Cannes at Home: Day 1 – When "Gatsby "opened the festival...

by Cláudio Alves

The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has begun in a flurry of controversy. Jeanne Du Barry, Johnny Depp's return to the silver screen after a much-publicized trial, was selected to open the festivities, prompting reporters to swarm the Croisette with polemic on their minds. The situation wasn't helped by incidents earlier this year, when director Maïwenn spat on a journalist, making their film about much more than just Louis XV's last mistress. In giving such attention to the kerfuffle, we've all played into Thierry Frémaux's hands. Regardless of the picture's quality, everybody's eyes are on Cannes, whether looking for a redemption story, an immoral scandal, or secret fashion messages on the red carpet.

Then again, the Cannes opener is seldom an example of masterpiece cinema capable of accruing wide acclaim. More often than not, the titles blessed – or is it burdened? – with this honor tend to be mixed bags with big names attached, glossy stuff ready to act as attention magnets. Such was the case ten years ago when Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby opened the festivities to various degrees of critical hostility. Looking back, one is enticed by the possibility of reappraisal…

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Ophüls' "Letter from an Unknown Woman" is 75!

by Cláudio Alves

Born Maximillian Oppenheimer in 1902's Germany, Max Ophüls chose the pseudonym to avoid embarrassing his father as he pursued an acting career in theater. He'd change paths along the way, finding purpose in directing actors rather than reveling among them. Moreover, the paternal humiliation was never to be beyond the scandalous nature of theater since the man who would one day make tracking shots his calling card was a virtuoso. As the roaring twenties gave in to a new decade, Ophüls' ability would help him transition from the stage to the screen, where he began as a dialogue director at UFA.

But of course, being Jewish under the Nazi regime was deadly, so the director fled from Germany to France, stopping by Switzerland and Italy...

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Antiviral @ 10: The Beginning of Brandon Cronenberg

by Cláudio Alves

It's been a decade since Brandon Cronenberg came into the scene, with Antiviral as his feature debut. That film was preceded by a couple of shorts, succeeded by various music videos, Possessor, and this year's Infinity Pool. Common themes reverberate through his oeuvre, linking him to his father's cinema. Like David, Brandon Cronenberg works within dimensions of horror, often considering transcendence through the body and the body transcended, altered, made a dream cum nightmare. Yet, despite similar interests, shared names, linked blood, father and son feel like unique auteurs, their connections superficial. One would expect the nepo baby to forever live in his patriarch's shadow, but maybe not…

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Veronica Lake @ 100: "I Married a Witch"

by Cláudio Alves

"I Married a Witch" | © United Artists

Silky blonde tresses fall over one eye, a face masked by spun gold accented with spidery lashes and a slash of scarlet lipstick. When struggling to promote Veronica Lake's first movies as a full-on movie star, that's the image distributors found, depurating her commercial value into a flat facsimile of her beauty. Whether it was Paramount's poster for Sullivan's Travels or the main art for United Artist's I Married a Witch, it seemed as if Lake was a head of hair first, an actress second. Legend says that once, during the filming of 1941's I Wanted Wings, the young woman kept struggling with a lock of hair falling over her right eye. For the wannabee starlet, it was an irritation. For the studio execs lusting over the teenager, it was the look of a silver screen goddess, instant movie magic. The rest, as they say, is history…

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Dorothy Dandridge @ 100: "Carmen Jones"

Team Experience is revisiting a few Dorothy Dandridge movies for her centennial

by Baby Clyde

Groucho Marks famously described Grace Kelly’s Best Actress win at the 1954 Oscars as ‘The greatest robbery since Brinks’. I think we can all agree that a terrible crime was committed, but Judy Garland wasn’t the only victim on the night of March 30th, 1955. Dorothy Dandridge was a sensation in Carmen Jones becoming the first Black woman to receive a Best Actress nomination. In any other year, her loss would be seen as a huge scandal but because of Judy’s legendary star turn in A Star Is Born the fact that Ms Dandridge was also deserving has been almost entirely overshadowed...

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