Luca Argentero & Matthew Macfadyen + Isabelle Huppert & Kate Beckinsale: Cannes Film Festival

Luca Argentero and Myriam Catania: Martin Scorsese party at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Luca Argentero and Myriam Catania: Martin Scorsese party at Cannes Film Festival

Model and David di Donatello nominee Luca Argentero and actress Myriam Catania attend the Vanity Fair and Gucci party honoring Academy Award-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The party was held at the Hotel Du Cap Eden Roc on May 15.

French Riviera honoree Martin Scorsese, whose credits include Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, After Hours, and Goodfellas, won the 2006 Best Director Academy Award for the crime drama The Departed, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Vera Farmiga, and Jack Nicholson.

Luca Argentero films

Luca Argentero (born on April 12, 1978, in Turin) received his Best Actor David di Donatello nomination for Umberto Riccioni Carteni’s Different from Whom / Diverso da chi? (2009), in which he plays an openly gay man running for office in an ultra-conservative Italian town – and who, along the way, happens to fall in love with his (female) assistant (Claudia Gerini).

Other Luca Argentero movies include the following:

• Saturn in Opposition / Saturno contro (2007).
  Director: Ferzan Ozpetek.
  Cast:
  Stefano Accorsi. Margherita Buy. Luca Argentero. Pierfrancesco Favino (as Argentero’s lover). Serra Yilmaz. Ennio Fantastichini. Ambra Angiolini. Filippo Timi. Michelangelo Tommaso. Milena Vukotic. Isabella Ferrari.
• The political/romantic drama The Big Dream / Il grande sogno (2009).
  Director: Michele Placido.
  Cast: Riccardo Scamarcio. Jasmine Trinca. Luca Argentero. Massimo Popolizio. Silvio Orlando. Laura Morante.

In the upcoming Julia Roberts star vehicle Eat Pray Love, Luca Argentero has a minor role as an Italian tour guide. Also in the cast: James Franco, Javier Bardem, Richard Jenkins, Billy Crudup, and Viola Davis. Ryan Murphy directed.

Besides Eat Pray Love, Argentero will next be seen in the following:

• The Woman of My Life / La donna della mia vita.
  Director: Luca Lucini.
  Cast: Alessandro Gassman. Stefania Sandrelli. Luca Argentero.
• Some Say No / C’è chi dice no.
  Director: Giambattista Avellino.
  Cast: Luca Argentero. Paola Cortellesi. Paolo Ruffini. Myriam Catania.

Luca Argentero and Myriam Catania photo: Daniele Venturelli / WireImage for Gucci.

Matthew Macfadyen: ‘Pride & Prejudice’ actor in modern clothes.

Matthew Macfadyen: ‘Pride & Prejudice’ actor at Cannes Film Festival

Matthew Macfadyen, Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright’s popular 2005 film version of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, is seen wearing a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Grande GMT at the gala opening of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival: a screening of Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, in which Macfadyen has a supporting role as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Critics weren’t at all impressed with the period adventure. Audiences in North America have demonstrated interest on the first weekend, even though the costly Universal production opened below expectations in second place (behind the Marvel superhero flick Iron Man 2). Robin Hood is performing better overseas.

More than seven decades ago, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, and Basil Rathbone starred in Michael Curtiz and William Keighley’s classic The Adventures of Robin Hood, one of the nominees for the 1938 Best Picture Academy Award. In that version, Melville Cooper played the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Matthew Macfadyen movies

Born on Oct. 17, 1974, in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, Matthew Macfadyen has been featured – not infrequently in supporting roles – in less than a dozen movies in the last decade. Titles include:

• Enigma (2001).
  Director: Michael Apted.
  Cast: Dougray Scott. Kate Winslet. Jeremy Northam. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Saffron Burrows. Matthew Macfadyen. Tom Hollander. Donald Sumpter. Richard Leaf. Bohdan Poraj. Richard Katz. Robert Pugh. Corin Redgrave. Nicholas Rowe. Angus MacInnes. Edward Hardwicke. Anne-Marie Duff. Cameo: Mick Jagger.
• In My Father’s Den (2004).
  Director: Brad McGann.
  Cast: Matthew Macfadyen. Miranda Otto. Emily Barclay. Colin Moy. Jimmy Keen.
• Pride & Prejudice (2005).
  Director: Joe Wright.
  Cast: Keira Knightley. Matthew Macfadyen. Judi Dench. Carey Mulligan. Jena Malone. Rosamund Pike. Donald Sutherland. Brenda Blethyn. Kelly Reilly. Claudie Blakley. Pip Torrens. Rupert Friend. Tom Hollander. Penelope Wilton.
• Death at a Funeral (2007).
  Director: Frank Oz.
  Cast: Matthew Macfadyen. Keeley Hawes. Andy Nyman. Ewen Bremner. Daisy Donovan. Alan Tudyk. Jane Asher. Rupert Graves. Kris Marshall. Peter Vaughan. Peter Dinklage.
• Incendiary (2008).
  Director: Sharon Maguire.
  Cast: Michelle Williams. Ewan McGregor. Matthew Macfadyen. Nicholas Gleaves. Sidney Johnston.
• Frost/Nixon (2008).
  Director: Ron Howard.
  Cast: Frank Langella. Michael Sheen. Sam Rockwell. Kevin Bacon. Matthew Macfadyen. Oliver Platt. Rebecca Hall. Toby Jones.

‘Robin Hood’ 2010 cast

Written by Brian Helgeland (Green Zone), besides Matthew Macfadyen Robin Hood 2010 features the following:

Best Actor Oscar winner Russell Crowe (Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, 2000).

Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, 2004).

Best Actor Oscar winner William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1985).

Mark Strong (Godfrey). Oscar Isaac (Prince John). Danny Houston (as King Richard The Lionheart). Mark Addy (Friar Tuck).

Eileen Atkins (Eleanor of Aquitaine). Kevin Durand (Little John). Scott Grimes (Will Scarlet).

Veteran Max von Sydow (The Virgin Spring, Flash Gordon), a Best Actor Oscar nominee for Pelle the Conqueror (1988).

Matthew Macfadyen photo: © Olivia Blaizac / ENIGMA / WireImage.com.

Isabelle Huppert movies: About 80 titles in four decades.

Veteran Isabelle Huppert at Cannes premiere

Isabelle Huppert is pictured above while on the Red Carpet for the premiere of The Princess of Montpensier / La princesse de Montpensier at the Palais des Festivals. Directed by Bertrand Tavernier, The Princess of Montpensier is in the running for the Palme d’Or. (But may not win.)

The period romantic drama is set during the reign of Charles IX, when followers of different Christian sects (Catholics and Protestants) were at each other’s throats.

The Princess of Montpensier stars Mélanie Thierry in the title role, in addition to Gaspard Ulliel, Lambert Wilson, and Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet.

According to the film’s notes, Tavernier decided to adapt Madame de la Fayette’s 17th-century novel because he wanted to make a “love story that was both lyrical and epic in nature.” The director added that after shooting In the Electric Mist in the United States he felt “the visceral urge to dive into a profoundly French project.”

Isabelle Huppert: Multiple César nominee

With 13 César Award nominations, including one win for Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie (1995), Isabelle Huppert is one of the most prestigious French actresses of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Her movie credits include about 80 titles, among them:

• The Lacemaker / La dentellière (1977).
  Director: Claude Goretta.
  Cast: Isabelle Huppert. Yves Beneyton. Florence Giorgetti. Annemarie Düringer (as Anne-Marie Düringer). Renate Schroeter. Michel de Ré. Sabine Azéma. Monique Chaumette.
• La Truite / The Trout (1982).
  Director: Joseph Losey.
  Cast: Isabelle Huppert. Jeanne Moreau. Jean-Pierre Cassel. Daniel Olbrychski. Alexis Smith. Craig Stevens. Lucas Belvaux.
• Story of Women / Une affaire de femmes (1988).
  Director: Claude Chabrol.
  Cast: Isabelle Huppert. François Cluzet. Marie Trintignant. Nils Tavernier. Marie Bunel. Dominique Blanc. Myriam David. Thomas Chabrol (bit).
• The Piano Teacher / La pianiste (2002).
  Director: Michael Haneke.
  Cast: Isabelle Huppert. Annie Girardot. Benoît Magimel. Susanne Lothar. Udo Samel.
• 8 Women / 8 femmes (2002).
  Director: François Ozon.
  Cast: Catherine Deneuve. Isabelle Huppert. Danielle Darrieux. Fanny Ardant. Emmanuelle Béart. Virginie Ledoyen. Ludivine Sagnier. Firmine Richard.

Isabelle Huppert photo: Swarovski / WireImage.

Cate Blanchett attends Cannes premiere of panned Ridley Scott movie.

Cate Blanchett

Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Cate Blanchett – for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator (2004) – attended on May 12 the Opening Night Dinner at the Hotel Majestic during the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

Blanchett and Russell Crowe star in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, which opened the Cannes festival but failed to win over the critics. Blanchett’s other movie credits include Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth, Richard Eyre’s Notes on a Scandal, and Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There.

Cate Blanchett image: Bag by Roger Vivier / Venturelli / WireImage.com.

Kate Beckinsale: Restored ‘The Leopard’ premiere at Cannes Film Festival.

Kate Beckinsale: Restored ‘The Leopard’ premiere at Cannes Film Festival

Actress Kate Beckinsale, best known for playing action heroine Selene in the Underworld movie franchise, is pictured above at the premiere of the restored 1963 Luchino Visconti classic The Leopard / Il gattopardo, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, and Claudia Cardinale.

The cinematic event was held at the Palais des Festivals during the 63rd Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 14, ’10. Both Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale were in attendance.

Adapted by Luchino Visconti, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Enrico Medioli, and Massimo Franciosa, The Leopard is based on Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa’s classic novel.

Also in The Leopard cast:

Paolo Stoppa. Romolo Valli. Pierre Clémenti. Terence Hill. Giuliano Gemma.

Luchino Visconti movies

Among Luchino Visconti’s other movies are:

• Ossessione (1943), an unofficial adaptation of James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice.
  Cast: Massimo Girotti. Clara Calamai.
• Bellissima (1952).
  Cast: Anna Magnani. Walter Chiari.
• Senso (1954).
  Cast: Alida Valli. Farley Granger.
• Rocco and His Brothers / Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960). Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists’ Best Director and Best Screenplay winner.
  Cast: Alain Delon. Renato Salvatori. Annie Girardot. Katina Paxinou. Claudia Cardinale.
• Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winner Sandra / Vaghe stelle dell’orsa… (1965).
  Cast: Claudia Cardinale. Jean Sorel. Michael Craig.
• The Damned (1969).
  Cast: Dirk Bogarde. Ingrid Thulin. Helmut Berger. Helmut Griem. Charlotte Rampling. Florinda Bolkan. Umberto Orsini. Reinhard Kolldehoff. Renaud Verley. Nora Ricci. Wolfgang Hillinger.
• Death in Venice / Morte a Venezia (1971).
  Cast: Dirk Bogarde. Björn Andresen. Silvana Mangano. Marisa Berenson. Franco Fabrizi.
• Ludwig (1972)
  Cast: Helmut Berger. Romy Schneider. Silvana Mangano. Trevor Howard. Helmut Griem. Sonia Petrovna. Gert Fröbe. Umberto Ursini. Marc Porel. Adriana Asti. John Moulder-Brown.
• Conversation Piece / Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (1974).
  Cast: Burt Lancaster. Helmut Berger. Silvana Mangano. Claudia Marsani.
• The Innocent / L’Innocente (1976), Visconti’s final effort.
  Cast: Giancarlo Giannini. Laura Antonelli. Jennifer O’Neill. Massimo Girotti. Rina Morelli. Marie Dubois.

Kate Beckinsale movies

In films since 1993 (Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing), notable Kate Beckinsale efforts – besides the Underworld movies – include:

• Pearl Harbor (2001).
  Director: Michael Bay.
  Cast: Ben Affleck. Josh Hartnett. Kate Beckinsale.
• Van Helsing (2003).
  Director: Stephen Sommers.
  Cast: Hugh Jackman. Kate Beckinsale.
• The Aviator (2004).
  Director: Martin Scorsese.
  Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio (as Howard Hughes). Cate Blanchett (as Katharine Hepburn). Kate Beckinsale (as Ava Gardner). Jude Law (as Errol Flynn). Gwen Stefani (as Jean Harlow). Kelli Garner (as Faith Domergue). Alan Alda. Alec Baldwin. Adam Scott. John C. Reilly. Danny Huston. Ian Holm. Frances Conroy.

Kate Beckinsale photo: Venturelli / WireImage.

Aishwarya Rai: ‘The Leopard’ premiere.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan movies

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, one of the biggest Bollywood stars, also attended the premiere of The Leopard at the Cannes Film Festival.

Aishwarya Rai movies include the following:

• Bride & Prejudice (2004).
  Director: Gurinder Chadha.
  Cast: Aishwarya Rai. Martin Henderson. Naveen Andrews. Four-time Best Actress Oscar nominee Marsha Mason. Anupam Kher. Daniel Gillies. Indira Varma. Sonali Kulkarni. Nadira Babbar.
• Dhoom 2 (2006).
  Director: Sanjay Gadhvi.
  Cast: Abhishek Bachchan. Aishwarya Rai. Uday Chopra. Hrithik Roshan. Rimi Sen.
• Guru (2007).
  Director: Mani Ratnam.
  Cast: Aishwarya Rai. Madhavan. Roshan Seth.
• Sarkar Raj (2008).
  Director: Ram Gopal Varma.
  Cast: Amitabh Bachchan. Aishwarya Rai. Ravi Kale. Govind Namdeo. A Passage to India leading man Victor Banerjee.
• The Pink Panther 2 (2009).
  Director: Harald Zwart.
  Cast: Steve Martin. Aishwarya Rai. Jean Reno. Emily Mortimer. Andy Garcia. Jeremy Irons. John Cleese. Lily Tomlin. Alfred Molina. Johnny Hallyday. Evgeniy Lazarev. Geoffrey Palmer. Armel Bellec.
• Raavan (2010).
  Director: Mani Ratnam.
  Cast: Abhishek Bachchan. Aishwarya Rai. Govinda. Ravi Kishan. Ajay Gehi.

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan were married in 2007.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan photo: Getty Images.

Salma Hayek: ‘Frida’ star at Luchino Visconti film screening.

Salma Hayek movies

Besides Kate Beckinsale and Aishwarya Rai, Salma Hayek also attended the premiere of the restored The Leopard.

Below is a trio of Salma Hayek films:

• Frida (2002).
  Director: Julie Taymor.
  Cast: Salma Hayek (as Frida Kahlo). Alfred Molina (as Diego Rivera). Edward Norton (as Nelson Rockefeller). Mia Maestro. Diego Luna. Antonio Banderas (as David Alfaro Siqueiros). Valeria Golino. Roger Rees. Geoffrey Rush (as Leon Trotsky).
• Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003).
  Director: Robert Rodriguez.
  Cast: Antonio Banderas. Salma Hayek. Johnny Depp. Eva Mendes. Mickey Rourke. Danny Trejo. Enrique Iglesias. Marco Leonardi. Cheech Marin. Rubén Blades. Willem Dafoe. Pedro Armendáriz Jr. Julio Oscar Mechoso. Miguel Couturier.
• Grown Ups (2010).
  Director: Dennis Dugan.
  Cast: Adam Sandler. Kevin James. Chris Rock. David Spade. Rob Schneider. Salma Hayek. Maria Bello. Maya Rudolph. Joyce Van Patten. Steve Buscemi.

Salma Hayek received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for Frida. She lost the Oscar to Nicole Kidman for Stephen Daldry’s The Hours.

Salma Hayek photo: Tony Barson / WireImage.

Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony: Cannes Film Festival.

Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony

Singer/actress Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony are seen above at the Vanity Fair and Gucci party honoring Martin Scorsese.

Scorsese’s most recent effort, by the way, is the psychological horror thriller Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Elias Koteas, and Jackie Earle Haley.

Jennifer Lopez movies

Jennifer Lopez (born on July 24, 1969, in The Bronx, New York City) has been featured in more than 20 films since the mid-1980s. Among them:

• Monster-in-Law (2005).
  Director: Robert Luketic.
  Cast: Jane Fonda. Jennifer Lopez. Michael Vartan. Wanda Sykes. Adam Scott.
• Shall We Dance (2004).
  Director: Peter Chelsom.
  Cast: Richard Gere. Jennifer Lopez. Susan Sarandon. Stanley Tucci. Anita Gillette. Bobby Cannavale. Omar Benson Miller. Richard Jenkins.
• The widely lambasted disaster Gigli (2003).
  Director: Martin Brest.
  Cast: Ben Affleck. Jennifer Lopez.
• Maid in Manhattan (2002).
  Director: Wayne Wang.
  Cast: Ralph Fiennes. Jennifer Lopez. Natasha Richardson. Stanley Tucci. Tyler Posey. Frances Conroy. Chris Eigeman. Amy Sedaris.
• Out of Sight (1998).
  Director: Steve Soderbergh.
  Cast: George Clooney. Jennifer Lopez. Don Cheadle. Catherine Keener. Ving Rhames.

Jennifer Lopez’s latest star vehicle, The Back-up Plan, co-starring Alex O’Loughlin, was a box office disappointment in the U.S./Canada. Even so, the romantic comedy remains among the top twelve movies on the domestic chart this week.

Two-time Grammy winner Marc Anthony is reportedly the top selling salsa singer ever, having sold more than 12 million records worldwide.

Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony photo: Daniele Venturelli / WireImage for Gucci.

Cannes’ ‘frozen tundra’: Indie movie doldrums in the U.S.

According to the Los Angeles Times’ Steven Zeitchik, “about halfway through the Cannes Film Festival, there are, amazingly, still no sales of films playing in any of the festival sections. Such is the frozen tundra of (a certain part of) the indie business these days. (The market, where many mainstream films are sold and where much of the business takes place, isn’t faring much better, at least on the domestic side; it’s tire-kicking time and not much more.)”

Zeitchik adds, however, that two Cannes movies “could go within days, or at least before the end of the festival.”

The two lucky ones are:

• Mike Leigh’s well-received Another Year, which stars Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen as an aging couple and which may be purchased by Sony Pictures Classics.
• Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s Biutiful, starring Javier Bardem as a dying man. Echoes of Alejandro Amenábar’s The Sea Inside? Not really. Blanca Portillo, of Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver and Broken Embraces, co-stars in this tale about illegal immigration and scuzzy business deals.

Cannes Film Festival website.