Cannes 2012: Adam Yauch’s label buys film about reality TV
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CANNES, France -- A trio of movies from the Cannes Film Festival have found homes in the U.S. and will soon be headed stateside.
‘Reality,’ Matteo Garone’s dramatic comedy about a Naples fish vendor’s obsession with the show “Big Brother,’ has been acquired by Oscilloscope Laboratories, the label founded by the late Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch. The Italian-language film is the company’s first acquisition since Yauch died several weeks ago.
In a statement, the company’s David Laub paid tribute to Oscilloscope’s late leader. ‘This is exactly the kind of film Adam Yauch wanted to champion, and we are extremely proud to have it join the Oscilloscope family,’ he said.
‘Holy Motors,’ Leos Carax’s surrealist romp through the streets of Paris, has been picked up by upstart Indomnia Media. Starring Denis Lavant, the well-received French-language movie centers on a shape-shifting man who gets role-playing ‘assignments’ that take him from being a motion-capture actor to a vagabond old woman.
Indomnia, which has offices in Los Angeles and a large production stage in the Dominican Republic, previously acquired a number of independent titles, including two films that played Sundance, the hip-hop story ‘Filly Brown’ and the missing-child thriller ‘The Imposter.’
‘Like Someone In Love,’ Abbas’ Kiarostami’s Tokyo-set examination of the unlikely relationship between a call girl and a professor, has been acquired by Sundance Selects, the AMC-owned sister company to IFC Films. The move marks the AMC family’s latest pickup of a film that played in Cannes; the company previously acquired titles including the Kristen Stewart-starring “On the Road,” Romanian Cristian Mungiu’s ‘Beyond the Hills’ and Ken Loach’s latest, ‘The Angel’s Share.’
Release dates have not been set for ‘Reality,’ ‘Holy Motors’ or ‘Like Someone in Love.’
A follow-up to Garrone’s well-received 2008 mob drama ‘Gomorrah,’ ‘Reality’ was not much discussed when it premiered early in the festival. But it captured Cannes’ Grand Prix, the festival’s second-highest honor, on Sunday night. The movie examines the downward spiral of Luciano, a working-class husband and father, after he becomes fixated on the idea of landing a spot on ‘Grande Fratello,’ the Italian equivalent of ‘Big Brother.’
Indomnia will try to turn ‘Holy Motors’ into a cult hit after it gained an ardent band of followers at the festival. The movie also had a hard-core group of fans at several mainstream distributors, but they were ultimately overruled by colleagues who thought it simply too difficult to market.
The Iranian Kiarostami, for his part, continued his recent tendency to work abroad rather than try to create films within the restrictive system of his own country. Asked about his decision, he told 24 Frames, ‘I don’t want to spend what little time I have left in my life sitting behind closed doors wondering whether I’ll be able to finish what I started.’
With the acquisitions, nearly all of the major foreign titles from the festival’s competition section have found homes.
But a group of North American movies remain distributor-less, including Lee Daniels’ ‘The Paperboy,’ David Cronenberg’s ‘Cosmopolis’ and, most notably, ‘Mud,’ Jeff Nichols’ well-regarded and crowd-pleasing story of two Arkansas boys who encounter an enigmatic stranger.
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-- Steven Zeitchik
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