Edited by Sarah Cooper
sarah.cooper@
emap.comFor more tales from the Croisette, see
ScreenDaily.com/home/blogs DIARY The inspiration for the film Martha Marcy May Marlene Sean Durkin
Durkin’s cult debut The road to Morocco
BY JASON GUERRASIO Sean Durkin returns to Cannes with his debut feature Martha Marcy May Marlene, after winning best short at Directors’ Fortnight last year forMary Last Seen. The short was a preface to Martha, which follows a girl who escapes from a cult but is tormented by
BY SARAHCOOPER The very dapper Timothy Burr- ill (Roman Polanski’s long-time producer) is in town with direc- tor Peter Webber (The Girl With A Pearl Earring) to raise financ- ing for their feature The Spider’s House, which they are hoping to begin production on early next year. Based on the novel by Paul
Bowles, the film is set against the backdrop of the 1950s political uprisings in Morocco, focusing on
BlackBerry picking
“Ken Russell stole my BlackBerry!” This was the startling allegation made by London Evening Standard film critic Derek Malcolm in Cannes this week. Malcolm, who turned 79 last week, lost his Blackberry when he was interviewing the film-maker at a special screening of Russell’s 1971 filmThe Devils in London earlier this month. It seems Russell accidentally took home the device. Malcolm was finally reunited with his handset just before Cannes began. But technical problems continue to dog the critic. His laptop has reportedly blown up. Malcolm is now obliged to write and file his reviews standing up at one of the computers in the British pavilion.
Geoffrey Macnab
Tokyo International Film Festival chief Tom Yoda (pictured centre) said thank you on Friday for the support offered to Japan after the recent earthquake and tsunami disaster. The ‘Arigato’ gathering at the Majestic saw Yoda, decked out in his traditional green tuxedo, welcome friends for a moving, optimistic occasion. He is pictured with (from left) French veteran
Daniel Marquet, friend of the festival Jeremy Thomas, Montreal festival head Serge Losique and Marché du Film’s Jérome Paillard. Marquet was at the TIFF event to launch an initiative between the Festival de Cannes, the Association des Exportateurs de Films and the Red Cross to raise money for the relief efforts. A symbolic badge (pictured) has been designed by illustrator Marion Billet and is being distributed to encourage film professionals to make a donation. All proceeds collected in Cannes will be given to the Japanese Red Cross to help rehabilitation programmes in Japan. The donation centre is located at the entrance of the Palais, Level 01, on the right, before the lifts. Mike Goodridge
n 12 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 15, 2011
came from Durkin’s curiosity about cults. “I had always been fascinated by them but everything I was looking at was set in the 1960s and 1970s, and I wanted to make something very modern,” explains the director, who is a co- founder of New York-based pro- duction company Borderline Films with Antonio Campos and Josh Mond. When it came to casting, Dur-
painful memories. Wowing audi- ences at this year’s Sundance with its stunning cinematography and a stand-out lead performance by Elizabeth Olsen (the Olsen twins’ younger sister), Durkin was awarded with the fest’s best director prize. Fox Searchlight will release the film in the US later this year.
kin knew Olsen was the one right away. “From the second I met her, I could visualise her doing it. We saw so many people but I always knew she was it. She has so much personality and she’s so alive, and I felt if she suppressed all of that to be Martha, which she does so beautifully, you would detect this richness,” he says.
Meet the debutants PABLO GIORGELLI, LASACACIAS
Today
Light rain high 23°
Tomorrow
Sunny, high 20°
Las Acacias
two former lovers who meet in the medieval city of Fez. The project has been brewing
for a number of years, but the duo told Screen that “it feels like the time is right”. “The story we’re working with
has become so relevant because of what’s happening in the Arab world right now,” says Webber, who describes the film as a combi- nation of The Battle Of Algiers and Casablanca. “One of the things that fasci-
Timothy Burrill and Peter Webber
nates me is the enigmatic attitude between the lovers; they are really wonderful roles,” says Burrill. The leads are yet to be cast, but
Webber has his good friend Alex- andre Desplat on board to write the score. And, most importantly, they’ve promised Screen a trip to the set when shooting begins.
The Argentinian director Pablo Giorgelli’s first feature is a road movie about a truck driver who has to transport a woman and her baby 1,500km. The film stars German de Silva, Hebe Duarte and Nayra Calle Mamani.
Where did the idea for the film come from? Was it based on personal experience? The spirit of the film and also the inner conflict that Ruben, the main character, is going through, have a lot to do with my life during the last decade; my father fell ill, I went through a break-up and then the social and economic crisis struck my country and left me out of work. This film is about my pain when facing loss and the ability to reconstruct oneself. What was the biggest challenge on the shoot? This was a very hard film to shoot, with almost everything outdoors, many trucks and action vehicles, numerous technical crew, blocked roads, babies… and to make things even worse, there were even dogs. Most of the scenes are travel scenes, and filming in movement is in itself
Pablo Giorgelli
something complex. Moreover, it’s a trip on a truck, which is not the same as a trip in a car: everything is bigger and more complicated. Is this your first time in Cannes? Are you nervous? It is my first feature and my first time in Cannes, but I feel easy with the movie I made. I’ve heard many things about the festival and I know a bit of its history, but I don’t quite know what to expect. I’m glad the movie is programmed in La Semaine. I have a feeling there could not be a better section for my movie. What do you plan to do in your spare time in Cannes? Sleep! It’s been two years since I have been on holiday. I am exhausted, also happy, but very tired. Who are you most looking forward to meeting in Cannes? I remember that a couple of years ago Kusturica presented his film in Cannes and [football legend] Diego Maradona was there on the Croisette. If I had been there then I have no doubt whom I would like to have met that year… but this time I don’t know. I have been told [Aki] Kaurismaki is a bar owner. Together with my producer and friend Ariel Rotter, I have a bar in Buenos Aires, so I’d love to have a chat with him about bars… and cinema! Do you know if Sophia Loren will be here this year?
Sarah Cooper Las Acacias
Las Acacias is screening in Critics’ Week during Cannes
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