Saturday was a wet one at Cannes, with outdoor events hastily moving inside to avoid torrential downpours. The buzz of the festival to date, however, is the Coen Brothers Inside Llewyn Davis, which is wowing fans and critics alike.
Dozens of films were screened over the last few days. Here’s a few notable items:
Borgman, which is one of the films competing for the coveted Palme d’Or award, debuted to mixed reviews from critics. The Dutch film is about what happens when the devil worms his way into the life an upper-class family. Critics have enjoyed the nasty and twisted humor of the film, but not all buy into this odd, grim offering.
Cannes marked the return of cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo) with his first film in 23 years, The Dance of Reality. The 84 year old Jodorowsky, known for his offbeat and twisted films, pulls out all the stops with The Dance of Reality, crafting a bizarre film that has thrilled and frustrated critics.
A good cast (Clive Owen, Marion Cotillard, Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, James Caan, Billy Crudup, Lili Taylor) can’t save Gullaume Canet’s Blood Ties. The family and crime drama, set in the 1970s in Brooklyn, has garnered middling (at best) reviews.
In movie news, films were shopped heavily as they searched for distributors in the U.S. and abroad. Some films that sold quickly were Simon West’s remake of the Burt Reynold’s film Heat, starring Jason Statham, and Sean Penn’s film The Gunman.
The Weinstein Company talked up Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Destiny, a sequel to the award-winning 2000 film. The film will be directed by martial arts choreography legend Yuen Wo Ping, who handled the action choreography for the original film. Michelle Yeoh will reprise her role. The script is by John Fusco,
Richard Loncraine is set to direct Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton in Life Itself, a comedy based on the Jill Ciment novel Heroic Measures. The film is about a NY couple who get caught up in an emotional and comical real estate bidding war when they put their downtown apartment on the market.
Jennifer Lawrence made her Cannes debut to promote the upcoming Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire.