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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Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Spider-Man 2 (2004)

by Nathaniel R

With Sam Raimi's take on Doctor Strange new in theaters, we chose his earlier superhero film Spider-Man 2 (2004) as this week's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" subject. While Raimi directed all three of the original Spider-Man films, Cláudio was right to suggest that the second film could well be considered a "platonic ideal for what superhero movies should be". When the film first opened in 2004 I saw it twice on opening weekend, something I hadn't done since I was a teenager. Not coincidentally it made me feel like a little kid again, pouring over comic books. It was a kind of pop bliss seeing Spider-Man come to life in such a wonderfully judged adventurous, romantic, and thrilling movie. Though that kind of magic has long become normalized, Spider-Man 2 is still a thrill.

Revisiting it was fun though quite surprising in three specific ways...

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Cláudio's Best Shot Pick: Spider-Man 2 (2004)

The next episode of our series, 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot,' arrives tomorrow. It's focused on Spider-Man 2. Here's Cláudio's entry.

Before the plague times we're living in, it was my annual tradition to celebrate my birthday by going to the movies. Indeed, way back in 2004, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 was the picture that marked the occasion of my 10th birthday. It was love at first sight. While the first Spidey flick was good, this sequel seemed perfect to my young eyes, and, as the years went by, it soon became something of a platonic ideal for what superhero movies should be but seldom were. And yet, despite all this love, I think I started to take the picture for granted.

Revisiting Spider-Man 2 for the first time since my teen years was a revelation. I also had a blast…

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The New Classics: Wonder Boys

By Michael Cusumano 

Scene: The Suicide List
Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys understand that writers are often their own most carefully crafted creations. You can often catch the writers in the film pausing to appreciate when they hit upon just the right turn of phrase. Life doesn’t allow for second drafts. So very satisfying to nail it on the first. 

By understanding the way writers reveal themselves through narrative shapes into which they attempt to force their lives, Wonder Boys solves the age-old problem of making writing cinematic. We never hear a word of Grady Tripp’s prose that gets blown away at the film’s end, but after we spend two hours stumbling through the shambolic mess of his life, it feels superfluous. His life is already one long, run-on sentence crying out for an editor’s red pen...

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Great Moments in Kissing: "Spider-Man"

For Valentine's we asked Team Experience to share favourite screen kisses. Here's Salim Garami...

What’s good?

When I think of THE most cinematic of movie kisses, what pops into my mind isn’t necessarily my favorite (which would be Alfred Hitchcock’s explosive fireworks button on To Catch a Thief) or what I think of as the best (which would be Hitchcock’s taboo-busting “Another one! And another one!” in Notorious). I think of the kiss that was most formative. The kiss that showed me how image and movement could communicate ardor to somebody as young as 6. The kiss that came in possibly the most formative movie in all of my childhood: Sam Raimi’s 2002 superhero landmark Spider-Man. A film that has long informed the majority of what I love to see in movies and established itself deep in my heart (although it is quite possible that Into the Spider-Verse has now embedded itself deeper), it should be no surprise that it informed what I love in romantic scenes, especially the moments in movies that are accused of oversentimentality and cheesiness...

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