POSTCARDS FROM CANNES 2007 - DAY THREE
Friday, May 18
By Jimmy Thomson
My legs have gone to sleep and my bum is decidedly numb. This is queuing Cannes
style. The film isn’t due to start for another hour and the keen (and desperate)
have already been here that long, in the off chance that there might be a few
seats left once the great and the good have parked their backsides. We’re
waiting to see the new Coen brothers movie No Country For Old Men and, sitting
on a marble floor with a laptop on my lap (oddly enough); I’m not alone. Right
now the queue looks like a geeky version of Woodstock, with notebooks and Apples
instead of guitars and bongos ... but nobody has had a baby yet. Now my knees
have locked. No Country For Old Men – you said it, baby.
Many puzzled looks as we left the movie, not least because it felt like a
work in progress and the ending was obscure, to say the least. But there are
some fine performances – notably from Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee
Jones and a very un-Scottish Kelly Macdonald – and the film is very watchable. A
tighter edit before it hits the multiplexes would do it no harm at all.
*************
The Australian Film Commission put the red carpet out for Cannes tonight,
despite the fact that the only major Aussie presence at the festival is Toni
Collette’s membership of the jury. Everyone seemed impressed with classy finger
food – you can’t go wrong with Aussie nibbles prepared by French chefs – and the
waiters dressed as lifeguards were very convincing ... until you asked them for
something complicated like a “coldie”. Your faithful correspondent left early to
go and sit on a marble floor but it looked like a good time was about to be had
by all.
*************
The soon to be released British crime and politics movie The Bank Job was being
promoted today on a luxury motor cruiser moored behind the Palais Des Festivals.
But cast members Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows were being unusually
tight-lipped about the key to the whole shemozzle - exactly why the story of the
real-life robbery back in the 70s was suppressed with a “D” notice, the British
government’s way of keeping a lid on anything that is deemed not to be in (or
rather against) the national interest. Claiming that the suppression order is
still running – because they exist until they are revoked – the crew were
unusually coy about why they thought the multi-million pound heist never made it
to the papers or, indeed, the courts, even though the police were tipped off. Or
it could just be Hollywood hokum. The film does look good, though. And the
rumour doing the rounds is that the original story was suppressed because the
robbers found pictures of a now deceased member of the Royal Family doing
something very naughty with someone they shouldn’t even have been near. All, as
they say, will be revealed in the movie.
*************
Life imitates art, part 127. Control star Sam Riley who plays Joy Division lead
singer Ian Curtis has taken up with Alexandra Maria Lara who plays Annik Honoré,
the woman who fell in love with and beguiled Curtis. And Riley used to sing in a
rock band one of whose members had epileptic fits. Spooky.
*************
As if to prove that Cannes lives in its own parallel universe, fireworks went
off at 12.40 am this morning. Ah, well, I suppose it’s Le Weekend.
Wish you were here ...
Published May 19, 2007
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No Country For Old Men
POSTCARD - DAY TWO
POSTCARD - DAY FOUR
Toni Collette - Jury Member (Getty Images Europe)
OTHER 2007 POSTCARDS
CANNES PREVIEW
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