Cannes Diary: Meryl, Streeped - 10 Anecdotes

Elisa Giudici reporting from Cannes

Meryl Streep, photographed by Elisa Giudici

I was fortunate enough to secure a ticket to the much-coveted rendezvous with screen goddess Meryl Streep. She was in town to receive the Honorary Palme d'Or. Herewith 10 of the most memorable moments from her interview panel. 

What did you do after winning the Palme d'Or? 

"I stayed up until three in the morning at Quentin Dupieux's film party, so I'm a bit disoriented. I really enjoyed the opening film and talked a lot about it with Quentin."

How seriously do you take your role as a member of the Academy? 

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Cannes 2024: Meryl Streep to receive Palme d'Or

by Cláudio Alves 

As the 77th Cannes Film Festival approaches, more news emerges from Thierry Frémaux's office. The latest story concerns the Honorary Palme d'Or. While a rare plaudit in its genesis, the award has become a mainstay of the most recent festivals, with each edition involving multiple winners. Still, the number of trophies usually stops at two per year. Not so in 2024, when Cannes will give three Honorary Palmes d'Or. The first winner announced was George Lucas, who'll be 80 this month, and then came Studio Ghibli as the first awarded collective. Finally, we have Meryl Streep, who'll be a guest of honor at the Opening Ceremony and receive one of the highest honors in the film world… 

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SAG Awards - a brisk bellwether for Oscar night

by Nathaniel R

Did you watch the SAG Awards last night? Apart from one surprising win on the television side (an inebriated, honest Pedro Pascal for The Last of Us) it was a night of frontrunners, continuing to run so far front that their competitors are all well out of focus. Honestly at this point, all the suspense of Oscar season has entirely dissipated (but we'll get to that soon). Given the lack of interesting narrative curlicues and detours and the same faces delivering the same kinds of speeches, the highlight for yours truly was in the presenters.

The grandest entertainment came in the form of a fashionable reunion for the stars of The Devil Wears Prada...

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2016

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

This year’s group of nominees prove to be interesting with regards to their character introductions. One of them has one of the most disturbing, NSFW introductions this category has probably ever seen. Two of these films begin with a closeup of the actresses’ faces that also serve as the very first shots of their respective films. Three of the nominees are in the first scenes of their films (or four, if you count La La Land’s long take). Four of them are introduced with the key male character related to their personal journey.

All five of them are introduced in ways that strongly relate not only to how they identify themselves, but even how the people around them and their environment see them. As a group, all of the nominees’ first moments are filled with details that serve as the character's defining characteristics, even more than any other set of nominees since this series began. Are you ready?

The year is 2016. [NSFW CONTENT WARNING: Sexual violence]...

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2017

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

This year’s slate of nominees showcase five performers strategically placed within the vision of their respective films right from their introductions. Whether introduced in a scene with actual spatial detail that immediately relates to the core of their characters or configured within the film’s style and tone in a more general sense, none of our first glimpses of them are deficient in meaning and purpose. It is probably not a coincidence that most of these performances appear in Best Picture nominees (and the one that didn’t probably came close too), a rarity in the Best Actress category.

Are you ready? The year is 2017...

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