Americans want the French with baguettes and berets,” the actress-writer-director Julie Delpy (“Before Sunrise”) told me last month, “The way French people handle sexuality is too controversial for American audiences.” That remark resonated when I watched actress-writer-director Maiwenn submerge herself in the sordid world of the Paris Child Protection Unit. …
I try to love Wes Anderson. Really. I do. Give me “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” any day, or “Rushmore;” even “The Royal Tenenbaums.” But his latest twee tableau shortchanges story and character development (oy vey – is the point arrested development again?). The retro comedy waves a banner of cleverness, …
Fact: Men directed all 22 films in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 65th Cannes International Film Festival. Fact: The only woman to win that coveted prize was Jane Campion for “The Piano” in 1993 — and that was a joint victory. Cannes, we’ve got a problem — and …
In seventh grade, I had a routine: go to my friend Katy’s house, do our advanced math homework, play Yahtzee and watch “Dark Shadows.” After the credits, I would run the three blocks to my suburban San Diego cul de sac under the bright Southern California sun in abject terror, …
No one ever claimed that women had bridged the director’s-chair gender gap, but it’s a complete kick in the can that this year’s Cannes Film Festival has not a single female-directed film among the 23 in competition. I love contenders like David Cronenberg, whose Cosmopolis — starring Robert Pattinson — …
Kirsten Dunst, like Drew Barrymore or Lindsay Lohan, is a blond that grew up in front of the camera – arguably the most gorgeous, and certainly the finest actress of the three. In Melancholia, she also becomes the most daring and memorable as Justine, a young bride whose anxiety spoils …
From his angry young man in La Haine (1995), to his Capoeira-loving Ocean’s 12 sidekick and his Cesar-award winning Mesrine, Vincent Cassel, 44, gives his all: head, heart and muscle. We sat down at Manhattan‘s Mercer Hotel to discuss his domineering ballet master in Black Swan. I found him intense, …
Leo on Her Unconventional Oscar Ads February 10, 2011 10:00 AM by Thelma Adams Actress Melissa Leo inevitably surprises. Usually, it’s because she dives so deep into her characters. Whether she’s jabbing her forefinger at the camera as The Fighter‘s peroxide-blonde matriarch Alice Ward, or driving a clunker across a …