CANNES -- Didn't go to the Paul Allen party. Love reggae, hate to scoot in
the rain in a raw silk tux. I hear it was great. Can't wait for the
Polaroids.
Today is a heavy day. Robert Altman is world-premiering his
"Kansas City",
stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Miranda Richardson are already in town,
Harry Belafonte has cancelled at the last moment. Too bad. The man hasn't
set foot in Cannes since Stan Latham's "Beat Street", the first film to
deal with hip-hop culture, was shown her out of competition (he had
produced it.). And beside last year's "White Man's Burden," which
co-starred John Travolta, Belafonte hasn't really played a leading role in
nearly twenty years.
At the "Kansas City" press conference, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Miranda
Richardson confirm they have never experienced filmmaking that was so akin
to jazz riffing as they did with Altman on this movie.
Asked to compare Altman (with whom she made two films, "Short Cuts" and
"Kansas City") to the Coen Brothers, who directed her in "The Hudsucker
Proxy" (in competition last year -- or was it the year before?), Jason
Leigh tries hard to come up with a sensible answer (there is none), but her
face silently shouts "Duh?"
At some point, Altman launches an attack against his "Kansas City"
producers, who reneged on their deal to produce "More Short Cuts" (a sequel
to the Raymond Carver-inspired anthology) and did not come up with a budget
to transfer to film a video-docu ("a visual album") he shot, parallel to
"Kansas City", with all of today's major jazz stars. Sitting next to
Miranda Richardson, the main producer remains stone-faced. "I don't want to
embark on a controversy, not here, not now," he whispers to the moderator.
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Stephen Frears' "The Van" disappoints. Penned by Irish writer
Roddy Doyle,
it follows "The Commitments" (brought to you by Alan Parker) and "The
Snapper" (Frears). Less a sequel than a variation on the same themes, it
completes what is known as Doyle's "Barrytown Trilogy". Same leading actor,
Colm Meany, same splendid ear for dialogue. Smashing for 40 minutes, then
the film unravels and goes nowhere.
As usual, Frears is brilliant at his press conference. You can't hate a man
who still looks like an unmade bed -- or, as Glenn Close once put it, "like
a football field after the match."
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Also set in Ireland, "Some Mother's Son" is an entirely
different
proposition. Written by Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot") and Terry George, but
produced by Sheridan and helmed by George (in direct reversal of the roles
they held on "In The Name of The Father"), it deals through the eyes of two
mothers with the hunger strike in Ulster that led to the election to the
British Parliament of IRA front man Bobby Sands just before he died in
jail. It is chilling, energetic, funny at times. As the two mothers, Helen
Mirren and Fionula Flannagan are absolutely superb.
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The strangest filmic object: "Microcosmos, The Grass People",
by
scientists-cum-filmmakers Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou. An amazing
tale of life, romance and cruelty --a *fiction* where the main characters
are played by insects. It took years to make, and a ballsy producer (former
"Demoiselles de Rochefort" star Jacques Perrin). Miramax picked it up
immediately. A must we'll get back to when it is released stateside.
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Skipped Peter Greenaway's "The Pillow Book" to follow a
smashing pair of
blue eyes. As Shelley Winters once put it in her memoirs, "stars in the
sky, wind blowing in the trees, waves crashing on the sand..."
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