More TIFF Lineups: Midnight Madness and Platform

Another day another festival announcement. TIFF keeps adding to the festival. Even though they've reduced the number of films this year it's still SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM IN EACH SECTION. Herewith the Midnight Madness and Platform choices. Let us know which ones you're most curious about!

Gael García Bernal in the French film "If You Saw His Heart"

PLATFORM
This section of 12 films, which tends to focus on directors in early stages of their careers, is actually juried (though TIFF isn't known for awards really outside of "People's Choice" which tends to have a strong correlation to eventual Best Picture nominations at the Oscars).

“Platform is the place to look for the distinct stamp of today's most interesting directors as they establish their reputations.
- -Cameron Bailey, TIFF's artistic director

The three-person jjury for 2017's Platform are directors Chen Kaige (China), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland) and Wim Wenders (Germany)

• Beast (UK) A troubled woman becomes involved with a suspected killer in this debut from Michael Pearce [WORLD PREMIERE]
• Brad's Status (US) Screenwriter Mike White returns to the director's chair for this story about a man (Ben Stiller) comparing himself unfavorably to friends while touring colleges with his teenage son [WORLD PREMIERE]...

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Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017)

by Nathaniel R

Jeanne Moreau in BAY OF ANGELS (1963)

The greatest French New Wave icon Jeanne Moreau has passed away at 89 years of age. I didn't immediately understand the fuss over her in my earliest years of cinephila. That's no reflection on the silver screen goddess herself but rather a byproduct of my uncommon disinterest in François Truffaut's classic Jules et Jim (1962) in which Moreau is the object of both titular men's affections. That movie reliably excites almost everyone who shares the affliction of cinephilia so I can't say why it did so little for me!

But one day, nine years ago, my dear friend Vern who had been experiencing back pain and whose wife was off travelling somewhere brought over Bay of Angels (1963) for me to watch...

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Venice Lineup 2017: mother!, Bardem & Cruz, and more...

Fall Film Festival season is rapidly approaching. TIFF let us know their "special presentations" with many more announcements to come and now Venice (which actually starts sooner at the tail end of August) has announced its whole lineup. The films, including out of competition reunions of two iconic screen couples (Javier Bardem & Penélope Cruz / Jane Fonda & Robert Redford), are after the jump...

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Interview: Emmanuelle Devos on Playing a Grieving Woman in 'Moka' and Looking Back at Two Decades of Work

By Jose Solís.

 

Emmanuelle Devos puts her sunglasses on. We are sitting in a room surrounded by marble busts and large windows, and she finds the light too bright. There surrounded by art pieces and posters of her new film Moka, she has never looked more like a movie star. And yet, her effortless grace and warm smile make her equally earthy. She speaks in a soft voice, laughs a lot, and has bright answers to all my questions. She was in New York to celebrate the opening of Frédéric Mermoud’s Moka, in which she plays Diane, a woman trying to avenge the death of her child at the hands of a merciless driver. She comes to believe she found the culprit and it turns out to be Marlène, played by Nathalie Baye. What follows is a psychological game in which we see Diane become both appalled and attracted by this woman.

Besides the opening of Moka, Devos is the center of a retrospective at FIAF’s CinéSalon, which over the course of the summer will screen eight of her best known works including Read My Lips, Violette and My Sex Life...or How I Got Into an Argument. I noticed Devos was using a Manhattan Theatre Club plastic cup as a repurposed mug for her herbal tea (you gotta love that unlike most patrons who trash those immediately after consuming their beverages, Devos wanted to extend its life) and upon finding out she had attended a performance of The Little Foxes I asked her what she thought about the play...

Read the interview after the jump. 

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Cannes Awards & Closing Ceremony

We've reached la fin.

The 70th annual Cannes Film Festival opened 11 days ago and today the jurors and a smattering of the leading lights of this year's edition of the prestigious festival are walking the red carpet one last time in the South of France to name the winners of the Palme d'Or, Best Actress, Camera d'Or (for new directors) and more. If you've fallen behind in Cannes-watching, here's our surely inaccurate predictions to one of the world's most unpredictable awards, the first round of awardage including the Palme Dog, reasons to be excited about the Queer Palme winner and of course a few rounds of fashion (with one massive fashiongasm to follow).

Opening ceremony highlights, Oscar hints, and a winners list after the jump...

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