SATURDAY, MAY 20, 2017 Hitch halts Netflix film’s Cannes premiere

he premiere of the first of two con- to Facebook last week to praise “Okja” as troversial Netflix movies at the an “amazing film” and accused the French TCannes film festival had to be “establishment of closing ranks against stopped yesterday amid whistles and jeers us”. The battle-which has divided film- when the curtain malfunctioned hiding makers-has prompted French directors part of the screen. Some critics had earlier and producers to appeal to their govern- whistled at the start of $50-million crea- ment to change streaming rules. ture feature “Okja” when the Netflix’s logo Actress Robin Wright, star of Netflix’s appeared on screen. The screening giant flagship TV series “House of Cards”, said has refused to show both its films in the Thursday that films were best seen in cine- running for Cannes’ top prize in French mas. “We are getting criticized right now cinemas, sparking a bitter row which has because we have never had this medium overshadowed the start of the festival. before. The movie theatre will forever be “Ha, this (film) is really not made for the the first choice for films. I think it is actually cinema,” one spectator shouted as the really poor for people to watch films on screening was stopped for eight minutes their phones. It is not fair to filmmakers.” to solve the technical hiccup. “Okja”, about “Okja” director Bong Joon-Ho, who has a young country girl who tries to save a (From L) South Korean actress Ahn Seo-hyun, South Korean director Bong been compared to “Steven Spielberg in his beast created by an unscrupulous multina- Joon-ho, British actress Tilda Swinton, US actor Jake Gyllenhaal, US actor prime” by Quentin Tarantino, won fans tional company, had been touted as a pos- Paul Dano, British actress Lily Collins, South Korean actor Byung Hee- worldwide for his 2006 monster block- sible winner of the Palme d’Or. But a clash bong and US-South Korean actor Steven Yeun attend yesterday a press buster “The Host”. between Netflix and French cinema own- conference for the film ‘Okja’ at the 70th edition of the Cannes Film The South Korean’s first Hollywood film, ers may have already put it, and the other Festival in Cannes, southern France. — AFP “Snowpiercer”, starring Tilda Swinton-who film purchased by Netflix, “The Meyerowitz dent Pedro Almodovar dropped a bomb- ly opposing view, singing Netflix’s praises to also appears in “Okja”-won him further Stories” with Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller, shell Wednesday by suggesting they should reporters. Moments before Almodovar kudos in 2012. out of contention. not win anything. made his declaration, Smith told French TV Bong said that the new film “is essen- Netflix sparked uproar in France by refus- He said he could not imagine “the Palme that he was not afraid of a fight and was tially a love story between the animal and ing to put the movies on general release d’Or nor any other prize being given to a “looking for the opportunity to slam my the little girl. “But it also looks at how our there, where subscription services must wait film, and then not being able to see that film hand on the table and disagree with lives are inevitably shaped under the capi- three years to stream films after they show on a large screen”. But his fellow jury mem- Pedro. I’m looking forward to a good jury talist system, whether you are a human or in cinemas. Spanish director and jury presi- ber Hollywood star Will Smith took a strong- scandal”. Netflix boss Reed Hastings took an animal,” he added. — AFP Big-budget film about Russian submarine Kursk disaster starts big-budget drama about the sinking of the Russian sub- marine Kursk has begun shooting, its producers said yes- Aterday at the Cannes film festival. “Kursk”, which stars British actor Colin Firth as the British Royal Navy commander who led failed efforts to try to rescue survivors of the tragedy, is being made in giant indoor water tanks near Antwerp in Belgium. “Bond” actress Lea Seydoux plays the wife of one of This file photo shows Japanese animator the 24 Russian sailors who survived the initial underwater Hayao Miyazaki meeting with the press in explosion in the Barents Sea in August 2000. Tokyo. — AFP Russian authorities controversially refused help from British and Norwegian naval vessels, and all 118 sailors on Japanese animator board the nuclear submarine died. They were later criti- cized for the decision and for misleading the public about This file photo shows British Actor This file photo shows French the pace of the rescue operation. The Belgium Belga Films Colin Firth attending the 2017 actress Lea Seydoux posing Hayao Miyazaki Fund said they were putting an extra $5.6 million (five mil- Film Independent Spirit Awards at during a photocall at the lion euros) into the $39-million project led by acclaimed the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Louvre in Paris to make new film Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, of “Festen” fame.—AFP Monica, California. — AFP photos

scar-winning Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, who announced in 2013 that he Roger Ailes, media guru and Owould stop making films, is coming out of retirement to do a new movie, his studio announced yesterday. “Miyazaki decided to retract his retirement political strategist, dies at 77 and to make a feature-length animation film,” produc- tion company Studio Ghibli said on its website. The his wife, Elizabeth Ailes. He was 77. Ailes loyal help. RIP,” tweeted Bush. That studio said that the director, now 76, “found a subject died after a fall at his Palm Beach, Florida, October, Ailes flipped the switch on Fox worth turning into” a movie, but added: “This will truly home on May 10 caused bleeding on the News Channel, which within a few years be his final film considering his age.” brain, the Palm Beach County Medical became the audience leader in cable news. Miyazaki’s most famous works internationally have Examiner’s Office said. It also emerged as a powerful force on the been “Princess Mononoke” and “Spirited Away”, which A former GOP operative to candidates political scene while the feisty, hard-charg- helped him make the transition from an already wide- including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan ing Ailes swatted off criticism that the net- ly acclaimed career in Japan to a far broader audience. and George H W Bush and a one-time work he branded as “Fair and Balanced” “Spirited Away” won the Oscar for best animated fea- adviser to President Donald Trump, Ailes had a conservative tilt, declaring he had left ture in 2003, the first Japanese film to do so, and also also created a TV network that changed the the political world behind. scooped the Golden Bear prize at the Berlin face of 24-hour news. In early 1996, he By mid-2016 Ailes still ruled supreme as International Film Festival, among other major gongs. accepted a challenge from media titan he prepared to celebrate Fox News’ 20th He began his career in 1963 and his first feature- oger Ailes, the communications Rupert Murdoch to build a news network anniversary. But in little more than two length film was “The Castle of Cagliostro” in 1979.He maestro who transformed TV news from scratch to compete with CNN and oth- weeks, both his legacy and job unraveled gained critical acclaim and a cult following for Rby creating Fox News Channel only to er TV outlets they deemed left-leaning. following allegations by former anchor “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” in 1984 and co- be ousted from his media empire at the “He wasn’t perfect, but Roger Ailes was Gretchen Carlson that he had forced her founded Studio Ghibli, which has become Japan’s pre- height of his reign for alleged sexual my friend and I loved him. Not sure I would out of Fox News after she spurned his sexu- mier animation studio. — AFP harassment, died Thursday, according to have been President w/o his great talent, al advances. — AP