Cannes Film Festival Page 4

Cannes Film Festival 2016 kicks off tomorrow and there's way too much to look forward to both in and out of competition. The Grand Theatre Lumiere will be showing some major eagerly-anticipated blockbusters as well as some of the most exciting independent works of the year. We've listed 10 of the most watchable movies to make life a little easier.

Prepare for Cannes Film Festival 2016

1. Cafe Society - Opening the Festival de Cannes tomorrow (May 11th) is Woody Allen, with a 1930s romance set in Hollywood. Starring Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively, this is a movie laced with comedy, drama, love and societal honour.

Continue reading: Cafe Society, The Neon Demon, Loving: Ten Unmissable Films At Cannes Film Festival 2016

Looks like the 69th Cannes Film Festival is going to be a good one! There's plenty to look forward to in both the In Competition and Out Of Competition categories for 2016, not least with the opening title being Woody Allen's romantic drama 'Cafe Society' starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart.

The 69th Cannes Film Festival arrives in May

'Cafe Society' isn't the only movie from this year's Cannes line-up that Kristen Stewart will appear in either, because she also has the lead role in Olivier Assayas' fashion drama 'Personal Shopper' which will appear among the In Competition flicks. Xavier Dolan's 'Juste La Fin Du Monde' ('It's Only the End of the World') starring Léa Seydoux and Marion Cotillard is another French movie from that category.

Continue reading: The BFG, Money Monster, Cafe Society: Cannes Film Festival 2016 Is Looking Amazing

The 68th Cannes Film Festival kicked off on the French Riviera this week with acting icon Catherine Deneuve, who stars in the opening night film Standing Tall. She was joined on the red carpet by a glamorous line-up including Lupita Nyong'o, Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Sienna Miller and Jane Seymour.

Catherine Deneuve at Cannes Film Festival

More: See pictures from Cannes Film Festival

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Cannes Kicks Off, Tomorrowland Premieres, Cameras Roll In Miami And Trailers Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Meryl Streep And Anne Hathaway

An intimate lesbian love story by Abdellatif Kechiche won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the prestigious Palme d'Or on Sunday. La Vie d'Adele - Chapitre 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Colour) was chosen by a jury headed by Steven Spielberg as the best movie showing in competition, despite some concerns about its length (3 hours) and content, specifically its explicit sex scenes.

According to Reuters, Spielberg said the award should be shared between Kechiche and his two lead actresses Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, such was the level of their performances in the film.  "I think it will get a lot of play ... I think this film carries a very strong message, a very positive message," Spielberg told journalists. "It was the perfect choice between those two actresses and this incredible very sensitive and observant filmmaker." Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who marched in Paris this week to protest the country's legalization of same-sex marriage should go watch Blue Is The Warmest Colour. "Everyone who is against same-sex marriage or love between two people of the same sex must see the film," he said.

Tunisian-born actor Kechiche made his directorial debut in 2000. He was virtually speechless upon accepting the award, dedicating it to the youth of France and Tunisia who "wanted only to live, speak and love freely" during the Arab spring. 

Continue reading: Lesbian Love Story Beats Coen Brothers To Palme D'Or At Cannes

Abdellatif Kechiche’s film about a lesbian romance has taken the Palm D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The Tunisian-born director dedicated his win to "the youth of France" and the Tunisian revolution, where "they have the aspiration to be free, to express themselves and love in full freedom."

Perhaps the film’s triumph is rooted in context. Gay marriage is slowly, and rightly, being written into law in most countries, and this film addresses a young couple struggling with a lesbian relationship. "I think it will get a lot of play ... I think this film carries a very strong message, a very positive message," Spielberg – head judge as this year’s festival -told journalists. "It was the perfect choice between those two actresses and this incredible very sensitive and observant filmmaker." Inside Llewyn Davis – the new film from The Coen Brothers – was considered to be the favourite, but Blue Is The Warmest Colour has taken the prize. "Everyone who is against same-sex marriage or love between two people of the same sex must see the film," he told Reuters.

Spielberg added: "It was an obvious conclusion that without Léa and Adèle, the synergy could not have happened. If the casting had been even slightly different, if anything had been a little left of centre, it wouldn't have worked. It was the perfect choice from a sensitive film-maker."

Continue reading: Blue Is The Warmest Colour Takes Palm D’Or At Cannes 2013

A man who looks slightly similar to Psy decided to don his fanciest tuxedo and most outlandish sunglasses to see if he could blag his way into the Cannes Film Festival this week. As ridiculous as that sounds, the man's plan worked like a charm, with the impostor Psy managing to blag his way into some of the glitziest events in the South of France and even managed to walk away with all manner of free gifts from companies looking to get their name out.

Although it sounds as though the story was taken straight from The Onion, the only reason the fake Psy was found out about was because the real South Korea K-Pop star caught wind of the impostor and alerted the press via his Twitter account. The real Psy, who is currently in Singapore, took to his Twitter page on Wednesday (May 22) to call out the fake Psy, writing; "seems like there's another ME at cannes...say Hi to him @scooterbraun lol #PSYinSINGAPORE."

What is particularly funny about this story, bar the fact that a man talked his way into Cannes, is that the impostor genuinely looks nothing like Psy. Still, that didn't stop the wannabe 'Gangnam Style' singer from mixing with the stars and posing for photos with fans, with just about everybody getting duped by the fake Psy. Even Skyfall actress Naomie Harris Tweeted a picture of herself with 'non-Psy' at a party on Tuesday (May 21), with many others falling for the act and posting pictures of the impostor online too. We're not sure if people were just being polite or stupid, but how a man whose only resemblance to Psy is his girth and ethnicity managed to fool so many people is beyond us.

Continue reading: Cheeky Psy Look-A-Like Manages To Blag His Way Into The Cannes Film Festival

Robert Redford used his press conference promoting new film, All Is Lost, at the Cannes Film Festival to address a different kind of lost; the loss of American values and its position as a respected industrial nation since the end of the Second World War.

The 76-year-old actor/writer/director was especially critical of the near-constant stream of political scandal that has plagued Capitol Hill since 1945, events that have caused average Americans and foreigners to shake their heads at Washington officials. Certain things have got lost," said Redford. "Our belief system had holes punched in it by scandals that occurred, whether it was Watergate, the quiz show scandal, or Iran-Contra; it's still going on…Beneath all the propaganda is a big grey area, another America that doesn't get any attention; I decided to make that the subject of my films."

Robert Redford has long been known for his political activism

Continue reading: Robert Redford Say That America Has Lost It's Way At Cannes Press Conference

End of the Night: Tributes were paid this week to Ray Manzarek, pioneering keyboardist with The Doors who died in Germany aged 74. He formed the band with lead singer Jim Morrison after a chance meeting in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, and the pair went on to create some of the finest rock music in history.

Yukkk! Taylor Swift inadvertently created internet gold this week after making a serious "Yukkkk!" face when her pal Selena Gomez embraced with ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber backstage at the Billboard Music Awards 2013. The whole thing was caught on camera - and it's hilarious.

Continue reading: A Week In News: Ray Manzarek Dies, Taylor Swift's Disgusted Reaction And Brad Pitt Talks Drugs

Cannes 2013 has thrown up another noteworthy film if the reviews are to be believed. Only God Forgives - directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling – has caused a stir with the critics.

Having already worked with Gosling on Drive, which was also reviewed positively, if not pulled up for plot holes, Winding Refn’s thriller is set among American criminal expatriates in Bangkok. “It is ultraviolent, creepy and scary, an enriched-uranium cake of pulp, with a neon sheen,” says The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw. “The first scenes made me think that Wong Kar-wai had made a new film called In the Mood for Fear or In the Mood for Hate.” Aside from The Guardian’s 5-star review, the reaction to Only God Forgives has been mixed. "Only God Forgives is a failure but a rather magnificent failure,” say Total Film. “It is a beautiful, hollow film, with the director's insistence that Julian is fighting God – and that the film is about existential crisis – needing to be taken at its word. For most, it simply comes down to this: it's no Drive." Empire called it a “hellish, dreamlike vision of purgatory that works better as an immersive experience than a narrative.”

Continue reading: Depending On The Critic, 'Only God Forgives' Is The Best, And Worst At Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival is about glitz, glamour, celebrity and, above all, film. But this year’s event has been blighted some truly bizarre criminal acts.

First of all there was the million-dollar jewelry heist, then a crazed gunman, claiming he had a grenade, has people scuffling for safety. The scary events unfolded at a life TV event, at which Django Unchained star Christoph Waltz was appearing. "I was on a panel at the Studio Canal platform off the beach when a man produced a gun,” explained Waltz. "I think it was a pistol and he fired but luckily for me they were blanks. Then he shouted he had a grenade and again luckily for me there was no grenade. The police have him. They tackled him to the ground." The Cannes festival jury member, added: "I don't know who he was or where he came from or what his problem was." Witness Arthur Laiguesse said: "The bodyguards jumped over the barriers into the crowd and pulled him to the ground. The police arrived and told everyone to run because there was a grenade in his hand."

Continue reading: Gunman And Grenade Wielder At Cannes? Luckily, For Christoph Waltz, Not Quite

The Cannes Film Festival serves some of the hottest and most glamorous films; this year, the prestigious event opened with The Great Gatsby – an undoubtedly stylish film, albeit with some shortcomings.

But it’s also an important habitat for indie films to find an audience. One of the films to really make a splash, with its candid portrayal of modern-day Mexico and the poverty and corruption that plagues it. According to The Guardian, “It was served New Wave Mexican style: raw, gritty, and force fed by bandits who snap puppies' necks with one hand while recruiting underage sex slaves with the other.” The British paper were fans of the Amat Escalante-directed film, giving it a four-star review, in which they write: “Director Amat Escalante – a more explicitly political blood brother to Mexico's current king of neo-realist weirdness, Carlos Reygadas – has shot a damning indictment of contemporary Mexico, capturing its institutionalised corruption, its endemic cruelty."

Escalande at the 66th Cannes Film Festival

Continue reading: 'Heli' Reviews – Not For The Feint Hearted, But The Truth Needed To Be Told

Cara Delevingne is a model, and as such the expectations for her to impress on the red carpet at Cannes were as high as ever. Good thing she got the memo to dress to impress, as her plunging floor-length Burberry gown ensured that all eyes were squared directly on her when she arrive on the red carpet for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival Opening Ceremony on Wednesday (May 15) night.

The model did have some competition on the red carpet though, as fellow model Georgia May Jagger was on duty with another floor-length gown, this time impressing with a scarlet red number that accentuated all the same bits that Delevingne was flaunting. The pair rocked the full-length look as well as showing off their chests in their plunging gowns, although the lace detail put into Delevingne's dress just edges her ahead in the best dressed category.

Cara Delevingne when she arrived at Nice Airport

Continue reading: Cara Delevingne Sets The Cannes Fashion Standard With Floor-Length Dress

What it's like to sit on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival and have the power to present the director of the very best movie with the prestigious Palme d'Or? This year, Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz bring a touch of Hollywood A-list glamor to the event and will spent 10 days in darkened screening rooms debating each of the movies in competition.

British director Stephen Fears headed the jury in 2007, when he and his team chose Romanian movie 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days as the Palme d'Or winner ahead of the Coen's No Country For Old Men, David Fincher's Zodiac, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. "They were very anti-American, the jury. But I kept saying that American films are watched all over the world. This cut no ice with a few bolshy women on the jury," Frears told the BBC ahead of the Festival this week, "I don't know, you try and behave sensibly. I hear all those stories about people manipulating things, but there didn't seem to be any of that. There were no orders from above - nobody tried to interfere, but there were a few basic rules which you had to follow," he added.

Sitting in a darkened room and watching the very best movies of the year before anyone else sounds pretty fantastic right? "...you're terrified of is going to sleep," said Frears, "...so I had coffee brought to me to stay awake - it was manageable. I didn't write notes but I had a friend with me and she and I would discuss the film afterwards." On whether he still recognised that he had chosen the best movie in competition, Frears was unequivocal, saying, "Oh yes, it was a wonderful, original film. I'm sure it benefitted from winning, it was a very accessible film. I'm sure if you spoke to distributors, I'm sure they would say Michael Haneke's film [2012 Palme d'Or and Oscar-winner] Amour has done really well."

Continue reading: Dark Rooms, Bans And Bolshy Women: How The Cannes Jury Choose The Palme D'Or Winner

This years Cannes Film Festival will be heading back to the heady days of the Roarin' Twenties, a time of affluence, jazz, glitz and glamour and the setting of the newly release The Great Gatsby. The 3D film will be opening the festival in what should be an extravagant event, even by Cannes' standards, when things kick off this Wednesday (May 15).

Whilst the movie has already had it's premiere in the U.S., the grand stage of Cannes still makes it's European unveiling an exciting prospect, especially for all those involved, such as director Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Carey Mulligan, who will all be flying over the the south of France to attend the screening. Mulligan wont just be preoccupied by commitments to Gatsby either, as the star's next film is also being premiered at the festival too, the Coen Brother's latest effort Inside Llewyn Davis.

Carey Mulligan at the US premiere of Gatsby

Continue reading: Cannes Film Festival To Bring The Spirit Of The 20's With The Great Gatsby Opening The Festival

Cinemas are now fully in the grip of blockbuster season, with Tom Cruise's Oblivion and Gerard Butler's Olympus Has Fallen expanding their reach into new countries this week. 

And next week sees Iron Man 3 begin its global assault. Stars Robert Downey Jr, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley and Don Cheadle were in London this week for the film's premiere. Director Shane Black even took time out to do a stand-up routine with cowriter Drew Pearce to introduce the first UK press screening.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Cruise's Oblivion & Butler's Olympus Have Their Worldwide Release & The Lone Ranger, The Hunger Games & Man Of Steel Launch New Trailers