Wednesday, May 14, 2014

2014 Cannes Film Festival: Day 1


The cinematic world has converged in the South of France for the 67th Festival de Cannes.

This year's festival opened with the Out of Competition premiere of Grace of Monaco (Grace de Monaco), the much discussed biopic from French director Olivier Dahan, starring Nicole Kidman as Princess Grace Kelly.

The day's lone screening was preceded by the Opening Ceremony, wonderfully hosted by veteran French actor,  Lambert Wilson

Wilson introduced the competition jury: presided this year by New Zealand director Jane Campion, who is joined by French actress Carole Bouquet, American director Sofia Coppola, Iranian actress Leila Hatami, South Korean actress Do-Yeon Jeon, American actor Willem Dafoe, Mexican actor-director Gael Garcia Bernal, Chinese director Jia Zhangke, and Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn.


2014 Master of Ceremonies: Lambert Wilson
  • Day 1 - Wednesday, May 14
  • Opening Film - Out of Competition
    Grace of Monaco (Grace de Monaco)
    directed by Olivier Dahan
    France

    Critical reception:
    "You remember Dahan’s last film, La Vie en Rose, and wonder anew just how much of its emotional potency stemmed from Marion Cotillard. Dahan searches frantically for it in Kidman, often moving the camera so close to her face that you worry the lens hood might bump her forehead, but it isn’t there to find."Robbie Collin (The Telegraph)
    "Too earnest for its terminal chintziness, this Princess Problem Picture establishes that Grace Kelly's real life was no fairytale, but has little idea of what it was instead."Guy Lodge (In Contention)
    "Could have been a camp delight, but it feels too much like a stodgy, outdated television movie to work even as kitsch. "Dave Calhoun (TimeOut London)
    "The very attractive cinematography is indisputably one of the strong points of a feature film that plays the stardom card throughout at the expense of a plot whose patchy twists and turns are strung together like the pearls on an unimaginative necklace in the middle of a shower of famous faces."Fabien Lemercier (Cineuropa)
    "The film made headlines due to conflicts between the director and Harvey Weinstein, but for once, we’d be tempted to side with Harvey Scissorhands, because it’s hard to see how his edit of the film could be any worse than this one."Oliver Lyttelton (The Playlist)
An universally cold reaction to the opening film, but at least things can only get better from here. The actual competition kicks off tomorrow with the latest from Mike Leigh and Abderrahmane Sissako.

The 2014 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 14-25, be sure to return for our daily coverage!

Screening Tomorrow at #Cannes2014 (Thursday, May 15):
  • Mr. Turner by Mike Leigh (In Competition)
  • Timbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako (In Competition)
  • Party Girl by Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis (Un Certain Regard)
  • That Lovely Girl by Keren Yedaya (Un Certain Regard)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy to see you posting again! Indeed, can only improve after the disappointment of Grace of Monaco.
Mr Turner, Winter Sleep,Maps to the Stars, Mommy, Leviathan, and Two Days One Night are my most anticipated from Cannes. How about you BT? Bummer Roy Andersson's latest isn't in the line-up, I love his films.

Unknown said...

It's weird to be that interested in Cannes this year... it never really struck me to follow the festival other than see who won. Anyhow, I wasn't excited for Grace of Monaco and I think I'll skip it.

Unknown said...

Man, I bet Harvey Weinstein is in his hotel suite laughing his ass off about the film.

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