Brazil's Cinematic History Aflame

by Camila Henriques

It wasn't even a month ago when Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho made a plea at the Cannes Film Festival for people all around the world to discuss what was happening to the Cinemateca Brasileira (or Brazilian Cinematheque, if you will). As the Bacurau helmer mentioned the 500,000 lives that our country lost due to COVID-19 and how the Jair Bolsonaro administration (if you can even call them an administration) is truly responsible for those deaths, it was inevitable that that neglect would extend to other parts of the society. Which brought him to talk about the Cinemateca. In fascist governments, culture and knowledge are threats, and yesterday, the whole world saw just another chapter of this horror fest as some of our most precious memories caught on fire.

For the past year, the Brazilian Cinematheque, in São Paulo, has been closed. The archives that held more than 240,000 film reels were left to their own luck, as all the workers who took care of that historic treasure were fired...

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Cannes Red Carpet Finale: Tilda, Adèle, Regina, Sharon, Gemma...

by Nathaniel R

As the 74th annual Cannes Film Festival recedes into the past, can we all agree that even after all these years, Tilda Swinton remains the most exciting red carpet icon? Consider that she chased that blue eye ribbon, with a frankenstein-pieced metallic look and an exquisitely tailored blue suit, then a red dog collar, and to close out the festival went with this cavalcade of androgynous billowing white pieces.

And because her face deserves exquisite fashion, too, she paired them with a different improbably shaped hairdo each time for good measure. She always keeps us guessing. The only thing you can safely predict about Tilda at each event is that she'll be memorable. 

More final Cannes '21 looks after the jump...

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Tweetweek: Cannes and more...

A collection of recent tweets that made us laugh or think or nod are located after the jump...

If you don't like sex scenes in movies, you've never had great sex.

— Laurie Crosswell (@lauriecrosswell) July 11, 2021

the four different ways academics dress at conferences: pic.twitter.com/gjUMFcBwSp

— Will Mason (@willmasonmusic) July 13, 2021

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Cannes Diary #10: Au Revoir, Cannes!

Another round of applause, please, for Elisa Giudici for giving us such great on-the-ground Cannes coverage this year. She reviewed the entire Competition slate! Can you believe it? What follows are her last two reports, condensed into one - Editor

by Elisa Giudici

I will miss the French summer -- hot and breezy. Yes, it is time to say goodbye to the Cannes Film Festival. Already? Finally! A little bit of both. My first time here was incredible but I think I am quite close to the limit of my cinematic intake without compromising the ability to enjoy the films. After years of enviously reading reportage by friends and colleague, this was everything I thought it would be. I fear I was even spoiled. There were no infinite queues where I thought I might be shut out and (a little brag is coming, but please allow it) I was able to see the whole competition lineup despite having a yellow pass! Insanity.

It was amazing being able to write this diary every day and read the comments from such a passionate audience. I hope I was able to give you a little glimpe into the movies that are coming as well as the feeling of seeing them at this majestic Festival. It was all quite demanding (I covered the Festival for a couple of italian magazines, too) but I am incredibly happy as a completist that I never skipped a day's entry. A lot of these diary entries were written in the middle of the night or near dawn so a huge thank you to Nathaniel for the editing to make them comprehensible to you; After 2 AM my English tends to be even more convoluted than usual.

So final round. SEVEN movies! Ready?

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Cannes Closing Ceremony *Live Blog*

by Nathaniel R

7:57 We begin with the awards already in progress. (It's always difficult to find a link that works here in the US. Hence the delay) The jury has arrived with their always amusing individual strut ins. The actors and actresses (Song Kang Ho, Tahar Rahim, Maggie Gyllenhaal, etc...) are always relaxed and practiced at this but the directors often look vaguely mortified that they have to display themselves -- have you ever tried walking while everyone is staring at you or you're aware a camera is on. It's disconcerting! Brazil's brilliant Kleber Mendonça Filho (Aquarius, Bacurau) is visibly uncomfortable but Spike Lee, a "star" director, in a suit of many colors, is an old pro at being in the spotlight. He addresses the crowd but since this is a French live feed you can't actually hear the English being spoken because the translators are always speaking over the English. We'll do our best to understand...

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