Here’s three for your viewing pleasure this weekend from Team Film. First head down to the Landmark Sunshine and check out Francis Ford Coppola’s latest—the self-financed, self-produced Tetro, starring Vincent Gallo and Alden Ehrenreich, above. From there, head up to Cinema Village and catch the stateside release of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s three-hour director’s cut of the art-movie-cum-sex-romp Betty Blue. Finally, check your local listings for the sci-fi thriller Moon, which proves you can never have too many Sam Rockwells.

Quiet is not a word I ever thought I’d use for the Cannes Film Festival, but on this first full day of screenings, there’s a surprisingly subdued vibe in and around the venues of the world’s most prestigious cinema event. Shorter lines abound, smaller crowds gather on the Croisette, and the French villagers are genuinely courteous. A cautious start in a slow economy? Not surprising, but not encouraging, either—especially when so many previous winners of the Palme d’Or (Lars von Trier, Francis Ford Coppola, Jane Campion, Quentin Tarantino) pepper this year’s slate with their latest and (knock on wood) greatest.

Critics are still floating from the seventh-heaven heights of Wednesday’s opening selection, Up, Pixar’s soon-to-be-blockbuster and the first animated film ever to kick off Cannes’ two-week orgy of voyeurism. But the clutch of competition movies thus far haven’t flown quite so high. Buzz was weak on Lou Ye’s gay romance Spring Fever and Andrea Arnold’s teen meltdown melodrama, Fish Tank, both of which had earned shrugs or eyerolls from fellow journalists (plus an inevitable defender or two) by the time I landed in town.

Indeed, the strongest response so far has been the mixed reaction to Thirst, Park Chan-wook’s grim tale of a bloodsucking priest. Despite the hoary conceit of vampirism, Park finds some clever twists by making his creature of the night a reluctant, guilt-ridden man of the cloth, whose weakness for a maniacal woman leads him into a downward spiral of homicidal debauchery. The movie bites off more than it can chew (heh) when it starts feeling like an Asian ghost story, but overall there’s a lovely melancholy to the genre antics, one that Park delivers with aplomb, giving his film some wonderful visual flourishes and a much deeper resonance than expected. Read more »

Following up on my prior post about Francis Ford Coppola’s latest, Tetro: I’ve just come across the film’s theatrical trailer (embedded below, and also available at the official Tetro site). I’d already heard raves about the movie, especially the black-and-white cinematography, the beauty of which is quite evident here. Myself, I’m most excited by what appears to be a dance sequence in the Powell-Pressburger vein, with eye-popping levels of Technicolor saturation. And I can’t help but think that the first series of images, in which introverted bad boy Vincent Gallo stares intently at an insect buzzing around his desk lamp, is an homage to Stan Brakhage’s experimental Mothlight (1963). Bring it on, Francis.

One of the 2009 films I’m most anticipating is Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, a predominantly black-and-white feature that the Godfather auteur shot in Argentina this past year. I stumbled across this YouTube clip over the weekend, wherein Coppola dons a Requiem for a Dream–style bodycam to welcome us to the film’s official website. The site’s become a favorite stop, mainly because its highly personal content—which is slowly being added to as the June 11 release date approaches—stands head and shoulders above the typical promotional jibber-jabber.

“I’m the most documented movie director in history,” notes the writer-director in a behind-the-scenes video, entitled “My Boys,” though the observation is more amused than self-aggrandizing, the statement of a man with nothing left to lose and tons more to share. And share he does, as Coppola mostly cedes the scene to star Vincent Gallo, who says that the movie he loves the most is his director’s own The Rain People (1969), a lesser-known effort well worth seeking out (it’s currently available through the Warner Bros. archive project). Gallo’s praise for Coppola always comes out a bit off-kilter, and his train of thought, especially in another video entitled “Vincent Gallo—Transcending the Father,” is a trip. My favorite section of the site, though, is Coppola’s self-authored biography in which he promises to “tell you some things you may not have read.” Among the bons mots:

“I was a camp counselor and loved it. I love kids—every child is a little Picasso, they are bundles of creativity. I’m always in touch with the child inside of me.”

And my personal favorite:

“Learn to cook. They may not like your films, but everybody loves a good meal.”