Fashion designer's biopic screened at Cannes
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E-mail Xinhua, May 18, 2014
Two more features were screened on Saturday at the ongoing 67th Cannes Film Festival in Competition for the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm).
French director Bertrand Bonello presented a biopic of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in Competition.
In his new movie "Saint Laurent", Bonello presents a "sombre and luminous portrait of this iconic figure of haute couture."
It is the filmmaker's fourth appearance and third film in Competition at Cannes, after "L'Apollonide-Souvenirs de la maison close" (House of Tolerance) in 2011 and "Tiresia" in 2003, according to the official daily of the film festival.
With this movie, Bonello has created a "new elegant and subversive feature-length film," commented the daily.
Saint Laurent, who was called one of the greatest fashion designers in history, was played by French film actor and model Gaspard Ulliel in the two-and-a-half-hour movie.
During a press conference on Saturday, Bonello said "I am proud of this film and of the freedom I had to make the feature film I wanted to make."
Ulliel told reporters on his preparation for the film: "There was something of me in my interpretation of Yves Saint Laurent. An actor tries to discover his limits with each new experience."
"Sometimes I was naked, and not just physically, but when I had to portray his depression, or his moments of loneliness," added Ulliel.
Also on Saturday, Argentine director Damian Szifron offered the public at Cannes "Relatos Salvajes"(Wild Tales) in the competition section.
Szifron, who is also known as the scriptwriter for a hit comic series in Argentina, shot the multi-layered film with humor.
"Wild Tales", which is divided into six plotlines, tells a story of six hapless characters who are beginning to lose their grip.
"Vulnerable before a reality that can suddenly be modified and become unpredictable, the characters of Wild Tales cross the thin line that divides civilization from brutality," according to the festival's official synopsis.
The movie is "a story about love deception, the return of the past, a tragedy, or even the violence contained in an everyday detail, appear themselves to push them towards the abyss, into the undeniable pleasure of losing control," said the synopsis.
Szifron explained later in the press conference shortly following the screening that "There were initially more stories, 12 to be precise. In the end I chose six and the combination of these tales, which are wilder than the others, gave the film its title."
"Regarding the order: the stories are ordered like a rollercoaster, there isn't really any order," the director said in a humorous tone, just like what he expressed in the movie.
"This film is not a realist fresco, rather it looks at the sensation that this reality provokes," said the director.
"For example, if someone overtakes you at high speed, you want to kill them and film allows you to do that!" he continued with his humor.
The 67th Cannes Film Festival opened on Wednesday evening and will last till May 25.
A total of 18 films have been selected to compete for the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm), the top prize of the annual international film festival, as well as other prizes. The winners will be announced on May 24.
Jane Campion, New Zealand director, producer and scriptwriter, is heading the Jury.
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