Actor and director Sean Penn has spoken out about the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike at the Cannes Film Festival, calling any pushback from producers on the use of artificial intelligence for scripting "a human obscenity". Penn joined a growing group of stars at Cannes who are endorsing the strike action, including Ethan Hawke, who wore a "Pencils Down" T-shirt, and Paul Dano, who is planning to picket with his wife, Zoe Kazan. The WGA is seeking better pay, streaming-era contracts and protection against the use of scripted AI.
The latest film from British director Jonathan Glazer presents the true story of Rudolph Höss, who served as the commandant of Auschwitz. Based on an adaptation of Martin Amis’s book The Zone of Interest, the film, despite its lack of anything graphic, offers a startlingly effective narrative by presenting the daily routines of the Nazis who worked in the concentration camp. Auschwitz is never shown directly, the brutality only hinted with images which build in intensity as the film progresses. Despite key moments of repugnance, it is still described as an essential and truly moving experience.
Actor Harrison Ford was photographed peeking at his wife, Calista Flockhart, as she posed for pictures ahead of the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the Cannes Film Festival. The picture of the couple, who have been married for 13 years, circulated on Twitter, with one user calling it "one of the best pictures of Harrison Ford". Ford has been married three times and has four biological children, with Flockhart having one adopted son, Liam.
Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania has made her first entry to the Cannes Film Festival's top prize with her film "Four Daughters," which mixes fiction and documentary to tell the story of Olfa Hamrouni. The only Arab film in the competition, it follows Hamrouni, who criticised the Tunisian authorities in 2016 after her daughters joined Islamic State in Libya. Aware that Hamrouni had already been conditioned by journalists, Ben Hania hired actors to play the missing daughters and asked Hamrouni to coach Hind Sabri, who portrays her in the film, on specific details and motivations.
Harrison Ford returned for his last outing in the Indiana Jones series, on the condition that the character had an “equal relationship” with a woman and not simply be a rescuing love interest. He put this demand forward as one of several requirements, which The Dial of Destiny script had to meet for Ford, now 80, to reprise the role. In this film, that leading lady is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve, who plays Jones’s goddaughter. Addressing his character’s age was another stipulation made by Ford before agreeing to join the project.
The latest film from British director Jonathan Glazer presents the true story of Rudolph Höss, who served as the commandant of Auschwitz. Based on an adaptation of Martin Amis’s book The Zone of Interest, the film, despite its lack of anything graphic, offers a startlingly effective narrative by presenting the daily routines of the Nazis who worked in the concentration camp. Auschwitz is never shown directly, the brutality only hinted with images which build in intensity as the film progresses. Despite key moments of repugnance, it is still described as an essential and truly moving experience.
AP Photo Editor Anita Baca has curated a gallery of the most compelling images from around the world in the past week, including shots of the Cannes Film Festival, election results in Turkey and Thailand, and more. The images were taken or published by the Associated Press and can be found on the AP News Instagram and AP Images Twitter pages.
Harrison Ford has defended his use of digital de-ageing technology in the opening scenes of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this week. Many reviewers had questioned the believability of the technology, which shows a digitally recreated Ford at the start of the film, despite the action occurring many years after previous Indiana Jones movies. “I know that that is my face,” he said. “It’s not a kind of Photoshop magic – that’s what I looked like 35 years ago."
Filmmaker Steve McQueen has premiered his new four-and-a-half-hour documentary, "Occupied City," at Cannes film festival. The film focuses on the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam by using contemporary shots of the city alongside a narrated account of what happened in specific locations under Nazi rule. McQueen said the film is about showing a connection between World War II and the present, and that he hopes the documentary will help viewers better understand the rise of the far-right and the war in Ukraine. The film has been compared to some of the great World War II films and has received Universal acclaim from critics. McQueen's upcoming feature film, "Blitz," is also set during this time period.
Pop star Dua Lipa has made her first red-carpet appearance at the Cannes Film Festival with her rumoured boyfriend, the director Romain Gavras. The pair were seen smiling and holding hands as they arrived at a screening of Omar La Fraise (The King Of Algiers) on Friday. Rumours of the pair's relationship began when they were seen together at an event during Paris Fashion Week earlier this year. The couple had also attended a party together in London. Lipa previously dated Anwar Hadid, the younger brother of models Gigi and Bella, until December 2020.
“The Zone of Interest” screened at Cannes on Friday, a film which turns its lens on the Auschwitz death camp, and the commandant who oversaw the extermination of over one million prisoners. A shocking portrayal of events, the film brings a unique perspective to what is a familiar story that will shock and disturb even the hardest of viewers. The film was shot entirely at the Auschwitz concentration camp, for authenticity and impact, and it has emerged as a standard bearer for this year’s Cannes.
The Zone of Interest, directed by Jonathan Glazer, delivered Cannes' first critical sensation by approaching the Holocaust from an unlikely perspective. The chilling drama uses a fictional German family with a home that borders Auschwitz, who live their mostly peaceful lives while incinerators rumble on in the background. The father is Rudolf Höss, a Nazi commandant who designed Auschwitz, and who lives with his wife and children. Critics said the film's formal rigor captured the capacity of people to compartmentalise horror and predicts it will win the Palme d’Or, which will be handed out May 27.
"The New Boy," a film by Warwick Thornton which premiered at Cannes Film Festival, is based on the director's experience of walking into a church for the first time at the age of 11. It is about an eccentric nun at a monastery in 1940s Australia which takes in an Indigenous boy with intriguing powers (Aswan Reid plays the 9-year-old titular New Boy) who can seemingly heal wounds with his touch and starts bleeding from his palms, in a magical-realist conflict of spirituality. The nuns set about trying to convert the boy, but the film ultimately helps viewers understand the emotional gravitas of colonization. Reception has been lukewarm, with the Guardian daily giving it three of five stars and The Hollywood Reporter summarizing it as "engrossing, even when the story strays from its path."
Killers of the Flower Moon, the latest film from Martin Scorsese, premiered yesterday at Cannes. The new movie is being compared favourably to Scorsese’s hit film The Irishman, another sweeping gangster movie that focused on the criminality that pervades the US. Killers of the Flower Moon is a larger-than-life western epic that retells the story of the Osage Indian murders of the 1920s, in which white colonists killed 60 Native Americans in order to secure rights to their oil. The film stars Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone.
British author Martin Amis has passed away at the age of 73 from cancer of the esophagus. Best known for his novel "Money," which satirised consumerism in London, Amis was also praised for his memoir "Experience" and other works including "The Information" and "London Fields". He was part of a group of writers that included Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan, as well as his close friend, the late Christopher Hitchens.
British author Martin Amis has died at the age of 73. Confirmed to have died from oesophageal cancer by his agent Andrew Wylie, Amis was the son of another famous British author, Kingsley Amis. Known for his rockstar persona and strong writing style, Amis was considered a leading British voice of a generation of writers which included Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and late writer Christopher Hitchens. Some of Amis’s most famous books include his satirical novel “Money”, “The Information”, and “Experience” – a memoir from 2000. This year’s Cannes Film Festival premiered “The Zone of Interest” – a film based on Amis’s 2014 novel.
Renowned British novelist Martin Amis has died at the age of 73 from cancer of the oesophagus. He was known for his sharp wit, ironic tone and subversive style, which were applied to tackle a range of subjects including masculinity, money and terrorism. Amis was the son of celebrated writer Kingsley Amis and became a leading force among writers in the 1980s, along with Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and his close friend, the late Christopher Hitchens. Among his most famous works were “Money,” “The Information” and “London Fields,” which focused on consumerism, celebrity and morality.
Martin Amis, the novelist who helped redefine British literature with dark, satirical novels, has died aged 73. His heavy doses of cultural criticism and misanthropic bite saw him compared to Kingsley Amis, his father. The so-called London trilogy is thought to have dramatised the greed, compromised morals and a society asleep at the wheel and continues to hold a place in contemporary British literature. His most recently published novel, “Inside Story” (2020), was described as a “novelized autobiography” that included reminiscences of fellow writers and friends including Christopher Hitchens and Saul Bellow. Earlier this week, a film adaptation of his 2014 novel “The Zone of Interest” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and died at his home in Lake Worth, Fla. His survivors include Mr. Amis’s two children from his first marriage; two children with wife Isabel Fonseca, and a daughter from another relationship.
May December is the latest Todd Haynes film to be released and examines themes that are deep and profound, focusing on identity and isolation. It follows the story of Gracie (Julianne Moore) and her husband, Joe (Charles Melton) after she had an affair with him while he was 13 years old. Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) arrives to research the story in the hope of playing Gracie in a film about the affair. Elizabeth is coming across as a narcissist, using her opportunity as a stepping stone in her pursuit of becoming an actress, but struggles with the consequences of her deceit. Meanwhile, Gracie tries to reconnect with her two sons that have a fractured relationship with her after the affair. The film explores how we can know one another, while dissecting the nature of the characters, identities, acting, denial, and age of consent. Additionally, it examines our different ways of growing up, the potential for failure and what leads to the isolation that people can feel.
Martin Scorsese's upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, has received a strong reception at Cannes. The film tells the story of the Osage murders of the 1920s, with a western true-crime thriller retelling. Killers of the Flower Moon premiered on 20 May at this year's Cannes Film Festival to the biggest standing ovation of the event so far. The highly praised performances of De Niro, DiCaprio and Gladstone feature in a film with Scorsese's signature themes, such as the darker aspects of humanity and the myths of cowboys and outlaws. However, some have criticised the film's running time of three-and-a-half hours.
