The Daily 2009

15 May

Press Conference: Martin Scorsese

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 24.05.2009 at 12:35 PM

American director Martin Scorsese, who needs no introduction to film buffs, again spoke up for the quality and value of filmmaking today, announcing the World Cinema Foundation's latest alliances to the journalists here at Cannes Festival. Highlights follow: Introducing the Foundation, which he chairs: We started the World Cinema...
Cannes Classics: Special Screening of "The Red Shoes"

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 24.05.2009 at 12:36 PM

Cannes Classics has invited Martin Scorsese to guest emcee tonight's special screening of the restored masterpiece by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes. The event will take place in Salle Debussy, in the presence of the distinguished American director and Thelma Schoonmaker-Powell. The 1948 film The Red Shoes, based...
Juliette Binoche and Abderrahmane Sissako at the Cinémas du Monde Pavilion

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 15.05.2009 at 7:17 PM

Juliette Binoche and Abderrahmane Sissako, who consider themselves world citizens, are the ambassadors of this year’s Cinema du Monde Pavillon located within the International Village, open from May 13-24. Devoted to promoting cinema and talent from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East, the...
Cannes Classics: "Far from Vietnam" and "Wake in Fright"

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 16.05.2009 at 7:05 PM

At 3 pm today, the Cannes Classics program in Salle Buñuel welcomes viewers to the screening of a new print of Far from Vietnam, a 1967 protest documentary made by a collective of filmmakers: Agnès Varda, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, and Alain Resnais. The film is a statement...
Special Out-of-Competition Screening: "Thorn in the Heart" by Michel Gondry

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 24.05.2009 at 12:33 PM

This evening, Buñuel auditorium belongs to Michel Gondry and his highly personal documentary The Thorn in the Heart, in a special Out-of-Competition screening. For several years, French director Gondry has been filming the touching stories told by his Aunt Suzette, who worked as a schoolteacher in the rural Cévennes area...
Certain Regard welcomes "Precious"

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 15.05.2009 at 8:34 PM

Lee Daniels, the director of Shadowboxer, a film never released in France, makes his first appearance in Cannes this year with a new feature, Precious, selected by Certain Regard. Adapted from "Push," a book published in 1996 by the New York poet Sapphire, it tells the story of an obese adolescent learning to read and write...
Actors in Cannes

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 15.05.2009 at 2:08 PM

Spotted or arriving in Cannes : Niels Arestrup, Monica Bellucci, Juliette Binoche, Didier Bourdon, Mariah Carey, Robert Charlebois, Mathieu Demy, Franck Dubosc, Michael Fassbender, Ralph Fiennes, Lenny Kravitz, Gabrielle Lazure, Jerry Lewis, Eva Longoria, Sophie Marceau, Sarah Marshall, Demetri Martin, Rowan Mc Namara, Graham Mc...
Press Conference: "Thirst"

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 24.05.2009 at 12:34 PM

One of the press conferences today featured the Competition film Thirst by Park Chan-wook. He was joined by the two main actors Song Kang-ho et Kim Ok-vin on the podium to field questions from the journalists. Highlights: Park Chan-wook on religion: If the Vatican gets as interested in my film as it is in the one by Tom Hanks...
Certain Regard: "Police, Adjective" in Competition

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 16.05.2009 at 10:06 AM

Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu, acclaimed in Cannes in 2006 for the much admired 12:08 East of Bucharest, that year's Caméra d'Or winner, will be presenting his latest, Police, Adjective, to an eager Certain Regard audience and jury. Porumboiu made his Cannes laureate debut by winning Cinéfondation Second Prize in...
Press Conference: "Bright Star"

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 18.05.2009 at 4:25 PM

For the Competition feature Bright Star, director Jane Campion, actors Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish, cinematographer Greig Fraser and producers Jan Chapman and Caroline Hewitt faced off with the international press. Selected excerpts: Jane Campion on why she chose an historical figure: I feel I was just really lucky to have...
"Thirst" in Competition

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 23.05.2009 at 5:37 PM

Korean director Park Chan-wook is presenting his latest film, Thirst, in Competition today, five years after taking home the Grand Prix du Jury for Old Boy. This year's movie involves blood, and blood means vampires. A young priest has gone to Africa with the purest of intentions, to volunteer to test a new drug; however, an unexpected...
Free Outdoor Screening: "Pink Floyd, The Wall"

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 15.05.2009 at 6:44 PM

The Cinéma de la Plage outdoor theater features a free live concert at 8:30 pm by the Norwegian pop band Det är Jag Som är Döden, famed for their interpretation of the throbbing soundtrack for the documentary Don't Fuck With The Lewises (as in Jerry Lee, of Ferriday, Louisiana). At 9:30, festival goers can enjoy...
Jane Campion enters the Competition with "Bright Star"

the 15.05.2009 at 12:00 AM - Updated on 15.05.2009 at 6:52 PM

On the third day of the Festival, the latest feature in Competition for the Palme d'Or is Bright Star by New Zealand director Jane Campion. A longtime habitué of the Croisette, Campion won the Festival's top award in 1993 with The Piano. Seven years earlier, her short film Skin had been given the Short Film Palme d'Or. At this...