Look Who is Hosting the 84th Oscar Gala

Eddie Murphy

Actor/comedian Eddie Murphy, widely known for the Saturday Night Live comedy television show and the Beverly Hills Cop's movies, will host the 84th Academy Awards telecast, according to an announcement yesterday by the producers of the awards telecast, Brett Ratner and Don Mischer, at the the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences® in Beverly Hill, California.

The Academy Awards® for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Vine Highland Center, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Murphy earned an Oscar nomination in 2006 for his supporting role as James "Thunder" Early in the movie Dreamgirls. This will be Murphy's first time hosting the Oscars®.

I must admit that the name of Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy never crossed my mind as a possible host.  A few years back, I would have said, "Oh, no, he is a loose cannon." However, Murphy has, over the years, steadily honed his craft.  Thus, today, he seems like an excellent choice for host.

All told, movies in which he has performed have earned in excess of $7 billion worldwide during their theatrical releases, chief among them Beverly Hills Cop, The Nutty Professor and Shrek franchises. His performing career of three decades spans movies, television and the stage.

FOLLOW THE ACADEMY

www.oscars.org
www.facebook.com/TheAcademy
www.youtube.com/Oscars
www.twitter.com/TheAcademy

Coppola, 'The Help' Cast, Deauville Festival & Family History

Coppola Honored

Day two of the Labor Day Weekend, and the Deauville American Film Festival in Deauville, France (2-11 September) opened. It is called the Deauville American Film Festival because it is the only European film festival solely dedicated to showing American films, underscoring America's close ties with France.

The renowned director Francis Ford Coppola is the Guest of Honor at this year’s fest, and he declared this year's 37th annual event open Friday night. Renault, is the Official Partner of the 37th Deauville American Film Festival.

Deauville is located on the coast of Normandy, France. The exclusive coastal resort has been the playground of the rich and famous since it was founded by a cousin of Napoleon III in 1861. That was about 100 years after 1/2 of my French family migrated to the British colony now known as Canada. Their longest stop along the way was in Toronto, then they moved on to Detroit.

By the mid 1700s they were in a little French settlement called Vincenes, which would become Vincenes, Indiana. They were neither rich, nor famous, but they were not poor. I think the other French half may have entered through Louisiana, but there are some gaps. I like following the film festivals in Deauville  and in Toronto, because I relate to those places.

I digressed. The Deauville opened with the most popular American movie at the moment, grossing over $100 million, The Help, with the cast offering some Red Carpet pzazz. Surely, you know all about the movie based on the novel by  Katheryn Stockett by now, so I shall not go into detail here. If you don't, here's the Official Website, and you can order the book below.

From all reports, after the screening on the opening night of the festival, The Help received a rousing approval with many in the audience on their feet as they applauded. When asked about the difference between the reception in Hollywood and the reception at Deauville, actress Viola Davis said that it was different from the premiere in Los Angeles. She said people in Hollywood clapped, but not with as much enthusiasm or joy. She described the reception in Deauville as enormous with uninhibited joy.

To read about the films being screened and, who is attending, click the title of this post.
 

The 36th Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada, opens this week (8-18 September), one of my favorites for the reasons mentioned above, and because when I am trying to pick a Best Feature Motion Picture Oscar winner, I pay close attention to the TIFF. In 2008, I was touting Slumdog Millionaire when most of the American movie goers had never heard of it. It won in Toronto, and went on to win the Oscar for Best Feature Motion Picture of 2009.

The cast members of Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, headed by Brad Pitt, are unpacking their bags, and not in Toronto. There was some talk that the movie would open Toronto. However, the information was false.

The Tree of Life is not even screening at Toronto. Davis Guggenheim's, From the Sky Down, will have it's USA World Premiere on opening Night. Twenty years after the release of U2’s Achtung Baby (1991), Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud) charts this groundbreaking album with new interviews, stories and music.

More on Toronto later, but here is the list of films from indieWire:

  

Close Proves Her Acting Chops

Some reviews are in from Telluride. One being the movie Albert Nobbs, a tale of a woman in the 19th Century passing herself off as a man in late Victorian–era Dublin, is praised for actress Glenn Close's performance. She co-wrote the script, helped produce it, and worked on the getting it made for about 20 years. Actress Janet McTeer also received some good press, but director Rodrigo Garcia came in for a couple of swipes, because the film reveals a plot part too early in the movie, and for some other things, but I don't want to be a spoiler.

Todd McCarthy, writing in The Hollywood Reporter, gives Garcia a salute. He writes that Garcia is often compared to the late director George Cukor for his consistent skill in eliciting superb performances from females.  Cukor was one of Katherine Hepburn's favorite directors. One of my favorite films of Cukor's is the made-for-TV movie, The Corn is Green, starring Hepburn.

Nobbs is based on 19th century short story by Irish writer George Moore called The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs. It became a stage play, and Close starred in a 1982 New York production.  McCarthy writes that the film ". . . cries out for a deeper exploration of this pinched, unrealized human being" who disguised herself as a man in order to support herself. Other critics have noted different flaws in the movie but, as before, I don't want to be a spoiler.

It Isn't Fall Yet, But Festivals Don't Know It

I tried to stretch my hiatus out a little longer, but when the Venice International Film Festival started Wednesday, I knew it was time to start paying attention to what was happening on the movie scene. Thus, a break from the cookout today for this post.

Venice IFF's Golden Lion Award

Two major Film Festivals are underway this weekend. For starters, the granddaddy of the film festivals, the 68th Venice International Film Festival - La Biennale di Venezia - opened Wednesday, 31 August, with the well-received world premiere screening of The Ides of March, the highly anticipated new film written, directed, and starring George Clooney, in the Palazzo del Cinema, following the opening ceremony.  Co-starring with Clooney are:  Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ryan Gosling, Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei.

The Ides of March is the only U.S. film screening in competition. However, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, Germany/Canada, is worth noting. It stars Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud, Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung, and Keira Knightley as a troubled young woman seeking treatment. There are no films of note from the USA screening out of competition.
The complete list of films in competition Here.

Telluride

George Clooney

The other festival is the 38th Telluride Film Festival (2-5 September), to which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a $50,000 grant to underwrite this year's  Festival’s Guest Director program, featuring musician Caetano Veloso, who is described as ". . . a musician who loves movies." For more on the Academy's grant to Telluride, click the title of this post.

George Clooney’s The Ides Of March may have been well-received in Venice, but it did not make the Telluride roster.  None-the-less, Clooney headed from Venice to the Colorado San Juan mountain festival to support the other movie in which he stars this year, The Descendants. It is the new film from director Alexander Payne, his first since his Oscar-winner Sideways (2007). Telluride will host tributes for Clooney, and actress Tilda Swinton, who won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2008 as Clooney's co-star in Michael Clayton.

Besides Venice, Telluride is also a stop in the film festival circuit between Cannes and New York. There's The Artist, a black and white silent film directed by Michel Hazanavicius, and Martin Scorsese’s new documentary about the late member of The Beatles - George Harrison: Living in the Material World, plus the Irish drama Albert Nobbs, co-written by Glenn Close, which has the actress playing a shy butler who is hiding the fact that he/she is a woman.

At Telluride, there are the "to be announced" slots, which keep festival goers guessing. In the past, some films shown in these TBA slots, including last year's The King's Speech, received Oscars. Therefore, there is big buzz of speculation about this year's TBA films. One that has been revealed is Butter, a comedy starring Jennifer Garner, Olivia Wilde and Hugh Jackman. Telluride Festival.

Coming up, the San Sebastian Festival in Spain (16-24 September), has set it's jury members.  Serving as part of the official selection jury will be Babel screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, director Álex de la Iglesia (The Last Circus) and actresses Bai Ling (The Crow), Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) and Frances McDormand (Fargo). American writer and film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum will chair the New Directors competition at the festival. This from Nikki Fink's Deadline/Hollywood blog.

Taking a Hiatus

Do to a recent unexpected health problems, I must take a hiatus from blogging until further notice. If all goes well, I may be back in October. Meanwhile, follow me on Twitter, @mimifink.

Thanks!

Broadway's Night - June 12, 2011

There are two nights each year when I turn off my phones to everyone because I love watching the Academy Awards and the Tony Awards. Movies and live stage productions are essential for my survival. This is your reminder. Do not call me Sunday evening, June 12, 2011. The Antoinette Perry Tony Awards will be presented live on CBS. I will definitely be watching to see who will be chosen the Best of Broadway for this season.

The first time Broadway, film and TV star Neil Patrick Harris hosted the 63rd Tony Awards for the American Theatre Wing, he earned an Emmy Award for his efforts. And now, he's back to host again this year. NPH, as he is affectionately known by legions of fans across the globe, is set to return to the Tony stage as host of the 65th annual awards on June 12th.

NPH is probably best known for his role as Barney Stinson on the CBS hit series, 'How I Met Your Mother' but he has been a "Broadway Baby" from the time he was in knickers. He also hosted the 61st prime-time Emmy Awards.  But, enough about him.

The productions being honored include:

Best Play

Good People

Jerusalem

The Motherf**ker with the Hat

War Horse

Best Musical

The Book of Mormon

Catch Me If You Can

The Scottsboro Boys

Sister Act

Best Revival of a Play

Arcadia

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Merchant of Venice

The Normal Heart

Best Revival of a Musical

Anything Goes

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Some of the actors and actresses nominated for their thespian efforts this year include:

Al Pacino, The Merchant of Venice

Frances McDormand, Good People

Vanessa Redgrave, Driving Miss Daisey

John Larroquette, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Ellen Barkin, The Normal Heart

Edie Falco, The House of Blue Leaves

Judith Light, Lombardi

Elizabeth Rodriguez, The Motherf**ker With the Hat

Patti LuPone, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

This year, the Regional Theatre Tony Award goes to the Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago, IL.

To view the entire list of nominees GO HERE. To visit the Tony official Web site where you can view video of scenes from the plays and Musicals, learn more about the nominees and so much more, click the title of this post.

2011 Cannes IFF: A Big Wrap

 

Poster for 'Midnight in Paris' with Owen Wilson

One of the most pleasant surprises of the 64th Festival de Cannes, which ran May 11 - 22, and wrapped Sunday, was the good reception of Woody Allen's latest movie, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, an imaginative romantic comedy where a character takes a late night walk in Paris and is transported back to the 1920s. He finds himself hobnobbing with literary giants Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, plus Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

The film had its international premiere on Opening Night, screening out of competition. Some of the buzz words from critics were: "upbeat", "funny", "very enjoyable", "Allen's best in years," and the film they most often compared to it? THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985), starring Mia Ferrow, Jeff Daniels and Danny Aiello, in which a character walks out of a film and into the life of a vulnerable young New Jersey woman in the 1930s.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS was filmed last year in the French capital. Allen brings together a broad international cast, including Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (First Lady of France), Gad Elmaleh and Léa Seydoux.

The other surprise movie at Cannes that received accolades was THE ARTIST* by French director Michel Hazanavicius. It was not made in the 1920s, but is set in that era. Shot in black and white, it is a silent movie, a study in light and shadows. (* denotes an Cannes award winner.)

THE ARTIST screened in competition. The viewers and critics absolutely loved this movie about movies. Where is it written that all movies today must be shot in color, in high def or 3D, and have dialogue, a pop music score, and a budget of astronomical proportions?  Yes, this one is special for more than one reason. It is also a French movie filmed in Hollywood, no less.

Another buzzed-about movie is Joseph Cedar's Hebrew-language black comedy FOOTNOTE* (Israel). Three years ago, Cedar's BEAUFORT was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar, and he won two Silver Bears at Berlin for directing it, and for the screenplay. But whereas that movie is rich with political overtones, FOOTNOTE does not overtly deal with things political, but with a complicated relationship between a Jewish son and his father. Sony Picture Classics snatched up the North and Latin American rights immediately. 

Also, on Opening Night, the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci was presented an honorary Palme d'or for lifetime achievement (see previous posts), and 17 May the Festival honored French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo with a special day. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, Belmondo worked with the Crème de la Crème of cinema auteurs such as Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Claude Lelouch, Alain Resnais, Vittorio de Sica and Alberto Lattuada, in THAT MAN FROM RIO, BREATHLESS, PIERROT LE FOUR, MISSISSIPPI MERMAID, LE MAGNIFIQUE and STAVISKY AND BORSALINO, just a few movies in which he starred that showed his extraordinary acting range.

Like Bertolucci on his night, Belmondo walked the Red Carpet surrounded by friends and admirers. Later, he attended the première of Vincent Perrot and Jeff Domenech’s documentary BELMONDO, THE CAREER. The screening was followed by a dinner and party.

It would not be a film festival without a controversy, and Danish director Lars von Trier, MELANCHOLIA *, set off a storm when he spoke at a press conference about finding out when his mother was on her death bed that
he was not a Jew. His controversial statement was something like, "I have nothing against Jews, but, O.K., I'm a Nazi." 
 
Lars von Trier apologized for his remarks, but was banned from Cannes with this statement, "The board of directors firmly condemns these comments and declares Lars Von Trier a persona non grata at the Festival de Cannes, with effect immediately."

READ MORE  

Closing Night the official Jury of this 64th Festival de Cannes, presided over by Robert De Niro, revealed the prize winners during the Closing Ceremony. Actress Jane Fonda was escorted onstage at the Grand Théâtre Lumière by Mélanie Laurent. Fonda presented the Palme d'or for the best film among the 20 in Competition.

The evening closed with the screening of Christophe Honoré's BELOVED (Les Bien-aimés), starring Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni (Deneuve's daughter with Marcello),  Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel and Milos Forman. 

Poster for 'The Tree of Life' with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn

And the awards went to:

FEATURE FILMS

Jury headed by U.S. actor/director/producer Robert De Niro. Members of the Jury were: French writer/director Olivier Assayas; Argentinian producer Martina Gusman; director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun who was born in Chad; U.K. actor/producer Jude Law; producer of Chinese-language films Nansun Shi; U.S. actress Uma Thurman; Hong Kong director Johnnie To; and Norway-born writer and journalist Linn Ullmann.

Terrence Malick

   Palme d'or - THE TREE OF LIFE (USA), written and directed by Terrence Malick, starrng Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, and Hunter McCracken. In 1979, Malick won the best director at Cannes for DAYS OF HEAVEN. More about this movie in the next post.

Grand Prix - BIR ZAMANLAR ANADOLU’DA (Once Upon A Time In Anatolia) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and THE KID WITH A BIKE, directed by Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne.

Best Director - Nicolas Winding Refn for DRIVE.

Jury Prize - POLISS by Maiwenn.

Best Performance for an Actor - Jean Dujardin in THE ARTIST, directed by Michel Hazanavicius.

Best Performance for an Actress - Kirsten Dunst in MELANCHOLIA, directed by Lars von Trier.

Award for the Best Screenplay - Joseph Cedar for FOOTNOTE.


SHORT FILMS IN COMPETTION

Palme d'or - CROSS-COUNTRY by Maryna Vroda, and Jury Prize - BADPAKJE 46 (Swimsuit 46) by Wannes Drstoop.

CAMERA d'or - LAS ACACIAS  by  Pablo GIORGELLI, presented in the framework of the the CRITICS' WEEK.

UN CERTAIN REGARD - 21 May, presented 21 films directed by 22 directors hailing from 19 different countries. Two of the works were first films. The Jury was presided over by Emir Kusturica (Director, actor and musician - Serbia). The Jury members were: Elodie Bouchez (Actress - France), Peter Bradshaw (Critic-The Guardian - U.K.), Geoffrey Gilmore (Chief Creative Officer-Tribeca Enterprises - USA), Daniela MICHEL (Director of the Morelia Festival - Mexico).

PRIZE OF UN CERTAIN REGARD Ex-æquo - ARIRANG by Kim Ki-Duk, shared with HALT AUF FREIER STRECKE (Stopped on Track) by Andreas Dresen.

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE - ELENA by Andrey Zvyagintsev.

DIRECTING PRIZE - BÉ OMID É DIDAR (Au revoir), Mohammad Rasoulof.

CINEFONDATION - Presented 20 May and Showcasing Student Films:

The Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury (Julie Gayet, Jessica Hausner, Corneliu Porumboiu, João Pedro Rodrigues and President Michel Gondry) awarded the Cinéfondation Prizes during a ceremony in Buñuel Theatre before the screening of the winning films.

Sixteen student films coming from Asia, America and Europe composed this year’s program. They have been selected out of 1,600 entries.

First Cinéfondation Prize - DER BRIEF (The Letter) by Doroteya Droumeva, dffb, Germany, awarded € 15,000; Second Cinéfondation Prize - DRARI  by Kamal Lazraq, La Fémis, France, awarded € 11,250; Third Cinéfondation Prize, YA-GAN-BI-HANG (Fly by Night) by Son Tae-gyum, Chung-Ang University, South Korea, awarded € 7,500.

Arab Cinema Finds an Niche in Western Film Festivals

In honor of Egyptian courage and expression of freedom, the International Cannes Film Festival will host Egypt film and filmmakers at the 64th International Film Festival as the first ever guest country at the Cannes IFF, May 11 - 22, 2011.

The Festival will also honor late Egyptian directing legend Youssef Chahine and screen 18 Jours (18 DAYS), as well as a grouping of short films by several Egyptian directors filmed during the nation's January 25th revolution. Profits from the films will go toward political and public education programs in rural Egypt. O.K., I'm down with the funds for rural public education programs but a bit skeptical about the motives of political education. That is very vague.

The third Arab Film Festival Berlin, organized by Cinemaiat - Friends of the Arabic Cinematheque Association, will be held from November 2 to 10 this year. The festival's main program will present recent works by Arab filmmakers, and this year's special focus section on humor will present films of varied lengths and production dates.

Feature films, documentaries and shorts made in the last three years are eligible for Berlin, as long as they are directed or produced by an Arab filmmaker/production company, or present an issue closely connected to the Arab world. The submission deadline is June 30, 2011.

The Fourth Gulf Film Festival (GFF) at Dubai, drew to a close April 20th and ended on a high note. There was a week-long showcase of 153 films from 31 countries screened free to audiences in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Arabian peninsula.

GFF 2011 drew more than 1,400 submissions from 98 countries for its fourth edition, recorded a 11 per cent growth in audience compared with its 2010 edition, highlights the growing popularity of the festival and emerging and established Gulf filmmakers among local and regional audiences.

The 2011 edition also saw one of the strongest Gulf turnouts, including the highest-ever submissions from the UAE and Qatar, and significant representation from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Iraq. In all, the 2011 line-up included 59 world premieres, 13 international premieres, 15 Middle East premieres and 15 Gulf Coast premieres.

The GFF has no graphic I can use with this post, so I used the graphic from the other film festival held in Dubai, the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). The DIFF is more open to Westerners than the GFF. This year's DIFF edition, along with Enjazz Film Market, will be held December 7 - 14. Please click the title of this post for more information.

One of the reasons Arab cinema has made monumental strides in quality films is the filmmakers in the Gulf region now have access to production funds for five short films annually, following a new collaboration between the Gulf Film Festival and the Dubai Film Market's Enjaaz program, that aims to support filmmakers from the Arab world.

This new Enjaaz fund offers Gulf-based filmmakers up to $50,000 per project, complementing the existing funding of up to $100,000 per project offered every year by Enjaaz to features and documentaries in the post-production phase. The first application cycle for the fund closes June 1.

Arabic film festivals also offer huge monetary prizes to film festival winners, anywhere from $25,000 to $100,000 per win. A glass or gold plated statue doesn't cut it with these guys. The statue must be in pure gold studded with diamonds, rubies and/or sapphires.

So, whoa up there you Americans, Brits, or European Union members. I suggest you do not pack your bags for these film festivals just yet. Many of these splendorous affairs are not open to you as competitors or, perhaps, as visitors. Some are by invitation only. Click the title of this post for more on these festivals.

Sarajevo's Regional Provillon at Cannes

This year, eight countries from the Balkan region will join together at the most important film market in the world – Marche du Film of the Cannes Film Festival.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Serbia have joined their forces in order to present themselves together to the rest of the film world, in the South-East European Pavilion. The initiative of the Regional Pavilion was announced two years ago at the Sarajevo Film Festival (July 22-20, 2011) in the framework of the Regional Forum, begun last year.

The initiative of linking regional cinema gradually has become stronger supported by the hopes of filmmakers that the implementation of the European idea of regionalization of film art will create more space for everyone.

The Regional Pavilion has been envisaged as a joint space for all filmmakers from the above mentioned countries attending the Cannes Film Festival to gather, meet colleagues, organize meetings, and find opportunities for their projects.

Cannes Closing Film

Faye Dunaway Featured on 2011 Poster

French Writer / Director Christophe Honoré's film, Les Bien-aimés (The Beloved), will be screened on the Closing Night of the 64th Cannes Film Festival, Sunday May 22, 2011, following the closing night ceremony. At the ceremony before the screening, Robert De Niro and his jury will present the Festival awards.

This is not the first time at Cannes for Honoré. His first film in competition at the Festival was Les chansons d’amour (Love Songs) in 2007, for which he won Best Director. LOVE SONGS was nominated for a Palm d'Or.

This year, he returns for another walk on the red carpet of the Palais des Festivals accompanied by the French film pedigree of cinematographer Rémy Chevrin, composer Alex Beaupin, actors Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroiani, Milos Forman, Louis Garrel, Michel Delpech and Paul Schneider.

In case you do not known, actress Chiara Mastroiani, also in LOVE SONGS, is the daughter of the late Italian actor, Marcello Mastroianni and actress Catherine Deneuve. 

Les Bien-aimés, filmed mainly in Canada, is set in the Prague of the sixties, London of the eighties, the world of 9/11/2001, and Paris of today. It is described as a singular, melancholy and romantic work of art. Prior to production, Honoré stated his attempt with the film was to contrast the 60s, those years of love and revolution and sexual liberation, with the 90s, the era permeated with the ominous threat of AIDS and an overall fear of commitment.

THE BELOVED, a dramatic musical, is an overt homage to Jacques Demy, especially his film, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, 1964, one of my all-time favorites. Demy, who was married to French actress Agnés Varda, was born in France in 1931, and died in Paris in 1990 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

With this movie, Honoré, one of the world’s most talented and original young filmmakers of his generation, befittingly closes this 64th Festival de Cannes. Les Bien-aimés, recently out of post production, is screening out of competition, and no release dates have been set.

The Festival opens May 11. To access Official Site in English, click the title of this post.

64th Cannes Festival Salutes Bollywood

Festival Official Selections announced. Click title of this post.

Bollywood - The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, is the title of a feature documentary  produced by Shekhar Kapoor exclusively for the Festival de Cannes. It will be screened out of competition during the 64th Festival that runs from 11 to 22 May.

 
It all began with a conversation with Shekhar Kapoor, a member of  the Cannes Jury in 2010. Why not make a film that brings together the most beautiful moments in the history of Indian musical films, with all their moving pageantry and dance? A few months later, there was Bollywood, The Greatest Love Story Ever Told.

It is a swirling and poignant montage in which Shekhar Kapoor, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
 and
 Jeff Zimbalist pay tribute to this cinema genre that has contributed to establishing India’s identity in the eyes of the world and to making Mumbaione of the world capitals of film history.

Love Bollywood movies or hate them, be warned that Bollywood can be addictive. One thing for sure, anyone who watches a Bollywood movie and has no reaction, good or bad, has one foot in the grave. The movies are lively and fun. A cultural icon or not, that’s Bollywood, spawned in Mumbai, India!

Bollywood - The Greatest Love Story Ever Told - (India, 2011, 81 minutes).

For the 64th Cannes official selections and other information, click the title of this post.

Bernardo Bertolucci to Receive Honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes

Beginning this year and onward, the organizers of the Festival de Cannes will award an annual Honorary Palme d'Or, which will be presented during the Opening Ceremony of the 64th International Festival de Cannes. This recognition will be given to an important filmmaker, whose work is authoritative but who never received a Palme d'Or.

In the recent past, Woody Allen, in 2002, or Clint Eastwood in 2009, were awarded this distinction by President Gilles Jacob, on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Festival de Cannes. Now, it will become an annual tradition that will take place during the opening ceremony of the 64th Annual Festival and for festivals to come.

This year, the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci will receive this honor, and it is fitting that Robert De Niro, Chair of the Jury, will be there when it is presented. De Niro was one of the actors in Bertolucci's Novecento (1976). The opening ceremony will be held May 11th and the festival will run through May 22nd.

Mimi Recommends: Water for Elephants

In the 1930s, a young Veterinary Medicine student, Jacob Jankowski, (Robert Pattinson, Twlight), abandons his studies when his parents are killed. It is the time of the Great Depression when traveling circuses were popular and abundant. Therefore, penniless and distraught, Jacob hits the road and takes a job caring for animals with a third-rate traveling circus.

Jacob falls in love with Marlena Rosenbluth, the beautiful young equestrian star of the Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Oscar* winner, Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) brings Marlena to life. She is the wife of August (Christoph Waltz), the head trainer at the circus.

Christoph Waltz is the Oscar-winning Australian actor who played the monstrous Nazi in Inglourious Basterds. He accepted the role of August when actor Sean Penn dropped out.

Because it is the time of the Great Depression,  everyone at Benzini Brothers feels lucky to have a job. Marlena, a waif of the Depression, considers she is doubly lucky because she is also married. That is, until she begins to fall in love with Jacob.

It does not take long before Jacob also falls in love with her. The love triangle further complicates both their lives. Meanwhile, Jacob, who is of Polish descent, has another love, Rosie, an elephant from Poland. Because Rosie understands Polish and he can speak it, they form a special bond.

If video embed doesn't work, use this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuKY9kuLWvU

Water for Elephants is based on the historical novel of the same title by Canadian Author Sara Gruen, now a dual U.S. citizen. Her first novel, Riding Lessons (2004) was a hit and so was the sequel, Flying Changes (2005). Water for Elephants (2006) topped the NY Times Best-Seller list and sold four million copies. Her latest, The Ape House, was published in 2010.

The screenplay adaptation was written by Academy Award nominee Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King, 1981). Among his other screenplay adaptations, is that of the Robert James Waller novel for the beloved novel, and oscar-winning 1995 movie, The Bridges of Madison County.  

Water for Elephants, the movie, will premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles Thursday, April 14th. It is scheduled to open in the U.S. Friday, April 22nd.

The director was the popular Austrian music video director Francis Lawrence, who has directed videos for artists such as Britney Spears, Will Smith, Sarah McLachlan, and Aerosmith. He made his feature film directorial debut with I am Legend, starring Will Smith (2007).
 
A stellar list of credits include Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain, Babel, 21 Grams); Original Music by composer James Newton Howard (also known as James Howard Newton, Sixth Sense, The Fugitive); Production Designer Jack Fisk, or Fiske (There Will Be Blood, Mulholland Drive); Editor Allen Edward Bell (The Green Mile, (500) Days of Summer, A Few Good Men).

There is a plethora of other movie professionals in the cast and crew. Among the myriad professionals there is venerated actor Hal Holbrook who portrays Old Jacob and helps narrate the story. Tai, a female Asian elephant plays Rosie, the Benzini Brother's “Great White Hope” for a successful season. Warning, she may steal your heart.

Special Effects are by Crazy Horse Effects. Other production companies are Fox 2000 Pictures, 3 Arts Entertainment and Flashpoint Entertainment. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is the main distributor.

Everything about this movie portends a successful run, plus awards at the end of the year. I recommend it, hoping it will not turn out to be only a short-lived 'Tourist'. That I doubt.

        *Oscar is registered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Here Comes the Cannes Film Festival 2011

2011 Cannes Festival Poster

Faye Dunaway photographed by Jerry Schatzberg in 1970

Robert De Nero, Jury President

The 64th International Film Festival of Cannes will open May 11th and run through the 22nd. Cannes isn’t the oldest festival - that honor goes to Venice - but it is one of, if not the most, influential film festivals in the world.

The opening night ceremonies May 11th, presided over by Inglourious Basterds star Melanie Laurent, will feature the world premiere of Woody Allen’s latest, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, a romantic comedy (romcom), which will simultaneously open in theatres all over France. Allen, after romanticizing New York, Barcelona and London, moves on to Paris, which is already considered the most romantic city in the Western World.

For MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, Allen has assembled a stellar international cast consisting of: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard (French, portrayed Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose), Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody (mother is 
Hungarian photographer Sylvia Plach; The Pianist), Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (Italo-French, and she is First Lady of France), Gad Elmaleh (Moroccan comedian) and Léa Seydoux (France, Inglourious Basterds). Sony Pictures has acquired the movie.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS is officially a Spanish production, and no word yet if it will be in competition at Cannes. Usually, Allen’s films that have a festival premiere do not compete.

If embed doesn't work, click this link to watch trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nOF93SzX6s&feature=fvsr

American actor/producer Robert De Niro will serve as President of the Jury at Cannes. As such he will preside over the main competition which awards the top prize, Palm d'Or (Golden Palm), to the Best Feature Film at the festival and other jury awards.

In issuing the invitation, the organizers stated they are also paying a tribute to the co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2011. Robert De Niro, well known for his love of New York, co-founded Manhattan’s Tribeca Film Center in 1989, the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002, which has a sister festival in Doha.

Doha (DOUGH-ha) is the capital of the Emirate of Qatar (KAH-tar), but Qatar is not a member of the United Arab Emirates. It is, however, a member of The Arab League, the same Arab League that recently approved the no-fly policy for Libya. Doha’s sister city in the U.S. is Houston, Texas, and Doha will host the FIFA Soccer World Cup in 2022.

Michel Gondry will preside over the Short Film and Cinefondation jury. One can hardly get more French than Gondry, who was born in Versailles, France. He won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which he also directed. Currently, his latest directorial effort, THE GREEN HORNET, released January 14, 2011, has grossed over $200 million world wide as this goes to press.

The Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica is president of the Un Certain Regard jury at the Festival. Every year, Un Certain Regard, alongside the Competition, presents around twenty films from countries the world over. The 2010 Prix Un Certain Regard Prix (Prize) was awarded to Korean director Hong Sang Soo (alternate name: Sang-Su Hong), for Ha Ha Ha.


Jean-Paul Belmondo Pictures    French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo will be honored on Tuesday, May 17, with a special evening held in his honor. He will walk the red carpet surrounded by friends and admirers and attend the première of Vincent Perrot and Jeff Domenech’s documentary, Belmondo, The Career. The screening will be followed by a dinner and party. Belmondo, from the late 1950s, worked with many of the world’s finest directors including: Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Claude Lelouch, Alain Resnais, Vittorio De Sica and Alberto Lattuada.

To access the Festival’s official Web site in various languages, click the title of this post. Then, select the language you want. Detailed information on all the films in the Official Selection, the Juries and certain events, will be available online one week prior to the opening of the Festival.

The Official Festival Press conference for the 64th Cannes International Film Festival will be held on April 14th. The 2011 press kit containing lists of the Juries and the films selected will be available to download after that date. There will be more information on all this in next weekend’s blog post.

Revisiting THE RAINS CAME - 1939

Tyrone Power and Myrna Loy

Loy and George Brent

Maria Ouspenskya

Jane Darwall

Henry Travers

Click the title of this post to watch a video. I watched this movie, one of my favorite old movies, a couple of nights ago. It is THE RAINS CAME (1939, Black and White). I streamed it from Netflix, and it is also available on DVD.

The story is based on the novel of the same title by Louis Bromfield, published in 1937. The movie is set in India when the world is on the brink of World War II but doesn't know it. India is still a British colony, and genteel times are still in vogue. The movie is tainted with certain Hollywood stereotypes at the time of 1939, but the movie stars, all dead now, plus the cinematography and the special effects at the time it was made, make it so very special.

THE RAINS CAME, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Clarence Brown, stars Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, George Brent, Brenda Joyce, Nigel Bruce, Marjorie Rambeau, Jane Darwall, Henry Travers, H.B. Warner and Maria Ouspenskya. All were in the 20th Century Fox actors stable, and all were well-known stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood. The movie won an Oscar for its special effects and, again, for the time in which the movie was made, they are spectacular. The story was somewhat ahead of its time, too.

The spoiled wife, Lady Edwina Esketh (Loy), of an older British diplomat, Lord Albert Esketh (Bruce), assigned to the Province of Ranchipur, India, falls in love with a handsome, much-younger Indian doctor, Major Rama Safti (Power). Sparks fly between them. Well, they fly as much as the the Motion Picture censorship code (Hays Code), enacted in 1930, would allow.

Rama comes to love Edwina, and it is okay because by this time her husband has been killed. Meanwhile, a young woman, Fern Simon (Joyce), sets her cap for Tom Ransome (Brent), a British artist/businessman, and friend of Rama.

Turns out that Major Rama Safti has been a favorite for a long time of the Maharajah (W.H. Warner) and his Maharani, played by the wonderful Russian character actress Maria Ouspenskya. The Maharajah and the Maharani have a mission for Rama. They are concerned that Edwina could hinder that mission.

Edwina had some kind of previous affair with Tom, but it is okay, too, because they, Edwina and Tom, broke up a long time ago. They still care for each other but only as friends. Spoiler Alert: Edwina and Rama's love remains unrequited because of tragedy. How it comes about says volumes about the societal mores of the time.

Anyone hankering to see a movie the way they used to make them, when men were dapper and perfect gentlemen; women were beautiful graceful nymphs, while their demeanor demanded utmost respect; this movie is for you, especially if you are a woman.

RAINS is set in India but it was filmed in Malibu Canyon outside Los Angeles. Oh, the magic of the movies.

When I taught part time and did graduate study at the USC School of Cinema, the cinema books and the professors stated that Orson Welles, when directing CITIZEN KANE (1942), was the first director to us "deep focus" and show ceilings in the rooms. I didn't quite believe it. I was sure I had seen both somewhere before.

When I saw THE RAINS CAME for the second time, I marveled at the clarity of the deep focus, and that ceilings were shown in some of the rooms. I cannot say that director Clarence Brown was the first to use these techniques in RAINS, because both movies were in production about the same time, but I can say that Welles probably was not the first.

There were others at the time doing the same thing, but it was the way Welles used both the deep focus and ceilings that set CITIZEN KANE apart, and why today it is still on so many lists of top-ten-movies-of-all-time.

THE RAINS CAME was released in the same time frame as THE WIZARD OF OZ and GONE WITH THE WIND, both in color, a rarity at the time, but as with OZ, mostly in color. Because of that, RAINS got little press and hardly made a ripple in the history of cinema. Walt Disney's FANTASIA, also in color, was released a year later.

Someone was aware of the problem with the release of RAINS because it was remade by 20th Century Fox in color (1955) as THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR, with Lana Turner, Richard Burton, Fred MacMurray, Joan Caulfield, Michael Rennie and Eugenie Leontovich. This version had a big budget and was filmed in Lahore, Pakistan.

All of the original movie is pretty much there, especially the earthquake and the flood. It, too, was nominated for a special effects Oscar, but did not win. Color did not help in that department. I still like the original better, even with its stereotypes and hokeyness, which now makes the original more fun to watch.

By the way, I did meet Orson Welles at the original Universal Studios production complex, not one of their fantasy playgrounds. I had barely arrived at USC and one of my new fellow students took me there to one of those screenings that are followed by Q and A with someone involved in the production. Then, afterward, one shakes hands with the celebrity of the evening and moves right along to the exit.

I was so in awe to be in the same room as Orson Welles, that I did not remember the movie they screened, or who else was there. I still don't. It was like meeting Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas. I simply got lost in their eyes.

Later, when I was teaching a German film summer seminar in Germany, I learned that director Leni Riefenstahl said the same thing about her first meeting with Adolf Hitler. Oh, my.

Next up: Here Comes Cannes!