Cool Hand Look: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward adorn Cannes poster
By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, March 22, 2013 - 0 Comments
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, circa 1962 / courtesy Festival de Cannes
Cannes is casting a come-hither look at Hollywood this year. First it was announced that Steven Spielberg would head the jury of the Cannes Film Festival (May 15- 26). Then came news that Cannes will open with a Hollywood premiere, The Great Gatsby. Now the official poster has been unveiled, bearing a vintage photograph of actor/director Paul Newman and actress Joanne Woodward—the model Hollywood couple whose marriage lasted five decades, until Newman’s death in 2008. The picture was taken during the shoot of A New Kind of Love (1963). For the poster, it was enhanced with a Vertigo-like pop art swirl.
Newman and Woodward were honoured by Cannes in 1958, the year of their marriage, with the Competition selection of Martin Ritt’s The Long Hot Summer, the first film in which they co-starred. As a director, Newman later cast Woodward in two movies that played in competition, The Effect of the Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1973) and The Glass Menagerie (1987).
With hyperbole that may have read better in French, the Cannes press release states: “The poster evokes a luminous and tender image of the modern couple, intertwined in perfect balance at the heart of the dizzying whirlwind that is love. The vision of these two lovers caught in a vertiginous embrace, oblivious of the world around them, invites us to experience cinema with all the passion of an everlasting desire.”
The festival has also created a video teaser of the graphic (which you can watch below) setting it to a dance-beat version of “Aquarium” from Carnival of the Animals, the classic Camille Saint-Saëns theme that plays over the red-carpet animation servers as the traditional prelude for every film programmed at the festival.
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Can Spielberg bridge the abyss between Hollywood and Cannes?
By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 2:38 PM - 0 Comments
For those of us who make the annual spring pilgrimage to the Riviera, today’s news that Steven Spielberg will head the jury at the 66th annual Cannes festival comes as a bit of a shock. In recent years, Hollywood has become increasingly estranged from Cannes. American studios still use the festival to premiere timely blockbusters, but after being burned by Cannes juries too many times, they tend to keep their films out of competition. And while Hollywood stars still flock to Cannes each May, they’re often promoting non-mainstream movies—such as Tree of Life (2011) and Killing Me Softly (2012), which both drew Brad Pitt to the Riviera. As the gulf widens between the American studios and the kind of auteur cinema celebrated at Cannes, for many critics no one epitomizes Hollywood’s Evil Empire more fundamentally than Spielberg, except perhaps George Lucas.
But to be fair, Spielberg is an auteur in his own right. Perhaps his biggest influence is Kurosawa. And he has developed a signature style that has been hugely influential, as sentimental as it may be. He’s also sentiment about cinema. He is one of the last major American directors still stubbornly shooting on 35 mm film. Lincoln was one of 2012′s most literate American films. And even though he pioneered the sci-fi blockbuster, even he must feel a bit left behind by the juvenile onslaught of comic book sequels, prequels and reboots.
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Steven Spielberg named as president of Cannes Film Festival jury
By Emily Senger - Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 9:36 AM - 0 Comments
Director Steven Spielberg has been named as president of the jury at this year’s…
Director Steven Spielberg has been named as president of the jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The 66th Cannes Film Festival takes place May 15-26.
“My admiration for the steadfast mission of the festival to champion the international language of movies is second to none,” Spielberg said in a statement. “The most prestigious of its kind, the festival has always established the motion picture as a cross cultural and generational medium.”
Two of Spielberg’s films, ET (1882) and Sugarland Express (1974), premiered at the Cannes festival. His film The Color Purple was also shown at Cannes.
Speilberg is taking over from current president Nanni Moretti, an Italian film director.
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Lessons from ‘Lincoln’
By Preston Manning - Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 11:33 AM - 0 Comments
Preston Manning on the new Spielberg film, ‘Lincoln’—and what Obama could learn from it
Tom Williams/GETTY IMAGES
Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s new film, tells the story of a dramatic period in the life of Abraham Lincoln near the end of the American Civil War. It is the period between Lincoln’s re-election to a second term as president of the United States on Nov. 8, 1864, and the passage, several months later, of the constitutional amendment that permanently abolished slavery throughout the U.S.
President Barack Obama has been re-elected to his second term at a time when America is again seriously divided racially and politically—racked by what CNN commentator John King described on election night as “an ideological civil war.” This conflict currently prevents a divided U.S. government from averting the fiscal crisis that threatens to plunge the American economy into recession.
So what were the principles and tactics employed by Lincoln to bring together a Congress divided over abolition? And how might they apply to bringing together a U.S. government divided over the fiscal issue and hasten the end of America’s ideological civil war? Continue…
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The iconography of Indiana Jones, infograph-style
By Jessica Allen - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 at 5:54 AM - 0 Comments
The hat, the whip, the scar: What does it all mean?
Good news for Indiana Jones fans. Thirty-one years after Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered, the film is being rereleased in Imax theatres for one week beginning Sept. 7, in advance of the Blu-ray release of the Indiana Jones’ movies on Sept.18.
Director Steven Spielberg, who also helmed the three sequels, worked with sound designer Ben Burtt on the conversion of the film to Imax. But fret not: only the sound has been tweaked, so “when the boulder is rolling, chasing Indy through the cave,” Spielberg explained to the New York Times, ”you really feel the boulder in your stomach.” He also said that Raiders is one of his only movies that he “can actually stand to watch from beginning to end.”
Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones has become a cinematic icon, thanks in no small part to the actual iconography belonging to the character.
Hover your cursor over the image of Indy below to find out more:
Designed by Paul Watson
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Spielberg’s creatures, great and small
By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments
The producer tackles a comic-book hero and his dog in ‘Tintin’, and a heroic equine in ‘War Horse’
Paramount Pictures
Creatures have been good to Steven Spielberg. His career took off with Jaws, which starred a mechanical shark, got a stratospheric boost from E.T.’s animatronic alien, and made prehistory with Jurassic Park’s dinosaurs. Now he’s about to dominate the holiday season with a one-two blockbuster punch—a wartime epic about a horse trying to find his way home, and the animated tale of a Belgian boy detective and his wonder dog. But perhaps the most unstoppable creature of all is the man himself: the 800-lb. gorilla who leaves the biggest footprint in Hollywood.
There isn’t a filmmaker alive who is as powerful, successful or wealthy as Steven Spielberg. No one comes close. Over a 40-year career, the movies he’s directed have grossed over $8 billion worldwide, while movies he has produced have earned $12 billion. His personal net worth is estimated at $3 billion. And as the principal partner of DreamWorks, he’s also the only Hollywood director who controls a major studio. Despite winning three Oscars (for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan), Spielberg’s accolades haven’t always kept pace with his commercial triumphs. Lately he has left producing credits on a load of junky sci-fi—Super 8, Transformers 3, Cowboys and Aliens and Reel Steel. But after a three-year hiatus from directing—his last movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was arguably his worst—he’s back in the game. Spielberg the Artist has finally pushed aside Spielberg the Mogul.
The director has two high-pedigree blockbusters opening within days of each other: The Adventures of Tintin (Dec. 21) and War Horse (Dec. 25). Spielberg is also in the thick of filming Lincoln, a biopic about Abraham Lincoln starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The director, who turns 65 on Sunday, has never been busier. When he finds time in his Lincoln shooting schedule to squeeze in an interview after postponing it twice, you can almost hear the meter ticking.
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Opening Weekend: boyhood wonder in Tree of Life, Super 8 and Submarine
By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, June 10, 2011 at 9:54 AM - 0 Comments
- (from left) Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning and Ron Eldard in ‘Super 8′
What a strange cosmic convergence we have in the Hollywood heavens this weekend: two wildly different period films set in small-town America that pit boyhood innocence against the mystery of the universe. From the cathedral ceiling of the art house comes Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, which conjures nostalgia for a Paradise Lost of growing up in early 60s while contemplating all of Creation with such ambition it could be dubbed 2011: A Space Odyssey. From Hollywood’s sci-fi clubhouse comes J.J. Abrams Super 8, set in the late 1970s, about a gang of young boys who have a close encounter with an alien monster in their own backyard while shooting a homemade zombie movie. Oh, then there’s Submarine, about a teenage boy grappling with the mysteries of sex in ’80s England. It’s a batty Brit Rushmore, an idiosyncratic tonic to all this American heaviosity—but (spooky coincidence!) it, too, has super 8 footage, a home movie the precocious hero imagines he would shoot of his love affair with a classmate.
Submarine is a tiny perfect gem, and utterly charming. Vastly more ambitious, The Tree of Life and Super 8 revel in different kinds of rhapsodic excess. Super 8, which plays like an explosive homage to early Spielberg (its producer), bombards us with the heavy metal thunder of old-time alien invasion. In the Tree of Life, which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, Malick transcends his usual transcendentalism and gets positively religious, revealing himself as a kind of spiritual pornographer (but in a good way) panning for raw divinity in rays of sunlight. Addicted to magic hour, the man never met a dust mote he didn’t like. Continue…
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Diablo Cody now in sync
By Brian D. Johnson - Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 10:56 AM - 0 Comments
I just learned that, because of an upload glitch, the audio fell out of sync in my video interview with screenwriter Diablo Cody. I’ve now fixed it, and feel deserves a second chance. So here it is again, in its corrected form. I talked to the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno at TIFF for the premiere of Jennifer’s Body. She’s wonderfully candid as she talks about teenage sex, Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Steven Spielberg, writer’s block, roller coasters and tattoos, among other things.
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Diablo Cody on camera
By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 9:53 AM - 1 Comment
Here’s a video of my interview with Diablo Cody during the Toronto International Film Festival. The Oscar-winning screenwriter of Juno showed up for the premiere of her new movie, Jennifer’s Body. She talked about teenage sex, Megan Fox, Steven Spielberg,writer’s block, roller coasters and tattoos, among other things.
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Ron Howard makes boring movies
By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 3:40 PM - 4 Comments
The former child star has done interesting work, but get him behind a camera . . .
Ron Howard wants you to know he’s dedicated his whole career to never offending anyone. When Angels & Demons (opening May 15), his sequel to The Da Vinci Code, got the expected accusations of anti-Catholicism, Howard took to the Huffington Post to write that the new film is just “an exciting mystery, set in the awe-inspiring beauty of Rome,” and that it “treats the Church with respect—even a degree of reverence—for its traditions and beliefs.” The way Howard blogs is the way he makes movies; he specializes in taking big budgets, stars and subjects and turning them all into respectful, reverent, and slightly dull movies. He’s almost made an art out of being bland; as he put it in 2006, “I’m the type of person that likes to please everyone.”Based on comments like that, it would be easy to dismiss Howard as simply another Hollywood middlebrow. And yet the former child star has done some interesting work—just not as a director. As co-founder of the production company Imagine Entertainment, he has his name on some well-regarded television series like 24 and Sports Night. Most famously, he’s one of the producers of Arrested Development, which he also narrated, and will perform both of those functions on the upcoming Arrested Development movie. Apart from being able to spot good material, he has a genuine sense of humour about himself; last year he reprised his characters from The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days in the most famous pro-Obama ad of the election cycle. But put him behind a camera and, except for a few appealing comedies from early in his career (like Splash and Night Shift), he makes films that hit you over the head with pro-social messages, accompanied by heartwarming music, overwrought lighting effects, and lots of sentiment.
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The high price of celebrity—in divorce court
By Susan Mohammad and Rachel Mendleson - Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 6:10 PM - 4 Comments
How might Mel Gibson’s split stack up against some of the biggest celebrity divorces?
Mel Gibson’s split from Robyn Moore, his wife of 28 years, is expected to be one of Hollywood’s most wallet-emptying divorces. If there isn’t a pre-nup (as some speculate), Moore, who married the Braveheart star before his career took off in 1980, could walk away with half of the actor’s US$1.2 billion in assets.See how Mel and Robyn might stack up against eight of the biggest celebrity splits:
Harrison Ford and Melissa Mathison
Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving
Morgan Freeman and Myrna Colley-Lee
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Cannes Encore
By Brian D. Johnson - Monday, June 9, 2008 at 10:21 AM - 0 Comments
For two weeks each May, a quaint town on the French Riviera becomes a Hollywood fantasy in the flesh. Throughout the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, I blogged video clips. In the aftermath, I’ve edited a montage of highlights, an impressionist trip through the beauty, vulgarity, hysteria and chaos that is Cannes.
For more of Brian D. Johnson’s videos go to http://www.youtube.com/bdjfilms. All 2008 Cannes footage is shot on a Sony HDR-SR12 camcorder, on loan courtesy of Sony Canada. -
Indiana Jones and the Death of Journalism
By Brian D. Johnson - Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 8:01 PM - 0 Comments
Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett et al face a horde of professional fans…
Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett et al face a horde of professional fans at the press conference for the Cannes premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:
For more of Brian D. Johnson’s videos go to http://www.youtube.com/bdjfilms. All 2008 Cannes footage is shot on a Sony HDR-SR12 camcorder, on loan courtesy of Sony Canada.
