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Friday, May 11, 2018 Lifestyle | Music & Movies Detained Russian director gets standing ovation at Cannes

new film by the enfant terrible of Russian Russia as anthems of the late 1980s Perestroika era. theatre-who is under house arrest in Both the festival and the French government AMoscow-got a standing ovation Wednes- pleaded with to allow Serebrennikov to day before it was even shown at the Cannes film travel to Cannes for the screening. Cannes director festival. The cast of Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Leto”, Thierry Fremaux told reporters before the premiere a biopic of the Soviet-Korean rock legend Viktor that Russian President had told them Tsoi, were cheered as the movie premiered at the that “Serebrennikov has problems with the judicial world’s top film festival. They had earlier held up a system of our country. I would have loved to help white placard with the director’s name on it after but the courts are independent.” Russian conser- climbing the steps of the red carpet to the cinema. vatives were outraged when Serebrennikov was al- A seat was left symbolically empty inside for Sere- lowed to direct a ballet about legendary gay ballet brennikov, who has been under house arrest on dancer Rudolph Nureyev at the Bolshoi. embezzlement charges since last August. Nikita Mikhalkov, a powerful Oscar-winning He has dismissed the charges as “absurd” and film director with close Kremlin links, said Sere- his supporters see them as political. Serebrennikov’s brennikov should not have been allowed “to hang detention has sent shockwaves through the Russian Nureyev’s cock” in the country’s most important arts world. The 48-year-old has revolutionized theatre. This was a reference to the production’s Moscow’s theatre scene with radical stagings of use of a famous full-frontal nude photograph of new plays and by reinventing classics. He has also the dancer by Richard Avedon. Serebrennikov is won prizes at the Cannes and Rome film festivals, one of two directors competing for the Palme d’Or while his 2012 film “Betrayal” was nominated for the (From left) French producer Charles-Evrard Tcherkhoff, Russian actor Roma Zver, Russian actress Irina who has been banned from travelling to the festi- prestigious Golden Lion at Venice. “Leto”, which Starshenbaum, German actor Teo Yoo, Russian director of photography Vladislav Opeliants and Russian val. Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi is also means summer, is in the running for Cannes’ top producer Ilya Stewart pose with a cardboard bearing the name of Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov, barred from leaving his homeland for supporting prize, the Palme d’Or. as they arrive for the screening of their film “Leto (Summer)” at the 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival pro-democracy activists after the “stolen elec- It tells the story of Tsoi, whose songs are seen in in Cannes, southern France. — AFP tion” of 2009. —AFP

The Dude abides: ‘Not dead yet!’ ‘The Big Lebowski’ at 20 Gilliam beats wenty years ago, a bathrobe-wearing stoner for the ride are John Goodman’s loose-cannon Viet- and his two buddies entrenched themselves nam vet Walter Sobchak and Steve Buscemi’s virtu- ban on his Tin the public consciousness with a strange lit- ally mute sidekick Donny. tle movie about bowling, White Russians and a ru- Cannes film ined rug. Ethan and Joel Coen’s idiosyncratic, ‘Off-kilter thriller’ hopelessly complex “The Big Lebowski” distilled the Despite eventually making Rolling Stone’s list of unfussy, slacker spirit of 1990s Los Angeles into a “10 Best Stoner Movies of All Time,” it was neither a legal bid to stop the world premiere of Raymond Chandleresque crime caper. It received no critical nor commercial hit on its release. David Terry Gilliam’s disaster-plagued film “The Oscar recognition and pretty lukewarm reviews for Denby, of New York magazine, called it an “off-kilter Man Who Killed Don Quixote” at Cannes a byzantine plot which the Coens themselves admit- thriller with a sad-sack hero” while for Kenneth Turan A has failed-but the war over its rights is far from ted never really mattered-but it has proven its stay- of the Los Angeles Times, the story was “disjointed, over. The film’s former producer Paulo Branco ing power. incoherent and even irritating.” The most scathing had attempted to stop the movie closing the critics have largely recanted in the intervening years, world’s top film festival next weekend. But recognizing that they were too quick to dismiss a film Cannes’ lawyers and Gilliam’s producers told with lines so quotable that many entered the lexicon. AFP that “we have won”, though Branco said “The Dude abides,” said by an insouciant Bridges as yesterday that judges in Paris had declared the his way of rolling with the punches, is perhaps the screening technically illegal and ordered that his most frequently-quoted, although the character’s in- rights to the film be shown in the credits. troductory spiel is just as delicious. “I’m the Dude, so The Monty Python veteran released a picture that’s what you call me,” he insists. “That or, uh, His of himself in a “Quixote Vive” T-shirt in his gar- Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino, if you’re not den to celebrate the victory, declaring: “Not into the whole brevity thing.” Bridges said The Dude dead yet! We are coming to Cannes.” Gilliam has In this file photo American-born British film director referring to his almost identically-named foe Jeff struggled for nearly two decades to get the film, Terry Gilliam poses during a photo session at the “The Big” Lebowski as “human paraquat” (toxic her- one of the most ill-fated in movie history, to the bicide) was the only improvised line in the film, while Opera Bastille in Paris. — AFP screen. The legendary polymath and maker of every “man” and “dude” his hippy character utters such screen classics as “Time Bandits” and Today it is nothing less than a cultural phenom- was meticulously planned. “Brazil” reportedly suffered a minor stroke at his Blanchett and Kristen Stewart. He said that the enon, with its own religion, Dudeism, boasting London home at the weekend but was later re- 77-year-old Gilliam would be well enough to 450,000 “ordained priests.” Bathrobe-clad fans ‘Good writing’ leased from hospital. “After days of rest and travel to Cannes for the premiere. “Terry Gilliam gather at the annual Lebowski Fest, which comes to “That’s one of the great things about the Coen prayers to the gods I am restored and well again. will be there. Let’s turn this victory into a great Los Angeles in two weeks, to celebrate Jeffrey “The brothers-it seems like it’s happening in the moment So is ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’!” he party,” the festival later tweeted. Dude” Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges when he but that’s good writing, really,” Bridges said. “As ac- tweeted Wednesday after the verdict. “We are Gilliam’s various attempts to shoot the surreal could still get away with board shorts. “I’m so proud tors, we all realized that and said, ‘We’ve got to get legally victorious! We will go to the ball, dressed story based on Cervantes’ “unfilmable” novel of being part of this movie. It’s just a good movie, a these lyrics down,’ like it was a song we were have been beset by a series of calamities, some really good movie,” the 68-year-old Oscar winner singing.” “Lebowski” was released in March 1998, as the closing film at Festival de Cannes! May 19. of them recounted in the acclaimed 2002 docu- said at a recent screening in Hollywood, hosted by although the 20th anniversary celebrations are tak- Thanks for all your support.” Turner Classic Movies. The Dude, a drama-averse, ing place throughout the year, including screenings Cannes director Thierry Fremaux-who infu- mentary, “Lost in La Mancha”. The set was unemployed slacker with a penchant for vodka with in 600 US theaters in August. Bridges, a youthful riated Branco last week by weighing in to sup- washed away during an aborted attempt to make Kahlua and cream, provides the drama as he em- 48 when it came out, has been asked in countless in- port Gilliam-confirmed the “triumph” before a it in 2000 with Johnny Depp, when lead actor barks on a quest to replace his beloved rug, de- terviews-including by AFP-if he would be interested gala screening at the festival to cheers from the Jean Rochefort also had to be airlifted to hospital stroyed in a twisted case of mistaken identity. Along in doing a sequel. — AFP audience, which included Hollywood stars Cate after falling ill. — AFP