The Daily 2009

The Enter the Void crew was reunited today for the Cannes Festival press conference. Director Gaspar Noé took the podium alongside actors Paz de la Huerta, Nathaniel Brown, and Cyril Roy, as well as producers Vincent Maravel, Marc Missonnier, Olivier Delbosc, and Pierre Buffin. Highlights follow. Gaspar Noé on being...

The awards for the best films presented on the Cinefondation program are in! The Jury was presided by UK director John Boorman and members French director Bertrand Bonello, Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, Tunisian director Ferid Boughedir and Portuguese actor Leonor Silveira handed out their prizes this afternoon in the Buñuel...

Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, presenting his feature The Time That Remains in Competition, gave a press conference about the film today. Selected excerpts. Elia Suleiman on the meaning of the title: "The Time That Remains is linked to the narrative of the film, it's linked to the narrative of the global situation that we...

At the press conference for the Out-of-Competition feature The Imaginarium Of Docteur Parnassus , cast and crew were present with director Terry Gilliam: actors Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield, Verne Troyer, cinematographer Nicola Pecorini and producers Amy Gilliam and Samuel Hadida. Highlights follow. Terry Gilliam on Heath Ledger...

To honor the French actress Fanny Ardant, the Cannes Film Festival has slotted her feature debut, Ashes and Blood, in a Special Screening. Her first endeavor behind the camera, after serving Feature Jury duty in 1990, tells the story of Judith, played by Ronit Elkabetz, coming back home to her country after an exile, to attend the...

When it was inaugurated in 2000, the Village International was inhabited by only eight countries. In just nine years, the village has grown in great bounds, presenting 44 film territories housed in the white pavilion tents along the beach. Created to offer to the different film industries an open window to promote their films, the...

Cinematographer reputed for his work in La Nuit Américaine, Monsieur Klein and Série Noire and also known for his collaborations with Bertrand Tavernier, Alain Corneau and Maurice Pialat, Pierre-William Glenn had not made a film of his own since the thriller 23:58 in 1993. In Cannes to present his latest offering, Group Portrait...

Seven years after the Official In-Competition Selection of Irreversible, which had a huge impact on the audience, Gaspar Noé is back in Cannes with a "psychedelic melodrama" entitled Enter the Void. In this film, Noé follows the close bond between Oscar and Linda, a brother and sister who have moved to Tokyo...

With the Competition feature The Time That Remains, Elia Suleiman is back on the Croisette two years after participating in the Out-of-Competition collective film, To Each his Own Cinema. This time the Palestinian director, who was on the Jury in 2006 and who received the Jury Prize for Divine Intervention in 2002, brings to...

Dutch director Jean van de Velde marvels at how his life has changed since April 2007, when he began work on The Silent Army. It has become an emotion-filled adventure, both personal and professional. The feature is van de Velde's first ticket to compete in the Official Selection in Cannes. And it is inspired by his own memories of a...

To Die Like a Man by João Pedro Rodrigues, today's Certain Regard offering, finds Tonia, a veteran Lisbon drag queen, at a turning point. She's aging, and her star status is threatened by a new generation of performers, who think she should retire; a son she abandoned is trying to get in touch with her, and her young boyfriend...

Chapa Directed by Thiago Ricarte Diploma Directed by Yaelle Kayam Sylfidden Directed by Dorte Bengtson Don't step out of the house (Nammae Ui Jip) Directed by Jo Sung-Hee Sreening starting at 11:00 am at the Salle Bunuel Awards and screening of awarded films at 04:30

The last time director Terry Gilliam presented a film at the Cannes Festival goes back to 1998, with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Today, he has come to show The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus out of Competition. In mid-shoot, on January 22nd, 2008, star Heath Ledger suddenly died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs....

Chinese filmmaker Zhao Liang was initiated into the rituals of the Cannes Festival today as he presented his first feature-length film, a documentary entitled Petition: The Court of the Complainants in a Special Screening. Eligible for a Caméra d'Or as a debut feature, the film introduces us to "petitioners" who come to Beijing...

The prelude musical will fill the outdoor theatre cinema de la Plage at 8:30 pm with the sounds of Gravenhurst. Leader Nick Talbot and his pop-rock are known under the label Warp records and can be heard on the soundtrack of the drama This is England (Warp Films) by Shane Meadows. At 9:30 pm, a restored copy of Jacques Tati’s ...

Spotted or expected in Cannes today: Lionel Abelansky, Simon Abkarian,  Anne Alvaro, Fanny Ardant, Ariane Ascaride, Sabine Azéma, Jeanne Balibar, Jean-Marc Barr, Sandrine Bonnaire, Elodie Bouchez, Nathaniel Brown, Laetitia Casta, François Cluzet, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Emma De Caunes, Helene de Fougerolles,...