Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? This week we’re uplifted by stories from disabled athletes who could handily beat me in every sport on parade, visit Britain for some jolly post-WWII reconstruction, look upon the visage of truly heinous animation that is not meant to be a joke, act like lecherous old men as a young boy spies on his best friend’s mother, and we all say it together when it comes to the Dark Knight when people ask what are you, “…I’m Batman…”
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Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?
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The primary lineup for the competition slate at the 2012 Cannes has been unveilend, and it is a very strong list of films. There are quite a few expected entries: David Cronenberg‘s Cosmopolis, Lee Daniels‘ The Paperboy, John Hillcoat‘s Lawless (formerly The Wettest County), and Andrew Dominik‘s Killing Them Softly (formerly Cogan’s Trade), and we already knew that Wes Anderson‘s Moonrise Kingdom would open the festival.
But the international lineup is even more exciting, with films such as Rust & Bone from Jacques Audiard, Amour from Micheal Haneke, The Hunt from Thomas Vinterberg, and Mekong Hotel from 2010 Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul. As is occasionally the case with Cannes, this year’s lineup features many returning Cannes award winners; it’s a world-class program.
The downside to all of that is that Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master and Terrence Malick‘s as-yet untitled romance starring Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Javier Bardem didn’t show up in the list. There is some time for them to be added to the festival lineup in some measure, but (as expected) we’ll likely have to wait until this fall for The Master. As for the Malick movie… well, it’s Malick, so who knows?
You’ll find the lineup as it has been announced so far after the break. Read More »
Hard-hitting social realist director Ken Loach took a break from sternly examining the injustices and hardships of the world a couple of years ago, delighting critics with the crowd-pleasing Looking for Eric. Now he’s back to business, at long last turning his political eye to the Iraq War in Route Irish.
Loach, whose Irish War drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley took home the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2006, once again teams with his regular writing collaborator Paul Laverty, bringing us the story of a British soldier-turned-security contractor in Iraq who rejects the official explanation of his friend’s death and sets out to discover the truth. The film premiered as a last minute addition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival to middling reviews. A number of critics praised Loach’s intent, but felt it was a lesser work in his filmmography. Why take their word for it though? Watch the trailer after the break. Read More »
I’ve always loved reading and hearing what great filmmakers think of other great films and directors. You may have noticed that we ask some directors about their favorite films, from time to time, and I’ve even featured other websites and books that delve into this subject on the site from time to time.
Geoffrey Macnab and the British Film Institute have put together a book titled Screen Epiphanies: Filmmakers on the Films that Inspired Them collecting the stories of thirty-five leading international filmmakers focusing on “the film moments that stayed with them long after they left the movie theater” which inspired them to pursue a career in the movie industry.
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Some of the greatest living filmmakers have gotten together to make a feature film which will be shown at the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival.
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