Power outage hits Cannes region during film festival
A major power outage hit the area around the French Rivera resort of Cannes on Saturday, the final day of the city's film festival, though organizers said the closing ceremony would not be affected.
The cause of the power cut, which began just after 10:00 am (0800 GMT), is unknown. Grid operator RTE said 160,000 homes had been affected.
AFP
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Nahar Net
27-05-2025
- Nahar Net
Iran summons French diplomat over praise of Palme d'Or-winning film
by Naharnet Newsdesk 27 May 2025, 15:13 Iran has summoned France's representative in protest after the French foreign minister praised a prize-winning Iranian film as "a gesture of resistance against the Iranian regime's oppression." Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot had praised "It Was Just an Accident" after it won the prestigious Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. The Iranian film centers on a man who abducts his suspected captor after being tortured in prison. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the French charge d'affaires was summoned over the minister's "interventionist, irresponsible and instigative allegations," the state-run IRNA news agency reported. "Spare us Iranians the lectures. You have no moral authority whatsoever," Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on "X," citing France's approach to Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. France last week threatened "concrete action" against Israel if the country didn't halt the offensive in Gaza and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid, but the statement was mostly dismissed as empty threats. Immediately following the award's announcement, the Iranian state news agency had announced a more muted celebration of the award, crediting the country's film industry for winning a second Palme d'Or after Abbas Kiarostami's 1997 drama, "Taste of Cherry." In Iran, film productions need to receive script approval from the government to shoot in public. Dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi refuses to do that, knowing they won't allow him to make the films he wants to, and "It Was Just an Accident" was filmed without cooperation. Iranian state TV called the film a mixture of "lie and smearing" as well as an "underground" film produced without required permits in Iran. State TV also chastised Panahi for not mentioning the plight of the Palestinians in his acceptance speech. The film follows a man named Vahid, played by Vahid Mobasser, who believes he sees his former captor, who tortured him in prison and ruined his life. He abducts him, takes him to the desert and begins to bury him in the ground. But to satisfy pangs of doubt, Vahid decides to confirm his suspicion by bringing the man, locked in his van, to other former prisoners for identification. In a strange and emotional journey, they are all forced to grapple with revenge and forgiveness. Panahi drew on the experiences from his own imprisonment as well as the stories of detainees around him. Other state media were more critical of the win. The Mizan news agency, an arm of the country's judiciary, reported on the win as part of the "Political Cannes Film Festival," suggesting that the prize was given to Panahi because of his political leanings. Pro-reform media outlets and activists praised Panahi. "This victory is no accident — it is the result of a tireless dedication to exploring humanistic values and human rights," said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who was also previously imprisoned at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. Inmates at the prison include those with Western ties and political prisoners. Panahi, one of the leading international directors, was banned from traveling out of Iran in 2009 for attending the funeral of a student killed in anti-government protests, a judgment later extended to two decades. But even when placed under house arrest, Panahi kept making movies, many of which are among the most lauded of the century. He made 2011's "This Is Not a Film" on an iPhone in his living room. "Taxi" (2015) was clandestinely shot almost entirely within a car. Panahi was arrested in 2022 when he went to the Tehran prosecutor's office to inquire about the arrests of two other Iranian filmmakers. A judge later ruled that he must serve six years for an earlier sentence on charges of propagandizing against the government from 2011 that had never been enforced. In early 2023, Panahi went on a hunger strike and was released from Evin Prison. Panahi said he would not seek asylum in another country, despite the risks of additional imprisonment. "It's simple. I'm unable to live here," he said last week from the Cannes festival. "I have no ability to adapt to a new country, a new culture. Some people have this ability, this strength. I don't." On Monday, Panahi landed in Tehran to cheers and applause from fans.
LBCI
24-05-2025
- LBCI
Power outage hits Cannes region during film festival
A major power outage hit the area around the French Rivera resort of Cannes on Saturday, the final day of the city's film festival, though organizers said the closing ceremony would not be affected. The cause of the power cut, which began just after 10:00 am (0800 GMT), is unknown. Grid operator RTE said 160,000 homes had been affected. AFP
Nahar Net
23-05-2025
- Nahar Net
Johansson debuts as a director in Cannes with a comic tale of grief and empathy
by Naharnet Newsdesk 23 May 2025, 16:46 Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut, "Eleanor the Great," stars June Squibb as a 94-year-old woman who, out of grief and loneliness, does a terrible thing. After her best friend (Rita Zohar) dies, Eleanor (Squibb) moves to New York and, after accidentally joining the wrong meeting at the Jewish Community Center, adopts her friend's story of Holocaust survival. The film builds toward a moment where Eleanor could be harshly condemned in a public forum, or not. For Johansson, her movie speaks to the moment. "There's a lack of empathy in the zeitgeist. It's obviously a reaction to a lot of things," says Johansson. "It feels to me like forgiveness feels less possible in the environment we're in." Johansson brought "Eleanor the Great" to the Un Certain Regard sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival this week, unveiling a funny and tender, character-driven, New York-set indie that launches her as a filmmaker. For the 40-year-old star, it's the humble culmination of a dream that's always bounced around in her mind. "It has been for most of my career," Johansson says, meeting at a hotel on the Croisette after a day of junket interviews. "Whether it was reading something and thinking, 'I can envision this in my mind,' or even being on a production and thinking, 'I am directing some elements of this out of necessity.'" Johansson came to Cannes just days after hosting the season finale of "Saturday Night Live," making for a fairly head-spinning week. "It's adding to the surrealistic element of the experience," Johansson says with a smile. In just over a month's time, she'll be back in a big summer movie, "Jurassic World Rebirth." But even that gig is a product of her own interests. Johansson had been a fan of the "Jurassic Park" movies for years, and simply wanted to be a part of it. Following her own instincts, and her willingness to fight for them, has been a regular feature of her career recently. She confronted The Walt Disney Co. over pay during the pandemic release of "Black Widow," and won a settlement. When OpenAI launched a voice system called "Sky" for ChatGPT 4.0 that sounded eerily similar to her own, she got the company to take it down. She's increasingly produced films, including "Eleanor the Great," "Black Widow" and "Fly Me to the Moon." After working with an enviable string of directors such as Jonathan Glazer ("Under the Skin"), Spike Jonze ("Her"), the Coen brothers ("Hail, Caesar!") and Noah Baumbach ("Marriage Story"), she's become a part of Wes Anderson's troupe. After a standout performance in "Asteroid City," she appears in "The Phoenician Scheme," which premiered shortly before "Eleanor the Great" in Cannes. "At some point, I worked enough that I stopped worrying about not working, or not being relevant — which is very liberating," Johansson says. "I think it's something all actors feel for a long time until they don't. I would not have had the confidence to direct this film 10 years ago." "Which isn't to say that I don't often think many times: What the hell am I doing?" she adds. "I have that feeling, still. Certainly doing 'Jurassic,' I had many moments where I was like: Am I the right person for this? Is this working? But I just recently saw it and the movie works." So does "Eleanor the Great," which Sony Pictures Classics will release at some future date. That's owed significantly to the performance of Squibb, who, at 95, experienced a Cannes standing ovation alongside Johansson. "Something I'll never forget is holding June in that moment," says Johansson. "The pureness of her joy and her presence in that moment was very touching, I think for everyone in theater. Maybe my way of processing it, too, is through June. It makes it less personal because it's hard for me to absorb it all." Some parts of "Eleanor the Great" have personal touches, though. After one character says he lives in Staten Island, Squibb's character retorts, "My condolences." "Yeah, I had to apologize to my in-laws for that," Johansson, who is married to Staten Island native Colin Jost, said laughing. "I was like: Believe it not, I didn't write that line." A poster for the 1999 documentary about underground cartoonist R. Crumb, "Crumb," also hangs on the wall in one scene, a vague reference, Johansson acknowledges, to her loosely connected 2001 breakthrough film "Ghost World." "I was very young when I made that movie. I think I was 15, and the character is supposed to be 18 or 19. When I was a teenager, I often played characters who were a bit older than myself," Johansson says. "Even doing 'Lost in Translation,' I think I was 17 when I made it. I think I was playing someone in their mid-20s." "It's a funny thing," she says. "I wonder sometimes if it then feels like I've been around so long, that people expect me to be in my 70s now."
