POSTCARDS FROM CANNES 2007 - DAY NINE
Thursday, May 24
By Jimmy Thomson
The big news today was the premiere of Oceans 13 with most of the cast turning
up to give it a big Cannes boost. The movie is not half bad although it tends to
overcomplicate the technical stuff in an often unnecessary stretch for plot
logic (which it then ignores in a stretch for humour). But it all hangs together
in what has become the trademark of the ultimate caper movie. Coverage of
today’s press conference is slightly truncated because the organisers
spontaneously decided to start early, just to exacerbate the problem of not
enough seats or monitors to service the assembled journos. Even then, when
you’ve got a bunch of high profile talents – whose combination works so well
because they get on well together, it’s going to get slightly out of control at
some point. Judge for yourself in the sound bites from the conference. The
voices you will hear at various times are actors George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt
Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, Ellen Barkin, Elliott Gould, Shaobo Quin, Scott
Caan and Eddie Jemison with director Steven Soderbergh and producer Jerry
Weintraub (who should know better than try to hog the microphone).
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By the way, the festival was supposed to provide audio of all the press
conferences to download free from the internet. Sadly this hasn’t happened –
“technical problems” don’t you know. Of course, that would have meant less work
for me but it would have been nice to have had the original clean audio as a
back-up, given that there’s nowhere quiet to sit and record stuff and no chance
of getting into the Press Conferences. Part of the problem is that many
accredited journalists seem to be little more than fans with laptops, as you can
tell when they storm the podium for autographs at the end of a press conference.
Personally I’d pull their badges at the first sign of any fan-like behaviour.
There was a time when no serious journalist would have been seen dead asking for
a star’s autograph – now they want them to pose for pictures with them.
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A snippet from one of the trade mags mentions a German film being made of the
book Why Men Don’t Listen And Women Can’t Read Maps. I doubt very much if there
are two books of that name which means “body language man”. Alan Pease and his
wife Barbara are about to see their immense popularity in Europe translated to
the silver screen.
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A round-up of the parties gives the Golden Compass bash a thumbs down for being
too nice but they loved the Butterfly And The Diving Bell party which had 250
butterflies fluttering over the bar. Last night also saw a cocktail party for
the Melbourne Film Festival where all the Aussies gathered to share their war
stories and tonight Julian (son of John) Lennon is hosting a charity auction for
Greenpeace and to promote his movie (as producer), Whale Dreamers. More on that
party, the movie and a special message from Julian, tomorrow.
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Magazines like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter bring out special daily Cannes
editions which are distributed free around the festival. And if you think Aussie
critics can be harsh, read these opening paragraphs culled from magazines
published in Cannes this week:
“If only the ravishing opening shot of Andrey Zvaginitsev’s ‘The Banishment’ was
followed up with something genuinely profound, then disappointment wouldn’t be
so palpable.”
“This is a film about a young man who wants to die – 10 minutes in, he wasn’t
the only one.”
“The purposely overwrought, archly acerbic tone has drifted into facetiousness
that combines with an ever more far-fetched plot to the point where the picture
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I lied earlier this week when I said I hadn’t bumped into anyone famous. I keep
seeing David Stratton around town. OK, he’s no George Clooney but he is on
telly.
Wish you were here ...
Published May 25, 2007
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Ocean's Thirteen (Part 1) - audio file
Ocean's Thirteen (Part 2) - audio file
Ocean's Thirteen (Part 3) - audio file
POSTCARD - DAY EIGHT
POSTCARD - DAY TEN
OTHER 2007 POSTCARDS
CANNES PREVIEW
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