Live from Cannes: Critic’s Notebook

by Aaron Hillis | Published May. 22, 2012

Wes Anderson was dining with French friends when he got the call—three months after submitting his resplendent new feature, Moonrise Kingdom, to Cannes—that his eccentrically funny-sad, 1965-set charmer was chosen for opening night at the world's most prestigious film festival. Sharing such thrilling news with his dinner companions, they all offered up the same reaction: "Better to be in competition." Fortunately for Anderson, as the director recalled during an intimate press conference more luxurious than your average hotel junket (the sound of raindrops bouncing softly off an open-air tent on the Riviera beach), Moonrise later rose to a competition slot, and remains this writer's first and favorite selection seen at this year's Cannes. It's for that reason that only now, while fruitlessly waiting for a second film to rank as highly, that MovieMaker checks in at the fest's midpoint. Which is not at all to say that this has been a "weak year," as some jaded critics have grumbled, but we haven't yet seen any cinematic pleasures to collectively knock us out of our chairs (or wildly polarize) à la 2011's Melancholia, Drive and Palme d'Or winner The Tree of Life. (No comments yet)

Discover the Future of Film at Cinequest

by Rebecca Pahle

Cinequest isn't your average film festival. While it screens films like all the rest, its devotion to spreading the world about cutting-edge technology—and its history of being an early adopter of those technologies itself—means it tends to leave other festivals in the dust, at least when it comes to once lesser-known ideas like online distribution and digital projection. MM spoke with director and co-founder Halfdan Hussey about Cinequest's evolving mission and some of the highlights of this year's fest, which kicks off next Tuesday, February 28th.

Woods Hole Film Festival Celebrates 20 Years

by Hugh Cunningham

The first annual Woods Hole Film Festival, held in 1991 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, consisted of five films shown in one trailer over the course of a single day. The 20th annual Woods Hole Film Festival takes place from July 30th to August 6th and includes numerous events for the large number of moviemakers and industry professionals who attend the festival.

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Over the Rainbow with Jonathan Kalafer

by Rebecca Pahle
The PS22 Chorus isn't your normal elementary school extracurricular group. A certified viral sensation after chorus director Gregg Breinberg started posting their performances on YouTube, in 2010 they were invited to perform at the Academy Awards. There to capture their journey from Staten Island to the Kodak Theatre was director Jonathan Kalafer, for whom the making of the film was its own sort of underdog story. In advance of world premiere of Once in a Lullaby: The PS22 Chorus Story at the Tribeca Film Festival, Kalafer took the time to share with MM his experience filming the PS22's Chorus incredible journey—and the personal impact doing so had on him. (No comments yet)

25 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee: 2012

by MovieMaker Staff
Making the decision to screen at a festival is easy. But which fests are truly worth a withdrawal from your hard-earned Entry Fee Bank Account? Here's our 2012 list of 25 festivals worth the entry fee.
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Enjoying Chicken with Plums

by Rebecca Pahle
Co-directors of the Oscar-nominated Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud have tackled another one of graphic novelist Satrapi's works for their second collaboration, the dreamy, fairy tale-esque Chicken with Plums, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival last year and is having its U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. In advance of the film's first Tribeca screening this Sunday, the duo took the time to chat with MovieMaker about their second collaboration and the source of their visual inspiration for this truly stunning film. (No comments yet)

Weathering the First Winter

by Rebecca Pahle
In Benjamin Dickinson's feature directorial debut First Winter, a group of Brooklyn hipsters at a yoga retreat in upstate New York are forced to learn survival skills the hard way after an immense blackout hits, stranding them a drafty farmhouse with dwindling supplies and miles separating them from any passable roads—or, indeed, the rest of humanity. With their stock of food shrinking and temperatures dropping, buried tensions come to the fore, straining the friends' ability to work together even though—in a world with no electricity, no way to communicate with the outside world and virtually no chance of making it back to the city alive–all they really have is each other. (1 comment)

Meet the Rat King

by Rebecca Pahle
To get a sense of Finnish director Petri Kotwica's Rat King, try imagining a standard thriller. Then infuse it with a heavy dose of Hitchcockian suspense, add a dash of high school drama and flavor the whole thing with a cyberpunk aesthetic. In advance of the film's international debut at this month's Tribeca Film Festival, Kotwica shared with MM his inspiration, influences and favorite silver screen villains. (No comments yet)

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