Like a flash, my Monday here in Cannes just got a lot more interesting.
I was already looking forward to what was going to be my lightest day of the festival as I was planning on catching up on some much needed sleep and seeing only one movie, which just happens to be one of Room 237, which examines Stanley Kubrick‘s The Shining from all sides.
The film screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and is said to give “voice to the fans and scholars who espouse these theories, reworking the film to match their ideas and intercutting it with layers of dreamlike imagery to illustrate their streams of consciousness.”
I can’t wait.
Then, arriving home after a long, wet day as the sky opened up and poured down rain I was welcomed to some interesting updates in my inbox. News that made a day in which I stood in line in the pouring rain for over 30 minutes waiting to see Abbas Kiarostami‘s Like Someone in Love, only to be thoroughly disappointed, much more exciting. On Monday I will be shelving my “no trailers” and “no footage” rule to screen footage from a trio of upcoming films from The Weinstein Co.
First there will be footage from Quentin Tarantino‘s hotly anticipated Django Unchained in which Jamie Foxx plays the film’s title character, a freed slave seeking to reunite with his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). It’s a journey which will see him team up with Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a German bounty hunter, to take down Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), an evil plantation owner.
Word was circulating around the fest that the footage would be screened, but for whom was unclear. Early buzz said about 10-12 minutes might be shown, but that is entirely unconfirmed at this point.
Next will be the first look at Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master, which many hoped might actually play in the festival. The film features Philip Seymour Hoffman as a man who returns home after witnessing the horrors of World War II and tries to rediscover who he is in post-war America. He creates a belief system, something that catches on with other lost souls. Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Laura Dern co-star.
There was some news related to The Master recently when PTA fansite Cigarettes and Red Vines received the image you see to the right of a 65mm filmstrip from Anderson directly (get a larger look here and two other photos here) along with the following note:
CJ –
good evening. it’s been so long and you’ve been so patient, thought i’d fill you in on where we’re at with it now:These shots include our lovely Negative Cutter, Simone, imported all the way from France to cut 65mm negative. She does it all with a pair of scissors from Staples.
I’ll have more to share in the coming days/weeks/months. Hope you’re well. Thank you for all the support.
See you soon.
paul.
The fact footage from The Master will screen is a complete surprise for everyone so what’s in store is entirely unknown.
Additionally, footage from David O. Russell‘s upcoming film, The Silver Linings Playbook will be shown. Based on Matthew Quick’s debut novel, the pic centers on Pat Peoples (Bradley Cooper), the endearing narrator of this touching and funny debut, is down on his luck. The former high school history teacher has just been released from a mental institution and placed in the care of his mother. Not one to be discouraged, Pat believes he has only been on the inside for a few months — rather than four years — and plans on reconciling with his estranged wife. Refusing to accept that their apart time is actually a permanent separation, Pat spends his days and nights feverishly trying to become the man she had always desired.
The film co-stars Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Tucker, Jacki Weaver, Julia Stiles, John Ortiz and Shea Whigham and it could prove to be a big Oscar contender.
And finally, while I had already planned on attending From Russia with Love on the beach tomorrow night (just Skyfall.
The trailer will be arriving online around the same time and as soon as I get back from my beach side rendezvous with Sean Connery as Bond (weather permitting) I will have that trailer online for you.
As for right now… I’m heading to bed.
