The festival got its kick-off with the opening night premiere of La Tête Haute (Standing Tall), a film by Emmanuelle Bercot that has been criticized as everything from “the perfect story of social injustice”, “a film that flies in the face of conservatism” to “a really bad TV-movie”. It tells the story of a troubled teenager who gets dumped on the judicial system by his mother. Despite the big deal that the media made out of the fact that it is directed by a woman, it was France’s grand dame and one of the leads in La Tête Haute, Catherine Deneuve, who got the most attention. And no, Cannes, there are still not enough films by female directors, writers and producers in this year’s competition and there is more girl power in Mad Max: Fury Road (shown out of competition and garnering more raves here than even state side with strong applause at the first press screening) than in most of the films presented.
Last year’s best actress winner (for Maps to the Stars) Julianne Moore opened the evening, welcomed everyone and picked up her prize. She had been unable to attend the closing night ceremony in 2014. The movie didn’t start for an hour and even the big stars ignored the festival’s threat to crack down on selfies and did just that on a red carpet that turned into a runway show for big designers: Naomi Watts showed up in a grey dress with feathered skirt by Elie Saab, Julianne Moore wore her Armani Prive feathers on top and Natalie Portman, with husband Benjamin Millepied stunned in red Dior Couture. But it was Lupita N’yongo’s grasshopper-green Gucci plissee gown that stole the show as the most photographed. N’yongo’s hairdo was inspired by “the women of Uganda” she said. The actress had just returned from Africa where she spent the last two months shooting Queen of Katwe
with Mira Nair. Cannes festival veterans could not help sniping about the ever-increasing number of super- and not-so-supermodels who take up space at the premieres: from Karli Kloss to Doutzen Kroes, Bar Refaeli and the inevitable Cara Delevingne. Some even fear the rumored arrival of Kendall Jenner, because no one of note wants this festival to turn into Kardashian-world. And unless these models serve as arm candy for some Hollywood star, there is really no reason for them to be present anywhere other than the countless fashion designer events along the Croisette.
Not too far away from the bright lights Cannes once again proved to be the world’s foremost business and market festival. In just two days a large amount of films found financing and distribution, among them: Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, starring Michael Caine, Jane Fonda and Rachel Weisz, was acquired by Fox Searchlight. Philippe Garrel’s In the Shadow of Women was picked up by Distrib Films, and Gus Van Sant’s Sea of Trees was acquired by Lionsgate. The studio also bought the rights to Michael Grandage’s upcoming film Genius starring Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Laura Linney and Guy Pearce. Oliver Stone found distribution through Open Road for his Edward Snowden project with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the whistleblower. Also announced was Simon Baker’s directorial debut Breath, a dramatic thriller based on the bestselling novel. The most buzz-worthy of all the acquisitions so far is definitely the Jonathan Jakubowicz-directed Hands of Stone with Edgar Ramirez as the legendary boxer Roberto Duran, Robert DeNiro as his trainer, and Usher as opponent Sugar Ray Leonard. The Weinstein Company made the deal after a rumored all-nighter.
Among the casting announcements were Noomi Rapace who will play Maria Callas in Niki Caro’s biopic that centers on the passionate love story between the famous opera singer and Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Gael García Bernal has been cast as Pablo Neruda in a film by Chilean director Pablo Larrain. And Anne Hathaway will star in Colossal, a film that has been described as‚ Godzilla meets Being John Malkovich. Whatever that means.
Elisabeth Sereda

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