Venice 2022: The "Tár" Tease and the Competition Lineup

by Nathaniel R

Cate Blanchett in TÁR

Most sites just give you a list of film titles but we always aim to provide you with more information which is one of the (several) reasons we're slower with the news! Over 50% of the competition titles at Venice this year come from just three countries: France, Italy, and the US and a lot of titles are connected to Netflix. Outside of those countries we get one film from Asia, one from the Middle East, two from South America, and two from UK/Ireland. If you include the Out of Competition titles there's more variety with Canada, Denmark, Ukraine, The Phillipines, and Estonia entering the chat.

After the jump a little bit about each of the 22 films competing for the Golden Lion, and a few of the Out of Competition films including the new Lars Von Trier. Plus that bewitching teaser to Tár, Todd Field's first film in 16 years...

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Almost There: Björk in "Dancer in the Dark"

by Cláudio Alves

Premiering at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival, Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark became one of the most discussed films of 2000. At the end of the festivities, von Trier would walk away with the Palme D'Or while his leading lady, Icelandic music artist Björk, won the Best Actress prize. It's unusual for any Cannes competition title to win more than one award from the main jury, but sometimes it's impossible to deny a performance's magnificence. Such was the case in 2000. As the musical hit theaters critics worldwide began to chime in and the praise for Björk's achievement became more mountainous. Even some who objected to von Trier's experiment had words of adoration for its star.

It's fair to say that Björk's performance in Dancer in the Dark was one of the most acclaimed acting achievements of 2000. Nonetheless, when Oscar nomination morning arrived, she wasn't among the Best Actress nominees…

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RIP to Two Titans of European Cinema

By Glenn Dunks

What a shock it was to hear over the last 24 hours of the deaths of both Robby Müller and Claude Lanzmann. These two icons of European cinema were 78 and 92 respectively and both gave so much to the universe and there are not enough hats to tip to their memories and their legacies.

Robby Müller was the Dutch-born cinematographer whose regular collaborations with the likes of Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch and Lars Von Trier were the stuff of legend. Who can forget those stunning tableaus of Breaking the Waves or his regular plays on black and white with Jarmusch as well as Sally Potter’s The Tango Lesson. I'm not as well versed on Jarmusch's films as others, but I gather Dead Man with Johnny Depp is the one worth gawking over the most.

And I know it’s become a little bit fashionable to roll one’s eyes at people going on about the virtues of celluloid over digital, but I guarantee you have never seen colours projected onto a screen quite like those twilight blues of Wenders’ Paris, Texas...

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The Tweet that Jack Built at Cannes

Is Book Club a remake of the scene in Mad Men when these ladies read Lady Chatterley's Lover? pic.twitter.com/98dRbIk7Vl

— Kyle Stevens (@cinementalist) May 15, 2018

IF ONLY

Other tweets after the jumpvincluding little bits of Meryl Streep, jokes about Titanic and Infinity War and Cannes battles and general Cannes mania (it all ends today)...

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In the Links

• The New Yorker Kathleen Turner is singing... yes, singing, at Cafe Carlyle for a week or so. OMG I'd love to cover that for y'all but that place is pricey.
• Film School Rejects the troubled history of the film adaptation of Lin-manuel Miranda's In the Heights may finally be ending with Warner Bros snatching up the rights
• MNPP on the trailer for the art slasher flick Knife + Heart premiering at Cannes

 

• The Guardian thoughtful piece by Xan Brooks about provocative cinema, Cannes, and Lars von Trier in our new age of moralizing
• Playbill California readers take note. At the upcoming Hollywood Bowl production of Annie, Megan Hilty, Ana Gasteyer, and Lea Salonga star. Fun casting! And those voices!!
• Boy Culture Trinity Taylor makes over Nico Tortorella who now identifies as gender fluid, or as he says 'sort of cisgendered but not so... CISSY
• AV Club Jordan Peele producing a series set in the '70s about Nazi-hunting in NYC. What now?
• DListed obsesses over a strange Cannes moment with John Travolta and 50 Cent
• MovieMaker profiles Geena Davis's Bentonville Film Festival 
• W Magazine interviews Brie Vinaite on her busy post-Florida Project life
• Film School Rejects "How Marvel Broke Storytelling" a good piece on exactly what the problem is with how they've trained audiences and deferred endings
• Playbill This is so heartbreaking. Just a few months ago Tony-winning actress Ruthie Ann Miles (The King and I) lost her daughter (to a driver who hit five pedestrians including Miles) and now due to complications from that tragic event she's lost her unborn child
• ExtraTV silly bro clip of Josh Brolin talking about his naked ad for Fish Love

Exit Video
Here's the trailer for the series finale movie of Sense8. Sad that this singular series from the Wachowski sisters and J Michael Straczynski is ending but glad we'll have closure.