Salon.com > Cannes

“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:30:00 +0000

CANNES, France – According to “Drive” director Nicolas Winding Refn (who’s also here this year with the ultra-violent “Only God Forgives”), the legendary unmade mid-‘70s film version of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” by Chilean-born mad genius Alejandro Jodorowsky actually exists – and he’s seen it. OK, even Refn hasn’t seen a version of it that can be projected on a screen or played on a high-def monitor, the version that was supposed to star David Carradine, Orson Welles, Mick Jagger and Salvador Dalì. That doesn’t exist. But Refn says he spent a long evening in Jodorowsky’s Paris apartment while the latter went through the storyboards for “Dune” with him page by page, talking through every shot and every line of dialogue. “I am the only spectator who has ever seen this movie,” Refn concludes. “And I have to tell you: It was awesome.”

First look: Sofia Coppola’s chilly, brilliant “Bling Ring”

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:40:00 +0000

CANNES, France – Somewhere around the third time the gang of reckless kids in Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring” broke into Paris Hilton’s house – and, by the way, that really is Paris Hilton’s house – I had a realization. While I theoretically agree that crime is bad, I actually had no objection to them stealing handbags and watches and dresses and money and (allegedly) cocaine from Hilton. I mean it: I don’t care. It’s not as if Hilton actually did anything to earn all that crap she has in the first place, and she apparently didn’t notice for many weeks that anything was missing! As far as I’m concerned, the envious, Adderall-dosed suburban teens of the Valley can tear down her house with their bare hands and fight over the Gucci scraps. Maybe it’s a juvenile and stupid version of redistributing the wealth, but this is America, a juvenile and stupid country. What can you expect?

Embracing South by Southwest’s shameless hucksterism

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:45:00 +0000

Hunched over my phone while waiting for my Southwest flight to board, I stared at the Twitter feed as if it were an alien code, just beyond my ability to crack. I was pondering a stream of tweets with the hashtag SXSWi, trying to figure out a plan of attack for my very first visit to the legendary Austin festival. What Cannes is to the film buff, South by Southwest Interactive is to the Internet geek.

Or so I've been told. SXSW does a lot of self-mythologizing. As a total noob, I have a hard time discerning where exactly the hype lines are drawn.

But #SXSWi was hopping. I was obviously not alone in my ponderings. A steady stream of meta-commentary on SXSWi flowed by: lists of the "best" parties, tips and tricks for "surviving" the festival, do's and don't for start-up entrepreneurs looking to make a splash.

And an endeless stream of pleas: Come to my panel, RSVP for my party, pay attention to me, me, me!