The Daily 2004

For the competition presentation of The Ladykillers, Joel Coen made a red carpet appearance for the seventh time. As for Tom Hanks, leading actor of this remake from UK director Alexander Mackendrick (1954), this is his first red carpet entrance at the Cannes Festival. Also spotted on the red carpet, Omar Sharif, Daryl...

After Raising Arizona, Barton Fink - winner of the Palme d'Or in 1991, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Man Who Wasn't There, Joel and Ethan Coen are back in competition at Cannes with The Ladykillers. Tom Hanks plays the lead in this black comedy - a remake of Alexander Mackendrick's classic...

The Ladykillers director Joel Coen (without his brother, Ethan, ill and at home in the USA) was accompanied by the film's star, Tom Hanks, for the press conference. Highlights. Joel Coen on the original film: "I saw the original film twice, once on TV when I was a kid, and again about 15 or 20 years ago in the presence of the...

Jean-Luc Godard is back. Three years after his last appearance at Cannes for Eloge de l'amour (In Praise of Love), his new feature Notre Musique is screening out of competition. Part visual poem, part journalism, part philosophical treatise, the latest opus from the Swiss filmmaker is a reflection on the wars that blight the...

President of the Jury Quentin Tarantino was today awarded the insignia of the Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture and Communication, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. The Czech-born director Milos Forman, in Cannes for European Day, was awarded the insignia of the Chevalier de la Légion...

Director Jean-Luc Godard is in Cannes with his new film, Notre Musique, screening out of competition. For the press conference he was accompanied by actors Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, Rony Kramer, Georges Aguilar, Leticia Gutierrez and Jean-Christophe Bouvet, and producers Alain Sarde and Ruth Waldburger. The conference began with...

First there was Max Von Sydow's Acting Masterclass, then Lalo Schifrin's Music Masterclass, today it was professor Stephen Frears who delivered the Cinema "leçon". The veteran British director had a one-on-one with Studio Magazine editor in chief, Jean-Pierre Lavoignat during which he talked about his vision of...

Today is European Day in Cannes, the second at the Cannes Festival. The culture ministers from twenty European countries, Viviane Reding, European Union Culture and Education Commissioner, and several filmmakers including Milos Forman, Michael Haneke, Claire Denis and scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carrière met to discuss...

Apichatpong Weerasethakul was one of the revelations of the 2002 Cannes Festival with his first feature, Blissfully Yours, presented in the Un Certain Regard. This year he was selected for the main competition with the unique Tropical Malady. Weerasethakul's work is the first Thai film ever to appear in competition. ...

The outdoor arm of the Cannes Film Market, the International Village is a platform for the promotion of world cinema and a meeting place for producers from over 50 countries. Drawing festivalgoers to their pavilions, each hosting country organizes its own slate of artistic and cultural events and meetings. In a string of...

To help director Apichatpong Weerasethakul answer questions from the international press about his film Tropical Malady, screening in competition, he brought along the actor Sakda Kaewbuadee and producers Charles de Meaux et Pantham Thongsang. Apichatpong Weerasethakul on the title: "This malady is the attachment that we feel...

The Cannes Festival doesn't just let feature films get their shot at glory. The short film jury is headed by Nikita Mikhalkov (Outomlionnye Solntsem (Burnt by the Sun), Jury Grand Prix at Cannes in 1994), composed of actress Marisa Paredes, actress-director Nicole Garcia and directors Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Pablo Trapero. Ten...

At the midpoint, the Cannes Film Market had reached a new participation record: 8,382 professionals from 74 different countries including Bosnia, Cameroon, Kuwait, Senegal, Tunisia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. This is in comparison with last year when the market welcomed 7,880 participants, buyers, distributors, exhibitors from 69...

On his first visit to Cannes, director Yousry Nasrallah today presents Bab el chams (The Gate of the Sun), a film about Palestinian history since 1948, screening out of competition. Adapted from Elias Khoury's novel of the same name, the feature brings to life the drama experienced by refugees - Younès and his wife...

After having delivered his Leçon de musique (Music Masterclass), the composer Lalo Schifrin will tonight (8pm) give a concert of film music at the Palais' Espace Méditerranée, in a partnership between the Festival and Sacem. Guests will be able to hear music from films such as Les Felins (Love Cage),...

To celebrate its 30th anniversary at the Cannes Festival, the Ecumenical Jury paid homage to British director Ken Loach for his entire body of work. The director, who won the Ecumenical Jury Prize in 1995 for Land and Freedom, today received the 30th Anniversary Special Prize in the Espace L'Oréal at the Palais des...

The Festival's Cannes Classics section presenting masterpieces and rarely viewed national treasures continues its screenings with Steamboat Bill, Jr. from director Charles F. Reisner. This comedy starring Buster Keaton tells the story of William Canfield, a young man in love with Kitty, the banker's daughter whose father owns...

Director Shona Auerbach's Dear Frankie is screening in the Un Certain Regard section and is also up for the Caméra d'Or. The first-time English director deals with the lies that can sometimes make life easier and the story of Frankie, a young boy, and his love for his absent father. Aged nine and deaf, Frankie lives...

Screening in the Un Certain Regard section, Somersault is the first feature from Australian director Cate Shortland, and is in the running for the Caméra d'Or. The drama is about Heidi, aged 16, who drifts from one sexual encounter after another to make up for a lack of affection from her mother and her absent father....

The screening in competition of Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 was the event of the day. This inquiry into the Bush government's foreign policy was joined in the race for the Palme d'Or by Woman is the Future of Man, an intimate tale directed by Hong Sang-soo and Hans Weingartner's Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei...