Cannes 2024

[Sabin]

Assuming it's a deserving performance, that would be nice for Demi Moore to get an Oscar nomination at this point in her career.

I wrote a post a little while ago about Sharon Stone's ubiquity when I was growing up and how quickly it seemed to flame out following her sole successful-ish bid for respectability. In hindsight, it's very similar to Demi Moore's except flipped. Sharon Stone showed up on the scene baring it all and had to work to get people to take her seriously in Casino. Despite her Brat Pack origins, Demi Moore had Ghost and A Few Good Men, both of which were respectable films that she was more "in" than highly acclaimed for. She spent the rest of her moment of stardom working in the opposite direction of Stone in increasingly schlocky material that promised you'd see more of her (Indecent Proposal, Disclosure, The Scarlet Letter). Finally when she did bare it all, it was the disastrous Striptease. She basically just became a body. And then with the exception of one more moment in the zeitgeist (G.I. Jane, an honorable-ish flop) it was over.

I don't want to make it seem like we've been denied some great careers. Neither Stone or Moore were terribly great. But when I think about both actors, I think about how sad Hollywood was in the 90s/is today that both Sharon Stone and Demi Moore aged out by their mid-30s. They're as stunning as any human you'd probably ever seen in real life but they were both playing losing games throughout their careers and aged out at the same time.

[Big Magilla]

Wow. Just when we were ready to give up on this festival, a 13-minute-standing ovation for a horror movie based on Dorian Gray with touches of The Shining and The Fly, followed by a terrific 34-minute press conference with Demi Moore, Coralie Fargeat, and Dennis Quaid available on YouTube.

Should not only win at Cannes, but it could also be a major Oscar contender in 13 categories including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actress (Demi Moore), Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid who was cast after the death of Ray Liotta), Supporting Actress (Margaret Qualley), Cinematography, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Sound, Score, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Costume Design.

[Sabin]

The Substance is getting very good reviews. The return of Demi Moore.

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/mov ... 235006738/
https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/t ... 236009235/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/articl ... ie-fargeat

[Sabin]

Greg wrote
As it is in competition for both, they will likely give Emilia Perez the Queer Palm, rather than the Palme d'Or.

As of now, I think it's the front-runner to win the Palme d'Or.

Greg wrote
The negative reactions (Ehrlich is far from alone) came after I'd posted this. Not surprising, as Audiard is not universally loved -- his Palme was one of the more contentious ones in my memory.

I think its contentiousness had almost nothing to do with the film and more to do with the behind the scenes feud between Joel Coen and Xavier Dolan. His previous (?) film, A Prophet, won the Grand Prix in 2009 (15 years ago!!!) and my recollection is it was a pretty popular film at the time.

[Greg]

As it is in competition for both, they will likely give Emilia Perez the Queer Palm, rather than the Palme d'Or.

[Mister Tee]

Mister Tee wrote
The buzziest title so far appears to be Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez:

Looks like a love it/hate it film. David Ehrlich has it at a C+ but describes it as "not unmemorable." Still plenty to go but if enough people love it but unless something else knocks their socks off I could see this as something a Greta jury would dig.

The negative reactions (Ehrlich is far from alone) came after I'd posted this. Not surprising, as Audiard is not universally loved -- his Palme was one of the more contentious ones in my memory.

What I think is safe to say at this point -- and, yeah, a week to go, but, usually, hotter titles appear nearer the start than the finish -- is that this year's vintage is way weaker than the Anatomy/Zone/Killers batch from last year, and the prizes will likely be greeted with as much argument as acclaim.

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
The buzziest title so far appears to be Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez:

Looks like a love it/hate it film. David Ehrlich has it at a C+ but describes it as "not unmemorable." Still plenty to go but if enough people love it but unless something else knocks their socks off I could see this as something a Greta jury would dig.

[Mister Tee]

The buzziest title so far appears to be Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235903402/

https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/e ... 236008567/

[Greg]

Even though it is out of competition, Kevin Costner's 100-million-dollar-self-financed Horizon will make it to Cannes. This must be the first time Cannes, or any film festival, has two nine-figure-self-financed movies.

[Okri]

Opening Night
“The Second Act” (dir. Quentin Dupieux; Out of Competition)

Out of Competition
“Furiosa” (dir. George Miller)
“Horizon: An America Saga” (dir. Kevin Costner)
“She’s Got No Name” (dir. Peter Ho-sun Chan)
“Rumours” (dir. Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson)

In Competition
“Megalopolis” (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
“The Apprentice” (dir. Ali Abbasi)
“Motel Destino” (dir. Karim Aïnouz)
“Bird” (dir. Andrea Arnold)
“Emilia Perez” (dir. Jacques Audiard)
“Anora” (dir. Sean Baker)
“The Shrouds” (dir. David Cronenberg)
“The Substance” (dir. Coralie Fargeat)
“Grand Tour” (dir. Miguel Gomes)
“Marcello Mio” (dir. Christophe Honoré)
“Caught by the Tides” (dir. Jia Zhangke)
“All We Imagine as Light” (dir. Payal Kapadia)
“Kinds of Kindness” (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)
“Beating Hearts” (dir. Gilles Lellouche)
“Wild Diamond” (dir. Agathe Riedinger)
“Oh, Canada” (dir. Paul Schrader)
“Limonov” (dir. Kirill Serebrennikov)
“Parthenope” (dir. Paolo Sorrentino)
“The Girl with the Needle” (dir. Magnus von Horn)

Un Certain Regard
“The Shameless” (dir. Konstantin Bojanov)
“Norah” (dir. Tawfik Alzaidi)
“Le Royaume” (dir. Julien Colonna)
“Vingt Dieux” (dir. Louise Courvoisier)
“Le Proces du Chien” (dir. Laetitia Dosch)
“The Village Next to Paradise” (dir. Mo Harawe)
“Black Dog” (dir. Guan Hu)
“September Says” (dir. Ariane Labed)
“The Damned” (dir. Roberto Minervini)
“L’Histoire de Souleymane” (dir. Boris Lojkine)
“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” (dir. Rungano Nyoni)
“My Sunshine” (dir. Hiroshi Okuyama)
“Viet and Nam” (dir. Minh Quý Trương)
“Santosh” (dir. Sandhya Suri)

Special Screenings
“La Belle de Gaza” (dir. Yolande Zauberman)
“Apprendre” (dir. Claire Simon)
“The Invasion” (dir. Sergei Loznitsa)
“Ernest Cole, Lost and Found” (dir. Raoul Peck)
“Le Fil” (dir. Daniel Auteuil)

Cannes Premiere
“Miséricorde” (dir. Alain Guiraudie)
“C’est Pas Moi” (dir. Leos Carax)
“Everybody Loves Touda” (dir. Nabil Ayouch)
“The Marching Band” (dir. Emmanuel Courcol)
“Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot” (dir. Rithy Panh)
“Le Roman de Jim” (dirs. Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu)

Midnight
“Twilight of the Warrior” (dir. Cheang Pou-soi)
“I, the Executioner” (dir. Ryoo Seung-wan)
“The Surfer” (dir. Lorcan Finnegan)
“The Balconettes” (dir. Noemie Merlant)

[Sabin]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235867556/

But while there was no shortage of curious suitors there — in addition to Rothman and Sarandos, Warner Bros.’ Pam Abdy, Disney live-action boss David Greenbaum, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Paramount’s Marc Weinstock were all spotted — multiple sources inside the screening tell The Hollywood Reporter that Megalopolis will face a steep uphill battle to find a distribution partner. Says one distributor: “There is just no way to position this movie.”

“Everyone is rooting for Francis and feels nostalgic,” adds another attendee. “But then there is the business side of things.”

A third attendee noted “a conspicuous silence at the end of it,” but stopped short of writing off the film as a failed exercise. “Does it wobble, wander, go all over the place? Yes. But it’s really imaginative and does say something about our time. I think it’s going to be a small, specialized label [that picks it up].”

“I find it hard to believe any distributor would put up cash money and stay in first position to recoup the P&A as well as their distribution fee,” says a distribution veteran. “If [Coppola] is willing to put up the P&A or backstop the spend, I think there would be a lot more interested parties.”

Another studio head, however, was far less charitable in his assessment: “It’s so not good, and it was so sad watching it. Anybody who puts P&A behind it, you’re going to lose money. This is not how Coppola should end his directing career.”

Just finding a distributor is going to be a boondoggle. If Greta Gerwig is a softie, she'll encourage the jury to give it the Palme just so it has a fighting chance.

[Big Magilla]

And why, pray tell, does Variety still think that Forest Whitaker is in the cast when he isn't?

IMDB and every article I’ve read lists him in the cast. You heard otherwise?

Yes, he was replaced by Giancarlo Esposito who the Variety article has been corrected to include in place of Whitaker.

[danfrank]

And why, pray tell, does Variety still think that Forest Whitaker is in the cast when he isn't?

IMDB and every article I’ve read lists him in the cast. You heard otherwise?

[Sabin]

Every once in a while, I'll hear about some filmmaker trying to make some epic movie and I'll assume it'll never happen. Megalopolis has been that for me for years. I'm kind of surprised Coppola actually made it.

Greg wrote
Although, before it was released, a lot of people predicted Titanic would be a flop...

While it is a stretch to compare Megalopolis to Titanic, it may be more apt to compare it to Apocalypse Now. That is another Coppola film from a while back that had also been described as "baffling" and "batshit crazy," or words to that effect.

If Megalopolis does Apocalypse Now business at the box office, it will be profitable. I read that Dune 2 will need to make $475 million at the box office to be profitable with its $190 million budget, two-and-a-half times its budget. That means Megalopolis would need to make $300 million at the box office to make a profit with its $120 million budget. That makes sense if the theaters take their usual 40% cut to pay for their operations leaving $180 million for the producer and distributor, with prints and advertising being half of the production cost. Apocalypse Now made $80 million in domestic ticket sales in 1979, which, adjusted for inflation, is $340 million.

I want to start by saying "What do I know?" Maybe all of this is in the cards. But my first thought is seriously, what reasons are there to believe that this film is capable of making anything close to that amount? The only thing I can think of is this: maybe Adam Driver is a box office draw waiting to explode (although Ferrari suggests otherwise) and maybe Francis Ford Coppola has one more round of genius left in the chamber (although the reactions suggest otherwise). Saying "All it needs to do is make Apocalypse Now-levels of money" is the same logic used to bankroll any Francis Ford Coppola getting any budget for the twenty years that followed. Usually that logic was followed by the word "Oops" both because his moviegoing audiences weren't as adventurous as they were back in the 1970s (to say nothing about how astonishingly infantalized they are today) but also because his movies haven't met artistic or commercial expectations. He's not just not a commercially viable filmmaker. He's basically a retired filmmaker. And what is he doing? Doing the riskiest thing you can do: a $100m sci-fi film (which needs $100 for distribution!) based on no pre-existing IP. Look at last year's The Creator which bombed hard.

Look, I'm here for it. I hope this thing is everything we want it to be. It's possible that the race to get distributors before Cannes is simply due to the fact that banking the financial future of your film on the reaction of the French is always a gamble and it's not due to the fact that the film is un-commercial and possibly disappointing. Put aside the challenge of getting an ideal distributor. I'm not optimistic.

[Big Magilla]

And why, pray tell, does Variety still think that Forest Whitaker is in the cast when he isn't?