Details on the Cannes Lineup

The Cannes Competition Lineup (and more) was announced in the wee wee hours of the morning -- not so wee for France mind you -- and here's what we're looking at. A lot of French and Asian films, a few foreign giants doing their first English language films and at least three directors we haven't had a film from in 7 or 8 years.

International beauties we can safely expect to see walking that Cannes red carpet include but are not limited to: Cate Blanchett, Qi Shu, Marion Cotillard, Diane Kruger, Emily Blunt, Natalie Portman, Catherine Deneuve, and Maîwenn. ANNOUCEMENT: Friend of TFE Diana Drumm will be reporting for us a bit from the festival like last year. If we've written about any of these films before, the links will take you there. Included after the jump are descriptive bits of each film that we know anything about.

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We Can't Wait #1: Carol

Team Experience is counting down our 15 most anticipated. Here's Matthew Eng with our #1 choice, which incidentally also topped this list last year when we used wishful thinking to pretend it would be done early...

Who & What: Living genius Todd Haynes directs playwright and Mrs. Harris scribe Phyllis Nagy’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s gently subversive lesbian novella (originally published under the much grittier-named The Price of Salt) about a sensitive shopgirl (Rooney Mara) who falls in love with the lonely society dame of the title (Cate Blanchett) in lush 1950s New York. 

Why We’re Excited About it: The cinematic “comeback” of Haynes, returning to the big screen a full eight years after I’m Not There (despite a six-hour pit stop at HBO for Kate Winslet’s Mildred Pierce), is obviously incentive enough. But he’s also compiled a cast so charismatic, it basically makes you salivate: Mara and Blanchett, of course, but how about Ace Team Player and Perpetual Dreamboat Kyle Chandler as Blanchett’s snooping husband?

Lots more and several photos after the jump...

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Sandy Powell's Glorious Bluntness "I won for the wrong film!"

We've revelled in Sandy Powell's uncensored quotes before - like her dismissive "I already have two of these" speech for Young Victoria.

She's at it again providing us with more choice Oscar quotes and I couldn't resist talking about this tonight since the blog had an unofficial Costume Design day today what with the Exodus video, and the debut of "Threads". 

See, recently at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Chicago, in a series related to David Bowie's legacy and his influence on the arts, the auteur Todd Haynes and his sometime collaborator Sandy Powell were invited to speak about their glam rock classic Velvet Goldmine (1998). You can listen to the complete talk here though be advised that the introductions take an incredible 14 minutes to get through. Longwinded much? 

One of the best bits a little before an hour in is when Sandy is asked about being an Oscar favorite, a very mainstream establishment thing, despite the fact that she came up into fame working with very anti-establishment artists like Derek Jarman. Because she is Sandy Powell and can't help herself and we love her for it, she doesn't leave it at "I'm happy to have Oscars"...

Sandy: I'm happy to receive the Oscars for the work I did because I work really hard...so for that reason I'm not going to say I'm not grateful. BUT. I would have loved to have gotten it for some of the other films instead. The year I won for "Shakespeare in Love," I was also nominated for "Velvet Goldmine". I had two nominations in one year and I won it for the wrong one. I think I did manage in my speech to thank Todd.

Todd: She managed to get up there and receive the Oscar for "Shakespeare in Love" without mentioning "Shakespeare in Love" and only mentioning "Velvet Goldmine".

They laugh and this leads to fun memories of the director and costumer going to the Oscars together. 

Haynes & Powell's next collaboration is the forthcoming Carol (2015) starring Cate Blanchett and they hint that it will arrive in the Spring though that seems unlikely to me. Given the pedigree we're assuming a Cannes premiere and then a fall bow in theaters, don't you think?

P.S. There's a little wonderful bonus for long time TFE fans in this podcast, too. Our friend and podcast mate Nick Davis is given the microphone at about the 34 minute mark and his ode to Todd & Sandy's collaboration is a thing of fan ardor beauty and he asks a great question too than one presumes Sandy has never been asked about Velvet Goldmine.

(Thanks to faithful reader Murtada for the heads up on this wonderful online find)

Delicious Fan Moment w/ Sarah Paulson. Plus: Lupita Update!

Thanks to faithful reader Murtada for pointing this out. The tumblr Heavenly Rush recently shared a personal experience of a trip from Chicago to Sag Harbor where the author met one of TFE's favorite current actresses Sarah Paulson. The American Horror Story star has already wrapped her scenes for Todd Haynes's lesbian drama Carol (headlined by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as new lovers  - Paulson's the ex-girlfriend) and she's currently on stage in the play "Conviction" with Garrett Dillahunt at the Bay Street Theater.

Paulson on the set of "Carol"... and on stage in "Conviction"

I'm sharing a part of it that post here that I know you Oscar obsessives will love. It touches on last year's Oscar race and the next one as well as upcoming Oscar Category Fraud woes. ("M" is the author and "S" is Sarah Paulson though the conversation is obviously paraphrased from super excited fan memory.)  

M: You are gonna win the Oscar for Carol.

S: That’s sweet, but I don’t think so. 

M: I just finished the book, and if you got to do all those scenes, you are totally winning a fucking Oscar … did you get to do all of Abbys scenes from the book?

S: No, they changed the one at the bar to Cate’s house in her kitchen, and moved another one to a dinner and they created a whole new one for the movie. 

M: But did you get to do all the stuff on the phone?

S: Yes, I did do that. 

M: If you got to say “you win”, you are totally getting a nom!

S: Well, if Harvey has it his way they will put up 2. Cate and Rooney and they will forget about me 

M: but you know how when a supporting actress is in a movie for  mins., and it’s incredible and they win? I think that’s going to be you!

S: I don’t know … maybe. 

M: like how you should have won for 12 years

S: yeah, but no one is gonna give an Oscar to a white bitch that hurts Lupita. 

Ha! Love Paulson so much. So admirable that she doesn't self-censor in public or in interviews (as we discovered here at TFE when we talked to her). You can read more about this fan's adventure and meeting with the actress at Heavenly Rush.

As for Lupita Nyong'o. Word came this morning that the Star Wars Episode VII casting happened after all... just as that film starts shooting. Her role is still under wraps. I'm thrilled that someone finally cast her in *something*.  I personally think she's way better than a presumably small part in a very old franchise, but it's a start!  Still and all, Hollywood ought to be ridiculously ashamed of how long it's taken anyone to sign this beautiful talented instant celebrity on to anything that would make use of that beauty and talent. 

To put it frankly: we have a surpluss of celebrities in this workd that are good for little more than being attractive and showing up at glamorous events.  Lupita obviously has a lot more to offer than that, so it's nice that she'll be doing something in front of the camera again besides posing on a red carpet.  

Cast This: Can We Get a Patricia Highsmith Biopic Up in Here?

We're getting three starry Patricia Highsmith adaptations in the next year or so at the cinemas. First up is The Two Faces of January (Viggo, Kiki & Oscar Isaac) and then Carol (Cate, Rooney & Sarah Paulson). 

 The latest to ready itself for the cameras is The Blunderer. The cast will include Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel, Imogene Poots and Toby Jones. 

Highsmith adaptations are nothing new for the cinema and soon there will be little left to adapt.

Walter Stackhouse (Wilson) is a successful architect married to the beautiful Clara (Biel) and leading a charmed and perfect life. But his fascination with an unsolved murder leads him into a spiral of chaos as he is forced to play cat-and-mouse with a clever killer (Jones) and an over-ambitious detective. Walter's obsession, his lies and his lust for another woman (Poots) will collide in a crush of guilt, innocence and, ultimately, fate.

Highsmith adaptations are nothing new for the cinema and soon there will be little left to adapt.

But why hasn't anyone made a biopic yet?

She was a complicated character in her looks, her art, and her temperament: famously misanthropic (and racist, too), an alcoholic, complicated lifelong relationship with her mother (who once confessed to trying to abort her) who lived to be 95, bisexual with volatile affairs, and a crazy cat lady to boot.

Who should play her in a biopic?  Two names came immediately to my mind but I want to know your thoughts before I reveal them. A few more pictures after the jump [one NSFW] and a few more notes about Hollywood's interest in her work. 

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