'Top Gun' and Russian dissident fire up Cannes - FRANCE 24 English

Issued on: Modified:

Cannes (France) (AFP) – Tom Cruise was set to jet into Cannes on Wednesday with "Top Gun: Maverick" as a Russian dissident in the main competition showcases an alternative side to the world's top film festival.

Cruise, last at Cannes 30 years ago, is tipped to make a spectacular entrance accompanied by a French Air Force aerobatic display team dazzling with a fly-past over the red carpet.

Critics have treated the sequel to his superstar-making 1986 blockbuster to giddy reviews, with hopes the film will boost movie theatres still struggling to recover from the pandemic.

"In the history of cinema... (Cruise) has one of the highest success rates," festival director Thierry Fremaux said this week.

"This is someone that we haven't seen on streaming platforms, TV series, or doing adverts... He is someone who is devoted to cinema."

Before that, in the main competition for the top prize Palme d'Or, Cannes was set to welcome Russian dissident Kirill Serebrennikov with a very different offering: "Tchaikovsky's Wife" about the legendary composer's brief and tragic marriage.

The director was unable to attend the festival for two previous nominations due to a controversial court case that barred him from leaving Russia.

Serebrennikov's pro-LGBT stance led to difficulties with Russian authorities
Serebrennikov's pro-LGBT stance led to difficulties with Russian authorities Tobias SCHWARZ AFP/File

Now in exile following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, his new film is unlikely to improve his standing with the Kremlin given that it shines a light on the composer's homosexuality -- a story that remains taboo for Russian conservatives.

'Speak up'

The war has already been a major theme at the festival, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky making a surprise appearance via video at the opening ceremony on Tuesday.

"Will cinema keep quiet, or will it speak up? If there is a dictator, if there is a war for freedom, once again, everything depends on our unity. Can cinema stay outside of this unity?" Zelensky said.

This year's jury includes Oscar winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi and Indian superstar Deepika Padukone
This year's jury includes Oscar winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi and Indian superstar Deepika Padukone Valery HACHE AFP

There will be a special screening of "Mariupolis 2", a documentary about the conflict by Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, who was killed in Ukraine last month -- reportedly by Russian forces.

Ukraine's beleaguered filmmakers will get a special day at the festival and one of its most promising directors, Sergei Loznitsa, will show "The Natural History of Destruction", about the bombing of German cities in World War II.

The head of the jury charged with selecting the winners this year, French actor Vincent Lindon, said the invasion of Ukraine had penetrated even the glamorous bubble that is Cannes, which was founded in 1946, he noted as a response to fascism.

"The torments of the world, which is bleeding, suffering, burning... they rack my conscience," he told the opening ceremony.

"Top Gun: Maverick" could add as much as $390 million from the United States alone, according to Box Office Pro.

Empire magazine praised its "slick visuals, crew camaraderie, thrilling aerial action, a surprising emotional wallop and, in Tom Cruise, a magnetic movie-star performance as comforting as an old leather jacket."

© 2022 AFP

Adblock test (Why?)

Article From & Read More ( 'Top Gun' and Russian dissident fire up Cannes - FRANCE 24 English )
https://ift.tt/aPdTr8o
Entertainment

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elizabeth Hurley says it was a ‘nightmare’ working with Matthew Perry amid actor's addiction - Fox News

Image
Elizabeth Hurley said it was a "nightmare" working with Matthew Perry on their 2002 film "Serving Sara," which was shot at the height of his drug addiction.  The production had to be abruptly shut down because the "Friends" star needed to enter rehab for two months.  Still, the "Royals" actress doesn’t hold it against Perry, who detailed his addiction struggles in his new memoir, "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing."  Hurley recently told Yahoo! Entertainment it was a "little tough" during the film’s hiatus. But when he returned to filming after two months in rehab he was "fabulous." MATTHEW PERRY REVEALS THE SURPRISING REASON HE DUMPED JULIA ROBERTS   Elizabeth Hurley and Matthew Perry starred in 2002's "Serving Sara" together.  (Noam Galai/Frederick M. Brown) Hurley, who said Perry had to "revoice" everything he shot before rehab , added, "obviously he was having a
Read more

Daisy Edgar-Jones in ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’: Film Review - Hollywood Reporter

Image
Where the Crawdads Sing is the kind of tedious moral fantasy that fuels America’s misguided idealism. It’s an attempt at a complex tale about rejection, difference and survival. But the film, like the novel it’s based on, skirts the issues — of race, gender and class — that would texture its narrative and strengthen its broad thesis, resulting in a story that says more about how whiteness operates in a society allergic to interdependence than it does about how communities fail young people. Directed by Olivia Newman ( First Match ), the film adaptation of Delia Owens’ popular and controversial novel of the same name tells the remarkable tale of a shy, reclusive girl raised in the marshes of North Carolina who finds herself embroiled in a grisly police investigation. Her name is Kya ( Daisy Edgar-Jones of Normal People , Fresh and Under the Banner of Heaven ), but to those in the neighboring town, whose residents abhor her, she is known simply as “Marsh Girl.” The account of her
Read more