The Guardian’s “Court of Cannes”; of US Cinema (Cosmopolis “Perhaps Most Intriguing of All”)
Cannes Film BuzzThis is a relatively lengthy, and quite interesting article written by Xan Brooks of The Guardian. There’s a nice spotlight placed on Cosmopolis in this paragraph–we’ve italicized the comment. We have also pulled a few excerpts out of the story, that we found interesting and informative.
 |
| From guardian.co.uk: Crucial launchpad … Angelina Jolie on the red carpet last year.Photograph: Afp/AFP/Getty Images |
The Guardian on Cosmopolis:
“Lest this seem too rarefied for certain tastes, be assured that US cinema is out in force. Up for examination is The Paperboy, a sweaty Florida-noir starring John Cusack, Zac Ephron, and Nicole Kidman. Elsewhere, Reese Witherspoon headlines in coming-of-age drama Mud, while the Brazilian director Walter Salles attempts to bring Jack Kerouac’s On the Road to the screen with its freeform magic intact.
Perhaps most intriguing of all, we have the premiere of Cosmopolis, based on the Don DeLillo novel, directed by David Cronenberg and starring Twilight posterboy Robert Pattinson as a listless billionaire who takes a chauffeur-driven trip across a Manhattan in meltdown.”
 |
| Rob on the Red Carpet, Cannes 2009 for Inglorious Basterds Premiere [May 2, 2009: Source FlynetPictures.com) |
Here's three excerpts, please note the headings for the paragraphs are our own.
There is a Code of Conduct for Cannes, Ignore at Your Peril (after relating some stories of past controversies):
“There is a code of conduct for Cannes and it must be respected. Those who don’t respect the code will never come back to Cannes.” The message is clear: obey the code and, yes, you may look upon the face of Indiana Jones. Break it and you will be cast out like Satan.”
Film Selection is Highly Exclusive:
“Cannes prides itself on offering (or purporting to offer) the best of the best. While thousands of films are submitted for the festival programme, fewer than 2% are deemed good enough to make the final cut. Steven Gaydos, executive editor at Variety magazine, feels it’s this exclusivity that marks the event out from such competitors as Berlin, Toronto or Sundance. “Cannes is the highest profile, most important and best-curated festival on the planet,” he says. “An industry boss recently told me that to have your film play in any of the sections at Cannes is better than having it play in the top section at any other festival. I have no reason not to believe him.”
Cannes Provides Different Levels of Access for Journalists:
“But is there a downside? Undeniably, all this reverence and exclusivity does breed a kind of snobbery. The result is a byzantine system in which delegates are badged according to rank, selected films are winnowed into various categories, and the rest of the world can go hang. Cannes can be a trial for first-time visitors and a nightmare for those on the fringes. Journalists, for example, are split into five castes, separate and unequal, each with a colour-coded card that allows them into certain screenings ahead of others and through doors few others can enter. The topmost white card, or carte blanche, grants access-all-areas and is reserved for high-status critics (our own Peter Bradshaw among them). At the bottom of the heap are yellow cards, for lowly bloggers, freelance photographers and the like. All this is part of a hierarchy that, in the opinion of Scott Macaulay, editor of Filmmaker magazine, is “as rigid as a fascist state”.
...Thinking of Rob
Spunk Ransom
Robert Pattinson U.S.
...Let Me Sign
...Robert Pattinson Profile
Official Cosmopolis Site
Alfama Films
Cosmopolis at IMDb 
Simon&Schuster
Cosmopolis Film.com
Share Your Thoughts!