Festival de Cannes 2012 - Part 1

The previous year I wrote about every day of the Cannes Film Festival, telling you what interesting press conferences, photocalls, premieres, awkward and great moments took place. This year I have no time to process such amount of information, so there will be just a few entries dedicated to the events, which are happening in Cannes right now. This entry is about those first three days of this international film event, which have already passed.

The Presidents of three Juries (In Competition, Un Certain Regard, Cinéfoundation and short films) are Nanni Moretti, Tim Roth and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, so they and their mates are watching all films very attentively, trying not to miss the really good ones to praise them fairly.

"Moonrise Kingdom" was the opening film this time, and unexpectedly for me, almost all critics loved it! Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton along with Wes Anderson came to support their new adventurous comedy about some weird adults, who try to find two twelve-year-old runaways in love.

Of course, such huge festival couldn't be missed by one of the most eccentric actors nowadays. Sacha Baron Cohen arrived with his female bodyguards to present his new dark comedy "The Dictator", directed by Larry Charles. The promo campaign of this film is incredibly intrusive, you must remember how he has spilled ashes over Ryan Seacrest on the Academy Awards red carpet, so I'm very glad that it is finally over, because "The Dictator" is already out in cinemas.



Among other films, which were presented out of competition, are two DreamWorks' animations "Rise of the Guardians" and "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted". Isla Fisher jokes that the first one is like "The Animated Avengers", because it's a story about a team of the mythical fairy-tale characters, who have to save the world. Probably, it is more like "The Avengers for little kids". And the third film of the famous franchise is rumoured to be the last one, but who knows, if it will earn enough money.

French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, who won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, returns with his new shocking drama called "De rouille et d'os" ("Rust and Bone"). The critics like it so far. Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, who played the main parts, also came to support their film. It is about two people in love, but one of them is unemployed and the other is a killer whale trainer, who has lost both her legs. There must be passion, hate, blind love and many tragic circumstances.

Also "Reality" by Matteo Garrone was shown in Competition, a story about one happy family man, whose life changes rapidly after he has this obsessive idea to become a reality star and to prove everyone that he is very special.




Michel Gondry's "The We and the I" was the first film presented in Directors' Fortnight selection. 35 kinds are traveling in a bus during the different centuries, so none of them is going to be the same after this adventure. It was followed by Pablo Larrain's historical drama "No", starring Gael García Bernal. He portrays a PR manager, who has to persuade people to begin a revolt against Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

One of the biggest announcements so far was that Jackie Chan is done being an action film star. He is one of my all time favourite actors, and now "Chinese Zodiac" is going to be his last film as a leading hero. Though I understand how tired he can be after decades of being hurt while filming, but Jackie Chan did incredible things on the set, which no other actor can do. Now he wants to be a dramatic actor, which is also very good, because he has a real talent and no matter which film genre he chooses, he will succeeded.

So this is all for now, I'll write another post about Festival de Cannes 2012 in a few days, covering the most interesting films and moments.

"1911" (2011) - Synopsis, poster, trailer

My favorite actor/screenwriter/director Jackie Chan stars in the new movie, which appeared to be an epic one. I like when he plays funny and feisty characters, but I like even more when he's becoming a serious hero. There are two different trailers and though I don't speak Japanese, it sounds very beautiful, so I prefer the first one.

What is the movie about? "The event has taken in 1911. Huang Xin (Jackie Chan) and Sun Yat Sun (Winston Chao) are the leaders of the revolution for fighting for the people with better life. It's, therefore, they gathered together and formed an association (Tung Meng Hui) for the purpose of against the deteriorated Qing Dynasty. There are 2 uprisings to fight against the royal troops. The first one was held in Quangzhou in April 1911. The revolutionists attacked the Governor Office but was totally failed for the reason of without adequate supply of ammunition. A huge number of the revolutionists were sacrified.
In October of the same year, another uprising in Wu Cheong was set. The royal army rebelled and led by Zhang Zhen Wu (Jaycee Chan). They have successfully occupied three towns in Hu Han, seized the control of Hu Bei province. At that time, the Empress appointed Yuan Shi Kai and his picked soldiers to fight back immensely. Huang then commanded the Defended troop, resisted for one month then followed with success. 14 Provinces declared independence. Sun was back and appointed as the temporary President who alleged to give away the position to the one who convinced the Qing Royal to surrender. Yuan has succeeded to do so and got the authority.
It then ended the 268 years of the Reign of the Qing Dynasty and 2000 years of monarchy. The Republic was then founded." (Official movie website)

Release dates - September 29, 2011 (Hong Kong), October 12, 2011 (USA), November 5, 2011 (Japan)

Trailer 1 (Japanese)



Trailer 2 (English with beautiful music)

Poster - COLLIDER