By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown To Cannes: Bertrand Bonello

Posted Friday, May 9th, 2014 - Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Bertrand Bonello
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Saint Laurent 1The eleventh in a series of snapshots outlining the nineteen directors in the 67th Palme d’Or Competition.

Background: French; born Nice, France 1968.

Known for / style: The Pornographer (2001), Tiresia (2003), House of Tolerance (2011); films that depict sex and sexuality openly or explicitly; an accomplished background in music; works that are typically associated with New French Extremism; a filmography that includes several shorts; working with actors Laurent Lucas and Jérémie Renier and collaborating with cinematographer Josée Deshaies; screenwriting in addition to directing.

bertrand-bonelloNotable accolades: In terms of trophies, Bonello has been quiet on the festival circuit; he picked up a lone FIPRESCI prize in 2001 for his Critics’ Week film The Pornographer. House of Tolerance was thrice-nominated for France’s local Prix Lumière (Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay) but did not win. In 2009, Bonello snagged Miami’s “Cutting the Edge” award for his film De la Guerre (2008).

Previous Cannes appearances: Not part of the Official Selection yet still on the Croisette, The Pornographer debuted at the 2001 Critics’ Week. Bonello has since played twice in Competition (Tiresia, 2003; House of Tolerance, 2011) and once out of Competition (the 2005 short film Cindy, The Doll is Mine).

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: Saint Laurent, Bonello’s biographical depiction of iconic fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. Not to be confused with Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent (released earlier this year), the title role is played by Gaspard Ulliel and features Léa Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color), Louis Garrel (seen last at Cannes last year for A Castle in Italy), Jérémie Renier, and Helmut Berger. Seydoux plays Loulou de la Falaise, YSL’s close friend and fellow designer, while Renier plays Pierre Bergé, his former partner. The film is co-written by Jacques Audiard’s go-to scribe Thomas Bidegain, who helped pen A Prophet (2009) and Rust and Bone (2012).

Could it win the Palme? Trailing the pack of French-language films in the 2014 Competition is Saint Laurent, a film that faces the unfortunate reality of being screened in the wake of Berlin-bowing Yves Saint Laurent. Bonello’s critical success isn’t as established as his contemporary Competition (House of Tolerance was hit-or-miss at the Salle Debussy), so while his cast is certainly formidable, this is a film that will likely live or die on Gaspard Ulliel’s performance. That means we could see an acting prize for Ulliel if he pulls it off, as is usually the case with biopics; otherwise, this film seems an unlikely winner, and one that was initially questioned by some for being included in Competition at all.

Why you should care: Not that anyone was asking for two films on Yves Saint Laurent in the same year, but Lespert’s attempt wasn’t exactly a blockbusting success. Judging from his previous works it appears Bonello’s taken a more commercial approach (Saint Laurent is likely his most distributable), and if his attempt at the designer is stronger than Lespert’s, then so be it—we’ll take it. The film will also check in on 2013 Competition alumni Léa Seydoux and Louis Garrel, and damned if Garrel can’t do better than A Castle in Italy.

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

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Posted in Cannes, Cannes Originals, MCN Originals, Movie City News | Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Bertrand Bonello

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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

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon