Edited by Sarah Cooper
sarah.cooper@
emap.com For more tales from the Croisette, see
ScreenDaily.com/home/blogs DIARY
four or five years, so we’ve kind of experienced what it feels like to be a bit out of sync with your peer group and observe the changes in lifestyle,” says Westfeldt, who pre- viously co-wrote and produced Kissing Jessica Stein and Ira & Abby (Hamm appeared in both). So how did they find working
Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt Meet the parents
BY SARAH COOPER Screen caught up with Jon Hamm and his real-life partner, Jennifer Westfeldt, who are in Cannes to promote their feature Friends With Kids, which wrapped in February. Westfeldt has written, directed
and stars in the indie drama about the last two singletons in a group of friends, who decide to try to beat the system by having a baby
together platonically, while pur- suing romantic relationships in their time off from parenting. Adam Scott, Kristen Wiig, Megan Fox and Edward Burns also star alongside Hamm in the film, which was funded by Red Granite Pictures (see details of their Cannes party, below). “Most of our closest friends have become parents in the past
Cannes you kick it?
BY SARAH COOPER Forget the FA Cup Final. The only football match worth watching on Saturday was Nike’s first annual celebrity tournament, which involved a mix of industry types (including Stewart Till and Alex Hamilton), NBA basketball play- ers, local French footballers and actors playing barefoot five-a-side
Kanye hugs
Screen rubbed shoulders (literally) with Kanye West at the hottest party in town on Saturday night, hosted by Los Angeles’ newly launched Red Granite Pictures. The rapper played an awesome
hour-and-a-half set to a celebrity- packed room including Leonardo DiCaprio (who we spotted swigging champagne from the bottle), Jon Hamm and actor Jamie Foxx, who joined him on stage for a rendition of Gold Digger. There were fireworks, too, and
not just real ones, when Kanye gave the Screen team hugs and kisses en route to his yacht. Cannes parties don’t get any better.
on the beach yesterday in aid of local children’s charity Futsal. Zidane and Henry they weren’t,
but the players certainly looked the part, kitted out in the official French home and away strips, which are sponsored by Nike for the first time this year. Brit actor Shaun Dooley, soon to be seen in Woman In Black, cap-
This year’s India party, with possibly the most elaborate invitation in Cannes, will take place tonight from 9pm at L’Annex Plage on the Croisette. Organised by India’s National Film Development Corp, the party will feature DJ Tony Patti playing Western and Bollywood beats, and chefs flown in from Mumbai. With Rémy Martin as a sponsor, the Cognac will be flowing and guests will be given silk tie-and-dye stoles. Liz Shackleton
On foot for Footnote Kanye West (left) with Jamie Foxx
BYANDREAS WISEMAN There was no glitzy limousine entrance for Footnote director Joseph Cedar on Saturday night as he and the team behind the Com- petition entry braved the rain to arrive at the film’s red-carpet pre- miere a pied, in observance of the Jewish day of rest, Shabbat. In what is believed to be a festi- val first, organisers moved the offi-
n 10 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 16, 2011
cial screening from 9.30pm to 9.45pm, to allow it to fall after the 9.37pm end of Shabbat, during which orthodox Jews observe reli- gious precepts which restrict the use of cars and minimise the use of electricity. Cedar’s Footnote has garnered
strong reviews from the critics and has already sold to Sony Pictures Classics in the US.
Snowtown Dooley’s team salutes victory
tained the winning team. “Right now it doesn’t compare with the birth of my children, but it’s up there,” Dooley joked over a cele- bratory champagne lunch.
together this time? “This was a different level than we had ever experienced, but it seemed like a natural progression,” says Hamm, whose career has catapulted after the success of US series Mad Men. “I’m very conscious about
choosing things that I find chal- lenging, not just a rehash of a Don Draper-type character.” Hamm was nevertheless look-
ing ever so slightly Draper-esque in a cream suit and shades. Per- haps he is getting into character ahead of the next series, which starts shooting in July. “I’m excited,” he says. Not as excited as we are.
Justin Kurzel spent nearly a decade working in production design for theatre before studying film directing at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. His graduation film, the short Blue Tongue, screened in Critics’ Week in 2005. Based on a true story, Snowtown is about a teenager’s relationship with a father figure who turns out to be a serial killer.
Some are surprised you chose such a nasty topic because you’re a nice guy. How did you respond when Warp Films Australia approached you for what is also their first film? Some of the bodies were found in barrels near Snowtown, 10 minutes’ drive from where I grew up and that gave me a strong curiosity about the case. How can someone infiltrate a community and seduce the vulnerable? The script [by Shaun Grant] was very fresh and it had a depth quite unlike the one- dimensional media coverage. I told Warp I wanted to tell it from the inside out, find the truth of the story, film it where it happened, cast first-timers and locals from the area, develop the script more. I thought I had probably written myself out of the job. I am quite attracted to comedy and was unsure if I wanted to live with the horror. But every time I got close to saying no, the material drew me back in. I did not have a choice.
What was the most difficult thing about the shoot? Every day I would wake up knowing I had to find the emotional truth. Often the scenes were very confrontational. That was challenging. You can’t clock on and off. The gravity of the material weighs too heavily on you. Adding that to the marathon of making a first feature made it unrelenting. Nothing really prepares you for how tiring and consuming it is. But also invigorating. It makes you feel alive to feel that level of commitment. What do you want people to walk out thinking about? I want them to put themselves in [the teenager] Jamie’s shoes and question what they would do in the same circumstances. What was the best thing about being selected for Cannes? It affirmed the film is not about one particular Australia-centric event or one culture but that its themes are recognised elsewhere. What’s next? This film happened really quickly. I came on board only 15 months ago and it’s been difficult to focus on anything else. But I am working on a project with my brother Jed, who did the music for Snowtown. You would probably call it a black comedy. Sandy George
Snowtown screens in Critics’ Week tonight
Meet the debutants JUSTINKURZEL,SNOWTOWN
Today
Sunny high 23°
Tomorrow
Sunny, high 23°
Eugene Hernandez
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