Archive for March, 2013

Jack the Giant Slayer

Fantasy tales make a fabulous bedtime story. That quiet half an hour when a parent reads to their anxious child the bedtime story involving a beautiful princess, some fairies and the occasional Giant is hugely significant in the passing down of a culture’s myths and legends. A recent Hollywood trend starting with the visually arresting Snow White and the Huntsman has seen many fairytales and fantasy films like Oz the Great and Powerful being re-imagined. The tale of Jack and the Bean stalk is vividly recreated by X-Men director Bryan Singer in the Feudal Fantasy Jack the Giant Slayer, featuring Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man) as the hapless commoner Jack who goes to town to sell his stallion and soon receives some magical beans in payment for the horse from a shady monk.

Whilst the exchange occurs Jack meets the gorgeous Princess Isabelle played by Eleanor Tomlinson who is eager to escape the confines of her father’s kingdom. At King Brahmwell’s insistence Isabelle is destined to marry the scheming Roderick played with evil panache by Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) and assisted by his sidekick Wicke played by Trainspotting star Ewen Bremner. The Kingdom’s protector  brave Elmont played by Ewan McGregor (The Impossible, Moulin Rouge) has a task on his hand trying to keep track of the illusive princess.

One stormy night upon her escape she comes across Jack in his humble abode and unbeknownst to them one of his magical beans has gotten wet and soon a gigantic beanstalk grows taking the princess up into the heavens and soon to become the mercy of a band of giants which inhabits the heavens and are merciless and forever hungry. Soon the adventure of Jack the Giant Slayer begins as Jack, Elmost and a band of the King’s men climb the treacherous bean stalk in a quest to save the proverbial princess. Bryan Singer brings all the visual dexterity that made the original X-Men trilogy and Valkyrie so dazzling to this cinematic recreation of Jack and the Beanstalk and firmly entrenches Jack the Giant Slayer in the long forgotten realm of British feudal patriarchal society whereby monarchy was supreme and power and royal continuity was enforced through myth and legend. Especially when the Kingdom of Cloisters is being threatened by a band of evil man-eating Giants.

“Be Quiet, I am talking to Giants”

Stanley Tucci is wonderful as slimy Roderick, the facilitator of evil and Giant dealer with his best line being “Be Quiet, I am talking to Giants”. Ewan McGregor is a great supporting actor to the little known Nicholas Hoult as the hero Jack who not only has to slay Giants but also prove his worth to the vain King Brahmwell in order to marry his illusive daughter, the ever resourceful princess. All narrative is tied up in fairytales of some sort and this plot is no different and while the script could have been expanded, Jack the Giant Slayer relies heavily on action and visual effects, which are spellbinding to say the least especially the final medieval battle between knights and Giants at the Cloisters Castle.

Like all battles fought, and all legends lived, many are entwined into narrative and myth to make a wonderful bedtime stories that can be passed down the generations, making it just as valuable as the gorgeous crown jewels which survive in the Tower of London. Jack the Giant Slayer, though thin on character development, relies heavily on the fabulous narrative of a simple farmer Jack slaying Giants to gain the hand of the princess and not much characterization is needed when such dazzling special effects are used to recreate another cinematic fairy tale. Recommended  for definitive and entertaining family viewing!

2007 Cannes Film Festival Winners

Winners of the five main prizes at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival were as follows: –

Palm d’Or – Cristian Mungiu for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Best Director – Julian Schnabel – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Best Actor:  Konstantin Lavronenko – The Banishment

Best Actress: Jeon Do-yeon in Secret Sunshine

Best Screenplay: Fatih Akın for Auf der anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Cannes_Film_Festival

2006 Cannes Film Festival Winners

Winners of the five main prizes at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival were as follows: –

Palm d’Or: The Wind that Shakes the Barley directed by Ken Loach

Best Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu director of Babel

Best Actor:  The cast  of Indigènes  (Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem) – Days of Glory

Best Actress: Penélope Cruz for Volver

Best Screenplay: Pedro Almodóvar for Volver

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Cannes_Film_Festival

2005 Cannes Film Festival Winners

Winners of the five main prizes at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival are as follows –

Palm d’Or – Les Enfants (The Children) directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Best Director: Michael Haneke for Cache (Hidden)

Best Actor: Tommy Lee Jones – The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Best Actress: Hanna Laslo in Free Zone

Best Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cannes_Film_Festival

2004 Cannes Film Festival Winners

Winners of the five main prizes at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival were as follows: –

Palm d’Or – Fahrenheit 9/11 directed by Michael Moore

Best Director: – Tony Gatlif for Exils

Best Actor: – Yûya Yagira in Nobody Knows

Best Actress: – Maggie Cheung in Clean

Best Screenplay Award: Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri for Look at Me

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Cannes_Film_Festival

W./E.

Ravishingly told!

Madonna’s directorial debut focuses on the stylish romance and subsequent marriage of King Edward VIII to swanky American divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1936 in the period drama W/E sparking the abdication of the King in one of the most scandalous romances of the 20^th century. W/E also has a concurrent narrative of a Park Avenue socialite Wally Winthrop who after leaving her job at Sotheby’s Auction House in New York falls into a loveless and cruel marriage with a heavy-drinking and bitter psychiatrist played by Richard Coyle. In both instances Wallis Simpson, played by Andrea Riseborough and the fictional character of New Yorker Wally played by Australian actress Abbie Cornish suffer abuse by their violent  first husbands, Madonna attempts to highlight more the plight of privileged woman physically abused by powerful men.

Not that W/E is just about gender violence, but more about the romance and sacrifice that both King Edward VIII, known as David, played by James D’Arcy and Wallis Simpson enjoyed and endured as their love carried them through the abdication crisis, media scrutiny and lavish exile in France. Not to mention that both Edward and Wallis, who become the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were vilified in the American and British press in the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II for apparently being Nazi sympathizers following a prolific meeting with Hitler in 1937.

Naturally W/E should be seen as a lesser companion piece to the Oscar winning Tom Hooper film The King’s Speech focusing on King George VI also know as Bertie who had to cope with the abdication of his older more articulate brother Edward along with Britain’s eventual entry into World War II in September 1939. The last five years of the 1930’s was an extremely unstable period both politically and socially with many geopolitical changes  occurring rapidly with the military expansion of Nazi Germany in Europe and the impending threat of World War. During the war years the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor lived in the Bahamas where he was Govenor according to the fascinating life of Wallis Simpson – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallis_Simpson

Benzedrine in the Champagne

Through historical footage, Madonna shows us not only the historical aspects of this period, but of the lavish and all together captivating love affair which occurred between Edward, the then Prince of Wales and the forthright American from Baltimore Wallis Simpson, as the couple become the darlings of the international Mediterranean party scene from Cannes to Portofino. The Prince of Wales offered gorgeous gifts of custom made Cartier crosses to his love, Wallis Simpson as they frolicked in the surf in the French Riviera. The dashing and charming Edward, who felt nothing of popping Benzedrine into guests Champagne glasses at a Belgravia midnight screening and soon got the party started  with Wallis Simpson, doing a particularly zany thirties jive with pearls flying and music blasting. In this fabulous party scene that W/E depicts Wallis and Edward as the epitome of celebrity chic, the opulent couple worshiped by the established international elite made up of wealthy Americans and Britons who made the French Riviera their fashionable playground.

The Sotheby’s Auction in New York

Whilst the second narrative of Wally befriending a Russian immigrant security guard Evgeni played by Oscar Isaac at the 1998 Sotheby’s  Auction of the gorgeous possessions of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in New York that is lovingly fleshed out in the second part of W/E, it is really also just as significant since Wally eventually travels to Paris to fulfil her obsession with Wallis Simpson by requesting to read the Duchess’s private letters held by Mohamed Al Fayed at the Duke and Duchess’s former Parisian chateau near the Bois du Bologne,  father of Dodi who was killed along with Diana, the Princess of Wales in the fatal 1997 car crash in Paris a year before that makes this quest on Wally’s part both liberating and poignant.

Madonna’s real talent lies in her music but her hand as a director of such an interesting subject as the love affair between Wallis and King Edward should not be discounted as she focuses more on their lavish affair which become internationally known as the Romance of the Century.

From a feminist perspective, Madonna’s lavish film W/E is more about style than substance with engaging shots of New York and Paris, yet even the relevant character sketching scenes portray both the affluent Wally in 1998 and the stylish Wallace in 1936 as emblematic of how woman throughout the centuries no matter how gorgeously attired they are, can also become victims of physical violence and social scorn. The film is adequately assisted by a heart rendering musical score by Abel Korzeniowski and stylish costumes by Arianne Phillips and will appeal to all lovers of stylish period dramas.

*

2003 Cannes Film Festival  Winners

Winners of the five main prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival were as follows:

Palm d’Or: Elephant directed by Gus Van Sant

Best Director: Gus Van Sant for Elephant

Best Actor: Muzaffer Özdemir and Emin Toprak for Uzak (Distant)

Best Actress: Marie-Josée Croze for Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions)

Best Screenplay: Denys Arcand for Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Cannes_Film_Festival

2002 Cannes Film Festival Winners

Winners of the five main prizes at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival were as follows:

Palm d’Or – The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski

Best Directors: Im Kwon-taek for Chi-hwa-seon (Painted Fire) &

Paul Thomas Anderson for Punch-Drunk Love

Best Actor: Olivier Gourmet for Le Fils (The Son)

Best Actress: Kati Outinen for Mies vailla menneisyyttä (The Man Without a Past)

Best Screenplay: Sweet Sixteen by Paul Laverty

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Cannes_Film_Festival

2001 Cannes Film Festival Winners

Winners of the five main prizes at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival were as follows:

Palm d’Or: La stanza del figlio (The Son’s Room) directed by Nanni Moretti

Best Director: David Lynch – Mulholland Drive

& Joel Coen  – The Man Who Wasn’t There

Best Actor: Benoît Magimel for La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher)

Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert for La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher)

Best Screenplay: No Man’s Land by Danis Tanović

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Cannes_Film_Festival

2000 Cannes Film Festival Winners

Winners of the five main prizes at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival were as follows:

Palm d’Or – Dancer in the Dark directed by Lars von Trier

Best Director – Edward Yang – Yiyi –

Best Actor – Tony Leung Chi Wai – Fa Yeung na Win

Best Actress – Bjork – Dancer in the Dark

Best Screenplay – James Flamberg and John C. Richards – Nurse Betty

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Cannes_Film_Festival