Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 16 , 2014

Australian actress dances with French actor and Master of Ceremony Lambert (From left) Spanish actress Paz Vega, Australian actress Nicole Kidman, British actor Tim Roth, Wilson during the Opening Ceremony of the 67th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in French director , French actress Jeanne Balibar, a guest, British-Iranian screen- Cannes, southern France, on May 14, 2014. — AP/AFP photos writer Arash Amel and Indian producer pose as they arrive for the Opening Ceremony and the screening of their film ‘Grace of Monaco’. Cannes film fest opens he world’s biggest film festival opened in Cannes Wednesday Princely frown, transatlantic row applause. Chiara Mastroianni and “Gravity” director Alfonso Cuaron then with a blast of controversy as critics mercilessly savaged the Grace’s children Prince Albert II and his sisters Caroline and Stephanie formally opened the May 14-25 extravaganza, during which 18 films will Topening movie about Hollywood-darling-turned-princess have publicly rejected a film they say “has been misappropriated for compete for the top Palme d’Or prize. Grace of Monaco. The movie’s star Nicole Kidman, Sofia Coppola, purely commercial purposes”. “This film should never have existed,” The festival will see Canadian heartthrob Gosling present his directo- Willem Dafoe, Audrey Tautou and jury head Jane Campion were Stephanie of Monaco told local daily Nice Matin. Describing the contro- rial debut “Lost River”, and films by 25-year-old whizz kid Xavier Dolan, among the film world luminaries who walked up the 24 steps of the versy as “awkward” in a press conference earlier on Wednesday, Kidman veteran director Jean-Luc Godard and “Men in Black” actor Tommy Lee festival hall in the French Riviera resort, under the cool gaze of the sought to reassure the family that the film bore no “malice” towards Jones will also compete. And while two of the films running for the late Italian heartthrob Marcello Mastroianni whose giant portrait them or towards Grace and Prince Rainier, played by a chain-smoking Palme d’Or are by women-Japan’s Naomi Kawase (“Still the Water”) and adorned the facade. Tim Roth. “It’s fictionalized, it’s not a biopic,” she said, echoing what Italy’s Alice Rohrwacher (“The Wonders”) — Campion bemoaned the Ryan Gosling, David Cronenberg and Sophia Loren are also set to Dahan has previously said. industry’s bias against women. “I think you would have to say that there’s make an appearance later in the 67th Cannes Film Festival, where The French director had been locked in a long-standing tussle with some inherent sexism in the industry,” she told reporters. “It does feel directorial big guns will go head-to-head in a year of comebacks, US distributor over the final version of the film. very undemocratic and women do notice. Time and time again we don’t swansongs and star debuts. But for film-makers behind the opening Weinstein had reportedly considered dropping the rights to the film get our share of representation,” she said, adding that men seemed to movie, the festivities were bittersweet as the Monaco princely family altogether, but Dahan said Wednesday an agreement had been reached “eat all the cake.” furiously disavowed a film they say bears no resemblance to reality under which the movie mogul will distribute the French director’s ver- On the sidelines of the competitions, muscle men Sylvester Stallone, and critics who got a sneak preview made no secret of their con- sion in the United States. Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger will take a trip to the resort tempt. “There is no dispute anymore, everything has been resolved. We’re on board a tank to promote their film “The Expendables 3”. Abel Ferrara’s “The cringe-factor is ionospherically high,” film working together, and I’m happy about it,” Dahan told reporters. racy “Welcome to New York” in which Gerard Depardieu plays a charac- maestro Peter Bradshaw wrote. “A fleet of ambulances may have to According to entertainment industry magazine Variety, Weinstein will ter much like the disgraced former head of the IMF Dominique Strauss- be stationed outside the Palais to take tuxed audiences to hospital acquire the rights for considerably less money than he had originally Kahn will also get a private industry preview during the festival. And to afterwards to have their toes uncurled under general anaesthetic.” planned to pay. round off this year’s festivities, US Cannes-lover Quentin Tarantino will On the red carpet, Kidman sparkled in a blue, jeweled strapless dress, showcase “A Fistful of Dollars” at the closing ceremony, in a glitzy cele- smiling for the cameras next to downcast-looking French director Cheeky dance with Kidman bration of the 50th anniversary of spaghetti westerns. — AFP Olivier Dahan. In the film, the Australian-born actress portrays an The opening ceremony in the festival hall’s biggest movie theatre unhappy Grace who sleeps in a separate bedroom to Prince Rainier, saw the man behind the spellbinding soundtrack to Campion’s 1993 even contemplating divorce before rising to the challenge of being a Palme d’Or winner “The Piano”-Michael Nyman-take to the piano to wel- princess and helping her lost husband solve a 1962 political crisis come the jury president on stage. Master of ceremonies Lambert Wilson, with France. a prolific French actor, also had a cheeky dance with Kidman to much Mike Leigh brings Turner’s stormy seas to sunny Cannes ith colors from the artist’s own palette mortal, in some ways flawed and very inspired and a central performance that individual and this epic work, this spiritual way Wexplores the ‘art of the grunt’, British that he had of distilling, capturing and express- director Mike Leigh brought the turbulent life ing the world.” of English artist J.M.W. Turner to the Cannes Another competition entry, “Timbuktu” by Film Festival yesterday. Leigh, a Cannes regular Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, who has had five films in competition for the went to another climatic extreme entirely, top Palme d’Or prize and won it in 1996 for depicting the occupation of the Malian desert “Secrets and Lies”, is going head to head with city by Islamist militants who impose their strict another veteran British director, Ken Loach. version of Islamic law on an uncomprehending His “Mr Turner” and Loach’s “Jimmy’s Hall”, local population. about an Irish communist, are among 18 films It shows shocking cruelty inflicted on resi- vying for the top honour at the world’s most dents, with people being whipped or stoned to prestigious festival, while 100 or more are death after the Islamists take over, in a film being shown here in other forums. Leigh’s film inspired by real events of 2012. “The real brought Turner’s huge canvases of ships tossed courage is to be found with those who live this in stormy seas to a Cannes that this year is bask- on a daily basis, not just one day or two, but for ing in steady sunshine. a long time,” Sissako told a news conference. “Turner is...one of the great painters of all “And they wage a silent combat, which is a real times anywhere really, a great radical revolu- combat waged by humankind. That’s where tionary painter,” Leigh told reporters, explain- the optimism lies in the film.”— ing why he chose to focus on the 19th-century (From left) British cinematographer Dick Pope, producer Georgina Lowe, actress pre-Impressionist. “I felt there was scope for Marion Bailey, director Mike Leigh and actors Timothy Spall and Dorothy Atkinson what could be a fascinating film because of pose during a photocall for their film ‘Mr Turner’ at the 67th edition of the Cannes what may seem the tension between this very Film Festival in Cannes. — AFP