Cannes Endeth. Who Picks Up The Laurels?

Mr & Mrs Polanski hit the red carpet for the premiere of their picture VENUS IN FUREach year round about this time I find it greatly amusing that people think they have even the slightest idea who will win the Cannes prizes. It's a mystery - though Guy Lodge does a beautiful job of summing up the possibilities here.

You can tie yourself into absolute knots coming up with scenarios and discarding them. But buzzy frontrunners there are so watch out for the sapphic Blue is the Warmest Color, the Italian entry The Great Beauty, Asghar Farhadi's latest The Past (like his masterpiece A Separation, it's said to be an intricately scripted divorce drama), and the Coen Bros - who have great luck at Cannes -  for Inside Llewyn Davis... and watch for someone french-speaking to win Best Actress: Cotillard (The Immigrant), Bejo (The Past), Seigner (Venus in Fur), Seydoux and Exarchopoulis (Blue is the Warmest Color)

Do you have any hunches? I'm too busy fantasizing about what Nicole Kidman thinks of the competition films to make any guesses but I will admit to great curiousity as to whether the jury will feel any sentimental pull to give Soderbergh something for his final film Behind the Candelabra considering that he began his career with a Palme for sex, lies and videotape (1989). What a story that would be, right? 

Red Carpet & Un Certain Regard Prizes

I haven't been able to find a partner for Red Carpet Convo discussions this holiday weekend *sniffle* so instead I thought I'd share some red carpet lineups with jury prizes and brief notes now that the awards are coming in. Are you with me?

First up is the Un Certain Regard jury which was led by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg who came to fame with the great Festen (Celebration) in 1998 and has been enjoying similarly ecstatic praise for his recent picture The Hunt which could be Denmark's Oscar entry this year.  On his jury were actresses Zhang Ziyi, Ludivine Sagnier, Head of Brazil's Festival Ilda Santiago and producer Enrique Gonzalez Macho.  Here's Ziyi... ! 

Which is your favorite? And when was the last time you saw Ziyi onscreen? It seems like it's been forever for me so I'm eager for The Grandmaster which is a totally unofficial 2046 reunion (see also: Tony Leung & Wong Kar Wai)

UN CERTAIN REGARD PRIZES

The Missing Picture (Cambodia)
Rithy Pan's picture about the horrors of the Pol Pot regime -- I'm crazy about the poster! -- won the Un Certain Regard prize

Omar (Israel)
Hany Abu-Assad, who was Oscar nominated for Paradise Now, won the jury prize (i.e. second place) for this movie which returns to the same brutal setting of the Palestine-Israel conflict and focuses on three friends caught up in the cycle of violence.

Fruitvale Station (USA)
Ryan Coogler's Sundance winner about the police killing of an innocent Bay Area man (Michael B Jordan) took the "Future Award". A Future with Oscar maybe...

Stranger by the Lake (France)
This controversial murder mystery from Alain Guiraudie -- already infamous for its nudity and gay sex -- took home the directing prize. The film takes place entirely outdoors in a gay cruising area. Strand Releasing will distribute in the States at some point.

The Cage of Gold (Mexico)
Diego Quemada-Diez, a camera operator of films you've seen like 21 Grams and The Constant Gardener, has graduated to directing. His ensemble cast of non-professional teens playing illegal migrants were given the Talent Award 

On their choices, Vinterberg says:

One of the finest achievements in filmmaking is to create unforgettable moments – moments that stay with us – as a collective memory – as a collective mirror of our existence. Clay figures, extreme beauty, violence, homosexual blow jobs, systematic humiliation of the human kind, Léa Seydoux’s legs, great Brando imitations are just some of the unique images that will follow us for a while.

Well... all of those things do sound memorable even if we don't have much context for them just yet. And so so we close with Ziyi's fellow juror Ludivine Sagnier, an actress j'adore and who we've interviewed right here.

When was the last time you saw Ludivine onscreen?

Link is the Longest Blog Post

Flavorwire 15 great female film critics you should be reading
IndieWire Before Midnight has a great opening night in an unfortunately tiny amount of theaters. If I ran the world this would make $100 million this weekend ;)
Funny or Die "the reviews are in for Behind the Candelabra" LOL
Grantland Wesley Morris on two Cannes entries Claire Denis' Bastards and Nicolas Winding Refn's booed Only God Forgives 
My New Plaid Pants Allegedly Ewan McGregor 
/Film interesting. Jon Stewart's directorial debut Rosewater will star Gael García Bernal and is about a man who was held in an Iranian prison

Twitter Bryan Singer announces Evan Peters as Quicksilver. I've always thought the X-Men franchise was marred by sloppy casting (especially the further you get away from the centerpiece roles) and this one strikes me as no exception. The actors chose beyond the Magneto/Professor X/Wolverine trinity always seem "off" for the roles. Am I just too connected to the comic books? It's worth noting that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver (twin siblings in the comics and two of my personal favorite characters in all of the Marvel Universe), due to complicated legal situations, can be used by both Marvel Studios and Fox but cannot reference the other so we may see a different actor play Quicksilver if Joss Whedon decides to use him.
Variety ...which he has according to this interview
Coming Soon an extremely annoying motion poster for the new Carrie
Variety Blue is the Warmest Color wins Fipresci prize at Cannes
In Contention ..speaking of lesbian dramas. Todd Haynes finally has a new movie project. It's called Carol and it's based on Patricia Highsmith's novel "The Price of Salt". Cate Blanchett is Carol, a married woman, who has an affair with a shopgirl Therese (Mia Wasikowska)
i09 DC heroes invade George Seurat's famous sunday in the park painting 

anniversaries and goodbyes
The Film Doctor happy 5th anniversary to a film blog I quite enjoy! 
Drawn is closing its doors. sniffle. i love this tumblr which was always a great way to stay connected to illustrators on the web 
Awards Daily Sasha's last entry from Cannes - missing buzzy Blue ... and attending the Nebraska press conference. Although I'll admit the reveal of a 30 minute time frame to file a review filled me with abject horror. It takes me SO LONG to write reviews. Are other critics really done with them in 30 minutes? How! 

Random Thoughts on Upcoming "Best Supporting Actress" Race

Being a month late to my usual "April Fool's" predictions has caused me a lot of behind-the-scenes strife. Trying to stare into the open future through a crystal ball when things are actually happening in the present overseas (i.e. Cannes) is incredibly ineffective. Next year I must be more prompt and buy a plane ticket. I have made a few adjustments on the charts mostly in regards to more research on American Hustle and Saving Mr Banks but also in regards to Cannes hits like All is Lost and Philomena (I know, I know -- it didn't show but it still had a great week!).

Carey sings in "Inside Lleywn Davis". The last time she sang onscreen ("Shame") critics fell madly in love but mysteriously zero awards traction happened. 

Cannes buzz
A note of caution to everyone taking each word out of Cannes like its holy scrit. Cannes can be like a magician's misdirect in regards to the Oscar race because for every Jean Dujardin and The Artist there are ten films and performances that get people hot and bothered there under those very special circumstances that don't go anywhere in the real world or, for our purposes, don't excite the mainstream sensibility of Oscar. And quite a few films each decade see their critical fates changed once they leave the festival circuit with its foolishly instant pronouncements of grandeurs and foibles. Take it all with a grain of salt or at least a whiff of the ocean-scented air. Especially if a new Coen Bros' film takes the Palme D'Or. Cannes always loves them so it's like Michael Haneke or the Dardenne Brothers taking a prize. What else did you expect?

But on to this afternoon's topic... 

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Kidman in Cannes. Part 4.

Jose here. Late last night I found myself cursing at the heavens for not making Nicole as ubiquitous as Uma, Kate Beckinsale and Diane Kruger were during their own Cannes jury duties. Then she went and did this:
 

Who She Wore: Valentino. And not just Valentino, but the Valentino Anne Hathaway refused to wear to the Oscars (because Amanda Seyfried was wearing something similar...) ending up with the satin Nipplegate and that awkward PR thing the day after. Like they say, one person's garbage is another person's treasure and the truth is that Nicole could retire from red carpets forever and this look would still be talked about for decades to come. She even outdid Fan Bingbing!
Which Director She's Trying to Lure: I want to say Ang Lee, but that's only because he's there and I'm too distracted by the dress' prettiness to think harder.
What would Margot think of this: something about weddings? Really, the dress is impeding my ability to think. 

After the jump, more of Nicole in the dress and a look we forgot in Part 3...

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