The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Cannes to open with glitz, glamour and dash of scandal Posted: 11 May 2014 03:59 AM PDT The 67th Cannes Film Festival gets under way on Wednesday with 18 films showing in the main competition for the Palme d'Or prize awarded by a majority female jury headed by New Zealand director Jane Campion, the only woman ever to receive the top Cannes award for her 1993 film "The Piano". Another 20 films are in the "Un Certain Regard" strand, plus dozens more in the "Directors' Fortnight", the "Critics' Week" and other festival showcases. And, providing the customary dash of controversy, the opening film – "Grace of Monaco" – has been denounced as a "farce" by the late princess's three children. Cannes is "insane, very intense and fun", said Canadian director David Cronenberg, a Cannes regular whose "Maps to the Stars" starring "Twilight" teen vampire series idol Robert Pattinson as a Hollywood wannabe is in competition. British director Mike Leigh, a past winner of the Palme d'Or, whose "Mr Turner" is based on the life of the British landscape painter J.M.W. Turner, said screening a film at Cannes is "a great experience". "I'm always delighted to be there. I think it's my fifth time in competition and I was on the jury so I'm glad to go there with something to do," he said. For Turkish director Nuri Ceylan, whose "Winter Sleep" is in competition and whose films have regularly won awards at Cannes, "this is an opportunity to showcase the country and its film business because this is where the heart of the industry beats", his producer, Zeynep Ozbatur, said. American director Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher" is based on the murder of a championship wrestler by an heir to the DuPont chemical fortune. "The Search" by French director Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist") is set in war-torn Chechnya. American actor-director Tommy Lee Jones's "The Homesman" is a frontier drama starring himself and Meryl Streep while other Cannes veterans in competition include France's Jean-Luc Godard with "Adieu au Langage" and Canada's Atom Egoyan with "The Captive". Add in 25-year-old Xavier Dolan's "Mommy", and Canada has three films in competition to two for the United States, which Cronenberg said is a bit like a victory in the two neighbours' eternal hockey rivalry. "The interesting thing for me is how much this line-up relies really on 'Old Europe' and America. There are a few Asian films, no German films, very few from Scandinavia and not much from Eastern Europe or Russia," said Scott Roxborough, Berlin bureau chief for The Hollywood Reporter. "So it's a lot of familiar faces but also familiar areas – lots of French films, as you always have, a fair chunk of American films and others from places we've seen before." But a party is a party and there is something for every taste. Cannes will host the world premiere of the "How to Train Your Dragon 2" sequel to the animation blockbuster, as well as a blast-from-the-past showing of a restored version of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" cult horror classic from 1974. The festival also is known for controversy and already has one for this year: its opening film, "Grace of Monaco", starring Nicole Kidman as American actress Grace Kelly who married Prince Rainier of Monaco and died after crashing her car in 1982 in hills above the principality, not far to the east of Cannes. For months, the trade press has been reporting that the film's French director, Olivier Dahan, and producer Harvey Weinstein, who owns the American distribution rights, have been sparring over the final cut. This month the Monaco royal family weighed in, calling the film a "farce". Prince Albert and his sisters – Kelly's children Caroline and Stephanie – said a trailer "confirms the totally fictional nature of this film". Asked about the dispute last month, Thierry Fremaux, the festival's director, alluded to French law which stipulates that a film's director decides on the final cut. "We're in France, and at Cannes, the only version is the version of the director," Fremaux said. A whiff of scandal is good for business and Cannes has reliably produced its share ever since the 18-year-old bikinied Brigitte Bardot allowed Hollywood leading man Kirk Douglas to play with her hair in a famous 1953 photo shoot on the beach. The festival is a media magnet and Cronenberg, who won a jury prize at Cannes in 1996 for his film-noir "Crash", says that is exactly what independent producers, like him, want. In a telephone interview he said he would probably do at least 500 interviews in Cannes, providing publicity for his new movie the likes of which he could not get anywhere else. "As an independent we can't afford to send the cast all over the world... (So) it's a fantastic venue to promote a movie." The "wow" and name-recognition factors for Cannes are what seem to set it apart. "It has a magical ring," said British screenwriter Stephen Beresford, whose film "Pride" will be shown out of competition. "When you ring your mum and say your film's got into a film festival, when you say 'Cannes', she knows what you mean." – Reuters, May 11, 2014. |
| Dr Dre, from LA gangsta rapper to Forbes top dog? Posted: 10 May 2014 06:31 PM PDT But that is the path likely set to be taken by Andre Young – better known as Dr Dre – helped by some very cool headphones. The 49-year-old rapper turned producer and entrepreneur would top Forbes' hip hop rich list after striking a US$3.2 billion (RM10.33 billion) deal to sell Apple the company he co-founded eight years ago, Beats Electronics. The agreement, which has not yet been finalized, would boost his net worth to some US$800 million, according to Forbes. Some reports suggest Dre could soon become the world's first hip-hop billionaire. He would pip Sean "Diddy" Combs who was the previous top dog with US$700 million, as well as Jay Z, now in third place with US$520 million, followed by Bryan "Birdman" Williams on US$160 million. "Hip hop is now central to American popular culture," Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University in New York state, told AFP after the deal was reported Friday. "If you get a hip hop artist who can establish a name and a basis of fame and wealth and then they're smart enough to... make sorties into other parts of the culture... that seems a typical American story". Along the way Dre has discovered and worked with some of the biggest acts in music, including Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Combs and others and pioneered gangsta rap as well as west coast G-Funk. He has also won six Grammy awards, including becoming the first hip-hop producer to for Producer of The Year in 2001. But it all started in the tough south LA neighbourhood of Compton, where he was born Andre Romell Young in February 1965, to parents who divorced while he was barely out of short trousers. Compton was well known for gang violence but also for producing hip hop groups and rappers, including gangsta rap group N. W. A. formed by Young and Ice Cube, making their name with its debut album in 1988 "Straight Outta Compton." The record by the band was criticized for violent language and triggered a warning from the FBI. In 1990 he left the group to form Death Row Records, releasing his solo debut "The Chronic" in 1992 to huge commercial success. In 1996 he again left to form Aftermath Entertainment. Shortly after that, rappers Tupak Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. were murdered, triggering Dre to lay low for a few years. His comeback came after releasing his second studio album in 1999, when he was credited with discovering white rapper Eminem. His 2001 Grammy success propelled him up the financial rankings, as he increasingly moved towards producing and business -- co-founding Beats Electronics in 2008 with partner Jimmy Iovine. The firm makes audio equipment, including the ubiquitous headphones taken up by celebrities and sports stars. In 2012 many were seen at the London Olympic Games. On Friday, news reports emerged that Apple is preparing a $3.2 billion buyout of Beats Electronics, in what would be the iconic computer giant's biggest acquisition yet. The Financial Times said Apple would buy not only the headphone brand and other sound equipment but also the firm's recently launched music streaming service, known as Beats Music. "If this goes through and Dr Dre moves up the ( Forbes) list .. it's not going to be so much for his hip hop artistry," said pop professor Thompson. "It's going to be for branching out into ... the whole Beats thing, because he thought Apples headphones were inferior," he said. Dre himself appears confident the deal will go through. In a video posted on YouTube he brags about the deal with actor Tyrese Gibson, who says Forbes needs to update its hip hop rich list, released only a few weeks ago. "The first billionaire in hip-hop, right here from the... West Coast," he tells the camera. – AFP, May 11, 2014. |
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