By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown to Cannes: Alice Rohrwacher

Posted Sunday, May 11th, 2014 - Comments Off on Countdown to Cannes: Alice Rohrwacher
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the-wonders

The fiftheen in a series of snapshots outlining the nineteen directors in the 67th Palme d’Or Competition.

Background: Italian; born Fiesole, Tuscany 1980.

Known for / style: Corpo Celeste (2011); a filmmaking career that began with editing, shooting, and directing documentaries, both shorts and features; autobiographical tendencies; handheld camera work; natural or realist approaches to direction.

Notable accolades: Relatively fresh on the scene, Rohrwacher has yet to pick up anything major. At Italy’s David di Donatello awards, she was nominated for the Best New Director prize. The Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, on the other hand, opted to laud her as such.

Previous Cannes appearances: Rohrwacher’s debut film, Corpo Celeste, played in the 2011 Director’s Fortnight program.

Film she’s bringing to Cannes: Le Meraviglie (English: The Wonders), an Italian-language family drama. From the official website: “Fourteen-year-old Gelsomina lives in the Umbrian countryside with her sweetly dysfunctional family. Her secluded microcosm is shattered by the arrival of Martin, a young German criminal on a rehab program. Le Meraviglie tells a small but cruel love story between a father and daughter, their torments, jealousy and shyness. They give abundantly, and betray each other painfully. It tells of the ties that bind one family together, and a land undergoing a profound transformation. It is also the story of a great failure, through which they all gather strength.” The film stars Monica Bellucci, Alba Rohrwacher (the director’s sister), André Hennicke, Margarete Tiesel, Sam Louwyck, and Sabine Timoteo.

Could it win the Palme? As is the case with Naomi Kawase, Jane Campion may be looking to celebrate Rohrwacher as the second woman to ever win the Palme d’Or. Realistically, though, filmmakers don’t typically jump from Director’s Fortnight into the Competition straightaway (especially if they are women), so Rohrwacher may very well have something seriously strong here. In other words: the Cannes programmers have slotted the rising Italian director in the Palme race for a reason, and it’s a waiting game to see what The Wonders has in store. Regardless, the inclusion of the iconic Monica Bellucci makes the film a must-see.

Why you should care: Given that Alice Rohrwacher has only one narrative feature to her name, there’s a certain sense of anticipation in catching her sophomore effort. 2011’s Corpo Celeste was critically quite successful, and the trailer for The Wonders hints at something akin to the sun-kissed countryside narratives of the Italian neo-realists.

Follow Jake Howell on Twitter: @Jake_Howell
Previous Entries:
Tommy Lee Jones
Atom Egoyan
Bennett Miller
Xavier Dolan
David Cronenberg
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Naomi Kawase
Ken Loach
Michel Hazanavicius
Jean-Luc Godard
Bertrand Bonello

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Posted in Cannes, Cannes Originals, MCN Originals, Movie City News | Comments Off on Countdown to Cannes: Alice Rohrwacher

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon