Cannes Festival 2008: Golden Palm and other Awards

• Palme d'Or (Golden Palm): "The Class," Laurent Cantet (France).
• Grand Prize: "Gomorrah," Matteo Garrone (Italy).
• Jury Prize: "Il Divo," Paolo Sorrentino (Italy).
• Special 61st Anniversary Prizes: Catherine Deneuve (France) and Clint Eastwood (United States).
• Best Director: "Three Monkeys," Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey).
• Best Actor: Benicio Del Toro, "Che" (United States).
• Best Actress: Sandra Corveloni, "Linha de Passe" (Brazil).
• Best Screenplay: "Lorna's Silence," Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium).
• Golden Camera (first-time director): "Hunger," Steve McQueen (Britain).
• Best short film: "Megatron," Marian Crisan (Romania)

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Chelsea Hotel - Leonard Cohen, Nico

Tribute to "Chelsea on the Rocks" movie - Chelsea Hotel soon going to "T-Shirt only" existence like CBGBs:

Cannes Festival 2008 Films: Getting Real

A commentary in yesterdays local newspaper "Nice Matin" complained about the lack of films in the festival this year that were based on actual scriptwriting. It observed that storytelling and human imagination seem to have taken the backseat in favor of turning "real life" material into a movie. Looking at the films that were shown in the last two weeks, there is a lot of truth in this - there was what might be called a "portrait of your favorite fallen star" section with the films on Mike Tyson, Diego Maradona and Che. The Chelsea Hotel got portrayed (another falling star, if you want). The Clint Eastwood movie is based on an actual story - and the list goes on.

The Cannes Film Festival often being an indication of bigger trends in the movie industry (witness their focus on Bollywood a few years back right before Indian movies became popular world-wide), this could be the sign of another trend: art movies turning into an elaborate form of Reality TV, with less emphasis on scriptwriting, following the current move towards "real" (and also "cheap") content in other media (television, blogs).

Cannes Film Festival Program Sun May 25

SUN 25
19.30 Closing ceremony
23.00 WHAT JUST HAPPENED? H.C. 1h46
by Barry Levinson

Cannes Film Festival Program Sat May 24

SAT 24
8.30 - 16.00 ENTRE LES MURS 2h08
by Laurent Cantet
11.30 - 22.30 THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD 2h00
by Kim Jee-woon
19.30 PALERMO SHOOTING 2h04
by Wim Wenders

Cannes Film Festival Program Fri 23 May

FRI 23
8:30 - 19.30 SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK 2h04
by Charlie Kaufman
11.00 - 17.00 TULPAN 1h40 (in "Un certain regard")
de Sergey Dvortsevoy
11.30 - 22.30 IL DIVO 1h50
14.00 - 22.00 TING CHE 1h52 (in "Un certain regard")
(Parking) de Chung Mong Hong
by Paolo Sorrentino
16.30 MY MAGIC 1h15
by Eric Khoo

Cannes Film Festival Program Thu 22 May

THU 22
8.30 - 14.30 - 19.30 LA FRONTIÈRE DE L’AUBE 1h46
by Philippe Garrel
11.00 - 17.00 OCEAN FLAME 2h10
de Liu Fen Dou (in "Un certain Regard")
11.30 - 22.30 ADORATION 1h40
by Atom Egoyan
22.00 WENDY AND LUCY 1h20 (in "Un certain Regard")

Cannes Film Festival Program Wednesday May 21

WED 21
16.00 LA MUJER SIN CABEZA 1h27
by Lucrecia Martel
18.30 CHE 4h28
by Steven Soderbergh
23.45 SURVEILLANCE 1h38
by Jennifer Lynch

Cannes Festival 2008: Resume for first weekend

It's a less crowded festival than in previous years, but that's quite all right - no need for the masses that often swap over to Cannes from the nearby Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, or the French tourists that come down during one of the many French holidays in May - these are all over already this year. So a much welcome, nearly intimate atmosphere where one even has a chance to find a table in a favorite restaurant. Having said that, Variety also reports that the film market this year has less visitors - so things seem to be a little slower in the industry as well - or it's the dollar exchange rate that keeps people away - haven't seen the Troma folks this year either, but maybe I just missed them.
Filmwise, nothing much is new: people complaining about dark, sinister movies like every year.
Best pic in competition up to now is apparently the "Waltz" movie.
On the glamor side, Scarlet Johansen skipped the festival, but Harrison Ford, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie and many others make up for this. Madonna is expected for the amfAR dinner; the yearly AIDS fund raiser event founded by Elizabeth Taylor (who has not attended for a couple of years now).
Well, still another week to go - although the action usually starts to die off by Thursday already, when people begin leaving.

Cannes Film Festival Program Sun 18 May

SUN 18
8.30 - 22.00 GOMORRA 2h15
by Matteo Garrone
13.00 - 19.00 INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL 2h03
by Steven Spielberg
16.30 SERBIS 1h30
by Brillante Mendoza

Cannes Film Festival Program Sat 17 May

SAT 17

• 8.30 - 22.00 LINHA DE PASSE by Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas - 1h48
• 16.00 ERSHI SI CHENG JI (24 City) by Jia Zhangke - 1h52
• 11.30 - 19.30 VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA by Woody Allen - 1h36
• 00.15 THE CHASER by Na Hong-jin - 2h03

Trailer VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA by Woody Allen

"Waltz with Bashir" trailer

In competition today - got good reviews

Opening Day Cannes 2008

Quick evening visit for the festival's first day - missed the red carpet ceremony - first stroll along the Croisette - lots of big pavilions this year on the beach - took some pics which I hope to upload later

Then dinner with friends and acquaintances - they told me about a surreal event the witnessed when they drove over here: a KISS (yes, they apparently are still around) concert in the venerable arena of Verona, usually reserved to Opera - must have been quite a sight!

Overall, quite a nice atmosphere this evening - mild May weather - not too many people, but good, elegant crowd.

Much later, a visit to the party for the opening movie ("Blindness" - apparently disapointing)

Highlight: I catch Cate Blanchett leaving the party - unfortunately, get a pic with a camera phone only:

Here's a more official summary of day 1: