Adapted from Dostoevsky’s story about a young man and woman’s chance encounter as they gradually fall in love over four successive nights in Paris. The tentative nature of their gradual obsession for one another is echoed in Pierre Lhomme’s luminous cinematography that creates a delicate dreamy landscape of the French capital where anything could happen as their erotic passion grows into love. The Bresson version transcends mawkishness and sentimentality. However, unsure their actions are these two believe in the mystical power of love to transform their ordinary lives. In 1957 Visconti filmed another version using the original title White Nights.
RESTORED PRINT | SCREENING during CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2024 in the presence of Nathanael Karmitz, Chairman of the board of mk2
This simple but never simplistic study of profound and repressed grief takes place in springtime Reykjavik where a young pan-sexual woman’s joy is turned to sorrow after a tragic event sends her on a rollercoaster ride to emotional hell.
When the Light Breaks is the Icelandic director’s fourth feature and follows his 2019 portmanteau feature Echo that won the Youth Jury Award at Locarno Film Festival.
Once again the tone is sombre but this time the narrative lacks the bite of his previous fare in particular Sparrows (2015) and plays out as a predictable story of loss that is nevertheless moving in its depiction of collective grief. It centres on Una (breakout teenage star Elín Hall) who is in the early stages of a relationship with Baldar Einarsson’s Diddi when they are separated by tragedy. The remainder of the film explores the aftermath to the event and the affects it has on Diddi’s circle of friends and particularly on Una who is unable to reveal their nascent affair for reasons that will soon become clear as the film unspools.
DoP Sophia Olsson makes atmospheric use of Iceland’s rugged landscapes that contrast with the sleek architectural framing of modernist interiors and the particularly resonant scenes that take place in Reykjavik’s expressionist neo-gothic Hallgrímskirkja Church of Iceland that soars 244 feet into the blue yonder. Something to behold and very much in keeping with the film’s spiritual undertones. @MeredithTaylor
Thierry Fremaux, festival director, has unveiled the long-awaited line-up for this year’s 77th edition of The Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25)
The competition includes a glittering selection of world premieres from David Cronenberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Jacques Audiard, Andrea Arnold, Yórgos Lánthimos, Paul Schrader and Paolo Sorrentino including the long-awaited latest outings from auteurs Leos Carax, Ali Abbasi, Alain Guiraudie, Jia Zhang-Ke and Miguel Gomes.
The Festival opens on the 14th May with Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act (out of competition) with festival president Greta Gerwig leading the festival jury who will decide the winner of this Year’s Palme d’Or.
COMPETITION
Megalopolis – Francis Ford Coppola
An architect wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster in this Sci-fi epic starring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight (image above)
The Apprentice – Ali Abbasi (above) copyright Apprentice Productions Ontario Inc.
A dive into the underbelly of the American empire that charts a young Donald Trump’s ascent to power during the 1970s through a Faustian deal with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn.
Motel Destino – Karim Ainouz
The Brazilian Algerian director is back in Cannes a year after The Firebrand with a love story between a man and a woman struggling against their demons.
Bird – Andrea Arnold (above)
Following her Cannes 2021 triumph Cow, Arnold returns to her native Kent for this male-centric family story starring Franz Rogowski in the title role alongside Barry Keoghan.
Emilia Perez, Jacques Audiard (below)
Mexican drug carte thriller with – you guessed it – a trans twist.
Anora – Sean Baker (above)
Mikey Madison stars in this comedy about a sex worker in New York and Las Vegas
The Shrouds – David Cronenberg (above)
The Canadian ‘Baron of Blood’s eagerly awaited return stars Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger in a sci-fi adventure that follows a grieving widower’s attempts to contact the dead.
The Substance– Coralie Fargeat (Qualley – above)
The Revenge director’s latest is simply billed as ‘a horror story’ and stars Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid and Demi Moore.
Grand Tour– Miguel Gomes (above)
A man desperate to leave his fiancée on their wedding day in Rangoon, 1917, flees across Asia with his bemused ‘ex’ in tow
Marcello Mio – Christophe Honoré
Chiaro Mastroianni takes on the guise of her father Roberto – right down to the last detail – in this curious but inspired drama that also stars her mother Catherine Deneuve, Fabrice Luchini, Melvil Poupaud and English funnyman Hugh Skinner. (image below)
Caught By The Tides – Jia Zhang-Ke (below)
All We Imagine As Light Payal Kapadia
Kapadia returns to Cannes after winning the The Golden Eye for his feature-length debut A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021).
Kinds Of Kindness – Yórgos Lánthimos (below)
Three characters cross paths in the Greek auteur’s follow-up to Oscar- winning Poor Things that once again stars Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, along with Jesse Plemmons and Margaret Qualley.
L’amour Ouf – Gilles Lellouche (below)
Beating Hearts follows star-crossed lovers Francois Civil and Adele Exarchopoulos from different sides of the track: Audrey Diwan co-writes with three others (ouf!) based on a novel by Neville Thompson.
Wild Diamond– Agathe Riedinger (below)
This feature debut from the French director centres on tempestuous teen Liane, 19, who lives with her family in Frejus, Côte d’Azur and is hellbent on stardom when she lands an audition for TV show Miracle Island.
Oh Canada Paul Schrader (below)
Great to see this much underrated director, and writer of cult classics Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Raging Bull in the competition line-up with a drama about one of sixty thousand Canadians who refused to fight in Vietnam. Richard Gere stars alongside Uma Thurman.
Limonov – The Ballad, Kirill Serebrennikov (below)
Ben Wishaw stars in this drama, co-written by Oscar winning Pawel Pawlikovski, about the maverick Soviet poet Eduard Limonov.
Parthenope – Paolo Sorrentino (below)
Another gorgeously lensed drama from the Italian auteur that centres on a woman: is she a siren or a myth? Gary Oldman, Stefania Sandrelli and Luisa Ranieri star.
The Girl With The Needle – Magnus Von Horn (below)
Sweat, his feature debut, was an assured piece of filmmaking. Here the Swedish director dives back in to the past for a female centric “fairytale about a horrible truth” starring Trine Dyrholm.
THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (below) Mohammad Rasoulof – According to a press agent, Rasoulof has apparently escaped Iran without permission in order to be in Cannes for the screening of his competition hopeful, and asks the international community for ‘effective support”.
LA PLUS PRÉCIEUSE DES MARCHANDISES – Michel Hazanavicius
Another Second World War tale told in animation. Voiced by the late Jean-Louis Trintignant, along with Gregory Gadebois and Denis Podalydes, follows the story of French Jewish family deported to Auschwitz. During the journey the father throws one of his kids out the train where he’s discovered in the snow and taken in by a childless Polish couple. (below).
TREI KILOMETRI PANA LA CAPATUL LUMII – Emanuel Parvu
The Romanian director and actor won the Heart of Sarajevo (2017) for his feature debut Meda.
OUT OF COMPETITION
The Second Act– Quentin Dupieux Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – George Miller Horizon – An American Saga, Kevin Costner She’s Got No Name – Peter Chan Rumours, Evan Johnson – Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Twilight Of The Warrior Walled In – Soi Cheang I, The Executioner Seung Wan Ryoo The Surfer Lorcan Finnegan The Balconettes – Noémie Merlant
CANNES PREMIERE
Miséricorde – Alain Guiraudie C’est Pas Moi Leos Carax Everybody Loves Touda Nabil Ayouch The Matching Bang Emmanuel Courcol Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot – Rithy Panh Le Roman de Jim, Arnaud Larrieu – Jean-Marie Larrieu
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
La Belle De Gaza – Yolande Zauberman (documentary) Apprendre – Claire Simon The Invasion – Sergei Loznitsa Ernest Cole, Lost And Found – Raoul Peck Le Fil – Daniel Auteuil
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Norah – Tawfik Alzaidi The Shameless – Konstantin Bojanov Le Royaume – Julien Colonna Vingt Dieux!– Louise Courvoisier Who Let The Dog Bite?– Lætitia Dosch Black Dog– Guan Hu The Village Next To Paradise– Mo Harawe September Says – Ariane Labed (below)
L’histoire De Souleymane – Boris Lojkine The Damned – Roberto Minervini On Becoming A Guinea Fowl– Rungano Nyoni My Sunshine– Hiroshi Okuyama Santosh – Sandhya Suri Viet And Nam – Truong Minh Quý Armand – Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
This year’s 77th edition of Cannes Festival will award an Honorary Palme d’or for the first time to a group rather than an individual: Studio Ghibli.
Alongside the Hollywood greats, the Japanese studio embodied by two superb storytellers, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and a host of cult characters, has unleashed a fresh wind on animated film over the past four decades the Japanese animations have brought a breath of fresh air to the genre appealing to both kids and adults with vibrant universes and sensitive, engaging stories that brings together traditional and contemporary.
The Wind Rises (2013) @StudioGhibli
The Festival de Cannes was an early explorer of the animated film adventure. In the early years, Walt Disney productions presented short films (1946) and the feature Dumbo (1947). In 1953, Walt Disney himself took Peter Pan to the Croisette, where René Laloux won a special Jury Prize in 1973 for his first feature, Fantastic Planet. After a long absence, animation returned to Cannes in force with Shrek (2001) and Shrek 2 (2004), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004), Persepolis (2007), Waltz with Bashir (2008), which all received awards in the Competition, or even Up, which opened the Festival in 2009. Many other films, such as Inside Out,Kirikou and the Wild Beasts, and more recently, Elemental, and Robot Dreams have also left their mark. Moreover, Un Certain Regard welcomed The Red Turtle (2016), Studios Ghibli’s first collaboration with a European production company.
It all began 40 years ago. The success of Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1984 enabled him to establish Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata in 1985. Today, the films are watched by people all over the world, and draw many visitors to the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka and Ghibli Park to experience the world of our films for themselves. And although Miyazaki and Takahata are now veterans of their craft Studio Ghibli will continue to take on new challenges, led by a new generation who will carry on the spirit of the company.
Back in the day the two achieved what seemed to be an impossible feat: independently producing pure masterpieces and conquering the mass market. Producer Toshio Suzuki, a key studio member from the start and soon assuming a full time role, he managed the studio with formidable efficiency, establishing perfect complementarity between the projects of Miyazaki and Takahata, by turns producers and directors.
The tale of the Princess Kagua (2013)
In 1988, with the simultaneous release of Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbour Totoro these outstanding creative artists achieved a double success. In 1992, Studio Ghibli was able to begin financing its own feature films with Porco Rosso. In the early years, only the two founders directed their films, but gradually young auteurs such as Goro Miyazaki and Hiromasa Yonebayashi distinguished themselves and joined the Studio.
In four decades and over twenty feature films, Studio Ghibli won over its audiences with works imbued with poetry and with humanistic and environmental commitments. With Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbors the Yamadas, The Wind Rises and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, Studio Ghibli has delivered stories that are as personal as they are universal. They have won prestigious awards, including both the Golden Bear and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Spirited Away, and more recently another Oscar for The Boy and the Heron.
In Europe as in the United States, these films are among the animators’ most acclaimed work, between art for art and the commercial challenges of the industry. They are true models, as much for the quality of their writing, directing and animation as for their commitment to extensive aesthetic aspirations. In 2001, the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka opened on the outskirts of Tokyo to showcase the animators’ work and rich heritage, as well as to show short films created for the museum, thus asserting the Studio’s cultural importance. In 2022, the Ghibli Park, a hybrid park facility expressing the world of Studio Ghibli, opened in Aichi Prefecture. Goro Miyazaki, the first Director of the Ghibli Museum, was appointed the Creative Development Director to oversee the park construction.
Dir.: Charles Vidor | Cast: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready |USA 1946 | 109 min.
Two of Hollywood’s most iconic films, both directed by Hungarians, share a rather haphazard way of shooting: Michael Curtiz’ scriptwriters for Casablanca, Philip and Julius Epstein and Howard Koch, waited every day for a new development during WWII, trying to get the newest changes on the front into their script; meanwhile producer/ scriptwriter Virginia von Upp delivered the script for Vidor’s GILDA (based on a short story by E.A. Ellington) at the rate of one or two pages at a time – usually on the day of shooting.
Gambler Johnny Farrell (Ford) is saved by casino owner Ballin Mundson (Macready) after the losers in his last card game try to rob him of his winnings. Mundson employs Farrell as his assistant while he is away working as frontman for a Nazi organisation in South America. Mundson, a misogynist like Farrell himself, returns with a bride in the shape of Gilda (Hayworth).
Farrell seems to be employed to look after Gilda, making sure his boss’s prize possession doesn’t meet other men – while falling for her himself. After Mundson fakes his own death, Farrell and Gilda marry – but he wants his new wife, to remain faithful to her first husband. When Mundson, very much alive, learns about the marriage, he wants revenge – but a lavatory attendant kills him with his own stiletto.
Before shooting started on September 7th 1945, the marriage of Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles was already on the rocks, and an announcement was made that the couple was divorcing – even though there was a late reconciliation (for the time being). Columbia boss Harry Cohen was keen to stick to the Hayes Codes to the point that the film did not make any sense (Gilda turned out to be a lady and not the tramp). He fostered a romance between Hayworth and Glenn Ford for the newspapers. Ford and Hayworth led him a merry dance, staying on the studio long after shooting: the money conscious Cohen asked them to leave: “I can’t keep the studio open all night. It costs money. Now, get the hell out of here and don’t forget to switch off the lights when you leave.” The pair had another drink on Harry.
GILDA is full of sexual innuendos: when Gilda and Johnny are dancing she says: “I have to keep dancing, Johnny, as long as I have my arms about you, or else I might forget how to dance. Push my hat back, Johnny’”. The people in the Hayes Censorship office had obviously never heard that the star’s hair is used as a sexual metaphor. Neither did they object to Hayworth (or better Anita Ellis) singing “Put the blame on Mame”, stripping off her long gloves, and asking the audience to help her with her striptease: “I’m not so good with zippers”.
GILDA changed Hayworth’s image for good: she was no longer the gaiety girl from the musicals but one of the new breed, the deadly femme fatale of the film noir, in the footsteps of Mary Astor (The Maltese Falcon), Clare Trevor (Farewell my Lovely), Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity) and Lana Turner (The Postman Always Rings Twice).
Glenn Ford was not keen on the director: “Mr. Vidor was a very strict, demanding director who had a streak of sadistic, Hungarian love-hate understanding, and he sort of nurtured that aspect. His instructions, before we did a scene or werr thinking of doing it, were pretty incredible – even in today’s market. I can’t repeat the things he used to tell us to think about. They are marvellous images to hold.”
Apart from Hayworth, Polish born DoP Rudolph Mate (To Be or Not to Be), was the other stars of Gilda. The black and white images literally glitter when the camera trails on Hayworth: the light plays with her, treating her like a dark, dangerous creature illuminated by star light. Her floating presence alone is the total subversion of the Hayes Code. AS
100 years of Columbia Pictures GILDA
Charles Vidor
1946, 1h50, United States
A Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation. Restoration from the original 35mm nitrate negative and a 35mm nitrate internegative. 4K digitization and digital image restoration by Cineric, Inc. Audio restoration by John Polito at Audio Mechanics from the sound track of the original 35mm nitrate negative. Color correction, conformation, additional image restoration and DCP creation by Motion Picture Imaging colorist Sheri Eisenberg. Restoration supervised by Grover Crisp. Screening during CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2024 in the presence of Tom Rothman, President of Sony Pictures Entertainment
