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Donald Clarke

Whingeing about cinema and real life since 2009

Monthly Archives: May 2011

Why do the Irish like comedies?

It looks as if The Hangover Part II and Kung Fu Panda 2 might have — in financial terms, at least — saved the year for cinema. Despite being little more than a pallid relocation of the first film to …

Where is The Tree of Life (Pt 156)?

Where indeed? There is a hilarious irony at work here. For (literally) years we wondered when Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life would get released. It seemed a remote possibility in 2009. It seemed a stronger one in 2010. Then, …

Last words on Cannes

Well, that’s over for another year. By common consent, Cannes 2011 was a pretty good edition. Mr Von Trier did his job — if they still put occupations on passports it would say “controversialist” on his — and stirred up …

On the rituals of Cannes (and what’s going to win)

Spend a while at Cannes and you realise how much the place is in thrall to ritual. The same things happen at the same time every day. Each year ancient rhythms play themselves out. Much of this is self-imposed. Attendees …

Spending the Morning with Sean Penn

This morning we all decamped to the press conference for Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must be the Place. The latest from the director of Il Divo and The Family Friend is a really interesting piece of work. Mr Penn plays a …

Lars Von Trier spotted in Cannes

A few blocks up from my hotel, a banner depicting Lars Von Trier, recently declared “persona non grata” by the authorities, still hangs proudly across the Rue d’Antibes. The festival only lasts for another three days, but, given how vigorously …

Cannes actually DISOWNS Lars Von Trier

If there was any question that the Cannes authorities weren’t taking Lars Von Trier’s recent indiscretions seriously, it was dispelled by an extraordinary email from the Board of Directors that has just arrived at our inboxes. As you will be …

Annual hello from The Guardian and Some Notes.

After last year’s big hello from Pete Bradshaw, we, this year, receive a similarly warm greeting from Xan Brooks, one of the Guardian’s mighty team of journalists covering the festival. We had just emerged from Jodie Foster’s The Beaver and …

The Tree of Life booed (and applauded) at Cannes

The Tree of Life has finally arrived. It’s a beautiful, hugely flawed thing: mad, extravagant, pretentious, ponderous. Allow me to reserve full analysis of the picture for the review in tomorrow’s paper. Two things are worth reporting. Firstly, despite appearing …

My new friend Johnny Depp

To the press conference for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. There was a more than usually violent mill at the entrance to the press bash for the latest entry in the bum-achingly tedious Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. …

Derek Malcolm says hello.

I was going to write “Del-Boy Malcolm says hello.” But Mr Malcolm, one of the deans of film criticism, deserves a tad more respect. Properly informed readers will remember that he worked as The Guardian’s film critic for some decades. …

With the Estonians at Cannes

If you saunter down a slipway at the back of the Palais you encounter a hamlet where some of the world’s smaller nations — and regions — tout their wares. Sadly, the nice people from Louisiana, who gave me free …

Could Cannes give its first undivided Palme to a Woman?

As the sun (not pictured) sets on the second day of the Cannes Film Festival, attendees are left pondering the question of whether Cannes could — for only the second time — give the top prize to a film directed …

My nice photograph of Faye Dunaway at Cannes

Okay it’s more a photo of a photo of Faye Dunway than a photo of Faye Dunaway. But there she is anyway. The real Ms Dunaway was present at the launch as well. But I don’t have sufficiently pointy elbows …

Roger Ebert loses his voice with dignity.

If you are in or about Belfast next week, you should check out My Dog Tulip at the Queen’s Film Theatre. It’s a really nice little animated picture based on a miserablist memoir by the excellent J R Ackerley. Why …

Thor is a conservative film.

As I may have mentioned before, I am a great fan of the eccentric right-wing website Conservapedia. Established by one Andy Schlafly, son to well-known liberal-bashing blowhard Phyllis Schlafly, the site sells itself as a Conservative alternative to the notoriously …

Hobo with a Shotgun! (and titles in general).

That’s got your attention. Hasn’t it? I haven’t yet seen Hobo with a Shotgun — a drama concerning a homeless person who has access to a firearm — but I am counting down the days until it arrives on our …

Quentin Tarantino directs film version of The Magic Roundabout

No he doesn’t really. But an adaptation of the popular quasi-psychedelic TV show is just about the only thing that Quentin hasn’t threatened to direct over the last two decades. Never has a man been so at home to creative …

Is Fast & Furious V the best fifth episode ever?

Probably not. After all, if you include the James Bond series then On Her Majesty’s Secret Service — for many perverse connoisseurs the finest of the bunch, despite the tepid lead —  surely takes the title. It is, however, interesting …