{"id":8592,"date":"2011-07-06T12:59:36","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T12:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8592"},"modified":"2016-07-18T13:03:34","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T13:03:34","slug":"glitz-returns-to-the-festival-de-cannes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8592","title":{"rendered":"Glitz returns to the Festival de Cannes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the-artist-movie-poster\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

CANNES \u2013 The champagne flowed like the old days at the 64th annual Festival de Cannes as the venerable film extravaganza drew filmmakers and stars, and lots of buyers and sellers doing business.<\/p>\n

Harvey Weinstein said it was the best Festival de Cannes in 25 years and the trade papers reported a very busy March\u00e9 du Film. The Weinstein Co. got into the buying and selling fray along with a raft of indies such as Artificial Eye, Eureka, Kaleidoscope, Metrodome, Pathe, Soda Pictures and Windmill Lane.<\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph\u2019s David Gritten declared: \u201cNo matter by what criteria you choose to judge it, this has been a good Cannes \u2014 a festival with confidence, glamour, conspicuous wealth and a spring in its step. In the market \u2026 the dealing was frantic. Films have been bought and sold with a zest not seen on the Croisette in three years or more. If we\u2019re still in the midst of a global recession, clearly a lot of people in Cannes failed to receive that memo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics were mixed on the 2011 films available. The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s Todd McCarthy wrote: \u201cEven if there were a number of very fine films, the 2011 festival arguably did not yield any absolute knockouts. The more elaborate works from the heavyweights in the competition \u2014 Terrence Malick, Lars von Trier, Pedro Almodovar, Paolo Sorrentino, Nuri Bilge Ceylan \u2014 were among the more contentiously debated, provoking reactions across the full spectrum of critical opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

But The Guardian\u2019s Peter Bradshaw was inclined to agree with Weinstein. \u201cHe could be right. I can\u2019t quite remember a festival in which there was a film that I loved, simply loved, as much as Michel Hazanavicius\u2019s \u2018The Artist\u2019: that sounds gushing, I know, but it\u2019s the truth. I admired \u2018Tree Of Life\u2019 very much and believe it to be a thoroughly deserving winner, but in my heart I wanted \u2018The Artist\u2019 to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little surprise that the Weinstein Co. snapped up UK and US rights to \u201cThe Artist\u201d. Frenchman Jean Dujardin won the festival award as best actor for the black-and-white film as a silent-era Hollywood movie star faced suddenly with talking pictures. John Goodman, Malcolm McDowell and Penelope Ann Miller co-star in the film, directed by French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius, who directed Dujardin in the spoofs \u201cOSS 117: Cairo, Nest Of Spies\u201d and \u201cOSS 117: Lost In Rio\u201d. There is no word yet on a UK release for the film, which The Telegraph critic said has \u201cpure effervescence that gives crowd pleasing a good name\u201d.<\/p>\n

A UK release of Summit International\u2019s \u201cThe Tree Of Life\u201d, which won the Palme d\u2019Or, also is unclear. It had a limited release via Fox Searchlight in the US but Icon Films, which had been set to handle distribution, said in April that it had no plans to release the film here. The latest from American cult film director Terrence Malick, the allegorical epic stars Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain with Sean Penn. Meanwhile, film companies were very active doing business. Voltage CEO told The Hollywood Reporter: \u201cIt\u2019s a great market because the buyers are happy and the sellers are happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Windmill Lane Entertainment signed major post-production finance deals with international directors and producers including Luc Besson\u2019s EuropaCorp and Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation. The firm, a new division of Dublin facilities company Windmill Lane Pictures, will manage the Irish tax break for filmmakers that do postproduction there.<\/p>\n

EuropaCorp\u2019s sci-fi thriller \u201cLock Out\u201d, starring Guy Pearce, and Pressman\u2019s \u201cThe Moth Diaries\u201d, produced in partnership with Samson Films, Mediabiz and Strada Films, are among the titles involved.<\/p>\n

The British Film Institute announced that Chairman Greg Dyke has appointed Tom Hooper \u2014 Oscar-winning best director for \u201cThe King\u2019s Speech\u201d \u2014 to the body\u2019s board of governors. The BFI board, which includes Film4 Head Tessa Ross and Warner Bros. Entertainment UK President and Managing Director Josh Berger, will develop a new strategy as it takes on most of the funding duties handled previously by the UK Film Council.<\/p>\n

Kaleidoscope Entertainment acquired UK distribution rights to a British pursuit thriller set in the Scottish mountains titled \u201cA Lonely Place To Die\u201d from Genesis Film Sales and Carnaby International. Co-written and directed by Julian Gilbey (\u201cRise Of The Foot Soldier\u201d), the tale of five mountaineers who discover a young kidnapped girl hidden in a small chamber in the wilderness stars Melissa George (\u201cTriangle\u201d), Ed Speelers (\u201cEragon\u201d), Sean Harris (\u201cHarry Brown\u201d) and Karel Roden (\u201cThe Bourne Supremacy\u201d).<\/p>\n

Artificial Eye acquired rights to two films now in production by filmmakers who have won the Festival de Cannes\u2019 Palme d\u2019Or \u2014 \u201cAmour\u201d by Michael Haneke (\u201cThe White Ribbon\u201d) and \u201cFoxfire\u201d by Laurent Cantet (\u201cThe Class\u201d). \u201cAmour\u201d tells of two retired classical music teachers (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva) whose lives change when the woman suffers a stroke. Isabelle Huppert and William Shimell co-star. Based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same title, \u201cFoxfire\u201d deals with a group of five rebellious female teenagers determined to break away from their male-dominated culture in upstate New York in 1953.<\/p>\n

The Weinstein Co. and Yucaiba Co. won a Cannes bidding war for Pathe\u2019s film biography \u201cThe Iron Lady\u201d starring Meryl Streep as former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Lionsgate International will handle worldwide rights to another Streep picture, \u201cGreat Hope Springs\u201d co-starring Steve Carell and Jeff Bridges from Mandate Pictures.<\/p>\n

Soda Pictures picked up from sales company the Match Factory UK rights to Danish director Joachim Trier\u2019s Norwegian film \u201cOslo, 31 August\u201d, which screened in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at this year\u2019s Festival de Cannes. The film, Trier\u2019s first since \u201cReprise\u201d in 2007, tells of a man who must confront his past as well as his future when he emerges from a stint in rehab. Soda Pictures Managing Director Edward Fletcher said: \u201cIt\u2019s particularly satisfying to acquire one\u2019s favourite film from Cannes. Trier\u2019s second feature confirms his status as a major new talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soda said it also acquired from the Match Factory during Cannes rights to Andres Veiel\u2019s \u201cIf Not Us, Who?\u201d plus Sundance documentary \u201cThe Black Power Mix Tape\u201d from WIDE and Baran bo Odar\u2019s crime thriller \u201cThe Silence\u201d from Bavaria Film International.<\/p>\n

Metrodome acquired three Fox International films screened at the Festival de Cannes for release in the UK and Eire including \u201cEverybody Has A Plan\u201d starring Viggo Mortensen from the producing team that made best foreign language Oscar winner \u201cThe Secret In Their Eyes\u201d. Mortensen plays a man who assumes his dead brother\u2019s identity with dangerous consequences in the film that marks the feature debut of writer and director Ana Piterbarg.<\/p>\n

The other films are Mexican action drama \u201cMiss Bala\u201d, which screened in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, and a thriller set in Bogota titled \u201cBunker\u201d.<\/p>\n

Metrodome also picked up from Trustnordisk UK and Ireland rights to Petter Naess\u2019 \u201cComrade\u201d, a wartime drama set in Norway starring Rupert Grint and David Kross (\u201cThe Reader\u201d), and Nicolaj Arcel\u2019s \u201cA Royal Affair\u201d, about a young queen\u2019s illicit relationship with the doctor who treats her mad king starring Mads Mikkelsen. Eureka acquired the Japanese film \u201cGuilty Of Romance\u201d for UK theatres in September and DVD in October plus \u201cHarakiri\u201d, \u201cSword Of Doom\u201d, and the documentary \u201cA Man Vanishes\u201d also from Japan and \u201cThe Yellow Sea\u201d from South Korea.<\/p>\n

This story appeared in Cue Entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett CANNES \u2013 The champagne flowed like the old days at the 64th annual Festival de Cannes as the venerable film extravaganza drew filmmakers and stars, and lots of buyers and sellers doing business. Harvey Weinstein said it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[580,5,9],"tags":[490,4170,4351,4352,4353,1667],"class_list":["post-8592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festival-de-cannes","category-film","category-news","tag-david-gritten","tag-festival-de-cannes","tag-harvey-weinstein","tag-marche-du-film","tag-peter-bradshaw","tag-the-artist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8594,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8592\/revisions\/8594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}