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Cannes 2018 Video #8: Ed Lachman, William Nack and More

Here is Chaz Ebert's eighth and final video dispatch from the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, followed by a transcript of the video...

Cannes 2018 with Chaz Ebert, Segment 8 from The Mint on Vimeo.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a month since we landed in the south of France for the 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival. So much happened during those two weeks in the midday sun. In addition, much has happened since then, so we thought we would bring you a quick update.

By now, I’m sure you’re aware of the films that picked up prizes during the festival. And the closing night film that was screened as part of that celebration was Terry Gilliam’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” While the legal controversy over rights to the film was eventually settled enough, allowing the film to be shown during the festival, there were enough problems that the film lost its American distributor, Amazon, and to date, no new distributor has yet signed on board.

The film itself took Gilliam nearly 30 years to make, but I’m not quite sure it was worth the wait. It received a cool reception in Cannes from critics one even though I didn't think it was successful, I will tell Terry Gilliam to continue tilting at those windmills. 

Another film that was highly anticipated in Cannes, but did not walk way with any awards, was the modern-day L.A. noir, "Under the Silver Lake" from director David Robert Mitchell. It also received lack-luster reviews, and its U.S. distributor, A24, has pushed back its release date. Originally scheduled to be released in theaters on June 22nd, its now scheduled for December 7th. Perhaps this will give the filmmakers time to do a little more editing on the film before it reaches a wide audience.

Meanwhile, the Palme d’Or winner, “Shoplifters” from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda, was picked up by Magnolia Pictures - the same company that distributed last year’s winner, "The Square," and the documentary about my husband Roger, "Life Itself." There are no details yet on a release date in the States.

As Ben Kenigsberg reported at RogerEbert.com, on the last day of the festival the French cinema lens making company, Angénieux, bestowed their lifetime-in-cinematography award to Ed Lachman. Roger and I have both been huge admirers of Ed and his work. He’s created the look for over 75 films including "The Virgin Suicides" by Sofia Coppola and Steven Soderbergh’s "Erin Brockovich." But he may be best known for his collaborations with director Todd Haynes including the films "Far From Heaven" and "Carol," both of which earned Lachman Academy Award nominations.

At the award presentation in Cannes, a number of actors and filmmakers congratulated Ed via video, while many were present to pass along their congratulations in person, including Todd Haynes.

I’d also like to take a moment to deliver a few personal thoughts. Again this year, as they have every year since I’ve been coming to Cannes, Madame Cagnat and her staff at the Hotel Splendid went out of their way to not just make our stay comfortable. But they truly provide a home for us for two weeks each year during the Festival. 

And this year, when I checked in to the hotel, a small gift was waiting for me. This silver dollar. If you’re familiar with our reports from Cannes, or Roger’s book about the festival “Two Weeks in the Midday Sun” I’m sure you’ll remember our old friend Silver Dollar Billy Baxter, who was a fixture here each year.  Well, his son Jack Baxter is a filmmaker who was in town to promote "Mike's Place," his true story about the time he was injured in a terrorist attack in Israel. He left this token for me. It was a very sweet gesture. Thank you, Jack! Jack is also working on a script and movie about his father. That will be one to see. 

Finally, I want to mention the passing of a great writer and one of the best sportswriters of all time, Bill Nack. Bill was a longtime friend of Roger’s all the way back to the University of Illinois. Among many other works, he wrote the book about "Secretariat" that the film was based on. And he was well known for being able to quote the final chapter of The Great Gatsby by heart. He quoted it for me and Roger at our wedding, and on many other occasions, including at his wedding to his beautiful bride, Carolyne. I will end this report with a clip of Bill quoting The Great Gatsby

That ends our final video report for the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. We hope you enjoyed our coverage, we certainly enjoyed bringing it to you. And we’re already looking forward to next year.

Until then….au revoir!

Chaz Ebert

Chaz is the CEO of several Ebert enterprises, including the President of The Ebert Company Ltd, and of Ebert Digital LLC, Publisher of RogerEbert.com, President of Ebert Productions and Chairman of the Board of The Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation, and Co-Founder and Producer of Ebertfest, the film festival now in its 24th year.

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