Cannes Film Festival 2014 Day 7: Is Marion Cotillard Front-Runner for Cannes Best Actress Award? Ryan Gosling's 'Lost River' Flops
The seventh day of the Cannes Film Festival saw the premiere of the Dardennes brothers' new film "Two Days, One Night," which opened to rave reviews.
The movie, which stars Marion Cotillard, tells the story of Sandra, a young woman who is assisted by her husband to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses so that she can keep her job. The movie is in competition and pundits are all raving about Cotillard's performance. Eric Kohn stated that the actress gives the best performance since her Oscar-winning turn in "La Vie en Rose" and Indiewire even wrote an article about why Cotillard could win the Best Actress award at Cannes.
"Her actions are littered with surprising moments, and each new co-worker she encounters adds another layer of texture to this delicate portrait of personal and professional priorities clashing with awkward results," writes Kohn.
Cotillard has been a fixture at Cannes for a number of years and she has been to the festival three straight years. Two years ago, her performance in "Rust and Bone" garnered buzz at the festival and many thought she would win the actress award. However, the award was given to the stars of "Beyond the Hills," Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur. Last year, Cotillard generated a lot of buzz for her role in "The Immigrant." The actress garnered numerous plaudits and most pundits believed she would win the award. However, she lost to Berenice Bejo for her role in "The Past." This year, most of the Cannes competition films have not had a female stand out performance and this is the first to obtain such raving reviews. If Cotillard is to win the Best Actress award, "Two Days, One Night" will not be able to win the Palme d'Or; it is rare to see a film win more than one award at the film festival.
In the Un Certain Regard sidebar, Ryan Gosling's debut film "Lost River" premiered to terrible reviews. The film was not only bashed by critics, but was also booed by audiences and critics. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 25 percent aggregate score and many critics have complained about the movie's incoherent plot and superficiality.
"It's perversely admirable to the extent that Gosling has certainly put himself out there, sans shame or apology, but train-wreck fascination will go only so far to turn this misguided passion project into an item of even remote commercial interest," writes Variety's Justin Chang.
"Lost River" marks the first booing at the festival, which is known for its harsh critics and demanding audience. The movie also marks the second film in a row that involves Gosling to be booed. Last year when Nicolas Winding Refn's "Only God Forgives" premiered in competition the movie was booed and harshly criticized. Gosling, however, was not in attendance. Other films that have been booed include the Palme d'Or winner "The Tree of Life," "Inglorious Basterds," "Southland Tales," "Antichrist" and "Marie Antoinette." After the disappointing response to the movie, it will most likely be difficult for "Lost River" to find a distributor and will probably go home empty-handed.
Meanwhile, the Cannes Film Market slowed down as distributors started to leave the festival. The biggest news came from Sony Pictures Classics, which acquired the competition film "Jimmy's Hall." The acquisition marked the company's third acquisition as Sony also took rights to "Wild Tales" and "Saint Laurent." "Jimmy's Hall" is directed by Ken Loach, who won the Palme d'Or in 2006 with "The Wind that Shakes the Barley."
Entertainment One acquired Canadian rights for three films. The movies were "Little Prince" from WildBunch, "Somnia" from Sierra Affinity and "Viral" from Blumhouse Intl. All three films already have U.S. distribution aligned.
The Rainn Wilson starrer "The Stream" was acquired by Cinedigm. The company is planning to release the movie on VOD and DVD in August. "The Stream" also sold rights to VM in Australia and MediAsia for Asian TV. The film also stars Mario Lopez, Kelly Rutherford, Christopher Gorham.
Meanwhile, Arsen A. Ostojic's film "The Man in the Box" had Parkland Productions back the project. Now that financing is in place, the director's English language debut hopes to begin shooting in September in Tirol and Cologne, Germany. The film is slated to star Thomas Kretschmann, Martina Gedeck and Gotz Otto.