Cannes 2023 Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

CANNES – Henry VIII was a bad, bad, bad man. The 16th Century King of England notoriously beheaded two of his six wives, divorced another two, and saw another die during childbirth.

Of King Henry VIII’s six wives, his final marriage to Catherine Parr is perhaps the most ignored. The others are rife with tragedy: there are the two he detested the most that he bent the will of God to legalize divorce; there’s Jane Seymour, who died soon after giving birth to an heir; and most notoriously of all, there are the wives he beheaded.

CANNES – David Grann‘s acclaimed novel “Killers of the Flower Moon” has gone through a number of interactions to finally get to the big screen. One constant, however, has been director Martin Scorsese and star and producer Leonardo DiCaprio‘s commitment to do right by the Osanage Nation, who are at the center of tragic events the book depicts in the 1920s.

With all the headlines dedicated to the #MeToo movement over the past few years, it can sometimes feel like the industry has made progress — certainly, enough to launch several biopics and television shows about its own misconduct. But this is still a time when “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” actress Adèle Haenel feels compelled to quit the French film industry in protest, and when the director of the Cannes Film Festival feels the need to say, out loud, that Cannes is not a “festival for rapists.” READ MORE: Cannes Director Says Event Is Not “A Festival For Rapists” Needless to say, there’s still work to be done, and it’s good that these conversations continue to happen – especially when they involve an icon of the French film industry, Marion Cotillard.

Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” playing in Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, begins with an interview between a writer and a student interested in her work. It’s a lighthearted, almost flirty discussion where double entendres are part of a seemingly harmless game.

In 2013, filmmaker Anthony Chen’s first feature, “Ilo Ilo,” won the coveted Caméra d’Or at Cannes. Centered around the inseparable bond between a 10-year-old Singaporean boy and his Filipina nanny, Chen’s full-length debut deployed a specific lens — a family weathering the 1997 Asian financial crisis — to tell a universal story exploring the nooks and crannies of our shared humanity.

“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.

CANNES – Perhaps it was the fact we’ve reached the halfway point of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and the media have reached an inevitable breaking point with lack of sleep. Or maybe it was the often (but not talways) demure personalities of “May December’s” Oscar-winning stars, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman.

In 2013, filmmaker Anthony Chen’s first feature, “Ilo Ilo,” won the coveted Caméra d’Or at Cannes. Centered around the inseparable bond between a 10-year-old Singaporean boy and his Filipina nanny, Chen’s full-length debut deployed a specific lens — a family weathering the 1997 Asian financial crisis — to tell a universal story exploring the nooks and crannies of our shared humanity.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan has been a Cannes regular since his debut short, “Koza,” in 1995. An assured auteur from the very beginning, Ceylan made a name for Turkey on the festival circuit, and every year he brings a new title to the Croisette, critics and audiences alike already know what they’re in for.

God, what a terrible thing it is to be a teenage girl. A body once free to roam and run and be transformed by the unforgivable rush of hormones, cunning little tricksters pumped through blood in a mad rush to reach the anti-climatic cusp of adulthood.

CANNES – Is it possible for a movie about a woman suffering from excessive hair growth in the 19th century to be, well, predictably formulaic? Granted, there can be some reassurance in that. A story of someone different, perservering against ignorance can be uplifting to many.

CANNES – If anyone tells you the world doesn’t need any more films about the holocaust or the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis in 2023, we’d suggest you politely correct them. Despite over eighty years of cinema on the subject, there continue to be new stories waiting to be told (and some re-told).

CANNES – We are not one to complain about the length of a film. Directors can make an artistic impact specifically with pacing and structure.

Hong Sang-soo shows no signs of slowing down, does he? After two feature films a year for the past two years, the South Korean director will do it again in 2023, with his 30th film, “In Our Day,” ready to close the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival on May 25. Hong’s latest comes after “In Water” premiered at the Berlinale in February to universal acclaim.

Michel Gondry returns to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time since 2012’s “The We And The I” with “The Book Of Solutions,” his first film in seven years. And in the days before his new movie’s premiere in the Director’s Fortnight section on May 21, Gondry talked with THR and IndieWire about why he took so long between 2015’s “Microbe & Gasoline” and his latest feature.

What a night it was for Harrison Ford yesterday, receiving an honorary Palme d’Or and a special tribute to his career before the world premiere of “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.” Did James Mangold‘s take on the legendary franchise live up to the proceedings? Well, the reviews from the premiere (including The Playlist’s) are pretty mixed. But many note Ford’s performance as a major highlight, so at least the actor gives his most popular movie character a proper send-off.

In Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s “Black Flies,” silence is as scarce a commodity as hope. Young first responder Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan) learns very early on that the job comes with two partners: the one sitting next to you and the relentless cacophony of sounds that cut through the vastness of night as shears.

In “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the sturdy lark, positioned precariously in the liminal space between commerce and taste, there are the familiar callbacks, the big set pieces, the cracking bullwhip, dashing fedoras, nefarious Nazis, exotic locales, old friends and new faces. Something, however, is missing.

Over the past several years, Johnny Depp has been the subject of a number of controversial reports, most of them stemming from his alleged erratic behavior on set and the accusations of abuse from his ex, Amber Heard. Since then, he’s been persona non grata in major Hollywood productions, which included being fired from the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise.

Five years ago, on March 14th 2018, a car pulled alongside Brazilian Councilwoman Marielle Franco’s vehicle and fired several shots, killing both the politician and her driver. The crime, which enraged a country undergoing grave political turmoil, still remains unsolved.

A few seconds before the world premiere of Sean Price Williams’ directorial debut “The Sweet East,” the names of Josh and Benny Safdie rolled on the screen as part of the Directors’ Fortnight vignette.

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.

CANNES – Imagine the world completely changing over the span of just two years. No, there hasn’t been an apocalyptic nuclear war.

Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest gem, “Monster,” begins on an enormous inferno. The facade of a hostess club is engulfed in flames of mysterious origin, attracting everyone from curious neighbors to squealing children chasing down roaring fire engines to witness the chaos.

Over the past several years, Johnny Depp has been the subject of a number of controversial reports, most of them stemming from his alleged erratic behavior on set and the accusations of abuse from his ex, Amber Heard. Since then, he’s been persona non grata in major Hollywood productions, which included being fired from the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise.

Somewhere in the third hour of Steve McQueen’s documentary “Occupied City,” the camera slowly dollies left over a list of names in glowing green print on a black background, enumerating the thousands of Jews deported from Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. A moment of silence in the audio mix announces this as an important shot, an occasion to consider the enormity of the loss that this four-and-a-half-hour film itemizes with near-comprehensive diligence.

At its best moments, the extremely straightforward construction of Cédric Kahn’s “The Goldman Case” allows for fascinating dynamics and images to occur apparently unforced, as if by themselves, for the viewer to seize on their own. The film, which has just opened the Directors’ Fortnight section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is refreshing for this bared-down, almost documentary-like approach — especially because it focuses on an incredibly complex man who needs all the space he can get to show everything that he is, in all his apparent contradictions.  READ MORE: 2023 Cannes Film Festival: 21 Must-See Movies To Watch This revelation takes place progressively, over the course of the almost surgically precise and aggressive trial that takes up most of the film’s runtime.

The use of body horror allegories in cinema to address the physical, physiological, and mental changes brought on by puberty could hardly be called original. However, by delightfully and intelligently remixing symbols and metaphors Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu refreshes the concept in her zesty debut feature “Tiger Stripes.”  The term “body horror” could in fact be considered a misnomer in this case, as our fierce lead protagonist Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) doesn’t undergo anything as monstrous as growing a car in her belly or a biogun out of her hand.

She’s won an Academy Award and dealt with toxic, misogynist fans over the $1 billion success of “Ms. Marvel.” Still, we’re not 100% sure Brie Larson knew what she was getting into when she was asked to join the Cannes Film Festival Jury.

This year, the Cannes Film Festival actually broke its own record for the number of female filmmakers in the official competition. That’s great news for an event that has come under fire in recent years for having less diversity and inclusivity than other prestigious festivals.

Once again, the world’s media, sales agents, acquisition execs, cinephiles hoping for a free ticket, and wanna-be celebrities crashing the famed red carpet have descended upon Cannes. And unlike 2022 where the festival was about 90% back to pre-pandemic norms, the 76th edition is expected to be a time jump back to better days when the Cannes Film Market was hopping and there were conflicting parties to jump to on la Croisette.

Just because a film premieres out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival doesn’t mean it’s not a must-watch. For example, take the fest’s Un Certain Regard section, which aims to curate films that exemplify the richness and diversity of different cinema cultures worldwide.

Stateside, audiences may know Amat Escalante best for directing episodes of “Narcos: Mexico” for Netflix. But Escalante deserves more recognition than that, having excellent independent dramas like 2013’s “Heli” and 2016’s “The Untamed.” And Escalante returns to the Croisette for the first time since “Heli” premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or with his new film, “Lost In The Night.” READ MORE: Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2023 Lineup Includes New Films From Hong Sang-soo, Michel Gondry & More As a late addition to the Cannes line-up, “Lost In The Night” won’t have its world premiere in competition for the fest’s top prize, instead premiering in the Cannes Premiere section.

Patricia Highsmith‘s novels have been the source of several incredible film adaptations over the years, including “Strangers On A Train,” “The American Friend,” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” among others.