The Italian-American actress and director Isabella Rossellini has kindly agreed to preside the Un Certain Regard Jury, the Official Selection of the Festival de Cannes of 68 Cannes Film Festival made up of twenty films to be announced, along with the films In Competition, at the press conference on 16th April.
The daughter of Italian director Roberto Rossellini and Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, to whom this year’s Festival de Cannes is to pay tribute, Isabella began her cinematic career alongside her father as a dresser, before becoming acting for the Taviani Brothers – family friends who gave her a role in The Meadow (1979). Her career quickly took an international turn, with White Nights by Taylor Hackford (1985), Tough Guys Don’t Dance by Norman Mailer (1987), Les Yeux noirs (1987) by Nikita Mikhalkov, Blue Velvet (1986) and then Wild at Heart (1990) by David Lynch, for whom she played a number of mysterious and tortured female roles.
She went on to star in a wider variety of guises for both television and film in Italy and America but returned to arthouse cinema with Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral (1996), and Two Lovers by James Gray (2008), in which she played a role of remarkable intensity. In 2010 she appeared in The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Saverio Costanzo.
In 2008 following a request from Robert Redford, she threw herself into directing a miniseries devoted to the reproduction, seduction techniques and maternal behaviour of animals. Green Porno, Seduce me and Mammas – all produced by SundanceTV – revealed her irresistible comic talent and off-beat sense of humour.
Isabella Rossellini and Jean-Claude Carrière then made a scenic version entitled Animals Distracted Me, which toured the world to great acclaim.
At the Festival de Cannes, Isabella Rossellini will take part in the tribute to her mother by attending the screening of Ingrid Bergman, in Her Own Words, a documentary by Stig Björkman being shown as part of the Cannes Classics.
She will also launch her own ‘Ingrid Bergman Tribute’ to celebrate the centenary of her mother’s birth. The show, directed by Guido Torlonia and Ludovica Damiani, will be based on both her autobiography and her correspondence with Roberto Rossellini and will play on some at the world’s major theatres.
With the help of a soon-to-be-announced Jury made up of artists, journalists and festival directors, Isabella Rossellini will award the Un Certain Regard Prize and meet the winners on Saturday 23rd of May, on the eve of the closing ceremony.
The 2014 Un Certain Regard was awarded by President of the Jury Pablo Trapero to White God directed by Kornél Mundruczó.
Isabella Rossellini and Jean-Claude Carrière then made a scenic version entitled Animals Distracted Me, which toured the world to great acclaim.
68 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL UPDATE
Australian leading ladies Cate Blanchett, 45, and Naomi Watts, 46, will go head-to-head at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May.
Oscar-winner Blanchett’s new film Carol is pitted against Watts’ Sea Of Trees as the famed actresses compete for the coveted Palme d’Or top prize – with the line-up revealed on Friday.
Debuting at the glamorous cinematic soiree, Blanchett’s Carol, directed by Todd Haynes and an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, follows her character’s clandestine love affair.
Set in 1950s New York, Blanchett’s character becomes embroiled in a relationship with much younger department store worker, played by Rooney Mara.
Meanwhile, Watts’ Gus Van Sant Sea Of Trees also promises big things. Starring Oscar fodder Matthew McConaughey, 45, and Ken Watanabe, 55, the existential journey is a tale of survival and was shot in Massachusetts and Japan.
The film tells the tale of a depressed man (McConaughey), who is making his way through the notorious Suicide Forest, where he heartbreakingly plans to take his own life. On his travels the character crosses paths with an influential Japanese man who has him re-evaluating his decision in no time. Blanchett and Watts aren’t the only Australians looking to make their mark at the French Riviera festival.
Snowtown director Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth has secured a Palme d’Or nod.
British actor Michael Fassbender and French talent Marion Cotillard, play the titular characters in the Shakespearean tragedy that depicts political power play and murder.
Emmanuelle Bercot’s Standing Tall will kick of the 68th Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 13 to 24.
So far 17 entrants for the coveted Palme d’Or have been announced, but organisers promise more in the coming week.
The jury for the honour will be headed by film directors Joel and Ethan Coen.
Palme d’Or entrants:
- Carol, Todd Haynes
- Macbeth, Justin Kurzel
- Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
- La Loi du March, Stephane Brize
- Marguerite and Julien, Valerie Donzelli
- The Tale of Tales, Matteo Garrone
- The Assassin, Hou Hsiao Hsien
- Mountains May Depart, Jia Zhangke
- Our Little Sister, Hirokazu Koreeda
- The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos
- Mon roi, Maiwenn
- Mia Madre, Nanni Moretti
- Son of Saul, Laszlo Nemes
- Youth, Paulo Sorrentino
- Louder Than Bombs, Joachim Trier
- Sea of Trees, Gus Van Sant
- Sicario, Denis Villeneuve
CELEBRITIES TOLD TO STOP POSING FOR ‘RIDICULOUS AND GROTESQUE’ SELFIES ON THE RED CARPET AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Since Ellen Degeneres broke the internet with her celebrity selfie at last year’s Oscars, taking mobile phone snaps on the red carpet has become a must-do for A-list stars. But this year’s Cannes Film Festival has been declared a selfie-free zone after organisers asked celebrities to stop taking the ‘ridiculous and grotesque’ images. While Cannes director Thierry Fremaux admitted that he did not have the powers to ban the pictures altogether, he urged movie starts to resist the temptation.
Celebrities who will have to watch their selfie-taking at the 68th ceremony include Cate Blanchett, who stars in a film about lesbian love, and Michael Fassbender, who features in a film based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and Benicio del Toro will also be welcomed to the French Riviera when the event gets underway in a month’s time.
Mr Fremaux today announced 17 films that will be competing for prizes at the May 13-24 festival, chosen from more than 1,800 submissions.
Fassbender will star opposite Marion Cotillard star in a film version of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ by Australian director Justin Kurzel.
Meanwhile, Blanchett stars in Carol, Todd Haynes’s adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel about a clandestine lesbian love affair in 1950s New York.
Other nominations include Jia Zhangke ‘Mountains May Depart,’ Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘Youth’ – a film about age starring Michael Caine – and Gus Van Sant’s forest feature ‘The Sea of Trees’.
Returning Cannes veterans include ‘Gomorrah’ director Matteo Garrone, with ‘The Tale of Tales,’ starring John C. Reilly and Salma Hayek; South Korea’s Kore-eda Hirokazu with sibling saga ‘Our Little Sister’; and France’s Jacques Audiard with ‘Dheepan,’ the story of a Tamil refugee in France.
Also in the lineup are films by Italy’s Nanni Moretti and Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
Cannes organizers have faced criticism for not selecting more films by female directors, but, or the first time in more than 25 years, this year’s festival will be opened by a film by a woman.
French director Emmanuelle Bercot’s drama ‘La Tete Haute’ (Head Held High), about a teenager steered away from a life of crime by a judge.
Two more female filmmakers are in competition: Valerie Donzelli with ‘Marguerite and Julien’ and Maiwenn with ‘Mon Roi’ (‘My King’). Both directors are French.
Geographically, the entries range from Europe to China, South Korea, the U.S. and Mexico, setting of Denis Villeneuve’s narco-crime drama ‘Sicario.’
Genres range from drama to martial-arts thriller to science fiction rom-com
– in the form of ‘The Lobster,’ a film by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos starring
Weisz and Colin Farrell.
Fremaux said several more films will be added to the competition before the festival opens.
Films in the lineup but not competing for prizes include Woody Allen’s campus comedy
‘Irrational Man,’ starring Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, George Miller’s dystopian
thriller ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and Asif Kapadia’s documentary about the late singer Amy
Winehouse, ‘Amy.’
Pixar, whose buoyant ‘Up’ opened the festival in 2009, returns with ‘Inside Out,’ in which
an adolescent girl’s thoughts and emotions become animated characters.
Actress Portman makes her feature-film directorial debut with ‘A Tale of Love and Darkness,’
based on a memoir by Israeli writer Amos Oz.
Winners of the Palme d’Or and other prizes will be chosen by a jury led by directors Joel
and Ethan Coen.
