Filmmaking

LARS VON TRIER IS CANNES’ “PERSONA NON GRATA”

I missed the Wednesday morning Melancholia screening, having to moderate a table at the Producers Network breakfast the same time, but afterwards I happened to catch a snippet of the press conference. I tweeted a few comments, namely ones in which the director talked about this relationship with the film’s d.p., who started the project by telling him not to behave like so many “old or middle-aged directors and make [his actresses] younger and more naked.” “Don’t tell me that,” Von Trier said he told the cinematographer. Watching press conferences on those little TVs in the basement of the Palais […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 20, 2011 Filmmaking
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo — A Hammer to Nail Review

(Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo is now available on DVD through Factory 25. Visit the film’s official website to learn more. NOTE: This review was first published at Hammer to Nail in conjunction with the film’s theatrical release at Film Forum on May 12, 2010.) The knowledge that Jessica Oreck is an entomologist at the Museum of Natural History in New York City who has never previously made a film might cause one to worry that Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo will be an unavoidably stiff and grueling piece of video academia. Worry not, skeptic. Oreck’s wildly precocious exploration of Japan’s ongoing […]

By Michael Tully on May 19, 2011 Columns
ECRAN TOTAL PUBLISHES FILM ACQUISITION PRICES

In America we’re used to seeing box-office results each Monday, but for American movies the sometimes more relevant figures — their foreign sales — are guarded trade secrets. Many producers, unable to get hard numbers for their comps, cling to outdated models and “percentage of the budget” charts when making business plans. That’s why the yearly feature by the French trade Ecran Total , published today here at Cannes, is so startling. By obtaining the contracts filed by French distributors at the public funding org, the CNC, the journal prints the acquisition prices of foreign films, taking the temperature of […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 18, 2011 Filmmaking
SLATED LOOKING FOR FINANCIERS, PRODUCERS & FILMMAKERS FOR MARKETPLACE

Slated, a site that provides a range of tools and services for filmmakers and the film industry such as Festival Genius, is currently building an online film finance marketplace and is looking for industry professionals to be involved with the beta launch of Slated Marketplace. Marketplace hopes to be a hub where filmmakers can pitch work to accredited investors and financiers while producers and others in the industry will get the inside track on new film properties. Participation in the beta launch of Marketplace is being offered for a limited time, to be considered complete their brief registration at slated.com.

By Jason Guerrasio on May 18, 2011 Filmmaking
TRAUMA AND MYSTERY IN “THE RETURN”

What happened over there? That’s the question people keep asking Kelli (Linda Cardellini), the protagonist of Liza Johnson’s skillful debut picture, The Return, playing here in Cannes in the Director’s Fortnight section. Her friends, a counselor, a husband — they all assume some trauma occurred during her deployment, some event that has estranged this blue-collar worker, mother of two, and National Reservist from the reassuringly quotidian elements that made up her former life. The movie begins at the airport as Kelli returns home, but there are no yellow ribbons, and none of the welcoming crowds found in many stateside Iraq […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 17, 2011 Filmmaking
JONATHAN CAOUETTE AT THE CANNES DOCUMENTARY LUNCH

When Filmmaker polled our editors and came up with the 10 Best Films of the ’00s, on our list was Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation. Ahead of its time in its iMovie-edited home brew of diaristic lo-fi doc footage, Tarnation vividly depicted the relationship of the filmmaker to his memorably unstable mother. At Cannes this year, Caouette is back with his not-a-sequel, Walk Away Renee (pictured), dipping into the same footage trove but augmenting it with new material. This new footage consists of Caouette traveling cross-country to check his mom into assisted living, and sci-fi scripted sequences positing an alternate reality version […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 17, 2011 Filmmaking
SOUND AND FURY: BELA TARR’S “THE TURIN HORSE” PLUS MORE AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Sound design can be a filmmaker’s secret weapon. Psycho (1960) and Dirty Dancing (1987) aside, moviegoers are often hard pressed to remember the popular songs played in a film, let alone what a film itself sounded like. Yet in these layered, dense aural textures, every footstep and cigarette burn is meticulously tuned. Though it may never climb to the level of conscious analysis, this can have a deep psychological and emotional effect–particularly if the audience is treated to the top tier acoustics and audio systems of the theaters at the Cannes Film Festival. The sound work and soundtrack in director Lynne Ramsay‘s Morvern […]

By Livia Bloom Ingram on May 16, 2011 Filmmaking
MY OWN FILM SCHOOL

There are some jobs that bring about as much pain and rejection as they do inspiration and success. Screenwriting might be at the top of that list of professions. For every motivational tale of years spent toiling, hunched over the keyboard finally resulting in a six-figure sale, there are thousands of writers who continue to pound keys in front of just the pale, blue glow, still dreaming of being illuminated by a larger spotlight. Beginning writers are known to try everything in order to fulfill these dreams. They spend hours scanning the internet for names of agents and managers. They […]

By Eric Samulski on May 16, 2011 Filmmaking
ON WOMEN FILMMAKERS AND NOT WRITING ABOUT FILMS AT CANNES

For several years whenever I haven’t attended one of the major festivals, I’ve obsessively surfed to all the various film sites several times each day, hoping to soak up enough buzz and read enough reviews to feel connected — to feel like I’m somewhat there. And, invariably, I’m a little disappointed that there’s not more. Yes, there are reliable sources to turn to. Jeff Welles is always a fast and flavorful with his postings, mixing his first-person experience with industry news and commentary. Ann Thompson catches the pulse of the business, and Eric Kohn is mind-bogglingly quick with his review […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 14, 2011 Filmmaking
SCORSESE AND VON TRIER OR SCORSESE, DE NIRO & FELLINI?

We’ve kinda been down this road before. In early 2010, around the time of the Berlin Film Festival, reports rumors hit the blogsphere that Lars von Trier, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro were planning a remake of Taxi Driver in the vein of The Five Obstructions by making it five times, each with rules created by von Trier. Now out of Cannes, Scorsese and von Trier are bringing up the idea again. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Scorsese project to be dissected has not been decided yet but shooting will begin after Scorsese is done with the Daniel […]

By Jason Guerrasio on May 13, 2011 Filmmaking

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