By Cannes International Film Festival & M&C Movie News May 24, 2007, 13:16 GMT
Day 8 at the Cannes International Film Festival was quite busy. You can see pictures in the Gallery to the right and short articles on Day 8 activities below:
Hungarian director Bela Tarr arrives for a gala screening of his film 'The Man from London' running in competition at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, 23 May 2007, in Cannes, France. EPA/DANIEL DEME
Presented in the Un Certain Regard section, Munyurangabo, as Lee Isaac Chung's first feature, is eligible for the Caméra d’Or award. The Korean-American director examines the Rwandan genocide and its current impact on the country's youth.
After stealing a machete from a vendor in a Kigali market, Munyurangabo and his friend Sangwa leave the city to return to their village. Munyurangabo is seeking justice for the murder of his parents, who were slain in the genocide. Sangwa's idea is to return to the house he abandoned years ago. Although the two boys had planned to stay for less than a day, they end up spending several days there.
But, because they are from two different tribes, their friendship is sorely tried. Sangwa's parents are mistrustful of Munyurangabo, and warn their son that Hutus and Tutsis are supposed to be enemies.
"Munyurangabo is the first feature-length narrative ever made in the Kinyarwanda language," Lee Isaac Chung explained. "Actually, making a film in a foreign country, in a language I do not speak, was an advantage. It forced me to work as an 'outsider.' As a result, I was unable to express all my personal ideas and truths, which are relatively unimportant, making way for an exploration of the universal questions which might bring a Korean-American close to a Rwandan. I hope that as an audience, you will feel that, too."
One of Korea’s leading filmmakers, Lee Chang-dong, is presenting his latest work in Competition, entitled Secret Sunshine. The film mixes comedy and despair, darkness and light and is an ode to how we cope in everyday life. Featuring one of Korea’s biggest stars, Song Kang-ho and also Jeon Do-yeon, Secret Sunshine follows the couple who re-locate to Miryang and their difficulties in adapting.
Lee Chang-dong relates his intentions: “My original idea for the movie was for it to be more realistic, perhaps in the format of a documentary. I realized that would be difficult to achieve, so I forced to give it up many times. (…) For this movie, we didn’t necessarily shoot the same scene over and over again. It was important for the movie and the actors to maintain the right flow of emotion, so we kept the order of the scenes in the screenplay.”
American director Abel Ferrara met the press today to answer questions about his Out of Competition midnight screening of Go Go Tales. At his sides were actresses Asia Argento, Bianca Balti, Stephania Rocca, dancers Selena Khoo and Justine Mattera, actors Joe Cortese and Franky Cee as well as producers Enrico Coletti and Massimo Gatti, the latter accompanied by his daughter. Highlights.
Abel Ferrara on where it was shot: “It was shot at Cinecitta, every foot of it. It’s a place that might have existed on 20th Street; it exists on the Champs Elysées. It’s everywhere, a go-go club. (…) Working in Italy, working at Cinecitta is like working in the most beautiful laboratory. It’s like a think tank of cinema.”
Abel Ferrara on defending his own style: “It depends on how much you bring to it. You’re always in search of your own vision and your own freedom and you can’t make an excuse anywhere along the line. You have to play all your cards and you have to play to win. For me there’s a lot of personal satisfaction in this film. It took me a long time to bring this film to the screen; It’s a good feeling.”
Abel Ferrara on improvising during the shooting: “When we design a screenplay, the story is there and then the actors, it’s for them to come into their role. It’s within the structure of the script to create that woman [Asia as Monroe]. My job is not to create that woman, my job is to capture the woman that she’s going to create.”
Asia Argento on working with Abel Ferrara: “For me Abel is like going to film school for an actor to observe and work, because he gives you elements and forces you to move within this climate and create your own thing. If you do the take twice the same way, he’s like, ‘I got that. You don’t need to do the same thing again.’ And I learned to have fun with acting…I was really surprised because he shoots with two different cameras on two different floors and he’s got two screens and you’re moving from one floor to the other into another scene. And there are actors working on this scene and actors working on the other floor and it’s complete madness, but he’s got it all figured out in his mind.”
Abel Ferrara on the filmmakers who inspire him: “I think Sturges is one of the great American directors. I wish I could make a film like that. How did he get his actors to talk like that, to be like that? But when we were going to make this film, the two films we really concentrated on were Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Woody Allen’s Broadway Danny Rose.”
Out of Competition - Special Screening: "Retour en Normandie" by Nicolas Philibert
The Special Screening presentation of Retour en Normandie (Back to Normandy) marks documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert's third invitation to the Cannes Festival. In 2002, his Etre et Avoir (To Be and To Have) was presented out of competition, and five years earlier, he had been a member of the Jury which awards the Caméra d'Or. With Retour en Normandie, Nicolas Philibert explores his past. Thirty years have flown by since he worked as a young first assistant director to René Allio on Moi, Pierre Rivière…, also set in Normandy. Philibert returns to visit with the region's farmers who, for the Allio film, fleetingly embraced an acting career.
"From the very beginning, it was obvious that this would be a film narrated in the first person, with its roots in my own memories and that I would intervene through a voice-over," explains Nicolas Philibert. "At the same time, I wanted to make a film set firmly in the present, not a filmed pilrimage, and finally, in relation to my previous films that nearly all focused on a single setting, I wanted a more fragmented and freer form this time in which it would be possible to slip from one register to another, at times from one period to another, with as much fluidity as possible."
Press Conference: "Persepolis"
At the press conference held for the animated feature Persepolis, presented In Competition Thursday, directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud were accompanied by actors Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, and Simon Abkarian, French producers Xavier Rigault and Marc-Antoine Robert, and American producer Kathleen Kennedy.
On the challenge of adaptation:
Marjane Satrapi: "The greatest risk was to try to do it just like the graphic novel. People thought we'd just film every panel, and that would make a film. A comic book is not a film storyboard: it's a narrative form in and of itself. We had to come up with a filmic language for the story."
Vincent Paronnaud: "In the beginning, I was walking on eggs, because I could see that Marjane was still smarting from certain events, but she was kind enough to give me creative leeway on the film."
Catherine Deneuve on her participation in the project: "The thing that charmed me is Marjane's world, which I was already familiar with. In fact, a few years ago, I asked her to make a small comic strip for a special issue of "Vogue." She talks about very serious matters in a way that is simultaneously lighthearted and serious. I love the humor and emotion in her stories, and also the fact that all the characters are real. When I read the adaptation, I found that it really was a film screenplay. The voice-taping sessions were pleasant: lighthearted and easy. Marjane played all the other characters. That's the only thing I found a bit frustrating: we taped all the voices separately. But I think that was the best thing for the film."
Chiara Mastroianni on getting to know Marjane Satrapi : "Aside from my admiration for her work, I wanted to know who she was. These days, it's rare to meet a personality like her. I love her freedom, her non-judgmental attitude, her integrity, and her sense of humor."
Marjane Satrapi on her ties to Iran: "I no longer go to Iran, because the rule of law does not exist there, so anything might happen to you. But I still have very deep ties to the country, in terms of the geography, the style of expression, the humor... It's a large part of myself which I've been forced to stifle, because you can't continually be telling other people about your past. So I do feel nostalgic, but, basically, I don't have the right to complain. For one thing, it would be immodest, but it would also be grotesque and unhealthy. I live in the city I choose, I do the work that I like, I live with the person I love… My duty is to smile and make people laugh. Laughter is the most subversive weapon there is."
Kathleen Kennedy on the project's universal appeal: “I was so taken when I saw Marjane's books. And I thought this is a universal story and not one necessarily confined to a story of Iran, but obviously to any oppressed society. I also think that in the United States, for instance, looking at a country that is defined by extremism is unfair, and I think that’s what Marjane has done, opened up a channel of communication.” Un Certain Regard: "Kuaile Congchang" by Ekachai Uekrongtham
Kuaile Congchang (Pleasure Factory) is an intimate and charming portrait of Geylang, Singapore's little-known red-light district. It brings together characters in search of pleasure and those with the wherewithal to provide it . Selected for Un Certain Regard, Pleasure Factory is the second feature-length film by Ekachai Uekrongtham, a Thai screen and stage director who has won many awards at home.
"In the old days, the Geylang area used to be populated by processing factories for the coconut plantations," Uekrongtham explains. "These days, the machines are still running at full steam – producing pleasure for those seeking it, night after night. With Pleasure Factory, I've tried to strip bare the shields that prevent characters in the film from experiencing true pleasure. I'd like the film to have a vivid sense of realism and honesty. I'd like it to confront a world that's at once seedy and beautiful, dark and bright, sad and humorous, cold and warm, naked and all wrapped up. If pleasure can be mass-produced, what would be left on the assembly line when the machines stop?"
Un Certain Regard: "Et toi, t'es sur qui?" by Lola Doillon
Camera d'Or candidate Et toi, t’es sur qui? (Just About Love?), presented in Un Certain Regard, is a first feature by Lola Doillon, daughter of director Jacques Doillon. Like her father, 32-year-old Lola is interested in adolescent love affairs, their ups and downs, their joys and sorrows… Elodie, who is fifteen, and her best friend Julie, a goth the same age, decide to go to bed with boys for the first time. They only have one week left before summer vacation. And the reality they discover is quite different from what they expected.
Lola Doillon, on what spawned the film project: "It came to me after I directed Majorettes, a short film recounting three small stories about teenagers. That shoot went so well and I so enjoyed working with those kids that I wanted to extend and follow through on that adventure in my first feature film. So I thought, 'What do these teenagers experience?' Well, they experience a lot of things for the first time - sexual stuff, emotional stuff. All of a sudden, they're learning to deal with things on many levels, especially in the love department. And that's all very hard to take in, to get a handle on. It's that flood of confusion that I find moving. We've all had that feeling; it's universal. I thought, 'That's my subject - those firsts.' "
For three days (from Wednesday, May 23 to Friday, May 25) 16 student films selected by the Cinéfondation from a large number of entries, varying in length from 8 minutes (Rondo by Marja Mikkonen) to 45 minutes (Aditi Singh by Mickael Kummer), will be screening in four different programs in the Salle Buñuel:
Program 1, screening on Wednesday, May 23, includes the following titles: Halbe Stunden by Nicolas Wackerbarth, Ru Dao by Chen Tao, For the Love of God by Joe Tucker, and Berachel Bitha Haktana by Efrat Corem.
Program 2 (screening on Thursday, May 24): A Reunion by Hong Sung-Hoon, Goyta by Joanna Jurewicz, Rondo by Marja Mikkonen, and Aditi Singh by Mickael Kummer.
Program 3 (Friday, May 25): Saba by Gregorio Graziosi and Thereza Menezes, Vita Di Giacomo by Luca Governatori, Minus by Pavle Vuckovic, and Triple 8 Palace by Alexander Ku.
Program 4: Ahora Todos Parecen Contentos by Gonzalo Tobal, Neostorozhnost by Alexander Kugel, Mish’Olim by Hagar Ben-Asher, and Chinese Whispers by Raka Dutta.
Prizes will be awarded to three of these short films at a ceremony on Friday, May 25, in the Salle Buñuel. The Short Film Jury is an international group, presided by Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke and made up of Iranian actress and director Niki Karimi, American costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis, French novelist J.M.G. Le Clézio, and European director Dominik Moll. The Cinéfondation, founded by the Festival in 1998, is in charge of promoting the emergence of the next generation of filmmakers.
Artist Joann Sfar, a genius of the comic book genre, has come to the 60th Cannes Festival accompanied by his friend, the clever cat who belongs to the Rabbi.
Based on what the animal observes, he will be sketching secret and unexpected events. Sfar will be creating a daily cartoon, imbuing the Festival rites, from the most commonly known to the most confidential, with his own personal vision. "I'll be strolling around the Festival for the entire duration of the event, keeping a journal of sketches for you. They'll be little stories based on things I've seen or experienced." he promised. Joann Sfar also announced that he would soon be directing his first animated feature, based on his best-selling graphic novel The Rabbi's Cat. The film will be produced by Autochenille Production, a company chartered specially for the occasion by Joann Sfar, Clément Oubrerie, and Antoine Delesvaux.
Press Conference: “The Edge of Heaven”
At the press conference today, the film crew from The Edge of Heaven fielded questions from the international journalists. Present were director Fatih Akin, actors Tuncel Kurtiz, Nursel Köse, Hanna Schygulla, Nurgül Yesilcay, Patrycia Ziolkowska, Baki Davrak, as well as producers Klaus Maeck and Funda Odemis. Excerpts follow.
Hanna Schygulla on her participation in this film: “When I read the scenario, I thought it very unusual for a young man to get into such a basic thing as death as part of life and what we do with it, how we react to it, how we live with it, how it makes us conscious. At the same time, I also realized that a lot of the young filmmakers now don’t stop at this taboo of death, that society is still into it. And then I liked the fact that each of the characters have to digest the death of a person and it doesn’t stop at pain and bitterness but starts wanting to go ahead with what the other person was into. To not stop at your own grief but to transform it into alchemy, somehow you turn it into gold. I thought that was very beautiful and was a statement against all this impotence that we feel when we look at all the terrible things happening all over the world everyday. At least in our own personal way, we can not stop just with our own well-being but care about how the other ones feel and at being able to give and not just always wait to get.”
Fatih Akin on what makes you a good director: “I don’t know that I’m so different from other directors. Yesterday I was here with the other directors from the World Cinema Foundation, with Martin Scorsese, one of my masters, and Walter Salles, and a lot of great directors. It was Martin Scorsese who said that in a documentary about American cinema, where he said that he’s watching so many films because he’s always looking for a master. I watch a lot of films, try to watch everyday a film because I’m looking for a master, because I’m on the quest. And I hope that I can do this until the end of my career. I hope that I will get old and each year or two, I can reflect it all in cinema. I love cinema.”
Fatih Akin on the film characters: “All six characters are reflecting a part of me… I was also inspired by a lot of people I met during the Crossing the Bridge film. I met this political artist, musicians who try to change the world with their music, which is maybe naïve. For the first time I saw that political resistance can be very sexy.”
The actors on shooting this film abroad:
Tuncel Kurtiz: "In 1970, I came to Cannes to present a film. We'd had to smuggle it out of the country. I wasn't able to go home, because three thousand intellectuals and young actors had been arrested. I had to spend four years in Western Europe, trying to find work as a filmmaker or actor. Finally, I went back to Turkey, but it turned out to be very complicated to work with the new government. I then went to Sweden, and from there to Berlin, where I had to learn German; to Israel, Italy, and Paris. (...) It's a beautiful world, and people are the same wherever you go: only the language changes. Where is the difference? We are all human beings. Our goal is to create a world community, not just a European one. I'm very happy to have worked with Fatih Akin. I met wonderful people. I felt free. The world is a small house, and we have to make it into our garden. Language has no business there."
Nursel Köse: "I come from Turkey, but I now live in Germany. In a way, I am a hybrid personality. There's a whole generation in the same situation, and it's up to us to deal with it. Going to Turkey for my work is part of my life."
Baki Davrak: "It was an extraordinary experience to work on this film. Going to Germany and from there to Turkey was very special for me. In fact, I was born in Germany and grew up there, but I also know Turkey very well. To go back there, and work, to see the other world, there, this other side, is a sort of inner journey. I'm always struck by the very different things I've seen, the people I've met… This journey isn't over yet."Nurgul Yesilcay: "I think all the people involved in making a film are similar. They think in the same way, and have a similar approach to work. For me, it wasn't difficult to go to Germany to act in this film. The location matters little."
Fatih Akin about being in Cannes: “Two years ago on the jury was much more comfortable…Two years ago when I was on the jury I saw three films a day and that I really enjoyed. It’s like if this is football and it was the World Cup… When you have a film Out of Competition it’s a friendly game and when you have a film in Competition, it’s playing against Brazil!”
"Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case" Added to the Official Selection, Out of Competition
Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case, a documentary on the former Russian agent assassinated by poisoning in London, was added to the lineup of the Official Selection of the Cannes Festival today. It screens at 10:30pm Saturday, May 26 Out of Competition.
This sizzling indictment of the Russian regime was co-directed by Olga Konskaya and Andreï Nekrasov, a close friend of Litvinenko, who was with him for the two years prior to his death. Alexander Litvinenko's widow Marina will give a press conference in Cannes this Saturday, the day of the film's Special Screening.
Rebellion was not completed until after the Official Selection was announced on April 19. The Festival's Artistic Delegate, Thierry Frémaux, has just judged the finished version, and decided to make it part of the selection.
The documentary contains testimony from several witnesses about the itinerary and death of Litvinenko, the former KGB agent who had become a critic of the regime, and was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London. He died of radiation poisoning on November 23, 2006. "It's a very factual documentary and a memorial film, which looks at the Litvinenko case from the standpoint of who Litvinenko was, and who, in Russia, is still trying to keep a free press alive," commented Thierry Frémaux.
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