Forty years ago, Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo ) wrote a book that became an instant best-seller and is still read and more or less remembered—by some as a frothy and irrelevant intellectual joke, by others as a life-changing and profound work of literature. What Gambardella himself is reminded of when people mention the book is that he hasn’t written another one since, not for lack of wanting to ... more >
Archives for May 2013
ARCHIVES

LA GRANDE BELLEZZA

MANDELA BIOPIC WILL BE RELEASED IN NOV
A film based on Nelson Mandela's bestselling autobiography "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" will be released in November, producers said on Monday. The biopic, entitled "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom", is to star British actor Idris Elba as the iconic anti-apartheid hero and will trace his life from childhood to imprisonment and presidency in 1994. "We are honoured to have had Madiba license us the ... more >

TEAM KECHICHE GRABS CANNES GOLD
Abdelatif Kechiche’s "Blue Is the Warmest Colour," a graphic but incredibly haunting and beautiful lesbian love story, has won the Palme d’Or, as was just announced during today's closing ceremony. The jury, presided over by Steven Spielberg (the other members: Daniel Auteuil, Vidya Balan, Naomi Kawase, Nicole Kidman, Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Lynne Ramsay, and Christoph Waltz), presented the ... more >

GOLD – IT’S WHAT’S ON THE MENU
This 66th Cannes Festival was a genuinely social affair. No, I don’t mean the bacchanalian soirees and the private parties which happened relentlessly during the eleven days or so of the festival. I’m referring to social media. Cannes’ Twitter ecosystem really came into its own this year, with people (“les tweetos” as the French like to call them) taking to the bandwidths to comment on everything ... more >

KHMER ROUGE DISASTER HIGHLIGHTED IN WIN
The Cannes Festival is also at its best when it serves our interests through the rewarding of serious works that have a strong historical and social component. During a brief ceremony in the Theatre Claude Debussy tonight Thomas Vinterberg and the rest of the Un Certain Regard jury handed out prizes to films presented in that section. Of note, Rithy Panh’s “The Missing Picture,” an exceptional ... more >