Todd's Cannes Diary: Day Five
Yes, it is my fifth day here in Cannes a day which henceforth shall be referred to as the day with the worst screening karma known to man. My success rate getting to see the film sthat I planned to see? One for four, and neither Tokyo nor Ashes of Time Redux were that one. Sigh. I feel like I can legitimately blame Harrison Ford for making me miss Tokyo ... it was a bad day to try and move around the Croisette ...
Anyway, there were still good things to be had. Such as? The promo for Ip Man, the Wilson Yip directed, Donnie Yen starring bio pic of Bruce Lee's mentor. The current promo is largely behind the scenes footage but also includes some final work and it all looks very, very impressive. Donnie looks strong - you'd expect a strong effort from him considering how highly he regards Bruce Lee - as do the production values and the supporting cast. Fans of Fan Siu Wong - who we talked about a little while back thanks to his part in The Moss - will be glad to know it looks as though his role is pretty significant.
From there it was over to Russia's Art Pictures to take a look at the eleven minute promo reel from Fyodor Bondarchuk's upcoming scifi epic Inhabited Island. What they've got is clearly designed to showcase the scope and action of the film and it thoroughly succeeds on that level. This is a true epic, the world created for the film simply massive and - most importantly to me - seems to have a legitimate sense of history and culture built into it. There's no getting a sense of the film's story from this reel and it was presented without any of the CG work done and with a temp score but the level of detail, intricacy of the action scenes and quality of the camera work is every bit as high as you'd expect from the director of the stellar 9th Company.
The one full screening of the day was four part horror anthology 4bia. I expected the segments from the Shutter and Alone directorial duo Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom - making their solo debuts here - to be strong and both were - with Pisanthanakun's entry showcasing a very strong sense of humor - but the best of the lot, in my opinion, came surprisingly from Iron Ladies director Yongyoot Thongkongtoon who puts together a remarkably effective and impeccably shot little piece of work.
Wrapping the day up was the Fantastic Fest karaoke extravaganza which climaxed with festival director Tim League trying to bully Troma founder Lloyd Kauffman into performing My Way shortly before the show was shut down by police thanks to noise complaints. Those Texans ... they're wacky ...
