Beyond the Multiplex

Clooney, Soderbergh premiere "Ocean's Thirteen," wave off sequel talk. Plus: Why my shirt smells like Catherine Deneuve's cigarettes.

By Andrew O'Hehir

Read more: Andrew O'Hehir, Cannes, Movies, George Clooney, Movie Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Reviews, Steven Soderbergh, Beyond the Multiplex

Reuters/Yves Herman

French actress Catherine Deneuve at the 60th Cannes Film Festival May 21, 2007.

May 24, 2007 | CANNES, France -- So I caught most of the mob-scene press conference that followed the first screening of "Ocean's Thirteen" here on Thursday, and there was more group hilarity than actual conversation from that likable gang of guys up there on the stage. It's fair to say that, as in the movie itself, content wasn't really the point. George Clooney proclaimed that the film would win the Palme d'Or, which was a joke. (It isn't in competition.) Director Steven Soderbergh said that the main thing his series has inherited from the Sinatra Rat Pack pictures of the early '60s was the "camaraderie of the cast," adding that his principal casting rule was "No jerks." (They didn't have that rule in the '60s.)

Everybody said gentlemanly things about Ellen Barkin, who has a small and mildly risky role as a bitchy middle-aged woman whose great weakness turns out to be younger men (and Matt Damon's character in particular). She didn't get a word in edgewise. Clooney and Brad Pitt looked great, dressed in stylish slim-fitting blazers similar to the designer togs in the film, which was impressive on a day when the temperature and humidity crept to midsummer heat-wave levels here. Damon looked a little square in a powder-blue short-sleeve shirt, and I don't remember him saying anything. Oh, wait: He said he might be interested in coming back for a reunion in "Ocean's Fourteen," but Clooney was more skeptical: "I think we have sapped this tree."

Soderbergh said that the "Ocean's" films are actually harder for him to make than his "serious," art-house films. Gesturing out at the group of reporters, he said, "There's an assumption on that side of the room that isn't on this side of the room, an assumption that people who make entertainment films somehow care less about what they're doing." He added that the "Ocean's" series has allowed him to experiment with camera motion, editing and, especially in this new film, the exaggerated colors of his Las Vegas setting.

He also graciously resisted a reporter's comparisons between his new film, in which Danny Ocean (Clooney) and the boys set out to swindle an evil casino developer played by Al Pacino, and "The Sting," the Hollywood classic with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. "Listen, 'The Sting' might be the greatest con-man film of all time," he said. "We venerate that film, in terms of form and structure. There's a reason why you don't see movies like that all the time."

Yeah, I guess there is. As a group and individually, it's hard to dislike the crop of stars in "Ocean's Thirteen"; they seem so firmly devoted to enjoying their lives and not taking their celebrity status too seriously. But as Soderbergh and Clooney's comments suggest, all these fellows now understand that the "Ocean's" movies have been drained of nearly all the fun and cinematic verve they once possessed. You couldn't call "Ocean's Thirteen" (which will be released in North America on June 8) a disaster, because that would be to invest it with a power it doesn't actually possess. It's watchable, colorful and intermittently funny, but given the level of talent on display, it's reasonable to want more than that.

Here's my theory about heist movies: The simpler, the better. Danny and his boys are seeking to destroy Trump-esque villain Willy Banks (Pacino) and his horrible postmodern-architecture casino in so many different and complicated ways that I couldn't keep track of it all. There's the giant boring machine tunneling under the building, there are pit bosses to bribe and loaded dice to sneak in and slot machines to jury-rig and artificial-intelligence computers to hornswoggle and unbreakable diamond vaults to drill through and heroin-sniffing Komodo dragons to train. (OK, some of that I made up.) But I literally couldn't keep track of it all, and despite the good cheer and bright colors, this picture has a relentless, schematic quality that gets dull fast.

As the press conference ended, a Korean woman dove from the audience onto the conference table, bearing stuffed animals for the cast to sign. (Clooney signed his before she was hustled away.) Clooney, Pitt, Damon and their buddies somehow got out of the building through the mayhem. Now, with the heat of the sweltering day finally giving way to evening, they have donned "le smoking" (that's the amusing French word for tuxedo) and begun to arrive on the red carpet for the "Ocean's Thirteen" premiere, in some sense the marquee event of this entire festival. (As I write this, I'm probably 200 yards away in the press room, and the crowd noise from the street is almost deafening.)

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