Thompson on Hollywood

As Restored 'Cleopatra' Hits the Cannes Croisette, Film Critics Look Back at the 'Most Notorious Epic Ever' (TRAILER)

Festivals

Joseph L. Manciewicz's four-plus-hour epic "Cleopatra," celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, screens on the Croisette May 21 in a newly restored print. The restoration will expand worldwide the next day, May 22, for a six-day run in select theater chains, and film journalists look back on one of the most tumultuous epic productions ever.

By Beth Hanna and Ryan Lattanzio
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May 20, 2013 2:15 PM
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Cannes First Look: Paul Haggis Talks 'Third Person,' starring Neeson, Wilde, Franco, Kunis

Festivals

Paul Haggis has been quiet since his last outing as writer-director, 2010’s “The Next Three Days,” with only a credit on the videogame "Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" to fill in the gap between then and now. But he turned up in Cannes to beat the publicity drum for "Third Person," a multi-stranded relationship drama he shot last fall in Paris, Rome and Cinecitta Studios.

By Matt Mueller
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May 20, 2013 12:59 PM
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Cannes Review: 'Inside Llewyn Davis' Is Vintage Coens

Festivals

There is a moment in “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the new Coen brothers film that stormed the Palais Saturday, when the owner of Manhattan's Gaslight club circa 1961 asks Davis what he thinks of the four Irish sweater-clad singers performing. Davis, a struggling folk singer with an edge, ponders the question. “I like the sweaters,” he says.

By Tom Christie
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May 19, 2013 8:41 PM
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Cannes: Coens Make A Splash with 'Inside Llewyn Davis' (TRAILER)

Festivals

The Coens made a splash Saturday night with the gala premiere of "Inside Llewyn Davis." The film, with a stunning awards-worthy performance by Oscar Isaac, follows a singer/-songwriter as he attempts to make a go of it in the burgeoning folk music scene of New York's Greenwich Village in the early '60s. Backed by upbeat reviews, distributor CBS Films, producer Scott Rudin and Oscar strategist Cynthia Swartz will make an awards push for the film (here's Variety, Indiewire, THR, Awards Daily).

By Brian Brooks
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May 19, 2013 12:45 PM
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Cannes Fest Diary 2: Dull Coppola, Brilliant 'A Touch of Sin'

Reviews

I began the search for a room in Cannes quite late. I checked hotels.com, home to “Cheap Hotels, Discounts, Hotel Deals and Offers,” which is why I was a bit taken aback when my first offer was for a week at the Carlton for $52,000. What I wound up with was not quite the Carlton; it’s more of a bed with walls adjacent, a former maid’s quarters located on the ground floor of a very large complex; any resemblance to a prison cell, known or unknown, is entirely a coincidence.

By Tom Christie
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May 18, 2013 12:46 PM
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Outfest Opens with Sedaris Adaptation 'C.O.G.,' Kimberly Peirce Gets Achievement Award

Festivals

L.A.'s oldest film festival, Outfest, will open its 31st annual LGBT film fest on July 11 with writer-director Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s “C.O.G.,” the first film adaptation of David Sedaris’s work, which stars Jonathan Groff, Denis O'Hare, Corey Stoll, and Dean Stockwell. Outfest will be held July 11 – 21, 2013.

By Anne Thompson
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May 17, 2013 9:19 PM
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Cannes Review: Ari Folman's Hybrid 'The Congress' Befuddles More than It Bedazzles

Reviews

Ari Folman’s “The Congress” begins well enough, with the sheer physical presence of Robin Wright center screen, tears popping from her eyes. The actress, who in real life has aged gracefully into strength – or maybe it’s just bitterness -- plays “Robin Wright,” an aging actress who has made many “lousy choices.” We know this from her agent, played with sweet understatement by Harvey Keitel, who spares nothing and no one, including the “lousy men” Wright has chosen. Is that one of the movie’s many in-jokes?

By Tom Christie
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May 17, 2013 8:43 PM
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Harvey Weinstein Previews Awards Slate at Cannes

Festivals

Harvey Weinstein took advantage of Cannes' many attendees to gather some of them together in order to tease TWC's upcoming films and get a head start on the next round of Awards season. That has been the modus operandi of The Weinstein in recent years, which had held more intimate affairs at swanky flats off the Croisette and today opted for a make-shift screening room.

By Brian Brooks
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May 17, 2013 5:02 PM
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Cannes News: Music Box Snags Competition Mikkelsen Starrer 'Michael Kohlhaas'

News

Ahead of its first Cannes market screening, Chicago-based Music Box Films has picked up all US and Canadian rights to Arnaud des Pallières' competition title "Michael Kohlhaas," starring Mads Mikkelsen and adapted from the 1811 Heinrich von Kleist classic Romantic novel. Films du Losange is selling the film, which is Des Pallières' fourth feature, at Cannes.

By Anne Thompson
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May 17, 2013 2:24 PM
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Cannes Virgin Festival Diary 1: From 'Gatsby' to 'Heli' and Back

Festivals

The first indication that things at Cannes weren’t going to be quite as I imagined them to be – red carpet and champagne, rinse and repeat – was the crush trying to get on the express bus from the Nice airport. The bus was 20 minutes late in arriving from Cannes, and there was a lot of jockeying going on, which is a nice way of saying butting in line, except there were no real lines, not to mention not enough seats. As the harried driver pulled away a woman in the back began yelling for him to stop, exclaiming, “You didn’t take my husband or my bags. I need both.” The driver stopped and the woman exited to general laughter.