‘About Dry Grasses’ Review: An Assured, Strong Cannes Comeback for Nuri Bilge Ceylan [Cannes]

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse has received overwhelming praise from critics, who have described it as “in the running for the best superhero film ever”.Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, the animated superhero film is the sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.In the follow-up, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is launched on another adventure into the multiverse alongside Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld).A synopsis reads: “Miles Morales catapults across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence.

Defending herself. Chelsea Lazkani has seen the reaction to her role on season 6 of Selling Sunset — and she isn’t holding back when it comes to addressing the criticism.

The U.S. rights for Cannes Film Festival award winner “About Dry Grasses” have been acquired by Sideshow and Janus Films.“About Dry Grasses” follows Samet, a young art teacher who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor International sales house Totem Films has closed distribution deals in multiple territories for “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” which had its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. The company also closed a deal for France for another Directors’ Fortnight film, “A Song Sung Blue.” “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry” was sold to France (Capricci), U.K. (New Wave), Benelux (Vedette), Sweden (Folkets Bio), Greece (Ama Films), Czech Republic (Artcam), and Germany (Eksystent). More deals are in negotiation. The distributor in Switzerland is Frenetic. The film, directed by Elene Navierani, centers on Etero, a 48-year-old woman living in a small village in Georgia. Etero never wanted a husband and cherishes her freedom as much as her cakes. But her choice to live alone is the cause of much gossip among her fellow villagers.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic You can easily hear the impact of Tina Turner in the music of Yola, one of the greatest singers of our generation. But it goes far beyond any basic level of influence for this British-bred, now Nashville-based powerhouse. Before becoming a recording artist and Grammy nominee, back in her native U.K., she was a teacher and lecturer in vocal biomechanics who would instruct young singers in how to emulate Turner’s singular voice… or at least how to try. Yola spoke with Variety about Turner, who died May 24 at age 83. These are some of her thoughts, on everything from Tina’s pure technique to the unique challenges she faced as a Black stylist without parallels or filters to her place in genre-bridging musical history.

Christopher Vourlias What’s in a name? For the Congolese Belgian rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji, whose directorial debut, “Omen,” bows in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section on May 22, it’s a question that poses itself whenever flustered immigration officials inspect his passport at the airport in Congo. “Always the same question, every time,” Baloji tells Variety. “Do you know what it means?” In the pre-colonial era, baloji meant “man of science” in Swahili, but the word became corrupted by Christian evangelists during the years of Belgian colonial rule. Today it is more akin to a man of occult sciences and sorcery. “Some people of faith do not dare to say my name in public for fear of invoking evil spirits and the suspicions that may accompany it,” the director says. “In such an animistic culture it is equivalent to being called devil or demon in the West.”

Kaouther Ben Hania’s powerful drama “Four Daughters” which mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined ISIS is scoring a slew of sales following its well-received Cannes competition premiere. French company The Party Films Sales has sealed deals on “Four Daughters” for: Benelux (Cineart); Spain (Caramel Films); Italy (I Wonder); Switzerland (Trigon); Sweden (Triart); Denmark (Camera Film); Norway (Arthaus); Finland (Cinemanse); Poland (New Horizons); Greece (Ama Films); former Yougoslavia (Discovery) and Turkey (Bir Film). Rights to the film for multiple other territories are under negotiations, the company said.

Michel Gondry’s new film “The Book of Solutions,” playing in Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, centers on the torturous life of being a creative filmmaker and begins at the heart of the matter: Marcc(Pierre Niney) is in a meeting with the producers of his new film, and they are unhappy with what he has delivered them. They’re ending the shoot, putting a new editor in charge to salvage what is already there, and his producing partner of many years finally turns his back on him.

Leading French producer Marc Missonnier, who had his Cannes Film Festival accreditation revoked after he publicly criticized its selection of Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming, has finally received a badge.

“Eureka” seems somewhat deceitfully simple: a man called Murphy (Viggo Mortensen) searches for his abducted daughter with the help of the mysterious El Coronel (Chiara Mastroianni), even if he has to shoot everyone who stands in his way.

There’s trouble in the paradise of Savannah, Georgia, where the skeins of Spanish moss-draped over corridors of trees wave in the gentle coastal zephyrs with each night’s picture-perfect sunset. Spouses Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton) have opened their palatial home for a backyard BBQ; he’s manning the grill, and she’s darting about trying to make everything just right, each well aware of their role to play.

Jay Leno is fueled with happiness. The 73-year-old comedian revealed his positive outlook on life with Fox News Digital months after suffering third-degree burns to his face from a gasoline fire at his Burbank garage. Two months later, Leno was involved in a motorcycle accident in Las Vegas where he broke multiple bones.

I am still searching for my words; my thoughts first ran dry in the opening minutes of the shattering and evocative “Killers of the Flower Moon.” It begins with the Osage tribal elders mourning the loss of their language and customs as they bury a sacred pipe. The scene breaks, next revealing these Indigenous folks — forcibly moved from Missouri to present-day Oklahoma (thought to be terrible, barren land) — discovering oil as psychedelic music erupts with the splash of the black liquid.

When is time not on the side of any Cannes film premiere?

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD – DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW!

Nuri Bilge Ceylan loves snow. The depths of winter, people in thick coats, frozen taps, the sense that these long, bitterly cold seasons in mountain regions will never end. This is all working material for the Turkish master whose Winter Sleep won the Palme d’Or in 2014. “What am I doing here?” is the regular moan from Samet (Deniz Celiloglu), the art teacher in the village school in About Dry Grasses.

Harrison Ford had a hard time fighting back tears at the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France Thursday night. Ford attended the festival with wife Calista Flockhart for the premiere of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." This marks Ford's fifth and final movie in the franchise. Variety reported that once the film concluded, there was a standing ovation that lasted more than five minutes in the Palais des Festivals.

To this Turkish critic, Nuri Bilge Ceylan is our Mike Leigh and Anton Chekhov in one, with multilayered characters of social and political complexities engaging through dialogue lines that feel both off-the-cuff and studiously planned in their lavish rhythms. Ceylan is also a master of luxuriously slow cinema with a recognizable visual style, haunting, minimalistic and sneakily riveting across textured, widescreen pastoral scenes and dimly-lit interiors that evolve with peerless patience.Written by Ceylan, Akin Aksu and Ebru Ceylan, his latest stunner “About Dry Grasses”—Ceylan’s best feature since “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia”—flutters with all these pictorial qualities and emotional dispositions.

Guy Lodge Film Critic “Does everyone have to be a hero?” The question comes from thirtysomething art teacher Samet (Deni̇z Celi̇loğlu), burst out in frustration in the heat of an intense argument with his fellow educator and would-be girlfriend Nuray (Merve Di̇zdar), as they disagree over just how, or how much, any individual is obliged to contribute to society. It’s a familiar cry from a male protagonist in a film by Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, even if it hasn’t ever been worded quite so directly: “About Dry Grasses,” his long, languid but slowly captivating ninth feature, is merely his latest work to examine man’s right, for better or worse, to be selfish, to be an anti-hero, to crave attention and isolation all at once, and to talk about it all night long.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief TF1 Studio/ Newen Connect has picked up international sales rights to “Sarafina!,” the iconic South African musical-dance-drama that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992. “Sarafina!” was the first major film to be made in South Africa after the release of Nelson Mandela from his 27-year prison term. The film tells of the strength of the young women who made their mark during South Africa’s long journey to freedom. A restored version of the film will play in the Cannes Classics section this Sunday. It is a digitally remastered ‘producer’s cut’ which was created in partnership with Imax and includes never-seen-before footage.