The Playlist

Watch: New Clip Of Marion Cotillard & Joaquin Phoenix In 'The Immigrant'; Plus James Gray Talks The Film's Look & Influences

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 22, 2013 7:59 PM
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11 Comments

News

There are only a few days left of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, but some of the biggest films are still yet to come. Tomorrow brings Alexander Payne's "Nebraska," while Saturday includes both Roman Polanski's "Venus In Fur" and Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive." And as for Friday? Well, Friday brings the return of one of Cannes' favorite filmmakers, James Gray, back with his first film since 2008's "Two Lovers" with "The Immigrant."

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Cannes Review: Sprawling, Uneven Crime Saga 'Blood Ties' Falls Short Of Epic Scope

By Kevin Jagernauth
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May 19, 2013 2:27 PM
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9 Comments

Reviews

If there is any movie this year at Cannes that is absolutely brimming with promise on paper, it's Guillaume Canet's "Blood Ties." With an extended cast featuring Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Mila Kunis, Matthias Schoenaerts, Zoe Saldana, James Caan, Marion Cotillard, Noah Emmerich and Lili Taylor among others along with a script co-written by James Gray, one wonders how it could go wrong. And while "Blood Ties" isn't a disaster, it's certainly a mess, a sprawling crime saga that endeavours to evoke the great character-driven movies of the 1970s, but never quite lives up to its epic scope.

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Cannes 2013: 'The Immigrant' Footage Showcases Firecracker Turns From Joaquin Phoenix & Marion Cotillard

By Jessica Kiang
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May 17, 2013 5:08 PM
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13 Comments

Festivals

A definite highlight of tonight’s Weinstein 2013 slate preview at Cannes, which we ran through in large part here, was one of the films that is one of our most anticipated of this whole festival -- James Gray’s “The Immigrant.” With Gray uncharacteristically confident about the film in its unfinished form every time we’ve spoken to him, calling it “the best thing I’ve ever done,” our expectations are high.

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Watch: First Clip From James Gray's Cannes Competitor 'The Immigrant' With Marion Cotillard & Jeremy Renner

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 17, 2013 10:40 AM
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3 Comments

News

We were only just talking about Playlist favorite James Gray, and his new secret sci-fi project, earlier this morning, and there's clearly something in the water, because the first tantalizing, albeit brief, clip from the "We Own The Night" director's new film, "The Immigrant," has arrived.

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Scarlett Johansson Joins Jon Favreau's 'Chef' As Michelle Williams & Marion Cotillard Circle Rival Bradley Cooper Pic

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 15, 2013 11:25 AM
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2 Comments

News

The culinary arts and filmmaking don't seem to go together that often. You get the occasional great picture set in the restaurant world -- "Big Night" and "Ratatouille" spring to mind -- but more often than not, you end up with films more like "No Reservations" when you try to put cooks on screen. But now, chefs are suddenly the new, uh, Snow White, with two big names gearing up rival foodie-related pictures, to the extent that legal issues may be brewing over their titles.

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Mark Wahlberg, Marion Cotillard & Zoe Saldana Eye Guillaume Canet/James Gray Project 'Blood Ties'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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November 2, 2011 2:20 AM
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1 Comment

James Gray's 'Low Life' With Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner & Marion Cotillard Aims To Start Shooting In January 2012Given the Hollywood-friendly slickness of his directorial efforts to date, it was only a matter of time before French actor Guillaume Canet made a film in the U.S. The star of "The Beach" and "Love Me If You Dare," among many others, stepped behind the camera to much acclaim with 2002's Cesar-nominated "Mon Idole," the 2007 thriller "Tell No One" (which Ben Affleck is planning to remake), and followed it up with 2010's "Little White Lies," all of which showed an international sensibility.

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Marion Cotillard Joins 'A Prophet' Director Jacques Audiard's New Film 'Rust & Blood'

By The Playlist
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September 8, 2011 3:13 AM
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4 Comments

While she's certainly gone Hollywood with appearances in "Inception," "Midnight In Paris," "Contagion" and "The Dark Knight Rises," Academy-Award winning actress Marion Cotillard has not forgotten her French roots.

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Venice '11 Review: 'Contagion' Is A Propulsive, Terrifying Picture With A Top-Notch Cast

By Oliver Lyttelton
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September 3, 2011 1:46 AM
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5 Comments

Disaster -- an eternally popular obsession of film. Audiences have turned up in droves over the last century or so to watch mankind against their own extinction in the form of meteorites, earthquakes, alien invasions, exploding suns, planetary collisions, and whatever it was that was happening in "The Core." One of the more popular hypotheses is that when the end comes -- and it will -- it'll be not with a bang, but with a whimper. And that's what Steven Soderbergh has examined in "Contagion," his first studio film since 2007's "Ocean's Thirteen," that finds the spread of a deadly bird flu-type virus the source of man's demise.

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Macau, Hong Kong, London, Munich...The 'Contagion' Poster Goes Worldwide

By Oliver Lyttelton
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July 21, 2011 1:05 AM
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2 Comments

When you have big names like Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, plus acclaimed figures like Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston and Oscar-nominee John Hawkes in your film, most studios would plaster their faces all over the one-sheet. Warner Bros has, as yet, not taken that approach with "Contagion" (though we're sure its coming), the latest film from Steven Soderbergh, a dark, realistic look at the global spread of a bird-flu-like virus.

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James Gray & Joaquin Phoenix Reteam For 'Low Life'; Marion Cotillard & Jeremy Renner To Co-Star

By Kevin Jagernauth
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June 1, 2011 1:41 AM
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12 Comments

Teaming up on three films -- "The Yards," "We Own The Night" and "Two Lovers" -- there hasn't been any director/actor pairing in recent American cinema as rewarding as that between James Gray and Joaquin Phoenix. However, circa the actor's stunt during the press rounds for "Two Lovers" where he grew a Will Oldham-esque beard and declared he was starting a rap career, many wondered if that relationship was over. And despite what reports may have surfaced, Gray wasn't worried, saying as early as February 2009 that he was confident he would work with Phoenix again. Then in September of last year, it was revealed that he was in on the joke from the beginning. So the joke is over, Joaquin Phoenix needs to get back to work and the duo are pairing up for their fourth film. And they've got some fantastic talent to help them out.

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