Soderbergh Makes Cannes
By Craig Kennedy - April 23rd, 2008; 8:20 am
The lineup for the 61st Cannes film festival was unveiled this morning with the biggest surprise being the inclusion of Steven Soderbergh’s twin Che Guevara biographies The Argentine and Guerrilla. Here’s a list of some of the other highlights:
In Competition
- Adoration, Canada, Atom Egoyan
- Changeling, U.S., Clint Eastwood
- Che (The Argentine, Guerrilla,) Spain, Steven Soderbergh
- Un Conte de noel, France, Arnaud Desplechin
- Daydreams, Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
- Linha de Passe, Brazil, Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas
- The Palermo Shooting, Germany, Wim Wenders
- The Silence of Lorna, U.K.-France, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
- Synecdoche, New York, U.S., Charlie Kaufman
Out of Competition
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, U.S., Steven Spielberg
- Kung Fu Panda, U.S., Mark Osborne, John Stevenson
- The Good, the Bad, the Weird, South Korea, Kim Jee-woon
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona, U.S.-Spain, Woody Allen
Midnight Screenings
- Surveillance, U.S., Jennifer Lynch
Special Screenings
- Ashes of Time Redux, China, Wong Kar Wai
- Of Time and the City, UK, Terence Davies
- Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, U.S.-U.K., Marina Zenovich
For the complete schedule, check out Variety.
Filed under: Film Festivals
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Kung Fu Panda is out? Damn, that seemed like a shoo-in for the win. :-)
On the page, the Kauffman script is the best he’s ever written (yes, I know what I’m saying), so that rates considerable excitment. I’m split on Che, I could see that bringing out the worse in Soderbergh’s over-intellectualizing, self-conscious, wannabe European so bad it hurts tendencies, or it could be a career redifining masterpiece, or neither, what the hell do i know?
My favorite Soderbergh film though is when he put “Steven Soderbergh” aside and made King of the Hill, though, again, my second favorite is very “soderbergh” the brilliant The Limey.
Seeing this list gets me excited for 2008. I honestly hadn’t really started to mentally prep for all the potential goodness coming our way this year.
I’m usually pretty on the ball about upcoming movies from the masters of world cinema, but I had no idea whatsoever that Terence Davies had a new movie. For me, that’s extremely good news, certainly today’s best surprise.
If it makes you feel any better Paul, in my foggy rush this morning, my original ‘highlights’ list omitted the Davies film and it was only when I saw your list that I came back and added it back in.
(bowing)
I hope you’re right about Kaufman and wrong about Soderbergh, Chuck….though I’ll bet I like the Soderbergh even if you’re right…
Truthfully Craig, I’ll probably like Che too, my initial comment sounded more severe than I meant for it to.
No, I think people are right to be skeptical.
I am. The politics of it make me queasy for starters. And alarm bells start to go off whenever someone needs 4 hours to tell a story. It’s not quite a Wellsian truism (and that’s the last time I mention that name for one week), but it’s a cause for concern.
On the other hand, if it works, it will be awesome.
Craig~~
Like you I’m a little iffy about the possible political side of Che. For too long he’s been seen through the rose-colored, nostalgic view that he was a martyred freedom fighter, when in actuality he was much less idealistic and cool. In fact, a true-to-life movie about Che would have material that would scare the crap out of the upper-middle-class kids who sport Che t-shirts and hang posters of him on their dorm-room posters.
However, unlike you I don’t have misgivings about its length. The problem with too many biopics is how tidy their stories are, which tends to be a function of having to boil an entire lifetime down to 120 minutes. At four hours, Soderbergh should be able to find time to explore him in more depth and with greater complexity than most. Because really, his story sort of needs it.
I’m all over the Soderbergh/Che skepticism, and Chuck consumes my thoughts on why in his first comment. Although - the casting of Del Toro in these might go down as the best thing ever.
“In fact, a true-to-life movie about Che would have material that would scare the crap out of the upper-middle-class kids who sport Che t-shirts and hang posters of him on their dorm-room posters.”
Haha, totally, Paul.
Off topic, I want to see Tyson.
Don’t read too much into my 4 hour concern. It’s more of a tingle than an alarm bell…like “prove to me you need 4 hours”. As I said, if he can pull it off (and I beileve he’s capable) it will be something to see.
But yeah, politically Che has been candy coated for too long. Without even getting into the left and the right of it, he’s a complex character and I don’t want to see a hagiography.
Daniel~~
If anyone could make an interesting movie about Mike Tyson, it’s Toback. I think Tyson’s scene in BLACK AND WHITE proved that.
Somehow, I really hope that soderbergh will have the guts to make the movie that “would scare the crap out of the upper-middle-class kids who sport Che t-shirts and hang posters of him on their dorm-room posters”. Though I liked The Motorcycle Diaries, and that movie had the good sense to stay away from his later years, THAT already romanticized Che way too much, and those kids in T-shirt? I always feel like stopping them in the streets and asking them if a) they even know who that is, b)they know what he did. His ideals had some merit. His methods? Not so much.
Anyway, Synechdoche is the one I’m most looking forward to on that list. Kaufman is a god.
I share much of Chuck’s skepticism. I’ve tried repeatedly to like Soderbergh’s ’00s offerings but I think Chuck kind of hits it, which is that when he’s not making an Ocean’s movie he’s trying to be a European arthouse filmmaker so badly it hurts.
Che is one of the most undeservedly romanticized people in world history. I still have a bad taste from The Motorcycle Diaries.
Any festival that has Wenders, Desplechin, Egoyan, Eastwood, the Dardennes Brothers, Soderbergh (who I still think could make a comeback) Salles (even though I’ve been cool towards everything he’s made post-Central Station) and debut director Kaufman in competition is one that rules. A lot of other goodies, too.
Soderbergh is probably the most objective director out there for a Che bio-pic. That’s always been Soderbergh’s greatest strength. He’s not going to romanticize him like a college student.
I have Synecdoche, New York but I haven’t read it yet. Can I say I’m not much of a Kaufman fan? I owe him gratitude for shifting the screenplay paradigm, but I find his work too uber-meta and only ADAPTATION works for me (tho I don’t like the third act). I thought he was kind of an ass when I saw him at the WGA a couple years back too.
I don’t care for Adaptation’s third act either, the filmmakers found a way to bind their obsessions with a character study that is honest and moving and they have to squander that with yet another self-congratulatory Hollywood spoof in case the audience forgets how clever they are. The very end, between Cage and the girl, was back on track though.
I love Eternal Sunshine though, and I thought that maintained the emotional intensity of Adaptation first two-thirds throughout.
I think Kaufman has only become stronger as a screenwriter. I thought Human Nature was better than Being John Malkovich and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was better than that, and Adaptation was better than that, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind somehow managed to be even better.
Chuck, your statement that his newest is the best on the page has made me all the more excited.
sorry… i’m really looking forward to Adoration and ‘the adjuster’ may be my favorite movie. how about that for an orginal choice ??????? :)
and surveillance, now idead what this is. but did i see the name lynch somewhere. that in itself but this on my essentail radar….while you sing the song/we’ve heard before.whatever…
and if finishing the game was an animated movie someone besides me would have refed it on a.d./living in cinema ??? i mean the jokes on the panda thing just wont stop..tell you get enough…. ;)
please someone tell me what bandwagon i should get on because i want to be there from the start. i’m all blogged up/and have nowhere to go…
and……
where was craig ???
now all is safe in the movie world…. ;)
I was told by a Canadian friend who knew a good deal about the production that Adoration is Egoyan’s return to form, at least in his opinion. I meant to write that earlier and your post reminded me, glimmer. Needless to say, I hope it’s true. One would hope that Egoyan’s stretch of Ararat (I feel bad about posting this because I still have to see it, so discount it as my opinion), Where the Truth Lies and Citadel (both of which I found terribly disappointing) is at an end and he’s back on firm footing again.
After 2007, I’m going to try and minimize my expectations and see what hits the movie screens. These are all good comments but I think my expectations of certain directors might hamper my ability to enjoy the movies, and after seeing the way Assassination of Jesse James, Zodiac, and Lust, Caution all suffered from said critical expectations I’m just going to try and keep an open mind.
I will however reserve the right to prejudge the summer popcorn mercilessly though.
hey alexander it’s cool….. :)
and thankd for the info. yeah returning to what…form sounds good….get back to the ‘weirdness’ ha ha…
its cool …. but i think i know how it goes /what domiantes the conversation now… well dominate more closer to realese date/when it released so expect alot more whining from me but stuff that’s gonna left behind/getting 3 % of the attention the che/soderbergh tjhing.
which..correct i have no interest in. and now i’m gonna take a bow…. :)
That is a really strong lineup. I don’t know if there are more big names or if I’m just becoming more world-cinema-literate, but it has me more excited all round than I remember being in years past. Lots of recognized masters of their craft. And they got a couple of gals in there too. Well done, Cannes.
Besides the Eastwood, Allen and Soderbergh pics, I’m mighty curious about the Kauffman, Wenders, Egoyan, Dardenne, Wong Kar Wai and Salles pics. I’m also curious about the Polanski doc.
It is shaping up to be a promising year. That’s a relief, considering last year was so rife with talent. Otherwise, it’d be like that time I had an assignment to review a five-star French place for a magazine one month and the very next month, as it happened, got to write a review of the Western Sizzlin’ buffet.
The words Western Sizzlin’ are uncomfortably non-specific when it comes to places to eat. :)