lifestyle MONDAY, MAY 18, 2015

Music & Movies Clooney goes back to future in ‘Tomorrowland’ ollywood heartthrob George Clooney straps on a jet Frank Walker, who found his way into Tomorrowland as a doing to the environment,” the 25-year-old actress said. “I pack again for Disney’s new movie “Tomorrowland,” young boy but became cynical and was thrown out by do think it’s all of these issues that provoke the post-apoca- Ha retro-futuristic spectacle mixing environmental Laurie’s character, David Nix. lyptic movies you see where the world is ending, whether themes with sci-fi wizardry-and some good old-fashioned it be environmental or technological,” she added. The fun. Clooney, who fired up his thrusters only two years ago Eiffel Tower spectacle Disney film is also a tribute to the studio giant’s founder, in Oscar-winning space drama “Gravity,” stars as a burned- The climax comes after some spectacular scenes, Walt Disney.”Walt was a futurist. He was very interested in out engineering genius in the film to be released next including one featuring the Eiffel Tower, showcasing com- space travel and what cities were going to look like and week, just in time for the summer blockbuster season. The puter-generated imagery by director Brad Bird, who won how transportation was going to work,” said Damon actor said the movie, which is difficult to categorize, was a an Oscar for animated film “The Incredibles” in 2005. It is Lindelof, who co-wrote the movie with Bird. “Walt’s think- courageous gamble by the studio giant, going up against unclear what Tomorrowland represents-some kind of col- ing was that the future is not something that happens to sure-fire box office hits like the latest “Avengers” sequel, lective consciousness of the future might be a best bet-but us. It’s something we make happen. And we really wanted “Age of Ultron.” “It’s a really bold thing for Disney to be will- the basic theme of the movie is that optimism should over- to take that baton and run with it,” he told industry publica- ing to do a film that isn’t a sequel and isn’t a comic book come cynicism.”What I loved about the film was that it tion Variety. — AFP and truly invest in a summer film of this sort of ilk,” he said, reminds you that young people (are) not... born and start presenting the film ahead of its US release on May 22. out their lives cynical or angry or bigoted, you have to be The movie’s plot has been shrouded in secrecy and, taught all of those things,” said Clooney. “I watch the world without giving away spoilers, it certainly provides a roller- now and think I see really good signs from young people coaster cinematic ride worthy of Disney’s Tomorrowland out there, and I feel as if the world will get better,” added George Clooney and Amal theme parks whose name it shares. It tells the story of the actor, whose previous sci-fi outings have included Clooney attend the ‘China: teenage rebel Casey, played by Britt Robertson, who finds 2002’s “Solaris.” Through The Looking Glass’ herself sucked into a mission to unearth the secrets of Robertson said climate change was also a key theme. Costume Institute Benefit Gala at “Tomorrowland,” a future realm ruled by a despot played “It’s us that’s creating that issue, it’s not anything other the Metropolitan Museum of Art. by British “House” star Hugh Laurie. Clooney plays inventor than the people and the environment and what we’re — AFP

Cannes film review Amy Winehouse documentary ‘Amy’ elf-destructive” is the label commonly attached by arm- observations sometimes disguised by her cool, offhand delivery. chair pop psychologists to tragic figures like Amy In an early interview extract, she says that she “wouldn’t write any- “SWinehouse, the nervy, unruly and viciously talented thing unless it was directly personal (to her)”; it’s the kind of claim British jazz soul singer who died in 2011, aged just 27, from the made by many a more banal pop artist, but the film’s biographical cumulative effects of substance abuse. That term only tells half the findings often serve to flesh out this statement, revealing real-life story, however, in Asif Kapadia’s factually exhaustive, emotionally parallels for narratives already familiar from her songs. (In one of exhausting documentary “Amy,” which calmly identifies multiple many archive nuggets illustrating her mouthy, PR-averse wit, she collaborators-some with intentions better than others-in delivers a withering putdown of wholesome hitmaker Dido after Winehouse’s demise. Hardly innovative in form, but boasting the an interviewer suggests they come from the same school of same depth of feeling and breadth of archival material that made heart-on-sleeve songwriting.) Kapadia’s “Senna” so rewarding, this lengthy but immersive por- trait will hit hard with viewers who regard Winehouse among the great lost voices not just of a generation, but of an entire musical genre. Enduring local fascination ensures soaring returns when “Amy” arrives in Blighty this summer; across the pond, A24 should find success in a lower key. The positioning of “Amy” in the Midnight Screenings strand at Cannes is arguably misleading, implying a lurid, cult-seeking streak to Kapadia’s film that isn’t there-even if its methodical chart- ing of its subject’s personal decline is akin to a horror narrative without any possible escape route. Absent are any sensational (From left) French actress , French actor Vincent Cassel, French actress and director Maiwenn, French gimmicks or theories here: Instead, with its absence of guiding actor , French screenwriter Etienne Comar and French producer Alain Attal attend a press conference for the perspective and strictly linear rise-and-fall structure, the pic could film ‘Mon Roi’ (My King) at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southeastern France yesterday. — AFP be likened to an extended, abnormally intelligent episode of “Behind the Music.” What elevates it from such territory is the access Kapadia has gained to private materials, including voice- Video editor Chris King and director Asif Kapadia pose for mails and disarming homevideo, astutely selected and seamlessly photographers during a photo call for the film Amy, at the integrated by editor Chris King. 68th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday. — AP ‘Mon roi’ Coincidental distinction Even at her most disarranged, Winehouse presented a highly ometimes the hardest thing in life is to recognize that Tony sees Georgio on the dance floor, she’s simultaneously mannered image to the public; in deepening and humanizing Unashamed opportunist a relationship has run its course-or more difficult still, drawn to and turned off by him: He’s charming, over-gener- that indelible pop-culture brand, the intimacy of Kapadia’s One example of that ruthlessly reflective songwriting is “What Sthat the match may not have been healthy in the first ous and spontaneous, a recovered womanizer (or not) and a approach places the film alongside Brett Morgen’s recent anato- Is It About Men,” a scathing meditation on infidelity (“I can’t help place. In her fourth film as director, French actress-turned- potentially addictive personality. By contrast, she’s rational, my of an icon, “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.” Like Cobain, of but demonstrate my Freudian fate / My alibi for taking your guy”) helmer Maiwenn is concerned first and foremost with her guarded, insecure (no thanks to her ex-husband), a lawyer course, Winehouse is a member of the so-called “27 Club,” the inspired heavily by her own father’s domestic negligence. An characters, who rank among the most vividly realized of any who fights for lost causes. No match-making algorithm group of prodigious popular musicians who died at the same ten- unashamed opportunist who parlayed his daughter’s fame and to have graced the screen in recent memory, but behind would pair them, and Solal is right to be skeptical from the der age. It’s typical, however, of Kapadia’s avoidance of pat myth- subsequent downfall into tabloid-celebrity status-complete with that is the pain and heartache of fighting for a love that’s moment they meet, and yet, the connection is clear, para- making that this coincidental distinction isn’t once mentioned in an unauthorized reality show, “Amy: The Untold Story”-Mitch ultimately damaging to both parties. doxical and not necessarily doomed from the start. the film. From its first appearance on the soundtrack-a teenage Winehouse is presented here as one of two key male influences Despite a well-deserved track record in Cannes (where It’s an ineffable paradox, one that audiences either rec- rendition of “Happy Birthday” for longtime friend Lauren Gilbert- who inadvertently assisted her decline, with a cavalier attitude to her previous feature, “,” won the Jury Prize), Maiwenn ognize or reject, later described by the principle, “You leave that richly cracked, merlot-hued voice will be identified even by her long-term bulimia and initial denial of her need for addiction remains under-appreciated by the critical community, but people for the same reason that attracted you in the first those passingly acquainted with Winehouse’s music. treatment. The other is her ex-husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, whose that will change after the world experiences “Mon roi,” a place.” Though her method encourages improvisation, There’s a jolting disconnect in such early footage, however, toxic on-off relationship with Winehouse was the driving force movie that may sound anti-romantic, but is just the oppo- Maiwenn has adopted a strategy very much in vogue with between the voice and the physical presence behind it. So perva- behind her double-platinum 2006 sophomore set, “Back to Black,” site: boldly ultra-romantic, of the sort that has turned mainstream French cinema, wherein conflicts and character sive is the memory of the beehived, broken-hearted, gin-soaked a crushingly candid breakup album that kicked her global career French pics (like “Jules and Jim” or “A Man and a Woman”) are revealed through seemingly ordinary circumstances, chanteuse that Winehouse constructed for her 2006 “Back to into touch just as her personal life began to unravel most severe- into worldwide hits before. “Pain serves no purpose,” a phys- rather than head-on in capital-D dramatic scenes. Consider Black” album that the vocal seems positively alien emerging from ly. It was Fielder-Civil who introduced Winehouse-a habitual user ical therapist tells Tony (Emmanuelle Bercot) during recov- the moment when Georgio reveals that he wants to be a the cheerily gawky, fresh-faced girl from North London’s clean-liv- of modest narcotics from adolescence-to crack cocaine and hero- ery from the skiing accident that opens the film-only, it was- father, furiously ironing in the middle of the night, or the ing Jewish quarter. The evolution will be less startling to British in, setting in motion a perilously swift downward spiral, every n’t an accident, but some sort of suicide attempt, or at the surprising fans who caught wise to Winehouse with the 2003 release of her stage of her descent chronicled in cruel close-up by Britain’s very least, a cry for help. new facets of character that emerge when Tony’s water precociously jazz-toned debut album “Frank”; it’s with the devel- unrelenting tabloid media. Though the film features no editorial breaks a bit later in film. Maiwenn skips the delivery scene opment process behind it that Kapadia effectively begins his voice of its own, it collates the observations of variously Physical therapy entirely. No need for Bercot to overact there, skipping study, as friend and talent scout Nick Shymansky persuaded the involved parties-friends, lovers, bodyguards, record executives, For more than 10 years, Tony has suffered in her love for straight to the joy they feel at seeing their child’s face-the unconfident music enthusiast that her notebooks of poetry could producers Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson-to create the impres- Georgio (Vincent Cassel), trying to change him, to tame a child who will ultimately find himself caught at the center be converted to songs. sion of a woman with numerous investors but no assertive sup- man who’s very wildness attracted her in the first place, or of the maelstrom. Winehouse’s lyrical craft is a consistent point of interest for port network, and an abundance of hangers-on keen to com- else, to suppress her own emotional needs and deal with Kapadia. Most of her performances in the film are accompanied modify her frailty. —Reuters the reality of his personality. And now, reflecting back on Casual apotheosis by onscreen lyrics-a potentially hackneyed device that nonethe- moments from that decade-long relationship while con- Naturally, it’s most thrilling to share the moments early less highlights the arresting turns of phrase and lethally acute fined to a physical therapy center that critically doubles at in the couple’s relationship, when their love for each other is providing psychological therapy as well, where she can con- so intense it may leave you desperate to find such an nect and laugh with other damaged beings, she learns to intense passion for yourself. When things turn difficult, the accept that pain needn’t be a part of true love. film becomes harder to watch and by extension, less enjoy- Blanchett scotches No doubt, that description sounds rather reductive, able-but then, that’s obviously the point. “Mon roi” runs well maybe even nauseating to some, as if the many emotional over two hours, and though it may seem to linger unneces- insights Maiwenn, co-writer Etienne Comar (“Of Gods and sarily on certain scenes, rest assured, it has all been carefully gay speculation Men”) and her entire cast of collaborators bring to this calibrated to achieve the vicarious effect Maiwenn seeks. remarkable portrait of a self-destructive couple could be so Likewise, although the film privileges Tony’s perspective, ollywood star Cate Blanchett-in Cannes for the pre- glibly contained in a mere aphorism. What makes “Mon roi” that’s not to say Georgio’s behavior alone is responsible for miere of her latest movie about a lesbian romance-yes- so special is not its salutary lesson, but the way all involved the fraying of their bond (though his decision to rent a sec- Hterday scotched media speculation that she had a real- bring it to life, creating an exceptionally robust, detail-dri- ond apartment would be a deal breaker for most). life gay past. “Have I had sexual relations with women? The ven relationship through which we can vicariously experi- Here, in “Mon roi’s” style, we sense the casual apotheosis answer is no,” Blanchett told reporters ahead of the red-carpet ence the ups and downs, the joys and suffering, the sexual of what John Cassavetes innovated half a century ago: a premiere of the movie “Carol”. The 46-year-old Australian ecstasy and crushing emotional betrayals of the radiant collaborative, generous approach that welcomes the artistic actress said speculation about possible gay episodes had woman whom it very nearly destroys. contributions of all, including the crew. Shooting in virtually sprung from an interview she had given to the US cinema the widest aspect ratio possible, d.p. Claire Mathon industry magazine Variety. Unmannered realism (“Stranger by the Lake”) conveys the color, energy and The publication had reported that it asked Blanchett More impressive still is the way that Maiwenn has syn- dynamism of every frame, rendering the melodrama cine- whether she’d had “past relationships with women” and got thesized the advances of so many other cutting edge film- matic and the emotions immersive. the response: “Yes. Many times.” That triggered cascading makers into a style that feels truly her own. As in “Polisse,” speculation in other media that Blanchett had revealed past she works from a detailed outline, but relies upon her actors Cinematic technique gay encounters. But at a Cannes film festival media conference to improvise their parts. Whereas that approach can result Critics can be especially harsh toward directors who get yesterday, Blanchett clarified the situation by saying the part in either banality (the fumbling ineloquence of mum- their start as actors (actresses have it still worse), dismissing where she had stated she had had no “sexual relations with blecore movies) or over-compensation (the competitive them as dilettantes or dabblers, deriding the way they often women” was edited out of the Variety piece. The actress added scene-stealing found in Judd Apatow comedies), here, it indulge their casts while bumbling cinematic technique, Australian actress Cate Blanchett talks during a press confer- firmly that “in 2015, the answer (to that sort of question) brings a sense of unmannered realism to the performances. and frequently turning personal when said stars dare to ence for the film ‘Carol’. shouldn’t matter”. — AFP The scenes between Bercot and Cassel feel intimate: The appear in their own films (a knock Maiwenn avoids here by characters are allowed to be spontaneous, unguarded and remaining exclusively behind the camera). naked-often literally so, as if no cameras were watching. What the haters ignore is not only the naturally empa- Bercot is heartbreaking, and Cassel has never been bet- thetic place from which actors hail-after all, they identify ter, while the supporting cast-especially Louis Garrel as with characters in a way no one else does-but the fact that Tony’s brother Solal-raises the game of the two lead actors, they are exposed to so many directorial styles en route to for it is Solal who most clearly detects the negative effect taking up the job themselves. Whereas other helmers work Georgio has on her. Reflected in the sincerity of his concern in more of a creative vacuum, actors synthesize and apply for her happiness, we understand that the couple is not a what they’ve seen work for others. The reaction to “Mon roi” good fit long before the evidence reveals itself to Tony. at Cannes has been mixed, and it will continue to divide Given the rehab-center framing device, we know where down the road, but between this and “Polisse,” it’s clear that things are heading from the beginning, and yet, so many of Maiwenn has something to say-and a clear, strong style the early flashbacks mask the trouble that lies ahead. with which to express it. — Reuters

Addictive personality How many thousand times have audiences witnessed a couple falling in love on screen? It’s a wonder that directors manage to make the process feel fresh (granted, many of them don’t, falling back on old tropes to indicate as much), (From left) US screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, US actress ,US director Todd Haynes, Australian actress Cate Blanchett, and yet, Bercot and Cassel convince. From the moment British producers Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley and Christine Vachon pose during a photocall for the film ‘Carol’ at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southeastern France, yesterday. — AFP photos