Cannes Film Festival

‘Foxcatcher’ has to be one of my favourite movies so far in this Festival, thanks mainly to the surprise of seeing the usually comedic Steve Carell portray John du Pont, a man who lacks any humour.

I knew beforehand that Carell was in the movie, but didn’t recognise him when he first appeared on the screen. He has immersed in the character and morphed into a man with a different stature and energy, who bears no resemblance to the Steve Carell of ‘The Office’.

The movie is based on a tragic true story. Like Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, John du Pont is a powerful man with a flaw. He single-mindedly wants to be a hero who gains the respect he wants in the sports world…and the approval he craves from his mother!

To achieve his goal, the incredibly wealthy Du Pont invited Olympic Gold Medal winning wrestler Mark Schultz (played by Channing Tatum) to move onto his estate and and form a team to train for the ’88 Seoul Olympics. Lured by the cutting edge training facility and the thought of no longer have any financial stress, Schultz jumps at the offer.

It also allows him a little freedom and independence from his brother Dave who is loved and respected by everyone. But there’s a reason he’s so widely loved. He’s one of those guys who follows his heart, who’s a good guy without ulterior motives…unlike our Du Pont. And he’s perfectly portrayed by the ever-affable Mark Ruffalo (who also happens to be a supporter of the anti-fracking movement in South Africa).

The story is heartbreaking and multi-layered. About brotherhood. About unequal partnerships. How flattery can blind. What money can buy. And what money can destroy. And how many things money actually can never buy. Like true respect, true love and true acceptance.

Expertly directed by Bennett Miller – who poured his life and soul into this film – the cinematography, the location (an expansive estate in America) and the incredible acting by these actors come together to create a movie that’s well worth watching and that raises questions about life and  how best to live it.

Not Happy. I’ve just come out of ‘The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby’…and I really can’t even spoil the end for you, because I have no idea what it was meant to mean.

Oh this is the kind of movie that’s so frustrating. It could have been so good. The beginning was so beautiful. It could have been about love and loss and how a couple copes. As they say a tragedy can either bring a couple closer together or send them spinning in different directions far away from each other.

This movie is a mixture of the two. The couple – we finally learn – lost their young baby. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by telling you. In fact I think it may help to know this from the beginning  so you understand the non-relationship relationship.

And maybe there is some credibility in their mix of these emotions – the closeness and the separateness. But instead it feels like the movie never quite decides what it wants to portray. Perhaps like the couple. But I doubt it. It rather seems that the makers of this film, directed by Ned Benson, were never quite sure exactly what they were making.

The acting is quite fine indeed. Apart from her mother. The New York couple is played by James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain who’s brilliant. But there’s no sense of a relationship between mother and daughter. As if the mom is simply an actress reading her lines with no memory of ever having known Chastain as a child. The father-daughter relationship on the other hand is beautifully executed, and perhaps the most moving relationship in the film. The most believable. And it was wonderful to see William Hurt – as her dad – up on screen again.

The rest – which should have been a heartbreaking tale of how one picks up the pieces after playing the blame games – blaming oneself, blaming the other – instead fizzles in to a movie that leaves you no wiser on the other side. And just disappointed. I wanted heart-wrenching love and loss. Instead I lost two hours of my life watching a film that wasn’t ready to be made yet.

The start of the Cannes Film Festival 2014 was dominated yesterday by the sad news of the death of Malik Bendjelloul, the talented Swedish director who won an Oscar last year for his documentary about two South Africans fans searching for musician Rodriguez.

A South African journalist who had interviewed 36-year-old Malik last year, was in tears whilst waiting for the ‘Grace of Monaco’ press conference at the film festival yesterday.

She knew Malik had passed away in Stockholm the previous day, but she had just been informed by another reporter in the queue that he had committed suicide.

“I can’t believe it,” she said. “He had so much energy. He had overcome so much and against all odds had completed the ‘Sugarman’ documentary. He was such an inspiration. Why?”

As talented British actor Stephen Fry, who is prone to depression would say – those of us who don’t suffer depression tend to ask the wrong questions. (In case you’re interested, please see his full quote below.)

Inside the press conference Nicole Kidman was shocked to hear the news and said “I did not know”.

Her ‘Grace of Monaco’ co-star, Tim Roth, added: “I don’t know the circumstances. It’s incredibly sad.”

During the Cannes Jury interviews later in the day Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal (‘The Motorcycle Diaries’) said “I briefly met Malik at the Oscars last year. This is such shocking news. So sad.”

Fellow Scandinavian director Nicolas Winding Refn (‘Drive’), from Denmark, said: “This is a very tragic affair. Malik was a wonderful film maker. I feel sorry. Life is a beautiful gift.”

“Searching for Sugarman”, which also won a BAFTA, followed the journey of the two SA fans as they searched for US folk musician Sixto Rodriguez whose album ‘Cold Fact’ had been such a hit for many young South Africans in the ’70s and ’80s.

Ironically, while he was almost more famous than the Rolling Stones in SA, Rodriguez was oblivious to this success and was an unknown back home and in most of the world.

Malik’s documentary brought Rodriguez back to SA where he performed at various sold-out concerts…and brought him finally onto the world stage, with a tour to various countries.

But it was not an easy journey for Malik.

“Sugarman” took him five years to complete, during which time he ran out of money and had to shoot some segments temporarily with his iPhone. After filming he offered to re-shoot those segments, but the producers loved the documentary just as he had made it.

The sadness at the passing of Malik was felt around the world. SA expat Lanthus Clark said “I live in Sweden, so it’s a double shock for us SA expats here.”

Dennis Kleinman said: “So very sad – I got to meet him in Los Angeles last year – was such a nice person and so interested to know that I was South African and how Rodriguez impacted my life.”

Oh sob. I hate it when the Film Festival ends. You know this becomes your life, your world. And it’s fascinating. You’re interviewing creative people at the peak of their careers who are living their lives to the full, who are not too scared to follow their dreams. And you’re watching movies about life. Life. What could be better?

And so today it all ended. And now we have to wait another year for this enchanting wonderful world of the Cannes Film Festival.

Congratulations to all those who won awards, and all those who participated.

Bruce Dern won  best actor award for Nebraska.

‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ won the Grand Prix. Oscar Isaac (the amazing actor in the movie) said afterwards:

“The film revolves around my character but it was the Coen brothers who created its narrative dimension. There are two of them but it’s like they had a single brain which was in many places at the same time. As a result, I just did whatever either of them had said to me last.”

Amat Escamante won Best Director for Heli and Berenice Benjo won  Best Female Actress for Le Passe (The Past).

She said: “I’m really surprised and I want in particular to thank Asghar Farhadi because this prize is linked to him. He’s a director who knows so well how to watch actors, and how to tell stories. I look to him. It’s inconceivable that this prize is just for me because without him and the film team, I’d be nothing.”

The Palm D’or was awarded to La Vie l’Adele – chapitre 1 & 2.

Farewell beautiful Cannes. We’ll be back!

What a fantastic feeling, to be in Cannes – at the wondrous Cannes Film Festival – and have the last official film of the festival be set in South Africa!

The film is called “Zulu” – yes, it has the same name as the movie that Michael Caine made famous…but this one does not include Isandlwana or anything in history that far back – this film is set in today’s day, with the aftertaste of apartheid.

This is the fourth feature film from Frenchman Jerome Salle and is being touted as a “South African detective film”.

It pits black against white, and shows in some wonderfully harrowing scenes – including a breathtaking visual of a white and black man chasing each other across the dunes – the torment and damage that has been done to the soul of the black man, a man who thinks he is okay, a man who wants to move on…but who apartheid has damaged so badly, he will never be able to truly forgive.

As he set out to do, Jerome has create a film that captures how marked South Africans are by their history.

The cinematography is beautiful – I feel so bad to say it, but it has taken a Frenchman to truly capture the beauty of South Africa in a way that sets a South African movie on the global stage. It has the quality of that international feel to it.

Starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, the film was shot on location in Cape Town. I cried, I laughed. I was proud. I was ashamed.