Orange film ads: A history

Bradley Cooper and an Orange tissue box

Utter the words Orange film ads to any cinema-goer in the U.K. and you are likely to witness a wide range of emotions: hilarity, rage, laughters, palpitations, quiet resignation, a punch in the face... Love them or hate them, they have become an unavoidable fixture of the cinema going experience, just like noisy ASBO kids on a saturday night screening and overpriced stale popcorn. But how did it all begin? And what does the future holds for them? (To paraphrase them I would assume that the future is bright, the future is Orange)

Is Penelope Cruz regretting her decision? Melancholia vs Pirates of the Caribbean

Penelope Cruz had a bit of a false start in Hollywood. Hot on the heels of her star turn in All about my mother (1999) that got her noticed, she was cast in the hit that never was, Captain's Corelli mandolin (2001). This best-seller adaptation was meant to propulse her to Hollywood stardom but tanked at the box office. (Mind you it had Nicolas Cage in it. Speaking with a silly Italian accent. And you wonder why it bombed!) There were a few forgettable films after that, (Gothika, Vanilla sky) yet slowly but surely she did manage to build her career in a way that fellow Almodovar muse Antonio Banderas never did. 

Cannes 2011: The results

The winners

I shall be commenting the results as they are announced live from 1815 GMT,  join me! I will be updating this page for every prize with a comment.

1815: Melanie Laurent is opening the ceremony, ravishing as ever, if a little nervous? Can you imagine being in front of the who's who of cinema, with all eyes on you? She kept it brief and amusing.

1818: Palme d'or of best short film: Cross Country by Maryna Vroda, a charming and visibly moved young Ukranian director. Next, Camera d'or, for best first film

1820: Camera d'or: Las Acacias Pablo Giorelli. Oh dear, this was presented at La semaine de la critique, reserved for first and second movies, and I have to say seems to have gone under the radar for most media! The audience is approving though. Almodovar's muse, Marisa Paredes handed him the prize and is translating. The joy of seeing Joon-Ho Bong and Marisa Paredes on the same stage! Only in Cannes!

Cannes 2011: Predictions and rumours

UPDATE 1755: No Alomodovar, no Kaurismaki, but Maiwenn is in. Surely not?

UPDATE 1735: Cecile de France and the brothers Dardenne are here, so is Ryan Gosling (Best actor?)

UPDATE 1730: Berenice Bejo, Jean Dujardin and Michel Hazanavicius have all turned up, a prize for The artist? Kirsten Dunst is definitely turning up, best actress? Once upon a time in Anatolia's cast is in too.


RUMOURS UPDATE 1720! The cast of Melancholia has been seen making its way to the Grand Palais! Crazy rumours update, Robert De Niro is a fan of This must be his place with Sean Penn, unlike the rest of the festival who dismissed it.

This is it, the Cannes film festival is nearly over. Right now the members of the jury are in the gardens of a villa in the heights of Cannes, deliberating under the watchful eyes of Cannes honchos Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux, who need to ensure the rules of the festival are respected (for example a film cannot win more than two prizes, added to the rules after Barton Fink bagged three prizes in 1991). This is how you know the festival is in France, the last day of the jury is spent chilling out in a villa under the sun, with copious amounts of wine I am sure. In a year of consistent quality, with several well received films but no clear front runners, who is in with a chance?

The week of ugly trailers: Fright night/Tintin

It might be hard to believe but there was more to cinema than the Cannes film festival this week. The great thing about Cannes is that the world could be about to end and the attendees would still be arguing about Lars Von Trier and Terrence Malick. This week, two trailers were released, Tintin and the Fright night remake. And they are both atrocious. And ugly. Where did it all go wrong?

Cannes 2011: Lars Von Trier crashes and burns?

Lars Von Trier, one of Cannes most regular visitors, was presenting his new film yesterday, Melancholia, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kirsten Dunst and Kiefer Sutherland. And with the Danish director in town, controversy is never far away. Since his latest offering featured no "intimate" mutilation or controversial scenes of any kind, he had to go and create one by declaring himself a nazi at the press conference, with all the glee of a five year old uttering his first swear word. And in what turned out to be a first for Cannes, the board of Directors of the festival decided to ban him today.

Cannes 2011: Overused expressions by French critics

French critics are not like other critics. Most of them are still raised with a healthy dose of daily reading  of Cahiers du cinema. When one of them met Hugh Grant as he was getting famous in the wake of Four weeks and funeral, she did not ask him about Hollywood. Or Elizabeth Hurley and THAT dress. She asked him: "What is cinema, Mr Grant?". And having followed their comments during the Cannes film festival, I have come across two expressions that keep coming back, over and over again.