DIARY
Today Edited by Sarah Cooper
sarah.cooper@
screendaily.com How to lock down a lead
BY ANDREAS WISEMAN “After Gomorrah I wanted a new challenge,” says Matteo Garrone about his Competition entry Real- ity. The 2008 Cannes Grand Prix winner certainly gave himself one, choosing a comedy and a lead actor who is serving a 20-year jail sentence. Reality follows a Neapolitan fishmonger who is pressured into trying out for TV reality show Big Brother, but in chasing fame begins to lose his grip on reality. Garrone describes the film as a modern fairytale and bitter com- edy. “I was inspired by a true story but added to it with material I had already been working on,” he says. “However the storyline is only a metaphor for a wider issue. Big
Matteo Garrone on the Reality set
larly unusual: he was found in jail. “My father was a theatre critic,”
explains Garrone. “Every summer we went to see a prison troupe called Compagnia della Fortezza. Arena was the leading actor. “We wanted him for a role in
Brother is merely an El Dorado. In Visconti’s Bellissima from 1951, the cinema was the El Dorado. Today it is TV.” As with Gomorrah, Garrone employed non-professional and theatre actors on his latest produc- tion. But the casting of Aniello Arena in the lead role was particu-
Gomorrah but couldn’t because that story was too connected with his past. But I was able to cast him in Reality because it was such a different story. I chose him because of his face, background and talent. We were shooting in Naples but his prison is in Tuscany so we had to make arrangements for him to sleep in a local prison every night.” Never one to make it easy for
himself, Garrone jokes that his next film could be a sci-fi.
Once upon a time in the cutting room
BY GEOFFREY MACNAB Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America (screening in Cannes Classics tonight in an extended, restored version) has had a famously turbulent history. The gangster epic — rapturously received in Cannes in 1984 — was cut savagely prior to its US release. “I was too young to know better,”
producer Arnon Milchan admits about the contract that allowed the film to be shortened beyond recog- nition by its US distributors. “What happened was they
GUARDIAN ANGELS After croissants and coffee at the Miramar, Dreamworks unveiled the impressive first footage from its 3D animation Rise Of The Guardians, which is inspired by Bill Joyce’s childrens’ books and sees Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Jack Frost join forces to protect the children of the world. At the press conference — attended by three of the film’s voice stars, Alec Baldwin, Chris Pine and Isla Fisher — the French moderator mistakenly called Fisher’s character the “Fairy Tooth”. “That’s a club in Lower Manhattan which I used to go to in the mid ’80s,” joked Baldwin.
edited a totally different movie without flashbacks. Had I had the experience I have today, I would have gone to war!” One small consolation was that
the director’s version, later released on video in the US, sold 10 times more than the butchered cut seen in US cinemas. Audiences tonight will see the
version Leone showed originally in Rome to Milchan and the Warner Bros and Ladd Company top brass. The extra 25 minutes include Milchan’s cameo as the
chauffeur — something about which he has mixed feelings. “[The cameo] was a torture. I
don’t think Sergio wanted me to do it. I didn’t want to do it. Even- tually, I ended up getting competi- tive and wanting the part. Then, when I saw it, it was so bad that I cut it out. Now they’re putting it back!” On Saturday night Gucci, which
funded the restoration with Mar- tin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, will host a dinner at the Hotel du Cap to mark the film.
Camels on the Croisette
Sunshine and showers High 19°c (66°f)
Tomorrow
Sunshine and showers High 21°c (70°f)
Meet the debutants WAYNE BLAIR, THE SAPPHIRES
films but we’ve never seen it through the eyes of four aboriginal girls. That’s the hook.
Wayne Blair
Australian director Wayne Blair is in Cannes for the world premiere of his feelgood feature debut The Sapphires, which screens out of competition and tells the true story of four aboriginal girls who sang for US troops during the Vietnam war. Goalpost Films is handling international sales.
Were you surprised when your film got selected for Cannes? We got the money in Cannes in 2010, so it’s nice to come full circle. And it’s amazing to be here with my first film. I must have done some good stuff in the past!
How did the film come about? It is based on a stage musical, which was a big hit in Melbourne and Sydney. The play was written by Tony Briggs based on his mum’s story — she was one of the four girls. And he has also written the script for the film.
How would you describe the film? It has a little bit of a Strictly Ballroom feel mixed with The Commitments. There is pathos, but primarily it is joyful and uplifting and full of love. We’ve seen the Vietnam war in lots of
How did you go about casting your leads? Chris [O’Dowd] was a real find. The character was originally meant to be English, but I saw Chris in Bridesmaids, spoke to his agent and spoke to him on the phone and we decided to massage the script so he was Irish instead. He was the final jigsaw piece in the puzzle. The casting process for the girls lasted about 15 months, I think I saw every Aborginal girl in Australia!
Will music play a big part in the film? The film is littered with music. Tracks from the Jackson 5 to Smokey Robinson to Aretha Franklin to Wilson Pickett.
What’s next? I’ve got one film in the pipeline but I can’t talk much about it. I’m just going to enjoy the ride with The Sapphires. And I’ll do some writing and try to live and breathe because for the last two years I have been flat out with this film.
What are you most looking forward to about Cannes? It will be nice for us all to come together and relax and have a glass of champagne and say, ‘Yay, we made a beautiful film and now we can show it to the world.’ The four girls in the film didn’t
know how good they were but had the same sparkling quality as Marilyn Monroe, who is on the poster for this year’s festival. So it will make me smile, when the girls walk that red carpet.
Sarah Cooper
Meanwhile, Isla Fisher’s hubbie Sacha Baron Cohen was causing chaos next door at the Carlton dur- ing a photo call for The Dictator. Surrounded by jostling photog-
Pine, Fisher and Baldwin
raphers, Cohen — in full character and riding a camel — headed out on to the Croisette, and into the nearest cafe where he ordered a
n 12 Screen International at Cannes May 18, 2012
coffee for himself, and one for the camel. He may have stopped traf- fic but I overheard one French local saying: “Il y a un chameau sur la Croisette,” with a noncha- lant shrug as he walked by. To be fair, there are definitely stranger things to be seen on the Croisette. Sarah Cooper
The Sapphires
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