Cannes Update: Man of La Mancha

I had a crazy busy day yesterday, which started off at 8:30 AM with Pedro Almodovar's Volver. That made me happy. (It makes me unhappy not to be seeing more films.) You jump into an Almodovar movie and you're in the hands of a master who takes you into this gorgeous, vivid, supremely entertaining world. Just a shot of someone crossing the street is sublime. At the press conference afterward, Almodovar admitted that he wanted Penelope Cruz to look like Sophia Loren or Claudia Cardinale—and she's never been lovelier. This is Almodovar at his most Sirkian: Volver is high melodrama, with murder and incest and a frozen body and cooking and many many women, mothers, daughters, sisters and even a ghost (Carmen Maura) who returns to make peace with her daughter, Cruz. At the conference, Almodovar admitted that with this film he was going back to his roots in La Mancha, and to the women who raised him. This is by far his most personal film, he said; an area of his psyche that had long been blocked is now, finally, open. At the moment the Almodovar is leading the list of contenders for the Palme d'or.

Yesterday I finally visited the beachside American Pavilion for a quick bite before the Fast Food Nation press conference. (More on the movie later.) I went on to an interview on the sweltering Majestic terrace (that story will run Monday). Then to the Paramount Vantage beach party, Weinstein Co. Martinez party, Dreamgirls event at the Martinez with early footage of the movie (looks great, really entertaining) and a 10 PM market screening of X-Men. (It's fun. Brett Ratner puts the X-Men on wires and makes them fly, basically.) I'm off to talk to Ratner now at a villa in the hills.

There's plenty of Cannes coverage on the web, from greencine to Richard and Mary Corliss at Time.com to the LA Times The Envelope. Richard is among those building buzz on Paris je t'aime.

Comments

[Alan Green]

anne

let me tell you. today i have to go to the bank, then stop by the bookstore on the way home. oh, and throw in a couple phone calls (i know - how do i manage). i am bizz-eee. whew. well, gotta run

z