Mar 29, 2024
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Kudos for David Cronenberg at Cannes Film Festival

So far this year, most of the offerings at the Cannes Film Festival have been family affairs. That’s especially true of David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, which received an enthusiastic response at its first media screening on Sunday evening.

A dark satire of human excess set in Hollywood, it stars John Cusack and Olivia Williams as a Los Angeles couple whose son (Evan Bird) is a troubled child star and whose daughter (Mia Wasikowska) has just returned after a long absence. She meets a limo drive (Robert Pattinson) and gets a job as personal assistant to a neurotic actress named Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore), who is contemplating playing her own mother in a movie.

“It is all about externalization, the desire to be seen,” Moore said after the screening. “And in reality … you can only truly be seen in an intimate relationship with another person, which is the most difficult thing to attain.
“So you have this wonderful script which juxtaposes externalization with family. That’s our eternal struggle. And the fact that we get to explore that idea in Hollywood, in an entertainment, I think is really truly marvellous.”

Cronenberg said that, despite the setting, Maps to the Stars wasn’t really about show business. “You could set this in Silicon Valley,” he said. “You could set it on Wall Street, or any place where people are desperate, ambitious, greedy, fearful. To see it only as an attack on Hollywood and show business I think is shortchanging the movie.”

Dysfunctional and unusually blended families have featured in most of the films in competition since the festival began May 14. Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner finds painter J.M.W. Turner juggling two mistresses and one ex-mistress with two children. In Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a hotel owner in Turkey squabbles with his young wife and a sister who lives with them.

The Wonders, by Italian director Alice Rorhwacher, is about a family of farmers and beekeepers that includes a live-in employee. Adding to the vibe is the fact the film stars the director’s sister, Alba. Foxcatcher by Bennett Miller tells the true story of Olympic wrestling brothers Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave (Mark Ruffalo) Schultz, whose lives collided tragically with wealthy sponsor John du Pont (Steve Carell).

Still to come, Xavier Dolan’s Mommy screens Wednesday and tells the story of a widowed mother struggling to raise a troubled son, and of the neighbour whose motives for helping her are unclear.

Maps to the Stars was written by Cronenberg’s longtime colleague Bruce Wagner, who was fascinated with the world of celebrity and what it says about the human condition. “There are old Buddhist texts that say that the most difficult challenge for a human being, including the most solitary hermit, is the challenge of fame,” Wagner said. “To not say, ‘I am the most famous solitary hermit.’ These are timeless concerns.”

They were concerns that dovetailed nicely with Cronenberg’s, he said. “It was almost as if we got in The Fly machine and our DNA kind of commingled.”

The director, who always seems to enjoy the give and take of a news conference — especially with journalists who expect him to be a brooding monster out of one of his early movies — said he considers Maps to the Stars a comedy. “I think all my movies are funny, and I think this one is no exception. People have said to me, ‘You really should make a comedy.’ And I said, but I’ve made nothing else.’”

He also sounded a more sombre note. “As a card-carrying existentialist, I have to say that these people are desperate to … assert their existence,” he said of his characters. “And for Havana, she’s terrified that she will cease to exist because as an actor she’s being discarded by the industry. It will be a living death. That’s where the desperation comes from, and the cruelty and the viciousness, too.”

Moore seemed less concerned with the prospect of professional non-existence, even though “the age question” is often asked of the 53-year-old. “I’ve been asked that question since I was 30 years old,” she said. “I don’t even know how to answer it any more. But then, I’m the same age as Havana and I have a huge part in this movie.”

Moore said she loves acting and that unlike some of her fears — skiing, diving, fast driving — there’s little danger in the craft.

“A metaphor can’t kill you,” she said, in reference to someone asking Cronenberg if an unusual weapon in the film was a metaphor. (He answered that it wasn’t: It was made of brass.) “A metaphor can’t kill you. Acting can’t either.”

Source: Canada.com

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Front Page, Industry News

Kudos for David Cronenberg at Cannes Film Festival

So far this year, most of the offerings at the Cannes Film Festival have been family affairs. That’s especially true of David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, which received an enthusiastic response at its first media screening on Sunday evening.

A dark satire of human excess set in Hollywood, it stars John Cusack and Olivia Williams as a Los Angeles couple whose son (Evan Bird) is a troubled child star and whose daughter (Mia Wasikowska) has just returned after a long absence. She meets a limo drive (Robert Pattinson) and gets a job as personal assistant to a neurotic actress named Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore), who is contemplating playing her own mother in a movie.

“It is all about externalization, the desire to be seen,” Moore said after the screening. “And in reality … you can only truly be seen in an intimate relationship with another person, which is the most difficult thing to attain.
“So you have this wonderful script which juxtaposes externalization with family. That’s our eternal struggle. And the fact that we get to explore that idea in Hollywood, in an entertainment, I think is really truly marvellous.”

Cronenberg said that, despite the setting, Maps to the Stars wasn’t really about show business. “You could set this in Silicon Valley,” he said. “You could set it on Wall Street, or any place where people are desperate, ambitious, greedy, fearful. To see it only as an attack on Hollywood and show business I think is shortchanging the movie.”

Dysfunctional and unusually blended families have featured in most of the films in competition since the festival began May 14. Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner finds painter J.M.W. Turner juggling two mistresses and one ex-mistress with two children. In Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a hotel owner in Turkey squabbles with his young wife and a sister who lives with them.

The Wonders, by Italian director Alice Rorhwacher, is about a family of farmers and beekeepers that includes a live-in employee. Adding to the vibe is the fact the film stars the director’s sister, Alba. Foxcatcher by Bennett Miller tells the true story of Olympic wrestling brothers Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave (Mark Ruffalo) Schultz, whose lives collided tragically with wealthy sponsor John du Pont (Steve Carell).

Still to come, Xavier Dolan’s Mommy screens Wednesday and tells the story of a widowed mother struggling to raise a troubled son, and of the neighbour whose motives for helping her are unclear.

Maps to the Stars was written by Cronenberg’s longtime colleague Bruce Wagner, who was fascinated with the world of celebrity and what it says about the human condition. “There are old Buddhist texts that say that the most difficult challenge for a human being, including the most solitary hermit, is the challenge of fame,” Wagner said. “To not say, ‘I am the most famous solitary hermit.’ These are timeless concerns.”

They were concerns that dovetailed nicely with Cronenberg’s, he said. “It was almost as if we got in The Fly machine and our DNA kind of commingled.”

The director, who always seems to enjoy the give and take of a news conference — especially with journalists who expect him to be a brooding monster out of one of his early movies — said he considers Maps to the Stars a comedy. “I think all my movies are funny, and I think this one is no exception. People have said to me, ‘You really should make a comedy.’ And I said, but I’ve made nothing else.’”

He also sounded a more sombre note. “As a card-carrying existentialist, I have to say that these people are desperate to … assert their existence,” he said of his characters. “And for Havana, she’s terrified that she will cease to exist because as an actor she’s being discarded by the industry. It will be a living death. That’s where the desperation comes from, and the cruelty and the viciousness, too.”

Moore seemed less concerned with the prospect of professional non-existence, even though “the age question” is often asked of the 53-year-old. “I’ve been asked that question since I was 30 years old,” she said. “I don’t even know how to answer it any more. But then, I’m the same age as Havana and I have a huge part in this movie.”

Moore said she loves acting and that unlike some of her fears — skiing, diving, fast driving — there’s little danger in the craft.

“A metaphor can’t kill you,” she said, in reference to someone asking Cronenberg if an unusual weapon in the film was a metaphor. (He answered that it wasn’t: It was made of brass.) “A metaphor can’t kill you. Acting can’t either.”

Source: Canada.com

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Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Front Page, Industry News

Kudos for David Cronenberg at Cannes Film Festival

So far this year, most of the offerings at the Cannes Film Festival have been family affairs. That’s especially true of David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, which received an enthusiastic response at its first media screening on Sunday evening.

A dark satire of human excess set in Hollywood, it stars John Cusack and Olivia Williams as a Los Angeles couple whose son (Evan Bird) is a troubled child star and whose daughter (Mia Wasikowska) has just returned after a long absence. She meets a limo drive (Robert Pattinson) and gets a job as personal assistant to a neurotic actress named Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore), who is contemplating playing her own mother in a movie.

“It is all about externalization, the desire to be seen,” Moore said after the screening. “And in reality … you can only truly be seen in an intimate relationship with another person, which is the most difficult thing to attain.
“So you have this wonderful script which juxtaposes externalization with family. That’s our eternal struggle. And the fact that we get to explore that idea in Hollywood, in an entertainment, I think is really truly marvellous.”

Cronenberg said that, despite the setting, Maps to the Stars wasn’t really about show business. “You could set this in Silicon Valley,” he said. “You could set it on Wall Street, or any place where people are desperate, ambitious, greedy, fearful. To see it only as an attack on Hollywood and show business I think is shortchanging the movie.”

Dysfunctional and unusually blended families have featured in most of the films in competition since the festival began May 14. Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner finds painter J.M.W. Turner juggling two mistresses and one ex-mistress with two children. In Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a hotel owner in Turkey squabbles with his young wife and a sister who lives with them.

The Wonders, by Italian director Alice Rorhwacher, is about a family of farmers and beekeepers that includes a live-in employee. Adding to the vibe is the fact the film stars the director’s sister, Alba. Foxcatcher by Bennett Miller tells the true story of Olympic wrestling brothers Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave (Mark Ruffalo) Schultz, whose lives collided tragically with wealthy sponsor John du Pont (Steve Carell).

Still to come, Xavier Dolan’s Mommy screens Wednesday and tells the story of a widowed mother struggling to raise a troubled son, and of the neighbour whose motives for helping her are unclear.

Maps to the Stars was written by Cronenberg’s longtime colleague Bruce Wagner, who was fascinated with the world of celebrity and what it says about the human condition. “There are old Buddhist texts that say that the most difficult challenge for a human being, including the most solitary hermit, is the challenge of fame,” Wagner said. “To not say, ‘I am the most famous solitary hermit.’ These are timeless concerns.”

They were concerns that dovetailed nicely with Cronenberg’s, he said. “It was almost as if we got in The Fly machine and our DNA kind of commingled.”

The director, who always seems to enjoy the give and take of a news conference — especially with journalists who expect him to be a brooding monster out of one of his early movies — said he considers Maps to the Stars a comedy. “I think all my movies are funny, and I think this one is no exception. People have said to me, ‘You really should make a comedy.’ And I said, but I’ve made nothing else.’”

He also sounded a more sombre note. “As a card-carrying existentialist, I have to say that these people are desperate to … assert their existence,” he said of his characters. “And for Havana, she’s terrified that she will cease to exist because as an actor she’s being discarded by the industry. It will be a living death. That’s where the desperation comes from, and the cruelty and the viciousness, too.”

Moore seemed less concerned with the prospect of professional non-existence, even though “the age question” is often asked of the 53-year-old. “I’ve been asked that question since I was 30 years old,” she said. “I don’t even know how to answer it any more. But then, I’m the same age as Havana and I have a huge part in this movie.”

Moore said she loves acting and that unlike some of her fears — skiing, diving, fast driving — there’s little danger in the craft.

“A metaphor can’t kill you,” she said, in reference to someone asking Cronenberg if an unusual weapon in the film was a metaphor. (He answered that it wasn’t: It was made of brass.) “A metaphor can’t kill you. Acting can’t either.”

Source: Canada.com

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Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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