz Yaz by Metin Erksan...
Cinéma de la Plage: "What's Up, Doc?" by Peter Bogdanovich / Concert: Camille Bazbaz solo - reggae and soul songs

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 25.05.2008 at 1:55 PM

The Cinéma de la Plage continues to celebrate the 85th birthday of Warner Brothers studios with a 9:15pm screening of What's Up, Doc? by Peter Bogdanovich. This 1972 classic starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal harks back to the screwball comedies of the 1930s. The musical prelude to the screening features reggae-influenced...
Actors present in Cannes

the 20.05.2008 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 20.05.2008 at 10:47 AM

The following actors are here in Cannes today: Saleh Bakri, Guy Bedos, Monica Bellucci, Richard Bennett, Charles Berling, Yavuz Bingol, Rachel Blanchard, Alessio Boni, Dany Boon, Patrick Bosso, Nicolas Bro, Chen Chang, Lolita Chammah, Judith Chemla, Joan Chen, Emma De Caunes, Daniel De Oliveira, Benicio Del Toro, Arta Dobroshi, Faye...