The Funniest Ten Minutes Of The Festival

CANNES -- May 25, late night

It pays to go out drinking. I made an acquaintance with someone who offered to let me glimpse the ten minutes of footage available from the new Larry Charles/Bill Maher project about religion. So today I went to the market and sat in a little room and watched the same footage that has made this one of the hottest properties at the festival. It's already sold out all over the world with a bidding war in the US. Everyone's unclear as to what they can expect. Will it do Borat numbers? Bowling For Columbine numbers? Jackass numbers? Plus there's the added fact of endless contoversy. I'm sworn under pain of death not to detail any of the people interviewed in the footage I saw or describe any of the jokes. I will say I saw no manufactured comic bits, a la Borat. It was all humor derived from real people and Maher's mercilessly funny jibes about what they believe.

I sat there, alone, literally cackling with glee. (I'm a practicing Catholic, by the way; just not easily offended.) $20 million at the US box office? That would make it the fifth highest grossing documentary in history. (Right after Farenheit 9-11 at $119 mil, March of the Penguins -- which isn't really a documentary -- at $77 mil, An Inconvenient Truth at $24 mil, and Bowling For Columbine at $21 mil.) I suppose if Sicko doesn't gross $100+ mil, people will call it a flop. But of course, that's silly. And if this movie grosses just $8 mil, it'll be in the Top Ten. One thing is very clear: they won't need to spend a dime on publicity because this movie is going to generate so much free press it makes your head spin. I can't wait to see the rest of it. Bill Maher: movie star. It has a nice ring to it. -- Michael Giltz

"The Golden Compass" Roundtables

CANNES -- May 21, afternoon

I told you the day was filled with The Golden Compass. More awkward answers from all involved whenever religion is mentioned. Everyone but Eva Green, who cheerfully says she wasn't raised "anything" and pauses when asked one of these religious angle questions and says sweetly, "How the f--- do I answer this question?" I think I like her. Craggy Sam Elliot proved amusingly out of touch when his co-star Eva Green answered a query in French during the press conference. He was absolutely amazed, when of course he shouldn't be: she's French.

But what really struck me at this event were the vile journalists. Every roundtable usually includes a few obnoxious people who try and steamroll over everyone else and ask all the questions. But my table had three of them all sitting together. I was next to a poor Japanese girl and a guy from Turkey who are desperatey trying to ask their one question in a second language and these people just blithely ignore them and keep on pounding away with their fourth or fifth query. Thoughtful stars will sometimes enlist questions from everyone by looking around but quite naturally they stick with the people who are speaking the loudest. Jeffrey Katzenberg was the best: he announced he would take one question from each person left to right and did so, ending all the shouting and jostling and petty behavior. I really found these people vile. I'd like to see them in Japan trying to get in a word edgewise and how they'd feel if others elbowed them out of the way.

"The Golden Compass" Press Conference

Photo: Getty

CANNES -- May 21, afternoon

Now an afternoon devoted to The Golden Compass. I'm really excited about the film (which is due out at the end of the year) because the books are among my favorites and the look and casting of this movie is very encouraging. It looks like they got everything right.

The press conference was in a very large room and there was a bank of TV cameras along the back. Still, I was a little surprised it wasn't jammed and wall to wall. Plus, I know they've been offering invites to their party tonight to people that didn't request it, even though they were previously treating it like gold. Suddenly, they're realizing that these books by Philip Pullman - which have sold an exceptional 14 million around the world and continue to do very well today) -- don't have one-tenth the name recognition of The Lord of the Rings, which is one of the best-selling works of the 20th Century.

Every time someone finds out I know the books well, they pepper me with questions. None of this matters for the movie: it's a fantasy with a little girl and a quest and Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Nicole Kidman star. That's all people need to know and the trailer will get that across. Anyone who liked Narnia should like this better. But the people behind it are also defensive about the fact that the books are deeply and irrefutably anti-organized religion. They get very touchy and give short, abrupt answers when the British journalists (where the books are the most popular) try to bring that issue up. It's really not a big deal for the first film, because the really controversial stuff doesn't arise till book two and really book three. But they should be better prepared to deal with these questions honestly and without embarrassment. -- Michael Giltz

"The Golden Compass" Screening

Finally, one of my most anticipated events of the festival arrives: the screening of footage from the holiday release The Golden Compass. This film is based on the first book in a trilogy by Philip Pullman. The over-arching title is His Dark Materials, it's a reworking of Milton's Paradise Lost, and the series (completed only in 2000) has already sold 14 million copies around the world. It will take its place alongside The Lord of th Rings and the Narnia books as a landmark of fantasy. (Pullman has no patience for them.) It's also extremely provocative in tackling organized religion and reclaiming sex as something beautiful and good, especially when you get to the third book. But the first book is deceptively simple and straightforward and overall you are drawn in by the imagination, the wonder and the marvelous characters.

Pullman is a big fan of storytelling, something he thinks has been lost in mainstream fiction. As you can gather, I'm a big fan of the books. I've written about them a number of times and interviewed Pullman on the phone and at his former home in Oxford. So I was probably more prepared than anyone else in that room and I found the footage -- basically a ten minute trailer -- very promising. Everyone seems to embody their characters, especially Nicole Kidman as Marisa Coulter (Pullman always had her in mind if a film were to be made) and the newcomer Dakota Blue as Lyra. She must carry the film and this 12 year old girl looks capable of it. The sweep was exciting, the armored bear (a central character) wholly convincing, the witch (Eva Green) compelling-- really I had nothing to complain about.

I am looking forward to this film very, very much. And since The Golden Compass doesn't venture into heretical territory (believe me, parts two and three do), they can be very faithful to the books without offending anyone. (And by anyone, I mean the vast majority of people, not the fringe folk who condemn Harry Potter and The Wizard of Oz and anything else they disapprove of.) Good fun, though I wish they'd given us a scene to sink our teeth into. Instead it really was along trailer of highlights that probably made more sense to me than most others.

Bill Maher Takes On God

One of the most intriguing projects that surfaced at Cannes is untitled Larry Charles Project. Charles of course was a major force on Seinfeld and directed the Sacha Baron Cohen smash hit Borat. His new film tackles God and may make Borat look like a Valentine. They screened 10 minutes of footage for the film, which is narrated by ardent anti-organized religion comic Bill Maher, who loves skewering faith on his show Real Time With Bill Maher. Like Borat, it blends comedy and docu-style footage, though it's unclear whether the two are blurred as they are in Borat. In any case, it's been sold in many countries (though not the US) but the names of the buyers have been kept secret because of it's controversial nature. It sounds like Christopher Hitchens has already found his favorite film of 2008. -- Michael Giltz