As we get ready to bring today's live blog to a close, here are three new reviews. Firstly, a one-star review for A Castle in Italy from Peter Bradshaw:
Performer-turned-director Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi has given us what may well turn out to be the most insidiously awful film in the entire festival: a strained jeu d'ésprit which is smug, precious, carelessly constructed, emotionally negligible, and above all fantastically annoying. Read more
A rather more positive review of Weekend of a Champion, a restoration of Roman Polanski's 1972 documentary about racing driver Jackie Stewart:
Stewart is certainly an intriguing figure: a legendary sportsman seen at the very top of his game, but really without much preening or ego. He seems to be a down-to-earth and even dour guy, but very forthcoming and relaxed in front of Polanski's camera, lounging around in his suite in his underpants, while explaining at some length his Zen-ish theory how drivers must be "slow" in order to win the race. Read more
And a rather underwhelmed take on Claire Denis' Bastards from Xan Brooks:
At her best (on Beau Travail, say, or 35 Shots of Rum), Denis is one of the most distinctive and challenging voices in contemporary cinema. At her worst, her excessive control tips into contrivance. Les Salauds (aka The Bastards) is not Denis at her best. Read more
That's it from today's Cannes live blog – join us tomorrow, when we'll be look at Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, Gringis and Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight.
Charlotte Higgins reports from the Behind the Candelabra press conference now. The film looks to be a serious contender for the Palme D'Or, with star Michael Douglas a strong contender for a Cannes best actor award.
With no Hollywood studios willing to finance the film, it's makers have echoing reader frenchview's comment below:
According to the film's scriptwriter, Richard LaGravenese, who wrote The Fisher King and The Bridges of Madison County, American TV is currently "more exciting creatively" than film. Soderbergh added that it was "a golden age of TV … In terms of cultural real estate, TV is really taking control of a certain kind of conversation that used to be the exclusive domain of movies. It's an interesting new model if you're someone who likes your stories to go narrow and deep; it can be a novel on screen."
It seems to be a fairly quiet day, given that even USA Today is reduced to publishing non-news items about Matt Damon's bum. Thank heavens, then for Lloyd Kaufman and Troma films, who are busy occupying Cannes in protest at the hegemony of the mainstream film industry.
From the Occupy Cannes website:
Lead by Troma Entertainment's Lloyd Kaufman, the Occupy Cannes movement will use the Cannes Film Festival to draw attention to the disparity in opportunity between the mega-media conglomerates and independent artists. "Give art back to the people," exhorts Kaufman. In its acclaimed 2002 documentary "All the Love You Cannes," Troma discussed and established that the mega media-conglomerates have smothered most of the art world and are not going away. With the Occupy Cannes demonstrations at Cannes and the forthcoming documentary of the same name, Troma is aiming to level the playing field and to inform independent artists as to how they can better co-exist with, work around, and change the mainstream to promote truly independent art in all its forms.
Updated
Time for a quick look around the internet to see what some of the the international press is saying about Cannes this afternoon:
The Japan Times: Miike flick of gore panned by critics at Cannes
A blood-soaked vengeance tale from Japan drew the biggest boos in the race for the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize Monday, with critics savaging a “risible” parade of cliches.
Hindustan Times: Gold to Ash: Aishwarya's many failed avatarsIn a rare reversal of the Midas touch, every bit of gold this Bollywood superstar wore on the Cannes red carpet seemed to turn into ash.
PressTV: Iranian films presented in Cannes Film Market 2013
Many Iranian screen productions in various genres have been presented for sale in the 2013 edition of Cannes Film Market (Marché du Film).
USA Today: Matt Damon warns Cannes about his butt
"We'll see it on the biggest screen ever. It will be jarring," Damon cautioned Tuesday during a news conference. "This is not something you can un-see.
Updated
Here's our latest Cannes gallery – Matt Damon, Michael Douglas and Steven Soderbergh at the photocall for Behind the Candelabra, plus the casts of Seduced and Abandoned and Sophie Prefers to Run.
More crime in Cannes!
Following last week's $1m jewellery heist, reports are coming in of more robberies:
CIT Group managing director Kevin Khanna and Silver Pictures COO Steve Richards returned to their five-bedroom villa behind the Majestic hotel Monday to find all of their valuables missing.
“In the span of an hour they had gotten into the house through the roof and gone through all of our rooms,” said Khanna. “They only took cash, laptops, iPads and women’s jewelry, but left our passports and credit cards. They were very professional.”
Read the full story at hollywoodreporter.com.
A couple of pictures from this morning's Behind the Candelabra photocall and press conference now.
Here's one of Matt Damon looming intimidatingly:
Here's Steven Soderbergh doing the robot.
And here's Michael Douglas doing his Ena Sharples face.
The glamour of Cannes
In his latest Cannes diary, Xan Brooks finds he's a fan of Behind the Candelabra ("terrific, bracing") – while a new film is rivaling Inside Llewyn Davis as his favourite in Cannes competition. Any guesses what it is?
Today's biggest film, as the sparkly Michael Douglas picture above might suggest, is Behind the Candelabra, Stephen Soderberg's Liberace biopic. Here's Peter Bradshaw's review:
It's the true-life story of the flamboyant pianist Liberace and his young companion and chauffeur Scott Thorson, taking us from the couple's ecstatic first meeting backstage in Las Vegas in 1976 to Liberace's death from an Aids-related illness in 1987.
The film is mesmeric, riskily incorrect, outrageously watchable and simply outrageous.
Read the full review - and take a look at Catherine Shoard's video review: "Michael Douglas is game-changingly great as Liberace – a lock-in for the best actor Oscar, if it wasn;t for the fact that he's already disqualified." Find out why.
Good morning from Cannes!
(For the sake of transparency, we ought to point out that these words are actually being typed in Kings Cross, but most of the Guardian film team is currently in Cannes, and they'll be updating us with all the latest goings-on as throughout the day.)
Since yesterday's live blog signed off, you might have missed:
• Charlotte Higgins' interview with Mark Cousins, whose documentary A Story of Children and Film premiered to five star reviews in Cannes last week
• Clive Owen, James Franco, Milla Jovovich and Marion Cotillard in our day six red carpet gallery
• Peter Bradsahw's review of The Great Beauty, a "magnificent return to form" from Consequences of Love director Paulo Sorrentino:
- The film equivalent of a magnificent banquet composed of 78 sweet courses … an aria of romantic ennui among those classes with the sophistication and leisure to appreciate it.
• A video interview with director Paul Wright discussing his first feature, For Those In Peril, which is competing in the Directors' Fortnight.
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