Mike Tyson, might be retired from the ring, but he's still knows how to wallop. This weekend, the Un Certain Regard jury at Cannes honored James Toback's documentary about the prizefighter with a special "Knockout" award.

The jury was bowled over by the selection this year, honoring more than its usual three: "Our mission was to attribute three prizes for Un Certain Regard, but considering the quality and richness of the offerings, and as a testimony of our great enthusiasm, the jury requested of the festival permission to recognize two more films with honors," said Faith Akin, president of the Un Certain Regard jury.

To see the Gentler Side of Mike Tyson, click here.

Check out red carpet photos of Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Harrison Ford, and more -- at the Cannes Film Festival world premieres of Kung Fu Panda, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Known for his gritty crime dramas, James Gray's latest offering, Two Lovers, is anything but. Set in Brooklyn, the film follows a heartbroken young man (Joaquin Phoenix) who returns home after a suicide attempt only to discover two new love interests, one of whom is as troubled as he. Gray talks about the film's roots in 19th century Russian literature and his views on the nature of love.

Q: Two Lovers is a big departure for you.

A: At a certain point, you have to change it up a little bit. And I had, frankly, gotten sick of the macho element in the stories. It was inspired in a weird way by Gwyneth [Paltrow], because right after I had made The Yards, we were talking about working together and she said, "But we can't do that because you only make movies with guys shooting each other and yelling curses." And I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, she's right." By that time I was already writing We Own the Night, so I finished that movie and said, "No more."

Q: You've been adamant in pointing out this is not a romantic comedy. Why is that important?

A: There are very few American films -- very few films, period -- that tackle romance with a seriousness of purpose. I think it has to do with the fact that being in love is an altogether preposterous state of affairs. When you are in love, you do and say insane things, and there's no place for logic. Comedy is a perfect vehicle for that, because comedy is about the real extremes of human behavior. And so it was the ultimate challenge to me to make the film, which, by the way, does have a lot of comedic elements in it, but nonetheless take a serious approach to the subject.

Q: The film actually has roots in Russian literature: Dostoyevsky's White Nights. What about that story inspired you?

A: I used that as a springboard; it's inspired by it very loosely. The main character of the Dostoyevsky novella is someone that in 19th century Russia would have been just, you know, weird, and today would be greeted with a whole host of psychoanalytic terms: Manic depression, bipolar disorder. So if Dostoyevsky were writing today, he would be having to treat his characters with a whole host of pharmaceuticals. Joaquin and I talked very seriously about updating the Dostoyevsky conception: A slightly manic person would be a metaphor for how we behave when we are in love.

Q: Do you worry that by diagnosing the main character as psychologically unsound, his actions will be attributed to the psychosis, not love?

Continue reading "Cannes Film Festival - Two Lovers Director James Gray on Crazy Love" »

Steven Spielberg reveals the story behind the set break-in during which over 3000 secret photos were stolen. Harrison Ford, George Lucas, Cate Blanchett and Shia LaBeouf also share production stories from the making of the film.

Click here for more video of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

Click here for more Shootout info.

• Todd McCarthy is none too impressed with Steven Soderbergh's Che, which he says needs to go "back to the drawing board" after a "defiantly non-dramatic four-hour, 18-minute presentation."

• If Che weren't bad enough, Variety's Anne Thompson reports that the global press corps was perturbed with the "tasteless white-bread sandwiches" offered at the film's intermission. Some critics did not return for part two.

• Variety reporter Elsa Bertet is on the scene at the after-party for the Clint Eastwood-narrated documentary You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story.

• Variety interviews Il Divo director Paolo Sorrentino, who describes Italy's efforts to shut down his movie about the Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti, who was acquitted of having mafia ties.

For more Cannes news, reviews and interviews check out Variety's Festival Central.

Richard Schickel has authored over 30 books and directed over 30 documentaries about the movies; he's also Time magazine's senior film critic. His five-hour retrospective on Warner Bros., You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story, is now screening at Cannes. Schickel spoke with AMCtv.com about his lifelong love affair with the studio.

Q: An accompanying book is also being released simultaneously. How do the two relate?

A: It's a huge book -- over 500 pages. Like us, they have access to the Warner Bros. archive, which is a huge advantage. You have the full run of every movie the studio ever produced and all the stills that have accumulated there, so it allows you to do something with enormous scope, both on television and in the book. I say we're producing an oxymoron: It's an epic clip show. You have 85 years of history and you've got the business history of it, the family history of it, the history of the movies themselves.

Q: Clint Eastwood narrates the documentary. How did he get involved?

Continue reading "Cannes Film Festival - Film Critic and Documentarian Richard Schickel Takes on Warner Bros." »

• Variety's John Hopewell risks life and limb to teach festival-goers the correct pronunciation of Charlie Kaufman's latest trippy film, Synecdoche, New York, premiering on Friday.

• Todd McCarthy reviews James Gray's Two Lovers for Variety, saying it's an "involving, ultimately touching romantic drama" and a "welcome change of pace" for a director known for his crime dramas.

• Pamela McClintock and Anne Thompson remark that for the first time in years, Sony Classics may leave Cannes without a purchase. "There are no gems in the market," explains Sony's Michael Barker.

• Variety decks out for the Red Cliff party hosted by Avex, and delights in the $3 million budget and the Chinese-Japanese hybrid theme.

• Variety editor Tim Gray talks about the downbeat nature of this year's crop of films and gives a rundown of the festival's biggest draws.

For more exclusive Cannes news, reviews and interviews check out Variety's Festival Central

It's hard to say what will shock Cannes audiences more: Jennifer Lynch's return from a 15-year hiatus in filmmaking, or her uncanny, lacerating new thriller Surveillance, starring Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond, which screens tonight. She's a little curious to find this out herself. Lynch spoke to AMCtv.com about her hopes and reservations, and her family's legacy in film.

Q: What kind of pressure do you feel from Cannes?

A: Having come out of 15 years of a totally different life, the whole thing is exhilarating and terrifying. I feel like I'm about to enter an enormous library -- it's really only 26 letters jumbled up in different ways, and all these stories are alive in there. That's where it feels like I'm headed, to this cinematic library where we're all using the same 26 letters to tell our stories; I just hope the way I've arranged them works for people.

Q: Is what we see in the trailer reflective of the film you've made?

A: It concerns me a little bit that the big reaction I get is, "Wow, that looks scary," because I made what I hope is a frightening film, but it's more psychologically scary, than it is Saw 5. So hopefully it won't be billed as anything but a thriller and will stay away from the horror market, because if people go in expecting a horror film, they may find themselves disappointed.

Q: In what ways do you think Surveillance is going to surprise people?

Continue reading "Cannes Film Festival - Surveillance Director Jennifer Lynch on Her Return to Filmmaking" »

• Romanian director Radu Muntean talks with Variety about mixing business with family when he cast his four-year-old son, Vlad, in his third feature film, Boogie.

• Variety's Todd McCarthy raves that Clint Eastwood's film Changeling is "emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed." As if we had any doubt.

• Anne Thompson reports that due to unstable economic circumstances, buyers are cautious at Cannes this year. Except for Transporter 3 starring Jason Statham, that is, which looks to be doing fine.

• Variety goes live on the red carpet with Gwyneth Paltrow and Sean Diddy Combs at the premiere of James Grey's Two Lovers.

• Documentarian Michael Moore dishes with Variety on his as-yet untitled sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11, which he says has been a work-in-progress for the past couple of years.

For more exclusive Cannes news, reviews and interviews check out Variety's Festival Central.

J. Michael Straczynski has penned superhero comics, created a critically acclaimed SciFi series (Babylon 5) and written for Murder She Wrote. Now his brainchild, Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie, is in competition for the top prize at Cannes. Straczynski spoke with AMCtv.com about his detective work in writing the script, the film's political relevance, and how it feels to have a fan in Clint Eastwood.

Q: There are really two stories going on in the movie: A mother's search for her child, and a corrupt police system covering it up.

A: Yes. The system was corrupt. It was considered to be massively powerful and unstoppable, but it fell before one woman asking the most simple, straight-forward question a mother can ask: Where is my child? She wasn't out to make a political statement; she wasn't out to bring down the mayor or chief of police or police captain -- she just wanted the truth. The more they went to extremes to cover up the truth, the more that house of cards began to fall. And those who had been suppressed for a long time began to rise up behind her. There wasn't an agenda, it was just a clean cause to really start chipping away at the core of the police corruption.

Q: How did you become inspired to write Changeling?

A: For a number of years prior to getting into television, I had been a reporter. And even though I had left journalism some years before, a source of mine at City Hall said "There's something here you should see." I zoomed down there, and read the transcript of the City Council welfare hearings in the case of Christine Collins. When I realized what the story was, I thought, "This can't actually have happened" So I spent a year researching and digging up old county courthouse records, city calls records and criminal records and finally pieced the whole thing together. I sat on it for a long time, and then one day, the structure just sort of cracked in my head, and I wrote down the draft that I eventually sold in about 11 days.

Q: You inserted newspaper clippings from the story into the physical copies of the script. Why?

Continue reading "Cannes Film Festival - Interview With Changeling Screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski" »