Festival Circuit 2023

[yoloswegmaster]

It's also strange for TF to select these films but then go on record to say that screening the new Woody Allen film would have overshadowed the festival due to his controversies.

[therewillbeblus]

Matthew Johnson's BlackBerry structurally resembles a daffy Social Network, but its loose aesthetic couldn't be any more different, and it's as much of an anti-buddy comedy (mismatched co-CEOs whose lack of communication defines and destroys them) as it is about the nature of why we work.

That last point was integral to Johnson's thematic explorations, which he outlined in an incredibly lively, sincere, sarcastic, animated, and provocative Q&A (which included some hilarious but controlled de-escalating interventions at a few Boston audience members who decided to aggressively challenge his explanation that 'not a lot of women were featured in the film because not many worked for RiM during the time depicted' with "but have you seen Halt and Catch Fire, because women actually existed as tech engineers so you're wrong"). He talked a lot about the autobiographical components to the concept of work - including an interesting commentary on how the three main personalities (Howerton, Baruchel, and his character- who provides most of the comic relef) represent three valid reasons why we work: to have fun, to achieve excellence, and to obtain money and power; but, any of these isolated from the other doesn't yield fruitful returns.

While Social Network seems like the obvious point of comparison (down to bookended moments that return us to the morality/inner truth of the character), Johnson chose to create a collaborative, improvisational environment, that he made a point to place in opposition to Fincher's methods. Even though this was well-researched and events were portrayed as they happened, the actual lines and relationship dynamics were more personal. Johnson gave many examples of what was taken from his life - from upbringing to while working on the film, but there was one line said by his character in the film (who represents the 'fun' motive of work, in its purest form) that he disclosed was actually said by his editor to him, when he was acting more like a dictator and resembling Howerton/Baruchel during the shoot! So interesting, how one can realize this in real time, get distance from oneself and see how that experience can be used within the themes of the art you're creating. Really fascinating stuff.

I also thought it was cool how he chose to model the style from 90s documentaries, and in particular The War Room, in how intimately Pennebaker is shooting Clinton and Carville at the start, but as they get closer to winning, and 'bigger and less approachable people', the camera shoots them mostly from a distance, which he (effectively) tried to emulate here. He also told many great stories, but my favorite was when the real Jim Balsillie was in attendance at a Toronto screening and began hysterically laughing at how strong-willed Howerton portrayed him, ushering in a "psychedelic experience" for the audience, who were anxiously holding their laughter until he opened the floodgates and kept cuing and reinforcing their laughter as he laughed at himself the whole time.

[yoloswegmaster]

Damien Chazelle is going to be the jury president at this year's Venice festival.

[fiendishthingy]

Here’s the Cannes Classics lineup.

[colinr0380]

Here’s the Cannes Classics lineup.

Caligula – The Ultimate Cut
1976, 2h53, United States / Italy

Presented by Penthouse Films International. Restoration produced by Penthouse films International. The image and sound restoration work was done by Technorganica based on the original camera negatives and the original audio. This project was supervised by Thomas Negovan. French distributor: Bac Films. International seller: Goodfellas.
Screening in the presence of Helen Mirren and Thomas Negovan.

(That's the same Thomas Negovan who released that faux advert for a Caligula toy line a few years back to promote this new edit of the film! And here's his latest trailer. I very much hope it will not entirely replace the version(s) we are all familiar with but it will be interesting to see how different this new version turns out)

[beamish14]

Here’s the Cannes Classics lineup.

Caligula – The Ultimate Cut
1976, 2h53, United States / Italy

Presented by Penthouse Films International. Restoration produced by Penthouse films International. The image and sound restoration work was done by Technorganica based on the original camera negatives and the original audio. This project was supervised by Thomas Negovan. French distributor: Bac Films. International seller: Goodfellas.
Screening in the presence of Helen Mirren and Thomas Negovan.

(That's the same Thomas Negovan who released that faux advert for a Caligula toy line a few years back to promote this new edit of the film! And here's his latest trailer.)

Yep. Negovan has been working on this restoration since day one. E. Elias Merhige was apparently involved as a consultant, at least for a time. They actually had to add some visual effects shots to this, as some of the rushes they were working with did not include any matte paintings that should have been inserted in post-production. I’m very, very interested in seeing the finished product


Also, interesting to note that Badlands will be screening with deceased producer Edward R. Pressman in person

[colinr0380]

It's amazing what they can do with A.I. these days.

(Also the year of production for Caligula is wrong, as 1976 was the year of Brass's previous feature Salon Kitty and Caligula did not get its first commercial release until 1979 in Italy and 1980 in the US. Although its production was so protracted and notorious that there were already Italian "Caligulasploitation" films coming out in the years before then, most notoriously Caligula II: Messalina, Messalina from 1977 which - as with Carry On Cleo and Cleopatra - used the same sets!)

[Altair]

Holy shot the Caligula news is pretty amazing. Hopefully Arrow will be releasing this.

[Roger Ryan]

... Also, interesting to note that Badlands will be screening with deceased producer Edward R. Pressman in person.

This has (now?) been updated to read "Screening in the presence of Edward R. Pressman family".

[hearthesilence]

... Also, interesting to note that Badlands will be screening with deceased producer Edward R. Pressman in person.

This has (now?) been updated to read "Screening in the presence of Edward R. Pressman family".

Would've been mighty creepy if they had him on display like he was Mao or Lenin.

[Omensetter]

Here's a link to this year's Cannes schedule for those curious: https://cdn-medias.festival-cannes.com/ ... El4whr8igU

Fremaux's late additions are ridiculous, but as it is: No one cares about Catherine Corsini outside of France, and I don't know about her in her home country even then, and Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire's Black Flies is just another favor of Fremaux's to Sean Penn. I think that film might even be from the company who churns out those Liam Neeson actioners. It's in Competition instead of Lisandro Alonso, anyway!

The Competition jury has been increasingly watered down as the decade progresses, reminding me of a critic last year who commented on just who they are to assess Serra, Reichardt, etc. It's obviously a bit of fun, and Östlund is a fun president.

Perhaps predictably, the schedule is front-loaded, but it should make for a fun weekend.

Predictions:
Palme d'Or: Aki Kaurismäki, Fallen Leaves
Grand Prix: Alice Rohracher, La Chimera
Director: Wang Bing, Youth (Spring)
Screenplay: Wes Anderson, Asteroid City
Actor: Deniz Celiloğlu, About Dry Grasses
Actress: Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Jury Prix: Jessica Hausner, Club Zero

[soundchaser]

Is there no Heroku page for critic averages this year?

[Omensetter]

I haven't seen it, Todas las criticas, or the Poll of Polls—such as it is.

Here's a link to what I've seen, though:
https://cannes-ratings.tk/Cannes2023
https://icsfilm.org/festivals/cannes/ca ... try-panel/
https://www.ekkofilm.dk/stjernebaromete ... ival-2023/
https://jury.critic.de/cannes
https://www.caimanediciones.es/wp-conte ... S-2023.pdf
https://www.ioncinema.com/ (They update their grid on their main page daily. They don't appear to have a dynamic, refreshable poll.)
https://www.screendaily.com/festivals/europe/cannes (Similar to above.)
https://pelnasala.pl/cannes-2023-grid/
https://www.chaosreign.fr/festival-cann ... tion-film/
https://twitter.com/hanglutvd
https://www.lefilmfrancais.com/tags/309 ... a-critique


Rodrigo Moreno's The Delinquets in UCR is the first I've seen to get something resembling unanimous praise at the moment. MUBI's already picked it up (for the U.S., at least, and likely other markets).

Dynamic ScreenDaily Average Totals (out of four):
Monster (Kore-eda) — 2.3
Homecoming (Corsini) — 2.0
Youth (Spring) (Wang) — 2.8
Black Flies (Sauvaire) — 1.3
About Dry Grasses (Ceylan) — 2.8
The Zone of Interest (Glazer) — 2.8
Four Daughters (Ben Hania) — 2.3
Banel & Adama (Sy) — 2.2
May December (Haynes) — 3.0
Anatomy of a Fall (Triet) — 3.0
Firebrand (Aïnouz) — 1.8
Fallen Leaves (Kaurismäki) — 3.2
Club Zero (Hausner) — 1.7
Asteroid City (Anderson) — 2.2
Kidnapped (Bellochio) — 2.5
The Pout Au Feu (Hung) — 2.8
A Brighter Tomorrow (Moretti) — 1.3
Perfect Days (Wenders) — 2.9
Last Summer (Breillat) — 2.3

[Omensetter]

Is there no Heroku page for critic averages this year?

https://cannes-ratings.tk/Cannes2023

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Tinto Brass is promising legal action over the Caligula "Ultimate Cut," saying he was completely uninvolved with the recut and that "the Cannes audience will therefore be misled by the arbitrary use of my name." Not sure this is going to fly given that Cannes has very conspicuously refrained from crediting him (or anyone else) as the film's director, but this could hold up plans for a commercial release.

Meanwhile this Chinese-language interview/profile on Wang Bing states that the subtitles for the next two parts of his Youth trilogy won't be "Summer" or "Autumn" or any of the seasonal options one might expect after Youth (Spring), but rather 苦 (bitterness, hardship) and 归 (return). The cumulative runtime is given as 9 hours and 40 minutes.

[Persona]

About Dry Grasses (Ceylan) and Zone of Interest (Glazer) both seem to be getting mostly raves. I've seen some negative takes on the Ceylan, but the nature of the comments are so churlish (and seemingly not a fan of Ceylan in general), I'm inclined to think I will probably disagree with them.

[MichaelB]

Tinto Brass is promising legal action over the Caligula "Ultimate Cut," saying he was completely uninvolved with the recut and that "the Cannes audience will therefore be misled by the arbitrary use of my name." Not sure this is going to fly given that Cannes has very conspicuously refrained from crediting him (or anyone else) as the film's director, but this could hold up plans for a commercial release.

How much legal say would Brass have over this, given that he was fired from the original production?

And since by all accounts this is a far more sympathetic treatment of his footage than the 1979 Bob Guccione version, what would he hope to achieve from suppressing it?

(From what I can gather, because Brass originally shot multiple takes of everything, there isn’t a single shot in this new version that’s in the 1979 cut, and it’s also been completely rescored, replacing the Bruno Nicolai/Khatchaturian/Prokofiev mash-up - and unsurprisingly Guccione’s porn inserts have been banished as well. I suspect the film’s flaws are still going to be pretty unignorable, but I’m very curious to see what’s been done to it.)

[Omensetter]

I feel like the programmers do a great job of this every year, but it seems like we're in the hot part of Cannes—a perhaps silly notion given that each film is its film. I haven't seen raves for the Glazer like I have for the Ceylan (it screened first and has more), but after this is the Scorsese...hopefully this bodes well for Alonso and Haynes, with the relative unknowns Ramata-Toulaye Sy and Kaouther Ben Hania being well-insulated. Then: Kaurismäki, Wes Anderson, and Jessica Hausner will all keep people's rapt attention with varying degrees of taste.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

How much legal say would Brass have over this, given that he was fired from the original production?

It might not matter given the fairly broad scope of "authors' rights" in Italy and France (as well as some other European countries), which includes directors and screenwriters. In France there's a precedent for uncredited authors retaining moral rights to their work, and in Italy Brass was actually credited as the director. But even if Brass got a decision in his favor from an Italian or French court, it wouldn't apply elsewhere, and certainly not in jurisdictions like the U.S. and the UK where the scope of moral rights is much more limited.

[ntnon]

Tinto Brass is promising legal action over the Caligula "Ultimate Cut," ...

...
(From what I can gather, because Brass originally shot multiple takes of everything, there isn’t a single shot in this new version that’s in the 1979 cut, and it’s also been completely rescored, replacing the Bruno Nicolai/Khatchaturian/Prokofiev mash-up...)

A cursory reading of a report on this had me wonder if an angle for the lawsuit could be that it's being touted as the "Ultimate Version," despite (as you note, per articles) it doesn't contain any shots present in the original film.

Obviously this is a near-unique case, but it seems a little.. inaccurate to describe a 'completely different' film as the "Ultimate" version.

[furbicide]

Seems the "Alternative Cut" would be the more fitting, if less marketable, label.

[colinr0380]

The issues surrounding Caligula are interesting, unique and quite extreme ones. There has never been an 'authorised' director's cut of the film due to Brass taking his name off of the film, but a lot of the film feels like a Tinto Brass film, especially because of its... um... uniquely unorthodox filming style, i.e. lots of panning and zooming across grand tableaus of scenes whilst zooming in and out to pick out certain details. That method of filming feels very similar to Brass's other epic-scaled film Salon Kitty (I actually love the filming style of both films and like to think of it as being 'artfully artless', in a good way!), but it does make trying to identify meaning and intent (as well as censorship edits and/or Producer inserts) much more difficult to discern and accurately define as being something originally intended or a bastardisation of an original vision. I am unsurprised to hear from the creation of this 'Negovan version' that there was so much coverage shot that an entire different cut of the film was able to be put together without apparently using any footage from the original release version: I would suspect that was a similar technique to the one Brass used on Salon Kitty, except he never put his name to his final version of Caligula.

The changes layered on top of the film began even before filming was complete with the insertion by Bob Guccione of the hardcore sequences into the film, which we speculated on a long time ago occurred because presumably Brass' vision for the film was (like Salon Kitty before it) to create a deeply, intensely (and often uncomfortably) unsexy film full of nudity and violence about a decadent society on the verge of absolute moral collapse. The sex and violence (without realising the context that they would be deployed in) presumably being the thing that attracted Guccione to the project, and after the departure of Brass and Vidal the filming and insertion of the hardcore sequences were probably the producer's rather crude attempt at trying to right the ship and make the project commercial again. Which ironically makes the whiplashing tone of the final released version of the film even more schizophrenically inconsistent, as it veers wildly from obvious titillation into sexual assault, and back again. In some ways (and perhaps unintentionally on the part of all of the creative team involved) that's what makes the film one of the most fascinating historical epics ever made, perhaps capturing the wild insanity of Rome's most notorious Emperor despite (or perhaps because) of its flaws. So that Bob Guccione Penthouse release of the film appears to have been the official release that we are now most familiar with, made available in two versions: the full version with the hardcore material, and an R-rated version with those aspects removed.

My own attitude to this situation (whilst respecting why Brass may be upset by this new version of the film) is similar to my thoughts about director's revising their films (i.e. let people - the director, most commonly - do what they want with a film in terms of re-cutting and re-making it into something else as long as previously commercially released versions are not suppressed or swept from the historical record as an attempt at historical revisionism. If you have put something out there into the culture to be screened, and in particular asked for money from audiences for it, then that version of the film needs to be preserved as a matter of official record), only this situation is more extreme as it is not a director tinkering with their films, nor a producer. I would perhaps argue that this is perhaps just a more official and professional version of a 'fan edit', and should be considered that way. Definitely not the 'Director's Cut', and I would argue that "Ultimate Cut" would be too leading a phrase too, implying a certain monolithic finality to the statement it is making. Maybe just the "Thomas Negovan cut"?

Especially because this is not the first time that someone unrelated to the film has tried to make it 'coherent' / 'acceptable' / 'commercial' (though I would argue that the performances of all the actors shine through in whatever version you see it in), as there is yet another 'fan edit' version of this film in the form of the "Film4 edit" introduced by Mark Kermode (NSFW) for the film's first screening on UK television in 1999, which Kermode described in his introduction to the film as an 'intermediate' version of the film that tried to remove as much of the Guccione inserts as possible whilst leaving more of the Brass 'unsexy boundary pushing' material in there than the UK censors had previously allowed.

So its a film that exists in as many confused, promiscuous and multifarious identities as the main character himself does, aided and abetted by so many midwives (with different levels of care displayed towards their deformed charge) as it gets born and re-born over and over again. I'll be fascinated to see what this new version of the film is like, that is if I ever get the opportunity to do so!

[MichaelB]

You will. Full commercial release (theatrical and physical) is planned within the next few months. The threatened lawsuit is most unlikely to amount to anything (it’s also doubtful that Brass himself is behind the threat, as he’s reportedly had dementia for some time), and it’s hard to see how it would prevent a UK/US release, as it appears to be fully authorised by the film’s legitimate rightsholders.

[Michael Kerpan]

The new Kaurismaki being saved for last? (Not seeing any reviews yet). The trailer makes it look very Kaurismaki-ish.

[yoloswegmaster]

The new Kaurismaki being saved for last? (Not seeing any reviews yet). The trailer makes it look very Kaurismaki-ish.

The Kaurismaki doesn't screen until Monday, which is when the reviews will come out.