Apocalypse wow!

>> Cannes gets Coppola's Redux, the newly existential Coens and Ethan Hawke's directorial debut

by JOANNE LATIMER

Can Apocalypse Now win the Palm d'Or again, 22 years later? Not according to the rules at Cannes, but the 203-minute Apocalypse Now Redux is a hands-down audience favourite. Francis Ford Coppola restored discarded footage, including the famed plantation scene and the Playboy bunny incident, and gave this "definitive version" a Technicolor makeover. It's stunning, with a new Brando scene and expanded coverage of Robert Duvall's surfboard fetish.

But Apocalypse Now didn't open the festival this year. That honour went to Moulin Rouge, by Aussie Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom), starring Nicole Kidman, John Leguizamo and Ewan McGregor. It's a splashy musical that pays no attention to its roots in Montmartre. The music (endless versions of the can-can) was modernized and what we get is a surreal rave with anachronistic costume design and lots of high kicking.

"I play Toulouse Lautrec, who was a really short guy," said Leguizamo, chit-chatting at the press conference, covering for the near-mute Nicole Kidman. "I was on my knees for two hours during the audition, which is how I get most of my roles."

And what about reports that the filming of Moulin Rouge was a nightmare, with escalating tempers and production foul-ups?

"If someone made a documentary about the shoot, it would be called Moulin Rouge of Darkness," dead-panned the eccentric Luhrmann, with his long shock of white hair. "Nicole broke two ribs doing her own trapeze work and she smashed up her knee." You'd never know it at the party later, where Kidman was dancing behind guest DJ Fatboy Slim's turntable.

Party rivalry

Competing party interests that night included a beachside bash for Ethan Hawke's first directorial effort, Chelsea Walls. Shot on digital video, it stars Uma Thurman, Kris Kristofferson, Natasha Richardson and Vincent D'Onofrio. Playing an assortment of losers living at New York's legendary Chelsea Hotel, the star-studded cast thoroughly enjoys the chance to be in seedy-looking film--even Kristofferson, who adds some honest grit.

Surprise guest at the party was Quentin Tarantino, who hasn't returned to Cannes since sweeping the festival in '94 with Pulp Fiction. He's putting the finishing touches on a script for Thurman and came to Cannes to lend moral support to his good friend Hawke.

"The role Quentin's writing for me is about such a bad person, that I don't even know how to prepare," Thurman said later while in the bathroom, adjusting her lace pants, '70s shag haircut and fringe halter-top.

Hawke and Tarantino, wearing vintage bolero jackets, chatted about the impossibility of shooting in 35 mm in the Chelsea Hotel because of the building's bad wiring. Digital video was the only option. So, after all this praise for video, does Tarantino have a DV project up his sleeve?

"I own a 35 mm camera, so I don't need to," he said after a pause. Fair enough.

Other indie helmers started trickling into the Chelsea Walls party later, including Todd Solondz. His new film, Storytelling, is just as wonderfully bleak as the last one, Happiness, but ultimately comes off as a revenge film against everyone who made him miserable in high school.

The Coens go existential

Roman Coppola (son of Francis) and Hal Hartley were also at large along the Croisette during Cannes, promoting their new films. Coppola's CQ was a messy homage to filmmaking in the '60s "cool Brittania" period, and Hartley's new film No Such Thing, starring Sarah Polley, is a quirky story about a journalist and the sci-fi creature consuming her boyfriend. It's odd--as you'd expect--but watchable.

The Coen Brothers are back, taking a crack at the Palm d'Or a year after O Brother, Where Art Thou? Their new film, The Man Who Wasn't There, is a black and white '50s potboiler about a stoic barber (Billy Bob Thornton) and his wife (Frances McDormand), a malcontent floozy. This won't be anyone's favourite Coen Brothers' movie, but it's their most beautifully filmed project to date.

"The distributor isn't letting us flog it as a film noir," said Joel, after exchanging a look with Ethan at the press conference. "So we're saying it's about existential dread. Maybe that'll sell more tickets--at least in France."

Thornton, looking tough in a black baseball hat, T-shirt and jeans, was a bit flustered by all the questions about '40s and '50s male actors.

"I'm way dumber than you might think," said Thornton. "I haven't seen all these movies. I'm a guy who mostly listens to music--but I've always thought Fred MacMurray was an under-rated actor."

Thornton plays a man of few words in the film, but he's a relentless smoker. "I'm now a non-smoker," reported Thornton, fiddling madly with a pen. "Filming this movie drove me to quit smoking because I'd smoke unfiltered Chesterfields in every scene, then I'd have one of my own Marlboros between each take. It was horrible."

Also bucking for the Palm d'Or is David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, (the director last delighted audiences here in '99 with The Straight Story), Godard's Elonge de l'amour, Nanni Moretti's La stanza del figlio and the animated feature Shrek.

Shrek, starring the voices of Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz, won hearts for its sheer good will, but the unexpected contender is a satire on the '93 Bosnian conflict called No Man's Land by Danis Tanovic. It's hilarious, with two enemy soldiers joining forces to escape a dangerous no-go territory.

One of the hottest parties at Cannes is undeniably the premiere bash for Lynch's Mulholland Drive, but party tickets are unobtainable. This is supposed to be the mid-fest knockout film to invigorate the American press. Rumour has it that R.E.M. will perform, which begs the question: what film festival is complete these days without Michael Stipe?