Blood, sex, blood, drugs, booze, blood, and then more blood... Orlando Bloom, as a cursing, womanising and gun-toting cop in the South African-set crime thriller “Zulu”, seems intent on saying goodbye to Legolas the Elf and Will Turner, Pirate of the Caribbean.
Bloom co-stars with Forest Whitaker as two detectives tracing the source of a new methamphetamine drug that is causing havoc in the slums around Cape Town.
Directed by France’s Jerome Salle, the movie is being given the accolade of closing out the festival on Sunday - but the body count made critics wince at Saturday’s press screening.
Novak returns: Kim Novak is 80, but such is the enduring power of celluloid that almost everyone recalls her as a 25-year-old — the shapely-but-cool blonde who played opposite James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller “Vertigo”. She returned to Cannes on Saturday night as a guest of honour for a red-carpet screening of the classic, and will take part in Sunday’s award ceremonies.
Why the long absence from the spotlight?
In the mid-1960s Novak suffered a bad horse-riding accident, two car crashes and the loss of her LA house in a mudslide. That, and disillusionment with the ironfisted rule of the big studios, prompted her to turn her back on Hollywood.
She married her veterinary surgeon, Robert Malloy, raised horses and llamas in Oregon, and painted. Her movie appearances have only been sporadic since then, notably a turn in “The Mirror Crack’d” (1980) alongside Elizabeth Taylor.
Who’s that man?: Disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn sent French media into a frenzy when he appeared on the red carpet for the “Only Lovers Left Alive” premiere on Saturday.
Strauss-Kahn, accompanied by an unidentified woman, is said to be separated from his super rich wife of 20 years Anne Sinclair, one of France’s best loved journalists.
Earlier in the festival the New York sex scandal that destroyed his career and political ambitions returned to Cannes as clips of an upcoming film about it leaked onto the Internet.
Strauss-Kahn was the talk of the festival two years ago when he was arrested in New York on sexual assault charges.
In the upcoming film, British actress Jacqueline Bisset plays Sinclair with Gerard Depardieu as Strauss-Kahn. The film was shown to potential buyers but not the press at this year’s festival.
Strauss-Kahn last December agreed a financial settlement with the hotel maid whose 2011 allegation of sexual assault forced him to resign from the International Monetary Fund.
He is still being investigated in France as part of a probe into allegations that he procured women for sex parties in Europe and in Washington.
Li Yu Chun is breaking the mould
Li Yu Chun doesn’t exactly mesh with the image of most starlets who walk on the red carpets at the Cannes Film Festival.
Instead of flowing gowns, the Chinese singer has worn dramatic capes that accompany striking pantsuits. And while many female celebrities sport cascading locks, Chun has her hair cut short, pixie style.
“A lot of people are asking me ‘Why aren’t you wearing a long dress like a princess?’” said Chun, who came to the festival as a representative of the cosmetics brand L’Oreal. “I have another personality and that is why I have to show my own personality with the suits that fit me. That is why I love to work with L’Oreal because they have given me self-confidence.”
Chun, who is known for her boyish, androgynous looks, said she was surprised to be chosen as a L’Oreal ambassador since she represents a different look than some of their other representatives at the festival, like Freida Pinto, Julianne Moore, Aishwarya Rai and Eva Longoria.
“Usually they choose girls with long hair and big waves in her hair and that is not exactly my image,” she laughed. “That is why I was surprised but happily surprised.”
Chun shot to fame when she won “Chinese Best Voices,” that country’s version of “American Idol. She said she was excited to be in Cannes for the festivities, but was also getting some work done as well.
“I am also participating in their meetings to discuss about how to represent and how to organize promoting events,” the 29-year-old said. “They are organizing a lot of activities for me too and this is why I find it very very exciting.”
