In about 24 hours we will have already watched the red carpet and as of this very moment when I'm writing this, we will be waiting for the Opening Ceremony to start. But as we know tomorrow starts a lot earlier with the press screening, press photocall and press conference of the opening film, as well as with the arrival of the "celebrities" at Nice airport and their hotels.This year has been unusual as most of the Cannes official site info was not released one week before the festival begins but today, few hours ago finally movies info was released and yes I have been watching movie clips from all films that have them, as there are a trio of films in competition that still have no videos, Leviathan, Sils Maria and The Search. Also the iphone/ipad app was not updated until today. No idea yet why the digital coverage came too late but hope we will learn the reason eventually. Sigh.
So let's start the fest coverage with some news that I have been reading in the past week. If you wish to have a small idea of what I read in the net suggest you check my Cannes 2014 Board: Cannes News - Before the Festival Starts that is here and that will be closed today as tomorrow a new one will be open to cover news during the festival.
Serious News
If you do not mind tedious videos with one person speaking to camera then you will be able to watch all or some of the videos with Thierry Fremaux talking to camera about the festival plus the films in the festival. It is hard to believe that the most famous cinema festival in the world did not chose to do more entertaining videos (an audio file would have been better) as even if I do like/enjoy Thierry Fremaux, had to turn my visual attention to other matters to keep my attention to what he was saying. If you wish to hear him go here and check Les Films du Festival de Cannes 2014 Part 1 and 2, plus Les grands auteurs au Festival and La Programmation du Festival.
2014 marks the 40th year of the creation of the Cannes Ecumenical Jury with the approval of Robert Fabre Lebret, festival president. The 40th Anniversary Special Prix will be given to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for his magnificent body of work. The ceremony will take place on May 22nd and on Sunday, May 25th a special TV program on France 2 will be broadcast live from La Croisette. If you wish to learn more about this event and/or the jury history go here.
There are several Cannes controversies this year but the ones with more buzz before the festival begins refer to Grace of Monaco and Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent. Imagine once the fest begins scandals and/or controversies will turn to other movies.
It is impossible to keep up with all the announcements that have already been done in Cannes regarding future productions and/or movie sales, but some of the most interesting are:
-Helen Mirren on Woman In Gold, a BBC and TWC production about a Holocaust survivor who fights the Austrian goverment to recover a Gustav Klimt stolen from her family by the nazis in WWII.
-Real Wound by Abdellatif Kechiche, a Wild Bunch production
-Love by Gaspar Noé
-Body Artist by Benoît Jacquot
-Strangeland by Kim Farrant with Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes
-French Dolls by Katia Lewkowicz
-Miss Julie by Liv Ullman
-Bastille Day by James Watkins with Idris Elba and Adele Exarchopoulos
-A project by Luca Guadagnino with Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts.
-Voyage of Time by Terrence Malick
The Not-So-Serious News
-The Monaco Royal Family is not blocking the Cannes Film Festival; according to an exasperated (sorry, but he is right to be exasperated) Thierry Fremaux, they were NOT invited. Also according to Fremaux, the best Cannes 2014 quote: "Cannes has always been a directors' festival" said in relation that will screen Grace of Monaco directors cut NOT any other cut -including a distributor cut (you know who it is, isn't?).
-She has been called "the most beautiful woman in the world" and she already is in Cannes for the screening of her movie Coming Home by Zhang Yimou. Beautiful Gong Li has arrived.
-Right now Nicole Kidman is in the set of Canal Plus with Tim Roth. The program will be broadcast tomorrow. Today was a Press Day for the Grace of Monaco movie, so tomorrow the news will be out probably by late afternoon, after the movie press screening. Was wrong photos are circulating right now.
-Blake Lively has arrived in Cannes sans her husband who has a movie in competition, so eventually Ryan Reynolds will arrive and surely we will see both along with Atom Egoyan in the red carpet. She's L'Oreal ambassador this year.
-Most unusual is all the fuzz/buzz around Pamela Anderson in Cannes as she hasn't been in La Croisette before. Yes she was here 20 years ago when she was the Hollywood sex symbol of the moment. Anderson is actually in town to launch her new foundation supporting Cool Earth.
-Also in Cannes, the jury members: Jane Campion, Carole Bouquet, Sofia Coppola, Jeon Do-yeon, Leila Hatami, Gael Garcia Bernal, Nicolas Winding Refn, William Dafoe and Jia Zhang-ke. Hope the traditional jury photo from the balcony will be released soon, as photos shows them going into the Martinez Hotel along with Thierry Fremaux and Gilles Jacob.
-Eternal Cannes fest regular Jane Fonda has arrived as well as Audrey Tautou, Zoe Saldana, Zhang Ziyi and many more that appear every time I refresh the page!
Alright I'm going to share some gossip, I am waiting for someone to upload all Cannes movie clips to Youtube so I'll be able to better share them with the world! LOL! Photos are already all over the net, but no videos yet. Twitter is going nuts with Cannes and #Cannes2014.
Have a nice evening, hope you celebrate tonight as tomorrow will be business as usual and will last for 12 days. Sigh.
Photos of the Day
Nicole Kidman - today at work.
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