Cannes Winners
So, the Cannes Film Festival has wrapped up, and the winners selected. Pretty soon some of these films will hit the US, so let’s do a quick recap!
The Cannes Film Festival
YAY CANNES! I know that the lineup was announced two weeks ago and I’m SUPER late throwing my voice in, but I figure it’s better late than never. First, let’s talk directors. I’ve sorted them by level of prestige going into the competition.
Your favorite movie soundtrack & favorite animated movie
Favorite Movie Soundtrack - Tricky one. I’ll give you three: Help (Beatles, can’t go wrong), Boyz N The Hood (AMAZING rap tracks from the birth of gangsta rap), and The Wackness (needs no explanation)
Favorite Animated Movie - Easy peazy, Princess Mononoke. Though lately, I’ve been falling in love with Makoto Shinkai, and 5cm Per Second in particular.
Most traumatic childhood experience: Ash letting Butterfree go
WHYYYYY!!! We went through this on the S.S. Anne when you tried to trade him away but couldn’t because you raised him and he meant so much to you and you had been through so much together and goddamnit YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO LET HIM GO, NO DON’T CRY IF YOU START TO CRY I’LL START TO CRY, FOR GOD’S SAKE JUST CATCH THE SHINY BUTTERFREE AND HAVE BOTH OF THEM!
Why is there no release date for 360?
Magnolia pictures, what are you waiting for? A sign from God? Some of us got really excited when every critic at the London Film Festival said it was good, and Fernando Meirelles is such a good director. I can’t wait to see it. Whenever that may be.
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel singing “The Confrontation” from Les Misérables.
A list
Sam Mendes
David O Russell
Peter Jackson
Christopher Nolan
Wes Anderson
Kathryn Bigelow
Tom Hooper
Quentin Tarantino
Ang Lee
Tim Burton
Oliver Stone
Ben Affleck
Steven Soderbergh
Woody Allen
Ridley Scott
What do all of these people have in common? They are all directors in the top 100 directors working today who have movies coming out this year.
Related news, I am going to die of happiness this year. If Skyfall doesn’t do me in, Django Unchained will. Which director’s movie are you most looking forward to?
Edit: Possible under-the-radar directors who haven’t really proven they can make fantastic films (all of the above have made at least one **** film) but have proven they have massive talent include:
Tarsem Singh (The Fall, while awesome, has too many flaws)
Baz Luhrmann (I don’t like Moulin Rouge! nearly as much as everyone else, though he clearly has a lot of talent)
Joss Whedon (Serenity falls just short of four stars because it requires a little knowledge of Firefly. All great movies should be able to stand on their own)
Rian Johnson (BRICK and The Brothers Bloom are fabulous! I can’t wait for Looper)
Nobody told me that Sam Freaking Mendes was directing Skyfall
Is this a thing now? Ordinarily mindless fun movies about spies and superheroes are going to be directed by the cinematic masters now? Has Nolan set a trend?
If so, I’m not complaining. I’d just like to remind everybody that SAM MENDES, Academy Award winner and genius director (seriously, all of his films are amazing) is directing the next James Bond movie.
Was this a favor for Daniel Craig? Did they become epic friends on the set of Road to Perdition?
Also, I’d like to point out that the people in Skyfall are fantastic actors (Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, and of course Judi Dench and Daniel Craig), and that Mendes has always gotten fantastic performances out of his actors, no matter the movie. Revolutionary Road was porn for lead actors, and Jarhead is still, in my opinion, Jake Gyllenhaal’s strongest performance. So yeah, this should be good.
To sum up, I am quite literally shaking with excitement.
What grades determine:
- Your ability to memorize mostly useless things
- Your ability to regurgitate information in the way others want you to
- Your ability to understand what adults want from you and give it to them
- Your tolerance for working on tasks you don’t find useful because others want you to do them or believe them to be helpful/socially acceptable
What grades do NOT determine:
- Your intelligence
- Your creativity
- Your emotional capabilities
- Your likeliness to succeed
- Whether you’re a good person
What employers care about in today’s workforce:
- Everything in the first group
Sad to say it, but it’s true. Grades do not determine a person’s ontological value, but they are a good indicator for whether or not you’ll make a good office drone. And that’s really all your boss is likely going to care about.
It sucks. That’s life. GET OVER IT.
