The Associated Press
CANNES, France (AP) — The Associated Press is all over the Cannes Film Festival — from its glitzy premieres to the celeb parties and quirky moments in between. Here’s what reporters have seen and heard:
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LOOK OF THE DAY: JESSICA CHASTAIN
CANNES, France — Ivory-skinned, red-head beauty Jessica Chastain looked like an ethereal Roman goddess for the “Foxcatcher” premiere at Cannes in a gown by Elie Saab.
The asymmetrical, one-shoulder, silk couture gown — in on-trend purple — fluttered and turned elemental as the French Riviera wind picked up, showing off the beauty of the delicate ruffles.
Taken from the haute couture spring-summer 2014, Lebanese designer Saab shows he’s lost none of his talent with the va-va-voom traffic stoppers. And Chastain worked the carpet — and the wind — with grace.
— Thomas Adamson — http://twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP
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R-PATZ RATES FILM ROMP WITH MOORE
Robert Pattinson is making quite a surprising reputation for himself — as the actor who has sex with older women in cars on film.
The 28-year-old star plays Jerome, a chauffeur and would-be actor, in David Cronenberg’s latest film “Maps to the Stars,” which premiered Monday at Cannes. In it, he has a romp with the desperate Julianne Moore character in a car.
And it comes just two years after he filmed a sex scene with the 50-year-old Juliette Binoche in a limousine in Cronenberg’s last film “Cosmopolis.”
Quizzed by journalists on the dubious habit, he rated the respective performance of his co-stars.
“Both(are) like 7s. I’m joking. Obviously Julianne. It was a wonderful experience. It was extremely sweaty,” he said.
“It’s sublime,” retorted Moore, 53.
As for Cronenberg, he said the reason why he’s included automotive sex scenes in his films is simple — it happens.
“There’s an entire generation of Americans who have been spawned in the backseat of 1974 Fords. It’s not like I invented Sex in cars. You have to remember that that part of the sexual revolution came about because of the automobile, because of the fact that young people could get away from their parents from being supervised and that was freedom,” he said. “So I don’t think I’m breaking any new territory when there’s a scene of people having sex in cars. I mean why wouldn’t you? I mean, there are so many great cars around.”
— Thomas Adamson — http://twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP
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WIND BEDEVILS OUTFITS ON THE CARPET
A stiff breeze made conditions challenging for the glamour girls walking the Cannes red carpet Monday.
Jessica Chastain came to the “Foxcatcher” premiere in a flowing purple gown, but it flowed more than she liked in the wind. She had to use her hands to hold down the one-shoulder dress, with its leg-baring slit, to prevent it from becoming even more revealing.
Singer Cheryl Cole faced similar struggles with her sumptuous black dress, which was above the knee in front with a long train attached.
Monday’s weather offered a cool departure from the radiant sun and warmth that previously blessed the festival. Beneath gloomy skies, it rained sporadically all day.
— Nekesa Mumbi Moody — http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi
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MORTENSEN’ S LINGUISTIC CHALLENGE
Viggo Mortensen’s Cannes film “Juaja” was made by an Argentinian but partly in Danish — which presented some interesting challenges for the Danish-American actor.
“(It’s) kind of strange: I would have thought it would be in Denmark where I work in Danish first,” he quipped in an interview Monday.
In the experimental film, directed by Lisandro Alonso and written by Fabian Casas, Mortensen plays a 19th century captain searching for a mythical land in Patagonia. The actor says he chose the project because he was impressed director’s previous films, including “Los Muertos” and “Liverpool.”
Even though Mortensen spent the first 10 years of his life in Argentina, he still needed to be careful to make sure he didn’t mess up linguistically.
“It was a tall order in some ways, making sure the translation in Danish of the Argentine dialogue, Spanish dialogue, retained the poetry of Fabian’s writing and the ideas behind it, you know, the sort of existential side of things, and the humor,” he said.
“But it ended up being not such a hard thing and in a way it’s funnier than what they wrote, because there’s a particular sort of irony in Danish humor and sort of physical humor also that the Danes are really going to get — more so than other people because it’s very particular,” he added.
Besides acting in the film, Mortensen also did the music for it.
— By Nicki Finlay and Thomas Adamson
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DIRECTOR NOT FAZED BY CANNES SNUB
Abel Ferrara’s “Welcome to New York” seemed like a natural for the Cannes Film Festival: It stars one of France’s most respected actors and it’s loosely based one of the country’s biggest recent scandals.
But the Gerard Depardieu film, inspired by the Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s saga, isn’t competing here. Its director says that doesn’t matter, since Cannes crowds were able to see it anyway.
“They’ve got 35 other movies they would rather show. Show it. They own the festival, we got the street. You know, rent a theater, put it in a theater, see who’s where, you know. It’s not that important,” Ferrara said in an interview Monday. “We are here with everybody else.”
The movie premiered in the French Riviera city Saturday night. It chronicles an unrepentant sex addict who handles billions of dollars a day and commits a sexual assault on a hotel maid following an orgy.
Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, was accused in 2011 of sexually assaulting a New York hotel employee. Charges were dropped and he reached an out-of-court settlement with the woman.
Strauss-Kahn is charged with aggravated pimping in a separate case in France.
Although the film comes with a disclaimer, Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer has threatened a lawsuit. Ferrara is unconcerned.
“I’m an artist and we are talking (in the movie) about power and greed and corruptible deeds,” he said. “What, is he the first guy that ever did this? You know, come on, he thinks everything is about him? So let him think it.”
— Adam Egan — http://www.twitter.com/adamegan
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QUICKQUOTE: JESSICA CHASTAIN
“I have so much respect for Christopher Nolan, I just never would want him to be disappointed in me. It would feel like your dad or someone like a professor you really respect. For them to say, ‘I’m really disappointed,’ it would be the worst thing they could say. So I’ve been very, very good about being as secretive as possible. I think it’s amazing. I think it’s very emotional and warm and it will surprise people because it’s more than a science-fiction film. It’s very, very deep.” — Jessica Chastain, in town for her movie “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.” She’s starring in this fall’s hotly anticipated “Interstellar,” directed by the Oscar-nominated Nolan.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — “Cannes Watch” shows you the Cannes Film Festival and the events surrounding it through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across Cannes and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.
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