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Scott Foundas on Alain Resnais

Last Year in Marienbad by Alain Resnais

In the L.A. Weekly, Scott Foundas on Alain Resnais, the subject of a month-long retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art:
"’They say that a director always makes the same film,’ says Resnais when I meet him on a damp Paris morning earlier this month, his beige overcoat ­ the same one he seems to be wearing in every photograph ever taken of him ­ turned up at the collar, his gleaming sneakers nearly the same shade of white as his swept-back hair. ‘I try to make, as François Truffaut said, the next film in opposition to the one that came before. I’m not sure if I [...]

Cannes 2009 Aftermath at the LA WEEKLY

Philippe Garnier on Cannes 2009, in the LA Weekly:
"By this time, news should be out everywhere that Cannes this year was a special vintage. Not only did most of the selected ‘usual suspects’ outdo themselves in big and unexpected ways — or, like Alain Resnais, find new resources and verve which, frankly, we didn’t know they had in them — but it is also a measure of how shockingly strong this year was that the fest still had room for very good fare in the 20-film Un Certain Regard sidebar, from Israeli first-timer Haim Tabakman’s Eyes Wide Open [above] to the wonderful Colombian entry The Wind Journeys by Ciro Guerra, in which an [...]

Cannes Awards 2009

2009 Cannes Film Festival Awards
2009 Cannes Film Festival: May 13–24
 

IN COMPETITION – FEATURE FILMS

Palme d’Or DAS WEISSE BAND (The White Ribbon) directed by Michael HANEKE

Grand Prix UN PROPHÈTE (A Prophet) directed by Jacques AUDIARD

Jury Prize (tie) FISH TANK directed by Andrea ARNOLD and BAK-JWI (Thirst) directed by PARK Chan-Wook

Best Director Brillante MENDOZA for KINATAY

Best Actor Christoph WALTZ in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS directed by Quentin TARANTINO

Best Actress Charlotte GAINSBOURG in ANTICHRIST directed by Lars von TRIER

Best Screenplay MEI Feng for CHUN FENG CHEN ZUI DE YE WAN (Spring Fever) directed by LOU Ye

Prix Vulcain: Artist-Technician Aitor BERENGUER, sound technician of the movie MAP OF THE SOUNDS OF TOKYO directed by Isabel COIXET

Lifetime achievement award for his [...]

Cannes 2009: Best Director Favorites

Best Director
Pedro Almodóvar for Broken Embraces
Jacques Audiard for A Prophet
Jane Campion for Bright Star
Michael Haneke for The White Ribbon
Alain Resnais for Wild Grass
 
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes
 

Cannes 2009: Palme d’Or Favorites

Palme d’Or 2009, Grand Prix, Special Jury Prize:
Alain Resnais‘ romantic fantasy Wild Grass (adapted by Alex Reval and Laurent Herbiet from Christian Gailly’s novel), about a man who becomes intrigued by a younger woman
Jacques Audiard’s tough prison drama A Prophet (written by Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Abdel Raouf Dafri, and Nicolas Peufaillit)
Writer-director Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, about a northern German community enmeshed in a series of nasty events right before the beginning of World War I
Writer-director Jane Campion’s Bright Star, about the doomed love affair between British poet John Keats and his neighbor, Fanny Brawne
 
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes
 

Cannes 2009: Jane Campion, Alain Resnais, Brillante Mendoza, Johnnie To, Lou Ye

Peter Bradshaw on Bright Star (with Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw, above) in The Guardian:
"Jane Campion has put herself in line for her second Palme d’Or here at the Cannes film festival with a film which I think could be the best of her career; an affecting and deeply considered study of the last years in the short life of John Keats, and the ecstasy of loss which suffuses his love affair with Fanny Brawne – a love thwarted not due to illness, but to a pernicious web of money worries, social scruples and irrelevant male loyalties."
***

Maggie Lee on Kinatay in The Hollywood Reporter:
"Festival darling Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay is a long night’s journey into the [...]

THE LIMEY II – Terence Stamp

THE LIMEY – Part I
Aside from memory, there are superbly rendered details that distill the characters: Wilson radiates affection for Eduardo’s help in tracking down Valentine by fondly calling him Sancho (as in Panza). All of these things — along with Eduardo’s and Elaine’s motivations, and the portrayal of the relationship between the hitmen — work well. In fact, they work so well precisely because there are no specifics, but generalities sharply etched so that the viewer ‘feels,’ as well as understands, the motivations and relationships. That allows the viewer to feel what goes on inside Wilson, thus creating a stronger identification with him than would be gotten were all things laid [...]

Critics’ Choices

In Time, Richard Corliss on the New York Film Critics‘ picks:
"I sprinted down the corridors of TIME this afternoon, eager to spread the news of the New York Film Critics Circle voting for the year’s best films. The winner, in the film, director, screenplay and supporting actor categories? The Coen brothers‘ No Country for Old Men, which three different people told me they’d been meaning to see. The runner-up, with wins for best actor and cinematographer? There Will Be Blood, an audience-punishing epic that doesn’t open for another two weeks. Best actress? Julie Christie, in Away From Her [above, with Gordon Pinsent], which earned less than $5 million in its North American release.
"I didn’t even tell them that [...]

César Awards 2007 Winners

Marina Hands in Lady Chatterley by Pascale Ferran

Perhaps there’s hope for this evening’s Oscar ceremony.
On Saturday, I watched (most of) the French Academy of Film Arts and Sciences‘ 32nd César du cinéma ceremony held last night (late morning/early afternoon Los Angeles time) at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
The event, hosted by actress Valérie Lemercier and dedicated to recently deceased French film icon Philippe Noiret, was apparently directed by former U.S. vice president Al Gore, who made sure that winners and presenters attended a class or two at the Greer Garson School of Speech Making. (For those who don’t know: At the 1943 Academy Awards ceremony, best actress winner Garson supposedly gave the most long-winded acceptance speech in Oscar history.)
In [...]

César 2007 Nominations

Lambert Wilson, Laura Morante in Private Fears in Public Places (top); Marina Hands in Lady Chatterley (middle); Samy Naceri in Days of Glory (bottom)

The best thing about the 2007 César nominations is the fact that Alain Resnais‘ beautiful, haunting, magical Coeurs / Private Fears in Public Places received a total of 8 nominations, including a best director nod for Resnais himself, and a best screenplay nod for Jean-Michel Ribes‘ adaptation of Alan Ayckbourn’s play.
The worst thing about the 2007 César nominations is the fact that Alain Resnais‘ beautiful, haunting, magical Coeurs / Private Fears in Public Places failed to receive a nomination in the best film category. Adding insult to injury, none of the film’s [...]

Étoiles d’Or 2007

2007 Étoiles d’Or
French Film Critics’ 2007 Étoile d’Or winners: Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris on January 22, 2007
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Marina Hands in Lady Chatterley (top); Sami Bouajila in Days of Glory (bottom)
 

Best French Film / Etoile d’Or du Meilleur film français (ex-aequo):
* Lady Chatterley by Pascale Ferran
* Indigènes / Days of Glory by Rachid Bouchareb
Coeurs / Private Fears in Public Places by Alain Resnais
Best First French Film / Etoile d’Or du Premier film français:
* Mauvaise foi by Roschdy Zem
Pardonnez-moi / Forgive Me by Maïwenn
Le Pressentiment by Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Best Documentary / Etoile d’Or du Documentaire français:
* Kigali, des images contre un massacre / Kigali, Images Against a Massacre by Jean-Christophe Klotz
Dans la peau de [...]

The DGA vs. the Academy: 1960s

Eiji Okada, Emmanuelle Riva in Hiroshima, mon amour (top); Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin in Never on Sunday (bottom)

The DGA vs. the Academy: 1950s
1960
DGA (14): Vincente Minnelli for Bells Are Ringing, Walter Lang for Can-Can, Delbert Mann for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Richard Brooks for Elmer Gantry, Alain Resnais for Hiroshima, mon amour, Vincente Minnelli for Home from the Hill, Carol Reed for Our Man in Havana, Charles Walters for Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, and Lewis Gilbert for Sink the Bismarck!, Vincent J. Donehue for Sunrise at Campobello
AMPAS: Jules Dassin for Never on Sunday
 
1961
DGA (21): Robert Stevenson for The Absent Minded Professor, Blake Edwards for Breakfast at Tiffany’s, William Wyler for The Children’s Hour, Anthony [...]

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