Via 7 Days:
"Iran has protested to France over the screening at Cannes of an animated film about a woman growing up in revolutionary Iran, slamming the movie as a 'political act,' local media reported. Persepolis, which stems from a best-selling comic book series by Iranian emigre Marjane Satrapi [right], shows its heroine struggling with the authorities in the early days of the Islamic revolution.
'The Cannes film festival has selected a film about Iran which presents an unreal picture of the outcomes and achievements of the Islamic revolution,' said a letter to the French cultural attache in Tehran. The film, to be premiered in Cannes tomorrow, shows Satrapi's rebellious eight-year-old screen persona watching the downfall of the shah followed by the imposition of Islamic law after the 1979 revolution. She witnesses the horrors of the war with Iraq, leaves for Austria but quickly feels the solitude of an exile.'"
Marjane Satrapi q&a in Le Monde.
More on deranged religiosity in Stephanie Bunbury's "Madness in the carnival of celluloid" at The Age:
"You remember, even in Cannes, that cinema is a serious business when you encounter the Makhmalbaf family. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a moving force in the flowering of the Iranian cinema and director of Kandahar, now lives in exile since his own government made him persona non grata. Samira, his 30-year-old daughter and director of Blackboards and Five in the Afternoon, has chosen to stay there. Which may be why her most recent film set was bombed."
Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart
Asra Nomani's "Danny Pearl, the Hollywood version" at The Guardian:
"Bigger picture, I hope audiences will walk away from the [Michael Winterbottom] film [A Mighty Heart] with an important message: the story doesn't end with this film. I hope viewers will understand that we're still navigating through the confusing labyrinth of Danny's kidnapping and murder trying to understand what really happened. The mystery is still not solved."
Justin Chang on A Mighty Heart in Variety:
"The sad saga of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl has made it to the bigscreen with facts, figures and beating heart intact in A Mighty Heart. In his first studio venture, Michael Winterbottom [right] coaxes forth a staggering wealth of detail from this terse, methodical account of Pearl's kidnapping and murder in Pakistan, seen through the eyes of those who sought his return."
Via Le Monde:
"David Cronenberg decided to name his [three-minute] film [for the omnibus film Chacun son cinéma / To Each His Own Cinema] At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World. 'I don't know why I decided at that moment to discuss the fact that I'm Jewish," explains the Canadian director. "It's very mysterious. Maybe because it's the Fundamentalist Muslims who are currently distributing snuff films."
Patrick Walsh in Cinematical:
"You would think after the enormous critical and commercial success of that film [Borat], the guy [director Larry Charles] would have no problem setting up another project. Unless that project is a sure-to-be controversial flick about 'the role of institutional religion around the world.' Charles showed a ten-minute promotional reel of his new film to around 200 buyers at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday, and it already has people speculating that it will cause an uproar."
60th Cannes Film Festival winners
60th Cannes Film Festival – Cinéfondation
Cannes 2007 – Special Screenings
Cannes 2007 Opens with MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS