DE PALMA & GUEST AT CANNES PREMIERE MONDAY
FOR 'A CASTLE IN ITALY', PRODUCED BY SAID BEN SAIDThe photo above was taken by
Arnaud Brunet, and published at
Metro France. It shows
Brian De Palma and an unidentified female guest on the red carpet as they attend the premiere yesterday (Monday) of
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's A Castle In Italy, which was produced by
Said Ben Said, producer of De Palma's
Passion. Earlier this year, Ben Said had mentioned that he and De Palma have a
new, as-yet-untitled project in development: "This is a film about cinema that is not devoid of humor or cruelty," Ben Said told
CineObs' Nicolas Schaller. "It happens on a shoot between a director, an actor and an actress. De Palma wrote it by drawing on things that have happened to him. It is a kind of film testament." With both of them currently at the Cannes Film Festival, it would seem likely that they would be talking that project up to potential financers and buyers.
Anyway, according to Blog Do Bonequinho's Rodrigo Fonseca, De Palma is at the fest to raise funds for Happy Valley, although he is working out his cinephilia by going to see films every chance he gets. A few days ago, Deadline's Pete Hammond reported that another of De Palma's old friends, Martin Scorsese, had also come to Cannes to raise funds for Silence, which he has been trying to get off the ground at one time or another for the past 23 years. According to Hammond, Scorsese said that by coming to Cannes to sell the film project, he was doing something he'd never done before in his entire career. This was undoubtedly said to get across the sense of passion Scorsese has for the project. But with Steven Spielberg heading the Cannes jury this year, it's sort of a partial "movie brats" reunion.
In addition to A Castle In Italy, De Palma has been spotted at screenings of the following movies since Friday:
May 18 - Sophie Torlotin spotted De Palma at a screening of Rebecca Zlotowski's Grand Central.
May 19 - Olivier Joyard took a picture of De Palma at a screening of Serge Bozon's Tip Top, which Hollywood Reporter critic Stephen Dalton describes as a mix of Godard and the Coen Brothers.
May 20 - Several people, including Alejandro G. Calvo and F-X Taboni, spotted De Palma at a screening of Johnnie To's Blind Detective. Taboni said De Palma left before the end.