63. Festival del Cinema di CANNES (12-23 Maggio 2010) - SELEZIONE UFFICIALE 2010 - INSIDE LA DIRETTA CON CANNES
SPECIALE 'ROBIN HOOD' (RUSSELL CROWE) di RIDLEY SCOTT. RECENSIONE in 'ANTEPRIMA' da 'VARIETY'
10/05/2010
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LA DIRETTA con CANNES:
SELEZIONE UFFICIALE - OFFICIAL SELECTION 2010
FILM DI APERTURA - OPENING FILM
RIDLEY SCOTT, ROBIN HOOD(Fuori Concorso/Out of Competition) Robin des bois 2h11 (*)
CONCORSO - COMPETITION
Mathieu AMALRIC, TOURNÉE
(On Tour) 1h51
Xavier BEAUVOIS, DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX
(Of God And Men) 2h00
Rachid BOUCHAREB, HORS LA LOI
(Outside Of The Law) 2h11
ALEJANDRO GONZÁLES IÑÁRRITU, BIUTIFUL 2h18
Mahamat-Saleh HAROUN, UN HOMME QUI CRIE
(A Screaming Man) 1h40
IM Sangsoo, THE HOUSEMAID 1h46
Abbas KIAROSTAMI, COPIE CONFORME
(Certified Copy) 1h46
TAKESHI KITANO, OUTRAGE 1h49
LEE Chang-dong, POETRY 2h15
MIKE LEIGH, ANOTHER YEAR 2h09
DOUG LIMAN, FAIR GAME 1h44
Sergei LOZNITSA, SCHASTYE MOE - 1st film -
(My Joy) 2h07
Daniele LUCHETTI, LA NOSTRA VITA
(Our Life) 1h33
Nikita MIKHALKOV, UTOMLYONNYE SOLNTSEM 2: PREDSTOYANIE
(Burnt By The Sun 2: Exodus) 2h21
Kornél MUNDRUCZÓ, SZELÍD TEREMTÉS – A Frankenstein Terv
(TENDER SON - The Frankenstein Project) 1h58
Bertrand TAVERNIER, LA PRINCESSE DE MONTPENSIER
(The Princess Of Montpensier) 2h15
WANG Xiaoshuai, RIZHAO CHONGQING
(Chongqing Blues) 1h45
Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL, LUNG BOONMEE RALUEK CHAT
(Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives) 1h54
KEN LOACH, ROUTE IRISH.
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Derek CIANFRANCE, BLUE VALENTINE - 1st film - 1h34
Xavier DOLAN, LES AMOURS IMAGINAIRES
(Heartbeats) 1h35
MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA, O ESTRANHO CASO DE ANGÉLICA
(The Stange Case of Angelica) 1h34
Ivan FUND, Santiago LOZA, LOS LABIOS
(The Lips) 1h40
Fabrice GOBERT, SIMON WERNER A DISPARU… - 1st film -
(Lights Out) 1h27
Jean-Luc GODARD, FILM SOCIALISME 1h41
Christoph HOCHHÄUSLER, UNTER DIR DIE STADT
(The City Below) 1h45
HONG Sangsoo, HA HA HA 1h56
JIA Zhang-Ke, HAI SHANG CHUAN QI
(I Wish I Knew) 2h05
Lodge KERRIGAN, REBECCA H. (RETURN TO THE DOGS) 1h11
Ágnes KOCSIS, PÁL ADRIENN
(Adrienn Pál) 2h16
Vikramaditya MOTWANE, UDAAN - 1st film - 2h18
Radu MUNTEAN, MARTI, DUPA CRACIUN
(Tuesday, After Christmas) 1h39
Hideo NAKATA, CHATROOM 1h37
Cristi PUIU, AURORA 2h59
Oliver SCHMITZ, LIFE ABOVE ALL 1h40
Pablo TRAPERO, CARANCHO 1h47
Daniel VEGA, Diego VEGA, OCTUBRE - 1st film -
(October) 1h23
David VERBEEK, R U THERE 1h27
FUORI CONCORSO - OUT OF COMPETITION
Grand Théâtre Lumière
WOODY ALLEN, YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER 1h38
Olivier ASSAYAS, CARLOS 5h30
STEPHEN FREARS, TAMARA DREWE 1h49
OLIVER STONE, WALL STREET - MONEY NEVER SLEEPS (Wall Street - l'argent ne dort jamais) 2h16
(Salle du 60ème)
Andrei UJICA, AUTOBIOGRAFIA LUI NICOLAE CEAUŞESCU
(L'autobiographie de Nicolae Ceausescu) 3h00
(Midnight Screenings)
GREGG ARAKI, KABOOM 1h28
Gilles MARCHAND, L'AUTRE MONDE
(Black Heaven) 1h40
(Special Screenings)
Charles FERGUSON, INSIDE JOB 2h00
Sophie FIENNES, OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW 1h40
Patricio GUZMAN, NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ
(Nostalgia for the Light) 1h30
Sabina GUZZANTI, DRAQUILA - L'ITALIA CHE TREMA
(Draquila-Italie Trembles) 1h30
Otar IOSSELIANI, CHANTRAPAS 2h05
Diego LUNA, ABEL 1h20
Lucy WALKER, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO 1h30
Manaira CARNEIRO,
Wagner NOVAIS,
Rodrigo FELHA,
Cacau AMARAL,
Luciano VIDIGAL,
Cadu BARCELOS,
Luciana BEZERRA, 5 X FAVELA POR NOS MESMOS 1h36
FILM DI CHIUSURA - CLOSING FILM
Julie BERTUCCELLI, THE TREE 1h45
Sito ufficiale: "www.festival-cannes.com"
(*) ROBIN HOOD - RECENSIONE da JUSTIN CHANG (www.variety.com)
Robin Longstride - Russell Crowe
Marion Loxley - Cate Blanchett
William Marshal - William Hurt
Godfrey - Mark Strong
Friar Tuck - Mark Addy
Prince John - Oscar Isaac
King Richard the Lionheart - Danny Huston
Little John - Kevin Durand
Will Scarlet - Scott Grimes
Sheriff of Nottingham - Matthew Macfadyen
Eleanor of Aquitaine - Eileen Atkins
Father Tancred - Simon McBurney
Sir Walter Loxley - Max von Sydow
"Can you not sing a happy tune?" growls a not-so-merry man in "Robin Hood," and one might direct the same question at Ridley Scott's grimly revisionist take on England's most famous outlaw. Impressively made and serious-minded to a fault, this physically imposing picture brings abundant political-historical dimensions to its epic canvas, yet often seems devoted to stifling whatever pleasure audiences may have derived from the popular legend. With a brawny Russell Crowe in the title role, pic looks to hit its B.O. target in most markets, though overall muted reactions may hold Universal back from a king's ransom Stateside.
While the film will earn immediate comparisons with 2004's gritty, unromantic "King Arthur," what Scott and scribe Brian Helgeland have attempted here is not too dissimilar from what Christopher Nolan and his collaborators pulled off with "Batman Begins": They've fashioned a fresh origin story for a well-known hero and excised all the material's potentially campy aspects in favor of a downbeat, detail-oriented realist approach.
To that end, there are tricky political allegiances and family ties to be sorted out; characters are as likely to be assaulted by speeches as by arrows; the French, though clearly perceived here as the enemy, are at least allowed to speak their native tongue; and every castle and forest must be painstakingly identified, to the point that "Robin Hood" comes to resemble a medieval "Bourne" movie as it darts hither and yon from Nottingham to the northern coast of France.
It's 1199 A.D., and Robin Longstride (Crowe, who produced with Scott and Brian Grazer) is an honorable Briton and skilled archer in the crusading army of King Richard (Danny Huston) -- who, in contrast to most versions of the story, appears at the beginning rather than the end. Fed up with their lot as soldiers, Robin and his men -- who include a slimmer-than-usual Little John (Kevin Durand), contributing a few moments of bawdy humor -- flee a battle with French soldiers shortly after Richard himself is killed in action.
A few skirmishes later, Robin finds himself in possession of the late monarch's crown, which he bears back to London disguised as a knight of the realm, Sir Robert Loxley. Along the way, the film introduces its principal villains, although Richard's cruel successor, John (Oscar Isaac), turns out to be a mere tool for his suspiciously bilingual adviser, Godfrey (chrome-domed Mark Strong, once again typecast).
While Godfrey sets the stage for a Gallic invasion, sabotaging John's relations with the local barons and their ruthlessly overtaxed citizens, Robin nobly seeks out the family of the fallen Sir Robert. The journey leads him to Nottingham, where he meets the knight's aging father, Sir Walter (Max von Sydow), and his widow, Lady Marion -- no damsel in distress, but a dagger-wielding spitfire played with relish by Cate Blanchett.
The pairing of two such estimable actors as Crowe and Blanchett alone signals the film's serious intentions, and as a perhaps inevitable consequence, Robin and Marion's courtship is in no hurry to catch fire. Something similar could be said of the film, whose leisurely buildup rarely translates into a sense of intellectual vigor and pays few emotional dividends. Essentially 139 minutes' worth of backstory, "Robin Hood" feels too long yet incomplete, and the events it leaves offscreen (for what, the sequel?) are precisely those that make the tale worth retelling.
Clearly a long way from Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn (and, to no one's complaint, Kevin Costner), pic can't help but play like a joyless corrective to Robin Hood's prior screen adventures, with their buoyant mix of wit, romance, green tights and derring-do. (This film offers mainly derring-don't.) A certain nagging political correctness is also apparent, not only in the recasting of Blanchett's Marion as a 12th-century feminist, but in the way Robin rebukes Richard and the folly of the Crusades, a scene that brings Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" to mind.
Similarly, Robin's stirring speech on the brotherhood of man (it's a quasi-Ken Loach moment, laying the foundation for the Magna Carta) recalls Scott and Crowe's superior first collaboration, "Gladiator" (2000). Now 10 years older (and paunchier), Crowe still has the sullen brooding and iron-clad sense of righteousness down pat. But there's no twinkle of merriment in his eyes, nothing to suggest a man who would not only be outraged by poverty and injustice, but wily enough to make sport of those responsible.
Among supporting players, Isaac channels "Gladiator's" Joaquin Phoenix as a fey yet ruthless tyrant; Eileen Atkins serves up a formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine; William Hurt brings subtle shadings to the role of a chancellor in whom Robin finds a shrewd ally; and Matthew Macfadyen sneers his way through a few scenes as the Sheriff of Nottingham. But it's von Sydow who gives the film's most heartrending turn as a man trying to smother his grief with a boisterous fighting spirit.
Though heavier on talk than action, pic does boast some robust setpieces, amplified by Marc Streitenfeld's urgent score and d.p. John Mathieson's vertiginous crane shots, somewhat marred by distracting camera effects in an otherwise stylistically old-fashioned film. One must be grateful that Universal avoided the current blockbuster trend toward 3D, especially considering the eye-popping possibilities afforded by archery.
Other craft contributions are generally superb, though some touches, such as the illuminated manuscripts that serve as expository visual aids, only compound the film's self-seriousness.
Camera (color, Panavision widescreen), John Mathieson; editor, Pietro Scalia; music, Marc Streitenfeld; production designer, Arthur Max; supervising art director, John King; art directors, Mark Homes, Adam O'Neill, Matt Robinson, Mike Stallion, Tom Still, Mark Swain, Remo Tozzi, Alex Cameron, Anthony Caron-Delion; set decorator, Sonja Klaus; costume designer, Janty Yates; sound (DTS/SDDS/Dolby Digital), Tony Dawe, John Mooney; supervising sound editors, Wylie Stateman, Mark Stoeckinger; re-recording mixers, Paul Massey, David Giammarco; visual effects supervisor, Richard Stammers; visual effects, MPC, Hammerhead Prods., Prime Focus, Invisible Effects, Lola VFX; stunt coordinator, Matthew Sampson; associate producer, Keith Rodger; assistant director, Max Keene; second unit director, Alexander Witt; casting, Jina Yay. Reviewed at Arclight Cinemas, Los Angeles, May 4, 2010. (In Cannes Film Festival -- opener, noncompeting.) MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 139 MIN.
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