Edited by Sarah Cooper
sarah.cooper@
emap.com
DIARY
ing out. Anywhere you go in the world, Marley speaks to people. He still has this political and social resonance,” says the director, who boarded the project last year (Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme were previous ly attached). In his quest to discover the man
behind the music, Macdonald travelled to Jamaica, India, Tunisia and the US, as well as visiting Marley’s legendary producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry who now lives in Switzerland. So what has he learnt about the
Kevin Macdonald Marley and me
BY SARAH COOPER Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald is in town tonight to present the first footage of his almost-complete documentary about iconic singer Bob Marley, who died 30 years ago to the day,
Cooking up a treat
New Cannes top-tier sponsor Electrolux has created an ‘Agora’ pavilion (on the beach near the Palais) for official festival events. The pavilion will host the opening and closing ceremonies, president’s lunches, jury lunches and selected gala dinners. Tonight’s opening night dinner
for 600 guests has been planned by Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse and includes tenderloin of veal in gremolata sauce. Sounds a bit better than grabbing a kebab near the train station. The space will also host the
first Electrolux ‘Menu de Cannes’, where gastronomy and lifestyle experts will woo jury members in a competition which will showcase food, design and style. The final will be held on Sunday at 3:30pm. Electrolux is also hosting a
styling suite at the Majestic, where invitees can have their clothes dry cleaned on the spot by some amazing-sounding machines.
Wendy Mitchell Las Palmas Baby love
BY GUNNARREHLIN The leading lady of Directors’ Fortnight short Las Palmas has been banned from making the trip to Cannes. The reason? She’s just two
years old, and her father — the film’s director Johannes Nyholm — thinks the Cannes circus might be too much for her. The 14-minute short, which
picked up an award at the Gothen- burg Film Festival, tells the story of a drunk middle-aged woman, played by his baby daughter, trashing a bar in Las Palmas. The two year old acts alongside
MORE FROM CANNES… For more tales from the Croisette, see
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marionette puppets, stealing food and drinks from their tables. It must be a contender for funniest film in Cannes, and a clip has
n 12 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 11, 2011
already been a YouTube hit. “It started with a desire to do a docu- mentary about her, but it gradu- ally evolved,” says Nyholm, who previously visited Cannes with his puppet shortThe Doll Boy. He admits his lead was not
exactly open to constructive advice. “It was no use giving her directions, she did as she wanted. I’ve always liked to work with improvisation, so it’s not so differ- ent from some of my other films.” Nyholm says he thought a lot
about the ethical questions of making a film starring a child who has no knowledge of what she is involved in. “I did it on her terms, and the film is my tribute to her. I think she will like it when she’s old enough to see it.” She might not be so happy
about being deprived a trip to Cannes though.
Volcano
on May 11,
1981.Marley is being sold here by Fortissimo. “When I was working on The
Last King Of Scotland in Uganda, I remember going into the slums of Kampala and seeing flags with his face on and hearing reggae pump-
reggae superstar? “People think he was just this guy sitting around smoking spliffs. He did smoke a lot of spliffs, but at the same time he was the most driven and pro- fessional person who worked until four in the morning and was a tough taskmaster. He had this vision of what he wanted to do with his music. But the question is, where did that vision come from?” Looks like we’ll have to watch the doc to find out.
Runar Runarsson
Runar Runarsson comes to Cannes with an impressive track record: two of his shorts, 2 Birds and Anna, have been screened here, and his short The Last Farm was nominated for an Oscar. Volcano (Eldfjall) is an Iceland-set story following an elderly man trying to adjust to life after retirement
What drew you to this story for your first feature? It started with the main character. I know so many people like this, and so do many people. It has nothing to do with Nordic countries — it’s not unusual to have a man who is not good at expressing his emotions. Of course, it’s a love story as well. What was the biggest technical challenge on the shoot? The boat scenes. We were in the middle of the ocean with a small, leaking boat, and had one day to do a three-day shoot — that was a nightmare of a day. It ended up that the boat sunk, the key prop of the film sunk 30 metres below the sea, and this was the first week of shooting! We had no idea how we could continue with the film, but luckily some good divers found the boat at the bottom of the sea. So they saved us. How does it feel going to Cannes with a feature instead of a short? It’s a little bit of a new ballgame. A lot more people are interested in features than shorts. Of course I’m going to
the same place but there’s a different apparatus involved in features. Will you also try to have some fun at the festival? We are coming as a big group, all together — the four leads [Theodor Juliusson, Margret Helga Johannsdottir, Elma Lisa Gunnarsdottir and Thorsteinn Bachmann], the editor, the DoP and some of the sound crew. It’s the first time for everybody to have a feature there. The last day I was there with my last short film, I realised you can actually go to the beach and swim. So I will try to squeeze that in. And of course to catch up with some movies and hopefully be inspired. Will you be bringing anything Iceland-related with you to Cannes? I was trying to get a huge fishing ship to sail down there and dock beside Bill Gates’ and other people’s yachts. And we’d have rescue crews ferrying people back and forth. But it hasn’t materialised. We can afford the boat but not the fuel. It’s a long trip down there. What’s next for you? I know what I’m going to do next, I knew it before I even started shooting this one. It’s a coming-of-age story, this time of a 13 year old rather than a 67 year old.
Wendy Mitchell
Volcano starts screening in Directors’ Fortnight from Friday. TrustNordisk handles sales.
Today
Sunny high 23°
Tomorrow Sunny
intervals, high 20°
Meet the debutants RUNAR RUNARSSON, VOLCANO
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