One month into the writers strike, there’s little for a bystander to add about the issues, prospects or relative staying power of the opponents. Deadline’s reporters and contributors have done an admirable job on that score.
19.05.2023 - 19:51 / variety.com
Ed Meza @edmezavar German cinema is in Cannes with new works by Wim Wenders and films that explore Nazi propaganda, gender identity, economic crisis, romance, betrayal and fast cars. In addition to domestic films, a dozen German co-productions are screening in this year’s Cannes Film Festival lineup, including major works from the likes of Wes Anderson, Aki Kaurismäki and Jessica Hausner. Wenders is in Cannes with “Perfect Days,” which is vying for the Palme d’Or, and the documentary “Anselm” in Special Screenings. “Perfect Days” tells the story of a Tokyo janitor (Kôji Yakusho) who seems very content with his simple life, structured routines and passion for music, books and photography. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. The Japanese-German co-production is sold by the Match Factory.
“Anselm” explores the work of artist Anselm Kiefer, shedding light on his life, inspirations and creative process. Shot in 3D, the documentary interweaves past and present, delving deep into the world of one of Germany’s most distinguished contemporary artists. HanWay Films is handling world sales. German productions at this year’s Cannes Film Market, meanwhile, include Beta Cinema’s forthcoming historical drama “Fuhrer and Seducer,” which stars Austrian actor Robert Stadlober as Joseph Goebbels, the Third Reich’s minister of propaganda. The film reteams Stadlober and director Joachim A. Lang following their collaboration on 2018’s “Mack the Knife — Brecht’s Threepenny Film.” “Fuhrer and Seducer” chronicles Goebbels’ efforts to instrumentalize Germany’s entertainment industry for the Nazis’ anti-Jewish campaign. Currently in post-production, the film is scheduled to hit theaters later this year via Wild
One month into the writers strike, there’s little for a bystander to add about the issues, prospects or relative staying power of the opponents. Deadline’s reporters and contributors have done an admirable job on that score.
Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-based Cannes Competition title Perfect Days has clocked a series of international deals for The Match Factory.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” which won the best actor award for Koji Yakusho at the Cannes Film Festival, has sold out worldwide. The Match Factory is handling international sales. As previously announced, North American rights went to Neon and France went to Haut et Court. Further sales included U.K./Ireland/Latin America/Turkey (MUBI), Australia/New Zealand (Madman), Benelux (Paradiso), China (DDDream), Italy (Lucky Red), Spain (A Contracorriente), Switzerland (DCM), Baltics (A-One Baltics), Bulgaria (Art Fest), CIS (A-One), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms), Former Yugoslavia (MCF), Greece (Feelgood Entertainment), Hong Kong (Edko Films), Hungary (Cirko), Israel (Lev Cinemas), Poland (Gutek), Portugal (Alambique), Romania (Bad Unicorn), Scandinavia (Future Film) and Taiwan (Applause).
Documentary fans might be forgiven for nurturing a dream – that Cannes would follow the recent example of Venice and Berlin and award its top prize to a nonfiction film. Complete the documentary Triple Crown – the Golden Lion, the Golden Bear and the Palme d’or.
It’s a wrap for the 2023 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, where French director Justine Triet’s courtroom thriller “Anatomy of a Fall” has won this year’s Palme d’Or for best film.
The official synopsis for Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” is one of those rare occasions when a tightly-described premise encapsulates the immensity of a film: a janitor in Japan drives between jobs listening to rock music. In this case, the janitor is Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), an older man whose job is cleaning Tokyo’s elegantly designed public toilets.
A third Wings of Desire centering on the angels that watch over us, is not in the cards, German director Wim Wenders said today at the Cannes press conference for his latest in competition title at the fest, Perfect Days.
EXCLUSIVE: Neon is nearing a deal for North American rights to Cannes competition entry Perfect Days from The Match Factory in a deal pegged in the mid-to-high six figures.
The dignity of labor is explored with gentle humor and a very melancholy sense of joie de vivre in Wim Wenders’ second 2023 Cannes entry after his 3D documentary Anselm. Shot entirely in Japan, with very little English spoken, Perfect Days is an unusual film from a westerner since it does nothing to “other” a country that is often romanticized as a series of specific cultural signifiers (as in the well-meaning Lost in Translation, for example). It’s a compliment to say that Jim Jarmusch could have made it.
Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The upper deck at France’s Hotel Du-Cap-Eden-Roc offers a stunning coastal view of nearby city Cannes, the kind that Jay Gatsby would covet to peep Daisy Buchanan. On Tuesday, at one of the hottest parties at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, that view belonged to Graydon Carter. Standing alone with a female companion, the creator of the digital publication Air Mail and iconic former editor of Vanity Fair observed not a long-lost love but a cliffside full of movie stars, auteur directors and Hollywood power players. Carter’s Air Mail co-hosted an evening celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Warner Bros. Pictures, the latter represented by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and his top content lieutenants. Leonardo DiCaprio, Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Lily-Rose Depp, Sam Levinson, Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Rebel Wilson and more turned up to toast cinema and each other.
Mia Wasikowaska’s newest movie is turning heads on the festival circuit.
Cults and eating disorders warp the mind much in the same way: they convince the individual that their behavior is special and vital, that everyone else can’t see themselves or the world clearly, and that any external opposition only proves the effectiveness and power of their behavior. In her grueling new film “Club Zero,” Austria’s most fearless button-pusher Jessica Hausner fuses the two into a trajectory of slow-moving, inexorable body horror as primly buttoned-up as the lemon-lime polo shirt uniforms selected by her costume-designer sister Tanja.
Forget about Robin Williams’ Mr. Keating and his iconoclastic sway over his pupils in Dead Poets Society, Mia Wasikowska’s nutrition teacher Miss Novak in the Cannes competition title Club Zero takes inspiring students to a darker level.
Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” is a hot property in Cannes, and it’s yet to even premiere. Several buyers are currently circling the Japan-set, music-infused title from master filmmaker Wenders, which bows in competition on Thursday. Sources tell Variety that interested parties so far include Utopia, MUBI, Magnolia, Sideshow and Janus Films and Sony Pictures Classics. Wenders’ “Perfect Days” follows Tokyo toilet cleaner Hirayama, who seems content with his simple life. Outside of his everyday routine, he enjoys his passion for books and, in particular, for music. Over the course of the film, a series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
For those who treasure a sense of place in movies, the new trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, a film set for release by Paramount in October, brings a flicker of hope. (Pete Hammond’s Cannes review is here.)
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety has been given a sneak peek of the trailer (below) for Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” which world premieres in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The film is a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. It follows Hirayama, who seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. Koji Yakusho leads the cast. In 2005, he co-starred in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” which was nominated for six Academy Awards. In the following year, he co-starred in “Babel,” a film that was honored by the Cannes Film Festival and earned Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
EXCLUSIVE: AI is in the eye of the storm in LA right now amid the writers’ strike and is also a talking point at the Cannes Film Festival due to the de-aging of Harrison Ford for Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.
Cannes Film Festival. The distributor has acquired the rights to the film in North America, UK, Ireland, Latin America, Turkey, Italy, India, and Benelux and has plans for both a theatrical and streaming plan in the coming months.
EXCLUSIVE: Here at the Cannes Film Festival, Mubi has taken rights in North America, UK, Italy, Latin America, Turkey, India and Benelux to Un Certain Regard movie The Delinquents (Los Delincuentes).
Within the first few minutes of “The Delinquents,” Del Toro (Germán De Silva), the manager of a Buenos Aires bank, longs for the days when people were allowed to smoke anywhere: on airplanes, at restaurants, etc. He mourns that past as a time of greater freedom, until a colleague challenges him to reconsider the statement—the dictatorship ruled in those days. Del Toro backpedals and clarifies that what he misses is the notion that everybody smoked.