Salon.com > Steven Spielberg http://www.salon.com Sun, 27 May 2012 13:20:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 “War Horse”: Spielberg’s almost-great World War I epic http://www.salon.com/2011/12/25/war_horse_spielbergs_almost_great_world_war_i_epic/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/25/war_horse_spielbergs_almost_great_world_war_i_epic/#comments Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10760521 It's difficult to say who Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" was made for -- I suppose the most plausible and most honorable answer is that he made it for himself. This two-and-a-half-hour Great War saga with an equine hero is partly John Ford-style British Isles claptrap and partly a grueling tale of man's inhumanity to man (and also horse). It's likely to seem too dark for family audiences -- I certainly would not suggest bringing children younger than 10 or 11 -- and too treacly for many grown-ups. "War Horse" is certainly a movie for Spielberg's fans, for those who are enraptured by the blend of childhood yearning and adult grief that characterizes his mature work, and also by his film-school-on-steroids effort to re-create the look, mood and feeling of bygone cinematic eras.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/25/war_horse_spielbergs_almost_great_world_war_i_epic/feed/ 39 “The Adventures of Tintin”: Spielberg’s weird action cartoon http://www.salon.com/2011/12/20/the_adventures_of_tintin_spielbergs_weird_action_cartoon/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/20/the_adventures_of_tintin_spielbergs_weird_action_cartoon/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:11:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10704941 Frankly, the life and work of Belgian comics artist and writer Georges Remi, better known to the world as Hergé, is much more interesting than Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin," an expensive, ambitious and relentless animated film that struggles to drag Hergé's aesthetics and worldview into the 21st century. (It's also, bizarrely, the first of two Spielberg films to open this Christmas, just before "War Horse.") I'm not saying the movie isn't worth seeing for Tintin fans, animation buffs and other interested parties; far from it. A collaboration between Spielberg and Peter Jackson (who serves as producer) with a reported $130 million budget, this first installment of a proposed Tintin trilogy breaks new ground in 3-D performance capture animation, in an effort to split the difference between live-action filmmaking and Hergé's clean and colorful "ligne claire" cartooning. Although I personally still find the rubber-faced, pseudo-human figures produced by this technique unsettling, the work done by Spielberg and Jackson's animation teams here is exquisite.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/20/the_adventures_of_tintin_spielbergs_weird_action_cartoon/feed/ 59 The frustrating sci-fi drama “Terra Nova” finally shows signs of life http://www.salon.com/2011/11/22/the_frustrating_sci_fi_drama_terra_nova_finally_shows_signs_of_life/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/22/the_frustrating_sci_fi_drama_terra_nova_finally_shows_signs_of_life/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10247986 Stephen Lang and the dinosaurs: Those are the only two reasons to watch "Terra Nova." And that's depressing when you consider that the Steven Spielberg-produced science fiction series is the most expensive show on TV right now, and that it's still considered a long shot for renewal even though more worthy network shows -- including NBC's "Community" and ABC's "Pan Am" -- have effectively been canceled.

Last night's episode was solid and surprising, but arriving eight episodes into the series' run, it's meager compensation for viewer loyalty. Lang's character, Commander Taylor -- the first explorer to step through the time rift that let inhabitants of a polluted Earth to colonize an unspoiled, alternate, prehistoric version of their planet -- finally confirmed what viewers suspected and hoped: that he's not such a great guy after all. (Of course he isn't! Why cast the frequently chilling Lang in an unambiguous nice-guy role?) We learned that, like so many colonies throughout real Earth history, Terra Nova is founded on a lie and a crime. That it's a well-meaning lie and a desperate crime doesn't mitigate the feeling that Taylor is one dark hombre, and that the Terra Novans' enemies, a splinter group known as The Sixers, are less an evil force than principled opposition. (I love how they communicate with a spy within the Terra Nova camp via a big dragonfly outfitted with a data chip; here and elsewhere, the series displays a knack for showing you things you've never seen before, anywhere.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/22/the_frustrating_sci_fi_drama_terra_nova_finally_shows_signs_of_life/feed/ 13 New trailer for Spielberg’s “Tintin” hits Web http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/spielberg_tintin_trailer/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/spielberg_tintin_trailer/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:12:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/07/11/spielberg_tintin_trailer Two highly anticipated Steven Spielberg films -- "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" and "War Horse" -- will hit theaters within days of each other this December.

Today, a new trailer for "Tintin" was released. The upcoming motion-capture film is based on the late Belgian artist Hergé's popular narrative comic books about the escapades of a youthful reporter and will be shown in 3-D starting Dec. 23. Stars include Jamie Bell, Simon Pegg and Daniel Craig.

And here's the original teaser trailer, released in May:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/spielberg_tintin_trailer/feed/ 8 Trailer for Spielberg’s “War Horse” hits Web http://www.salon.com/2011/06/29/war_horse_trailer/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/29/war_horse_trailer/#comments Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/06/29/war_horse_trailer British author Michael Morpurgo's beloved 1982 children's novel, "War Horse," has already been adapted for the theater on both sides of the Atlantic, to great acclaim (the Broadway version recently won the Tony Award for best play). A new film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, will be in cinemas late this December (only five days after another Spielberg film -- his Tintin adaptation -- is released).

The movie follows Joey (a horse) and his young English master, Albert; separated at the beginning of the First World War, they navigate England and Europe alone, each experiencing a wide range of wartime realities as Albert remains devoted to the recovery of his friend.

Here's the trailer:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/29/war_horse_trailer/feed/ 4 Peter Falk 1927-2011 http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/peter_falk/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/peter_falk/#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2011 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2011/06/24/peter_falk I met Peter Falk only once, more than 20 years and dozens of performances ago, when he was barely 60 but struck the juvenile version of me as an immensely battered ship's figurehead, a wise and soulful spirit who had weathered the wild storms of artistic greatness and the flat tides of showbiz mediocrity. It was not long after he had played a version of himself as a former angel (called in the credits "Der Filmstar") in Wim Wenders' gorgeous "Wings of Desire," and at almost the same time had shaped a different generation's sensibility as the grandfather/narrator of "The Princess Bride."

He talked about how much he missed his friend and collaborator, indie-film pioneer John Cassavetes, who had recently died. But when I asked Falk whether he'd rather be remembered for his performances in Cassavetes' "Husbands" or "A Woman Under the Influence" than as the professionally befuddled Lt. Columbo of TV fame, he gave me a tolerant smile. I've long since lost any transcript of this interview, but as I recall it now, he said that Columbo had been very good to him, and he was very grateful. If the public wanted him to play that guy for the rest of his life, he was fine with it.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/peter_falk/feed/ 31 A guide to Spielberg shout-outs in “Super 8″ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/11/what_super_8_took_from_steven_spielberg/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/11/what_super_8_took_from_steven_spielberg/#comments Sat, 11 Jun 2011 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2011/06/11/what_super_8_took_from_steven_spielberg "Super 8" has been promoted as a film in the spirit of Steven Spielberg's early popcorn-centric movies, and it definitely has the pedigree. Beyond sporting Spielberg's name as executive producer, the film is directed by Spielberg obsessive J.J. Abrams ("Lost," the 2009 "Star Trek"). Abrams is one of many protégés mentored by Spielberg over the past few decades. A quarter-century ago, Spielberg saw Super 8mm films made by Abrams and his childhood friend Matt Reeves ("Cloverfield," "Let Me In") and hired them to cut together his own home movies.

No huge shock, then, that "Super 8" would feel like one-stop shopping for devotees of the filmmaker's early features -- the ones he made before moving into more historically focused or adult-themed work.

What follows is an alphabetized list of Spielberg titles, plot elements, and visual signatures that Abrams invokes in "Super 8." There are so many that we have surely missed a few; feel free to add others in the Letters section.

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING. This article discusses "Super 8" in detail. If you haven't seen it yet and don't want to know anything about the plot, stop reading now.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/11/what_super_8_took_from_steven_spielberg/feed/ 22 “Indiana Jones” celebrates 30th anniversary this weekend http://www.salon.com/2011/06/10/raiders_lost_arc_30th_anniversary/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/10/raiders_lost_arc_30th_anniversary/#comments Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:11:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/06/10/raiders_lost_arc_30th_anniversary What are you doing this Sunday? The answer had better be "Watching 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' on continual repeat," or else we might have a problem. Thirty  years ago this weekend, "Raiders" opened in theaters across the country, inspiring children worldwide to think of Harrison Ford as someone other than Han Solo. In honor of the momentous occasion (and the best film of the "Indiana Jones" franchise by far), we found Indy trivia, homages and cultural artifacts that will make your friends' faces melt off faster than Belloq's when he opened the ark.

1. Alfred Molina's cinematic debut

That's right, the British thespian's first role wasn't as Doctor Otto Octavius in "Spider-Man 2" as so many people believe. A young Molina made his very first appearance on the big screen in 1981, playing Indy's treacherous sidekick in the opening sequence of "Raiders." Though he suffers a pretty bad fate in the film, nothing could prepare Molina for his next big American features, " White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf" and Mel Gibson's update of "Maverick."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/10/raiders_lost_arc_30th_anniversary/feed/ 13 “Super 8″: J.J. Abrams’ fake Spielberg movie is real fun http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/super_8_2/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/super_8_2/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/andrew_ohehir/2011/06/08/super_8 So "Super 8" is more like a mannered impression of a great '70s summer movie than the real thing, but that makes it just about perfect for our age of simulated sincerity. It's an expertly constructed thrill ride with wonderful atmosphere and tremendous good humor; if its heart of gold is artificial, that won't stop you from enjoying the heck out of it. This much-hyped collaboration between writer-director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg, who have known each other since Abrams was a child, is such a meta-conscious movie-movie fugue state that it goes well beyond concepts like homage or tribute into realms like "demonic possession" or "priestly ritual."

As you probably know by now, "Super 8" is a monster movie about a group of small-town kids in 1979 Ohio who are making a monster movie, and I guess it's that faint touch of postmodernism that makes it not exactly like a Spielberg project that didn't quite get made 30 years ago. Otherwise, the Spielbergian impersonation is uncannily complete, from the half-disillusioned, half-idealized portrayal of chaotic suburban family life to the secret confraternity of kid culture to the faint stirrings of political correctness to the overdetermined, almost architectural sentimentality of the last act. I kept fighting off the feeling that "Super 8" had actually been made by, say, Michael Haneke or David Lynch, in an opaque conceptual-art spirit of mockery. Or that some form of illicit horror-movie congress has occurred between director and producer: They merged, like the two women in Bergman's "Persona." Or Abrams has eaten Spielberg's brain and is wearing his skin.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/super_8_2/feed/ 23 “Paul”: Kick it with the chillaxed alien, bro http://www.salon.com/2011/03/17/paul_review/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/17/paul_review/#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:18:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/andrew_ohehir/2011/03/17/paul_review There must be something interesting to say about "Paul," a low-wattage farce about a weed-smoking alien and his dudely adventures on Earth that stars (and was written by) the British comedy team of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, creators of "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead." But I'm damned if I know what that would be. "Paul" is unobjectionable enough while you're sitting there; as a friend of mine used to say about attending poetry readings, it's better than some TV. But not that much TV. You get the feeling that Pegg and Frost got together with director Greg Mottola ("Adventureland," "Superbad"), scribbled some half-baked ideas on a napkin -- "S&N as nerds, at ComicCon! Genius! Alien = Just a Guy!!! Capt. Kirk vs. the Gorn! Area 51! Rednecks, crazy Christians, gun nuts, 1-eyed chicks, etc.!" -- and started shooting the movie as soon as the bong hits had worn off. Or possibly sooner than that.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/17/paul_review/feed/ 14 Full-length trailer of J.J. Abrams “Super 8″ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/11/super_8_trailer_j_j_abrams/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/11/super_8_trailer_j_j_abrams/#comments Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:12:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/03/11/super_8_trailer_j_j_abrams  "Super 8," the super-top-secret film collaboration between geek gods J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg finally has a trailer. Hallelujah, Anonymous won't have to burn the Internet down today. After the sneak peak we got during the Super Bowl, fans have been mobbing the message boards to try to figure out the mystery of what the hell this movie is about. And now we know: it's "Cloverfield," but with kids instead of vain 20-somethings, and is also set in the 70s:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/11/super_8_trailer_j_j_abrams/feed/ 2 “The Pacific” comes out with guns blazing http://www.salon.com/2010/03/12/the_pacific_can_t_touch_the_thin_red_line/ http://www.salon.com/2010/03/12/the_pacific_can_t_touch_the_thin_red_line/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/heather_havrilesky/2010/03/12/the_pacific_can_t_touch_the_thin_red_line "Growing up, I always knew Dad was somewhere in the Pacific fixing things. He had nothing nice to say about the Navy. He hated the Navy. He hated everybody in the Navy. He had no glorious stories about it." -- Tom Hanks, Time magazine

Despite these dark comments by executive producer Tom Hanks, the first few moments of "The Pacific" (premieres 9 p.m. Friday, March 12, on HBO) feel dangerously weighed down by sentimentality and machismo: We begin with a gentleman lighting a candle in church for his dead mother, then asking a pretty neighbor if he might write to her after he ships off to war. Next, we watch as an officer delivers a valiant speech to his Marines about the importance of the Pacific theater in the war. "We will meet our enemy and kill them all," he tells them with a heroic growl. After that, we join a family dinner straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, with the sweet, idealistic dialogue to match.

Finally we join our young, hopeful Marines aboard a big gray battleship, gliding toward Guadalcanal.

Marine No. 1: Can someone remind me why we're here again?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/03/12/the_pacific_can_t_touch_the_thin_red_line/feed/ 33 Directors of the decade: No. 5: Steven Spielberg http://www.salon.com/2009/12/24/steven_spielberg/ http://www.salon.com/2009/12/24/steven_spielberg/#comments Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2009/12/23/steven_spielberg Alfred Hitchcock plus Walt Disney equals Steven Spielberg. That equation — offered by a friend of mine who's an admirer of all three — is a decent starting place to describe the director of some of the most popular films ever made. Spielberg has Disney's business sense and uncanny knack for conjuring childlike awe and delight, plus Hitchcock's fondness for pushing visceral buttons and somehow making the experience more delightful than assaultive. But the equation doesn't adequately describe Spielberg's technical sophistication, narrative chops and uncanny popular touch, or his versatility; "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," "Minority Report," "Catch Me If You Can," "War of the Worlds," "Munich" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" are as arresting and imaginative (though not as widely satisfying, especially the last one) as his run of work in ... well, I started to write "the 1970s," until I remembered that Spielberg wasn't exactly coasting in the '80s or '90s, either.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/12/24/steven_spielberg/feed/ 23 Films of the decade: “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” http://www.salon.com/2009/12/14/rosenbaum_2/ http://www.salon.com/2009/12/14/rosenbaum_2/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:12:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2009/12/13/rosenbaum I'm not the only one to consider "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" a very great and deeply misunderstood film; others as disparate as Andrew Sarris and the late Stan Brakhage have more or less agreed with me, as well as my friend and favorite academic critic, James Naremore. (Click the link above to read my full review.) But it's also clear to me that any ordinary auteurist way of processing cinema can't begin to handle this masterwork adequately: Reading it simply as a Spielberg film, as most detractors do, or even trying to read it simply as a Kubrick film, is a pretty futile exercise with limited rewards, even though the fingerprints of both directors are all over it. Seeing it as a perpetually unresolved dialectic between Kubrick and Spielberg starts to yield a complicated kind of sense -- an ambiguity where the bleakest pessimism and the most ecstatic kind of feel-good enchantment swiftly alternate and even occasionally blend, not to mention a far more enriching experience, however troubling and unresolved. As a profound meditation on the difference between what's human and what isn't, it also constitutes one of the best allegories about cinema that I know.

Film Salon has invited a group of special guests to write about their favorite film(s) of the 2000s. To read the entire series, go here.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/12/14/rosenbaum_2/feed/ 26 Can 3-D save the movie industry? http://www.salon.com/2009/05/28/zacharek_3d/ http://www.salon.com/2009/05/28/zacharek_3d/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 10:28:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2009/05/28/zacharek_3d In the early 1950s, as the advent of television threatened the supremacy of movies, 3-D was hailed as the future of cinema, the magic solution to Hollywood's postwar slump. Jerry Wald, Columbia's production chief at the time, was understandably thrilled when a quickie picture rushed out by his studio to cash in on the craze, "Man in the Dark," became a hit. "Now we got a gimmick," he said. "We'll throw things at the public until they start throwing them back!"

Now, in 2009, 3-D is once again being hailed as the savior of cinema, but no one has the guts to call it a gimmick. Instead, depending on who's doing the talking, the new and improved 3-D is a brilliant leap in technology, a fresh tool to enhance storytelling, a new way to bring families together for an allegedly inexpensive good time in a troubled economic climate. The new 3-D doesn't make you throw up; the glasses are plastic, not paper, and don't have those old-fashioned red and green lenses; and, come on, the whole thing is just cool. Plus, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron are really excited about it, so it's got to be great -- right?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/05/28/zacharek_3d/feed/ 47 You know it’s high-end Americana when Spielberg praises it http://www.salon.com/2009/01/20/cinematic_inauguration/ http://www.salon.com/2009/01/20/cinematic_inauguration/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2009/01/20/cinematic_inauguration CNN caught up with inauguration attendees Steven Spielberg and John Cusack who, unsurprisingly, were all praise for the proceedings. Cusack had mainly generalities to offer, but Spielberg grasped that what we're watching is American cinema at its best. America's most famous director called Barack Obama "an amazing force of energy," and said of the crowd gathered on the Mall, "I couldn't afford to do this shot in a movie."

The saying goes that DC is Hollywood for ugly people. Nice to see LA's finest marveling at the sights of the Beltway.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/01/20/cinematic_inauguration/feed/ 1 Coppola, Spielberg, Hammer Films and you http://www.salon.com/2008/09/22/roundup_25/ http://www.salon.com/2008/09/22/roundup_25/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:18:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/beyond_the_multiplex//feature/2008/09/22/roundup

A scene from Robert Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" -- high on the list of embarrassing holes in my movie-watching résumé.

I'm back from vacation, I know you're excited. I went tidepooling with my kids and pretty much had the computer turned off -- was there some big news in the business pages or something? Maybe I shouldn't have sold all those millions of Morgan and Lehman shares the day I left. What a big uproar!

I'm crazy-busy this next couple of weeks with the 46th edition of the New York Film Festival, that creakily lovable high-cultcha institution that kicks off the fall movie season in thoroughly anachronistic style. Full preview and loads of updates to come.

Just a few tidbits before I dash over to Lincoln Center: I have yet to weigh in on the new HD-ready "Coppola Restoration" of the "Godfather" trilogy -- possibly the most-anticipated DVD in the medium's brief history -- but blogger/critic Glenn Kenny has been busy studying it, and has multiple reports.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/09/22/roundup_25/feed/ 5 Do you suffer from blockbuster fatigue? http://www.salon.com/2008/08/12/blockbuster_fatigue/ http://www.salon.com/2008/08/12/blockbuster_fatigue/#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2008/08/12/blockbuster_fatigue No matter how big our TV screens get, no matter how little patience we have for sitting in the dark with text messagers and candy-wrapper crinklers, there's still one good reason that a movie like "The Dark Knight" can make more than $400 million domestically in just three weeks: The whole point of going to the movies in the first place is to be overwhelmed, to give ourselves over to images that are bigger than we are. That's the purpose of the summer blockbuster: To movie studios, they're commerce; to us, they're a chance to escape for a few hours into another, bigger world, or at least just into air conditioning.

There's a place for big, dumb entertainment with lots of car chases and explosions, and this summer we've seen our share of mindless-fun action movies ("Wanted") and pictures based on comic books ("The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Hellboy II: The Golden Army"). We've also seen animation of both the ultra-prestigious and the take-the-kiddies varieties ("Wall-E," "Kung-Fu Panda") and big-budget girls-night-out pictures ("Sex and the City," "Mamma Mia"). In theory, at least, this year the assortment of big summer movies hasn't been that different from other summers in recent memory.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/08/12/blockbuster_fatigue/feed/ 53 “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” http://www.salon.com/2008/05/22/indiana_jones/ http://www.salon.com/2008/05/22/indiana_jones/#comments Thu, 22 May 2008 11:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/review/2008/05/22/indiana_jones A few months back, just before the release of George Clooney's "Leatherheads," I happened to be standing near a poster for the movie in a New York City subway station. A young man, who looked to be in his 20s, walked up and, after spending a few seconds surveying the image of Roaring Twenties football players in their quaint get-ups -- aliens from another world -- said to his girlfriend, a little wistfully, "I don't know why, but I want to see this."

The idea of being drawn to a movie and not knowing why is practically lost in the contemporary moviegoing experience, at least when it comes to mainstream Hollywood pictures. We're so conditioned to feel excitement over the new Spider-Man movie, the new Batman movie, the new Judd Apatow-produced movie, that the idea of walking up to an interesting-looking poster in a subway station and thinking, "Now this might be something," is almost unthinkable.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/05/22/indiana_jones/feed/ 23 Indy and the Martian Inca mummies — vs. the French! http://www.salon.com/2008/05/18/cannes_indy/ http://www.salon.com/2008/05/18/cannes_indy/#comments Sun, 18 May 2008 21:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/beyond_the_multiplex//feature/2008/05/18/cannes_indy

Paramount Pictures / David James

Harrison Ford (left) is back as Indiana Jones, co-starring with Shia LaBeouf in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

CANNES, France -- Jim Jarmusch received an award called the Carrosse d'Or late on Saturday night here, and if it's not one of Cannes' big-name prizes it's a coveted one among film directors. It's given by the French directors' guild during the Directors' Fortnight sidebar festival, and it's a lifetime achievement award given to a non-French filmmaker of world renown. (Previous winners have included David Cronenberg, Clint Eastwood and Ousmane Sembène.) During his potent speech about the power and limits of cinema, Jarmusch reminded us that Sunday would mark 40 years to the day since the student uprising of May 1968 invaded the Festival de Cannes, bringing that year's edition to an early and abrupt conclusion.

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