The FAB UK team have hit the ground running at Cannes #75 covering all the red carpets and snapping celebrities such as Tom Cruise (Top Gun:Maverick and Tilda Swinton for Three Thousands Years of Longing). We are out and about and covering events and films, with very little sleep.
My first day at the festival included the red carpet premiere of ‘Frère et Sœur’ (Brother and Sister) with the cast at the Palais Lumiere Theatre, the home of the most famous and most photographed red carpet in the world.
The film, which stars Marion Cotillard (‘LaVie en Rose’) and Melvil Poupaud (‘Lawrence Anyways’) who play brother and sister who have not spoken to each other in decades amidst much tragedy and death in their family. The film is dark, very dark. At the press conference the day after, I asked the director (Arnaud Desplechin)why the film is so dark, and he said that he wanted to deal with things that terrified him in life and that he’s lucky that his parents are still alive but he felt that he must tackle these questions, in particular death. And he sure did with this film.
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Amidst the gowns, high heals and tuxedos along the Croisette, there are indeed little known films that will blow you away. Ken McMullen’s ‘Hamlet Within – Five Acts in Search of a Murderous Prince’, starring Ian McKellen was just such a film. It took my breathe away. Amidst sweeping and dramatic landscapes, ‘Hamlet Within’ is a cinematic investigation into the myth of Hamlet, its origins and its enduring appeal across cultures and systems, with experts on Hamlet providing the insight into William Shakespeare’s most famous play. The work asks the question: “why Hamlet” and more appropriately perhaps, “why Now”. Shot in five acts and framed by a prelude and an epilogue, the work is a collage of acted monologues and staged dialogues referencing Hamlet’s most famous Soliloquies.
There will be more about this film, and how it’s about to be a non tangible token (NFT), in the next issue of Fab UK Magazine.
More news about the film festival, films, and events in the next write-up.
By Cem Kaplan