CANNES -- It's films and computer, computer and films. The week-end starts
early, with the presentation of Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing
Beauty". Not
too crazy about the movie itself, the entire Croisette falls in love with Liv
Tyler.
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Couldn't get in to see Aki Kaurismaki's "Drifting Clouds",
which everyone
tells me it's great. "As minimalist, and as funny, as Buster Keaton," they
say. So I stayed on the beach, catching up on my diary.
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The world was created in six days, so the story goes. On the seventh day, God
took a break. On the eighth, he created Mongoloids ("trisomic" is the p.c.
word). George (Pascal Duquenne) is Mongoloid, therefore pretends he's from
Mongolia. Harry (Daniel Auteuil) is a "normal" person, read: an executive who
works seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, so driven that his wife
left with their kids. "The Eighth Day" by Jaco ("Toto the Hero") van Dormael
is a sort of road movie, the story of a strange friendship, where thanks to
the "abnormal", the "normal" sees the light.
Predictable perhaps, but the two lead actors are smashing. Duquenne is a
genuine trisomic, but, as Auteuil points out, "a genuine star among his
peers." Could we be heading for a dual Best Actor Award?
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Anjelica Huston comes into town and shows everyone what
real class is. Here
to present "Bastard Out of Carolina", which she directed (her
first movie as
a helmer), the daughter (John) and grand-daughter (Walter) of Academy-Award
winners, and an Academy-Award winner herself ("Prizzi's Honor"), meets with
the press.
Based on Dorothy Allison's best seller, "Bastard..." is the powerful tale of
a nine-year-old girl abused and molested by her stepfather while her mother
(Jennifer Jason Leigh) looks the other way. Director Huston pulls no punches
and spares you nothing. Unflinchingly directed, the rape scene (a titillating
moment in most films) is ugly, ugly, ugly. As should be.
Surprisingly, "Bastard..." was produced by Turner Entertainement for T.N.T.
Not surprisingly, the cable channel pulled out once the film was finished. It
will be released theatrically throughout the world.
The usual questions were thrown at Anjelica Huston: Why that story? How does
one direct a child? Why the desire to try her hand at directing -- and wasn't
there a rumor she might direct a semi-documentary on her father, the
legendary John Huston, to be played by no-less-legendary actor (and former
boyfriend) Jack Nicholson?
"No. That would be daunting," she replied.
By the time the audience understood what "daunting" exactly meant, we were
three questions later. Kissinger is but an amateur.
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