lifestyle SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2017 70th Cannes Film Festival FEATURES (From L) British actress Jacqueline Bisset, Belgian actor Jeremie Renier, French director Francois Ozon, French actress Marine Vacth and (From Left) US actress Kirsten Dunst, US actress Elle Fanning, US director Sofia Coppola, Australian French actress Myriam Boyer pose as they arrive on May 26, 2017 for the screening of the film 'L'Amant Double' (Amant Double). actress Nicole Kidman and US producer Youree Henley pose as they arrive on May 24, 2017 for the screening of the film 'The Beguiled' at the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. — AFP photos Hollywood raids bookshelves in search of good stories ollywood has always adapted the classics but film and Becqueriaux, of the French publishing house Denoel. "And a good Berlin festival has its own showcase called "Books at the Berlinale" month period, eight films drawn from books in our back cata- television's voracious appetite for new material now has book gives you a story which has already won over the public," in a link up with the world's biggest book market, the Frankfurt logue have either been released or are about to be released," said Hfilm-makers raiding the bookshelves like never before. she added. "There is more and more demand" for books to adapt, Book Fair. Similar organized "pitching sessions" are now also tak- Helene de Saint Vincent, who handles the rights for three graphic Six of the movies in the running for the Cannes film festival's insisted Nathalie Piaskowski of the main French publishers' body, ing place in Los Angeles and Shanghai. Some of the biggest deals novel houses. Palme d'Or top prize-which will be awarded today-are taken from with cinema adaptations rising by a fifth according to the latest in Cannes this year were for children's books, with the movie fran- But most directors are not interested in directing a book's nar- books. available figures. chise of the Moomins, the Finnish storybook characters, sold to rative "straight", according to Nathalie Carpentier, whose company Sofia Coppola drew from Thomas Cullinan's classic Southern China. This comes as "Valerian and the City of a Thousand CAL deals with a number of international publishing houses. Gothic novel for "The Beguiled" starring Colin Farrell as a hand- Rights snapped up Planets"-the most expensive European film ever made at $190 Instead they are looking for a "story which they can play with like some Union officer who stokes sexual tension and jealousy inside Such is the demand that film-makers are not even waiting for million (170 millions euro) -- is about to hit the screens in July. a Playmobil toy and that will have enough action and emotion for a girl's school during the American Civil War. And Francois Ozon books to be published before snapping up the rights. More than the director to show that their film isn't simply bringing the book turned up the temperature of Joyce Carol Oates' sexual psycho 130 international producers took part in a special book rights mar- Comics a sure bet to the screen". But having a book optioned for a film is not quite drama "Double Delight" to almost unbearable levels for his ket at Cannes this week, with publishers pitching them some of The massive project from Luc Besson, of "The Fifth Element" the financial boon that many people believe. Average rights now steamy "Amant double". their new releases and soon-to-published novels. "A book adapta- fame, is based on a French comic book. "For the last decade or so sell for around 45,000 euros ($50,000), with the biggest deals The thirst for gripping new yarns has been fuelled by the tion gives a certain guarantee of success and helps the film get more and more film-makers are drawing from graphic novels reaching 200,000 euros-with only a fraction of that going to the boom in high-quality television series, meaning there are only so made," Piaskowski argued. because it's a super base and the stories are already well devel- authors. — AFP many good scripts going round, experts argue. Which is why "cin- Cannes is only one of a growing number of festivals where oped," said Alexis Ducord, whose comic animated film about a ema, like TV, is on the lookout for really good stories", said Judith publishers are bringing books to be optioned for the screen. The family of zombies, "Zombillenium", was shown at Cannes. "In a 12- The Cannes effect: From unknown to star in a day he Cannes film festival-the world's greatest pear before even making the appearance". movie showcase-celebrates its 70th anniversary Tthis year. AFP asked actors and directors who Jaco Van Dormael made their names at the festival to recount their highs All of Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael's most sig- and lows at the star-studded event. nificant images of Cannes happened the year his film "Toto The Hero" premiered at the festival and won the Danis Tanovic Golden Camera and Youth awards, in 1991. When the Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic, whose film "No huge crowd in front of the Palais des Festivals finally Man's Land" won the Cannes prize for best screenplay managed to make its way inside, "I found an aban- in 2001 and best foreign film at the Oscars the follow- doned shoe on the steps. It's a very 'Eisensteinian' ing year, said there is "a magical effect of the Cannes image," he said, referring to a scene in the 1925 film film festival". Before the festival in 2001, Tanovic's team "Battleship Potemkin" by pioneering Russian director searched for internet mentions of the film and "there Sergei Eisenstein. were some 30 or 50 sites announcing it," he told AFP in Sarajevo. "The next day, there were 350,000 sites that Matteo Garrone were mentioning the movie. The effect of Cannes is Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone won the Grand really incredible." But his most "important" memory Jury Prize in 2008 for his film "Gomorra", which is also was after the film's screening. the year of his first and best memory of the festival. "I The applause "was not stopping. The whole theatre was with my partner who was at the time pregnant room was standing," he said. "Cedo (producer Cedomir with my first child and we mounted the steps before Kolar) was counting, it was lasting more than 12 min- the screening of the film," he said. "When we entered utes. I was completely lost. At one point, I turned the great hall, we hadn't been told the cameras would towards my parents who were there and I saw that follow us live all the way to our seats. We unexpectedly they were crying. That was maybe the best moment of saw our faces on the giant screen amid the applause of my life." "We had survived the war and all that it had 2,000 people. We were shocked with emotion." Garrone brought to us, and then comes this sincere moment of said it's that arrival, first and foremost, that comes to joy and their gaze, you see pride in the eyes of your mind when he thinks of Cannes, "more so than the parents, the joy of seeing their child who succeeded to phone call, a few days later that informed me the film escape a bad dream". Tanovic said Cannes can be "an had won an award". — AFP incredible springboard" for those with films that suc- French-Polish director Roman Polanski (C) talks yesterday during a press conference with French actress Emmanuelle Seigner (L) and ceed, but "if you get there with a bad movie, you disap- French actress Eva Green for the film 'Based on a True Story' (D'Apres une Histoire Vraie) at Cannes. — AFP D'oh? No! Homer and 'The Simpsons' team earn Hall tribute teve Sax won two World Series rings, was a Feb. 20, 1992. In their third season, Bart & Co. out- the script called for him to cluck like a chicken. five-time All-Star and got nearly 2,000 hits in drew "The Cosby Show" for the first time in a head- Over and over. Sthe big leagues. Yet to many fans, it's those to-head matchup, and also topped the telecast of half-dozen lines he uttered to a bunch of yellow the Winter Olympics. The show took months to D'oh! cartoon characters a long time ago that really assemble, with players taping when their teams "I had visions of telling him and having him made him famous. "I get asked as much about played at Dodger Stadium or the Angels in stomp out," Martin recalled this week from Fenway being on 'The Simpsons' as I do about baseball," Anaheim during the 1991 season. Members of "The Park. "But without missing a beat, he started cluck- Sax said this week. "They don't want to know how Simpsons" staff divvied up which guys they would ing away." Clemens was fine with his character it was to hit against Nolan Ryan. They want to know direct. being put under a spell by a hypnotist. In the car- about being on that show." All thanks to "Homer at Executive story editor Jeff Martin, a Red Sox fan toon, Sax was arrested for hundreds of unsolved the Bat." from his days of rooting for Carl Yastrzemski, drew murders in New York. "I liked mine in the show. Got Still hugely popular 25 years after it first aired, Boston pitcher Roger Clemens.