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Cannes Links 05/15/08
I’m running off to the airport shortly and will be away from the computer until Friday afternoon Cannes time, but here’s a quick look at the news coming out of the festival as of Thursday morning: Un Conte de Noel, Surveillance, and The Pleasure of Being Robbed have been picked up. The former two were bought […]

I’m running off to the airport shortly and will be away from the computer until Friday afternoon Cannes time, but here’s a quick look at the news coming out of the festival as of Thursday morning:

• Un Conte de Noel, Surveillance, and The Pleasure of Being Robbed have been picked up. The former two were bought by IFC; the latter two deals were all but confirmed before the festival began.
• David Lynch’s production company is putting together ALejandro Jodorowsky’s next film. Described as a “metaphysical spaghetti gangster film,” it’s set to star Nick Nolte, Asia Argento, Marilyn Manson and Udo Kier. Also, Lynch himself will allegedly team with the so-hot-right-now (tee hee) Werner Herzog on My Son, My Son, “a horror-tinged murder drama based on a true story,” set for a “guerrilla-style digital video shoot on Coronado Island” in March.
• People are, apparently, freaking out over Waltz with Bashir, that Israeli animated doc that I wrote about yesterday.

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Assorted NSFW. BlogNosh 05/27/08
3 things you should probably steer clear of whilst at the office. Unless your office is friendly to blatant slacking and/or erections.

• GreenCine Daily alerts us to the news that the third season of Joe Swanberg’s Young American Bodies has launched at IFC.com. I haven’t had a chance to watch episode 1 yet, but I can almost gaurantee you it’s not safe for work.
• Speaking of things you probably don’t want to be caught watching in public: a reminder of why no ultra-meta comeback can fully rehabilitate the Jean-Claude Van Damme of yore, who was such a cheeseball that he’d hump a girl on live TV, make a big show of covering up his apparent erection...and never once get around to taking off his sunglasses.
• And to the department of at-work distractions: At Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, Dennis Cozzalio offers a 36 question movie quiz. Perhaps I’ll delve into this more deeply when I have more time, but for now, by answer to Questions 2, 5 and 24: Stanley Donen, Veronica Lake, and Lloyd Kaufman’s 42nd Street, updated to 2008.

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Van Damme! He’s Back
Jean-Claude Van Damme brings back his own ’80s action hero, and he deserves the same spotlight as all the other character comebacks.

We’re all aware that the ’80s action movie hero is back in full force in the 2000s. Stallone brought back Rambo, Bruce Willis brought back Die Hard’s John McClane, Harrison Ford just brought back Indiana Jones. But what does someone like Jean-Claude Van Damme do? He’s an iconic action star of the same period, yet he hasn’t a single iconic action hero role with which to stage a comeback. To us, he was always simply Jean-Claude Van Damme. Which is why it’s all the more appropriate that his big return is with a meta-movie in which he plays himself.

J.C.V.D. premiered at the Cannes film market this month (Karina showed us the teaser trailer pre-fest) and it’s been labeled a surprise hit. But does it deserve prime U.S. distro, or would it be more appropriate for it to go straight to DVD in America? As far as I’m aware, it hasn’t been picked up for either, yet. But anyone taking note of two excitable blurbs on GreenCine today should be hopeful that we’ll get to see it Stateside soon. My favorite of the two:

“If the goal with the self-reflective JCVD was to recreate the public image of aging action star Jean Claude Van Damme, then you may consider that mission a success,” writes Todd Brown at Twitch. “If the goal was to announce to the world that sophomore feature director Mabrouk El Mechri is a truly world class talent, then you may also consider that mission a success. If the goal was to skewer celebrity obsessed culture while laying out the toll it takes on those on the receiving end of the idol worship, then - yep - that’s another one in the success column.”

Considering I was never a fan of J.C.V.D., and only had minor appreciation for one of his films (Timecop), the fact that I’m dying to see this parody/biopic/whatever means there has to be other curious cats out there, too.

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