Going to see The Class

The Class, which won the Palme d'Or last year, is currently playing at the Amherst Cinema. My friend Zoe and I have been talking about seeing this movie for quite a while (at least since last semester). Hoepfully, The Class will be playing this weekend so we can finally see it.

Do you speak French?

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I have to start remembering-or maybe just practicing-my French before I head off to Cannes.

I took French in middle school and high school (about 6 years in total). But I was never very good at it. One time, my teacher (Hi Mme. Becker!) accused me using an online translator to write a paper, when in fact I had written the paper on my own. I had the proficiency of a google translator; that is how bad I was at French. That fact is very depressing indeed.

But the time has come for me to bust out my Franglais. Then again, I'll probably end up doing what I did when I went to Quebec with my French class in high school. Go to McDonalds.

50 days til Cannes

Today I received my first weekly email from the American Pavilion, preparing me for Cannes. I didn't realize there were only 50 days until the festival and now I'm starting to get a bit nervous. I've made my plane reservation, I've turned in all of my paperwork, I know what I'm packing but that was easy in comparison to what the next few weeks have in store for me.

There is my schoolwork; I don't know how I'm going to finish it all before I leave for Cannes (I'm leaving before finals even start). Then there is the Mount Holyoke News, which already prevents me from finishing my schoolwork until the last minute. How am I supposed to handle these two major things and get ready for Cannes?

I also realized that I should probably brush up on my French. I took French class for 5 years (aka middle school and high school) but I should refresh my brain a little bit while I still can.

Somehow, I'll figure this all out. I have 50 days after all ;)

Up to open Cannes

Disney/Pixar's Up will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 13.

The movie is the story of a 78- year old man Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) who rigs helium balloons to his house and flies to South America.

Up is the first animated film to open the festival. It is a definite change of pace from Blindness, which opened the 2008 festival. It opens in the United States on May 29.

Almodovar's "Broken Embraces"

I've heard rumors that Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar's next film Broken Embraces will show at Cannes. Here is a preview of the film which opens in Spain March 18.

This year in Spanish cinema, Pedro Almodovar is the new black.

Oscar-winning director Almodovar's latest film Broken Embraces drops his distinctive comic melodrama for the best tradition of "film noir," the dark and stylish film genre used in many crime dramas.

Set for release on March 18 in Spain and in the rest of Europe in May, the film stars recent Oscar winner Penelope Cruz in the role of a tragedy-dogged aspiring actress.

"The film noir genre is one of my favorites," Almodovar told reporters at a screening of the film on Friday. "The fact this film was really "black" was what was very satisfying."

Broken Embraces centers on a quartet of characters in the movie business whose lives are interwoven in a torrid tale of love, power, secrecy, betrayal and vengeance. There is the actress Lena (Cruz), script writer and director Mateo, film producer Judith and unscrupulous financier Ernesto.

The dark and stylish cinematography recalls classic Hollywood thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s, including one scene where Lena's jealous lover pushes her down a long, winding staircase, evoking a similar scene in Henry Hathaway's The Kiss of Death.

Almodovar described Broken Embraces -- his 17th film and with the highest budget yet of 11 million euros ($14.16 million) -- as "the story of my \love for the cinema."

Spain's most famous director is known for melodramatic tragedy mixed with frenetic comedy in films like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!. He won the Oscar for screenwriting Talk to Her, about two men who form an unlikely bond when both their girlfriends are in comas, and he has only flirted with film noir style in earlier films, such as Trembling Flesh.

Broken Embraces marks the fourth collaboration between Almodovar and Cruz, who last month won the Oscar for best supporting actress in a role as an eccentric Spanish painter in Woody Allen's Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona.

Cruz was effusive in her praise of Almodovar. "I've been obsessed with his films since I was a youngster," she said, adding that if she were told she could only work with one director for the rest of her life it would be "without doubt" Almodovar.

I am taking a seminar on Pedro Almodovar's films this semester so I will be beyond excited if Broken Embraces does indeed show at Cannes.