Monthly Archives: May 2008

CANNES FILM BRIEF: Kelly Reichardt’s ‘Wendy and Lucy’

Posted on May 30, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES: Michelle Williams does her best but she cannot prevent Kelly Reichardt’s Un Certain Regard entry “Wendy and Lucy,” a weak tale about being broke and on the road in rural America, from dwindling into boredom. Prospects … Continue reading →

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Sydney Pollack on film music and Dave Grusin

Posted on May 27, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett Director Sydney Pollack, who has died aged 73, was a filmmaker who really knew what to do with music in his pictures and his longest collaboration with a composer was with the great Dave Grusin. The filmmaker, … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Sergey Dvortsevoy’s ‘Tulpan’

Posted on May 24, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES: Polished, funny and utterly charming, Kazakhstan director Sergey Dvortsevoy’s first feature film, “Tulpan,” which won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at the Festival de Cannes, tells of a family not only surviving … Continue reading →

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CANNES: Charles Kaufman’s ‘Synecdoche, New York’

Posted on May 23, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s first film as a director, “Synecdoche, New York,” will mesmerize some and mystify others, while many will be bored silly. It’s not a dream, Kaufman says, but it has a dreamlike … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Jennifer Lynch’s ‘Surveillance’

Posted on May 23, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Jennifer Lynch’s morbid thriller “Surveillance” begins with masked intruders killing people and the slaughter never stops. It’s been 15 years since David Lynch’s daughter gave the world “Boxing Helena,” but she hasn’t lost her interest … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Atom Egoyan’s ‘Adoration’

Posted on May 23, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Atom Egoyan’s remarkable new film “Adoration” is a haunting meditation on the nature of received wisdom and how it can warp individuals, damage families and even threaten society. Shot on beautifully utilized film but employing … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: James Gray’s ‘Two Lovers’

Posted on May 21, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – They don’t make pictures like James Gray’s “Two Lovers” anymore. It’s an old-fashioned love story in which the melodramatic trapdoors of shock and surprise never open. Joaquin Phoenix plays a rumpled innocent with two coins … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Emir Kusturica’s ‘Maradona’

Posted on May 21, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Sarajevo filmmaker Emir Kusturica gives Argentine football legend Diego Maradona a big wet kiss in his Out of Competition documentary “Maradona by Kusturica”. In thrall to the iconic soccer wizard, the director makes the film … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: ‘Eldorado’ by Bouli Lanners

Posted on May 19, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – A couple of genial idiots in a beat-up Chevy hit the Belgian blacktops in Bouli Lanners’s funny and melancholy road picture “Eldorado” with widescreen images that suggest the American West and a soundtrack to match. … Continue reading →

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CANNES FILM REVIEW BRIEF: documentary ‘Modern Life’

Posted on May 19, 2008 by admin

By Ray Bennett CANNES – Veteran French photographer Raymond Depardon’s documentary “Modern Life”, in Un Certain Regard at the Festival de Cannes, is an elegy to ageing farmers and their fading way of life in remote but spectacular regions of … Continue reading →

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