2007 Cannes Aims to Please with Blockbusters & Celebrity Sightings
May 16th marked the opening of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in France and the 60th anniversary of the prestigious event. In the past few days, Cannes has hosted countless screenings of blockbuster releases and restored classics, a highly-anticipated appearance by Brangelina, and even a mini red carpet concert courtesy of U2.
Some of the most newsworthy films slated for the festival include Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Thirteen, Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai’s English language debut My Blueberry Nights, Michael Moore’s Sicko, and A Mighty Heart starring Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl, the wife of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl. The event also hosts a variety of other works, including foreign films, restored John Wayne Westerns like Hondo and Rio Bravo, as well as a documentary on global warming starring Leonardo DiCaprio entitled The 11th Hour.
The lesser known talent appears to be overshadowing the big names in this year’s competition for the grand prize of the Palme d’Or. Moore, who won the honor in 2004 with his film Fahrenheit 9/11 has received mixed reviews for Sicko, which amounts to little more than a tirade on the quality of U.S. health care. Tim Ryan writes in his review for the site Rotten Tomatoes that Moore’s film “contains many of the same problems as his previous works: it’s a manipulative oversimplification of a complex issue.”
Ryan also deems Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Orphanage as one of the surprises of the festival. Described as a psychological thriller of the best kind, it revolves around a couple who adopt an HIV-infected boy named Simon and reside in a renovated orphanage with paranormal activity. Ryan maintains that the film, which received a five-minute standing ovation after its screening, is “a movie for which the term ‘cult favorite’ was coined.”
As one of the most renown film festivals in the world, Cannes never fails with a myriad of celebrity sitings. Brad Pitt and Jolie were of course there to promote A Mighty Heart, which Pitt produced. He also starred in Ocean’s Thirteen, the answer to Ocean’s Twelve, which grossed over $363 million worldwide. Grammy winner Norah Jones also appeared to help publicize her film debut in My Blueberry Nights alongside Natalie Portman and Jude Law. The festival wraps up next week on the 29th, with no apparent front runner as of now.