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No sooner had I finished the brief tour of Mark Ravenhill’s new play
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I wonder if there was any need. Sometimes it seems as if actors in upcoming movies are trapped in a vice betwixt the publicity department, eager to prove their worth to the Studio, and the otherwise empty guest chairs on late night television. Does anyone go and see a film because of chats on late night television? When I failed to manage a single interview before the release of X-Men 2 (I was filming somewhere inconvenient) the only quantifiable result was that more people saw the film than the first one, which I had publicised like billy-o. |
Well here I am again, this time talking about two new films due with just a week apart on 19 and 25 May (my birthday as it happens). Tomorrow I leave London with the rest of The Da Vinci Code conspirators via the English Channel Tunnel to the south of France and the 59th Festival de Cannes.
| All is revealed on their
official site,
which is available in a rather halting English translation. Films are
shown during the two weeks in three categories: competition, un certain regard,
and out of competition. In the latter grouping, The Da Vinci Code’s world
premiere gets to lead off the entire Festival on Wednesday 17th May. The
website says that Cannes highlights “auteur cinema and the search for
singular voices in different cultures”. Perhaps Ron Howard’s film also
made it to the front of the line because so much of it was shot in and
around Paris, starring some of France’s best-loved actors. Indeed,
answering the question "What Stars are Expected on the Croisette" (the
crescent beach frontage at Cannes) the site lists “First, the actors of
the opening film ; Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou, Jean Reno, Jean-Pierre
Marielle” with no mention of the Brits in the cast, neither Paul Bettany
nor Alfred Molina, nor . . . but I am eventually given a place alongside Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry. I’m glad X-Men: The Last Stand was also invited out of competition. |
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Au revoir! -- Ian McKellen, 15 May 2006
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