Sex in the City in Cannes?
For the sake of its own dignity, the Cannes Film Festival should impose limits upon itself in terms of providing a forum for questionable, possibly tacky films to make a pre-release splash. I know very little about the upcoming Sex and the City movie, but my first reaction to reading Elizabeth Snead's 3.14 Envelope story that the 5.30 New Line release might make its worldwide debut in Cannes was "oh, no...bad idea."
Snead quoted Sarah Jessica Parker ( a.k.a., Carrie Bradshaw) as saying "we are all still figuring out what we want in terms of the movie...whether it's at Cannes two weeks before it opens domestically...it will all shake down in the next week or so."
Speaking at Showest, Parker told Snead that "a handful of people have seen it and have been very surprised by the seriousness [of the film]...there's something that happens in this movie and it's really about realizing your own complicity and disappointment...you know the necessity of friends, but at a certain point, as a grown-up person, you have to take care of yourself. There's still plenty of ripe old salty dirty stuff. But I think it's a really smart story and I think Michael Patrick wrote a beautiful screenplay. I feel like he wrote the role of a lifetime for me and it was just such an amazing experience."
It won't be a "tragedy" if Sex and the City goes to Cannes. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is being shown there, after all. The festival screened Ocean's 13 last year, and Brett Ratner's X-Men 3: The Last Stand and The DaVinci Code the year before. Still, Sex in the City at Cannes would drop the prestige levels by a notch or two. C'mon...you know it would. Nothing dramatic or devastating, but it would be seen as sliding a little bit closer to the swamp.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 14, 2008 at 2:45 PM
comment #1
BurmaShave
says ...
I always defend you against charges of sexism, I just think you enjoy being a Mailer-esque old fashioned stud, but how is S&TC somehow so much more objectionable than X-MEN 3?
Posted by BurmaShave
at March 14, 2008 3:51 PM
comment #2
UnChien
says ...
That's a whole lotta pink. Sacre bleu!
Posted by UnChien
at March 14, 2008 4:12 PM
comment #3
Monument
says ...
"but how is S&TC somehow so much more objectionable than X-MEN 3?"
My guess, it's a film based on a TV show, or Sarah Jessica Parker's nose is too big.
Posted by Monument
at March 14, 2008 4:24 PM
comment #4
renorambler
says ...
One of those films that didn't need to happen. The TV show was generally smart, fun, and provocative at times. It even ended well. Why take it any further? Answer: $$$$$
Posted by renorambler
at March 14, 2008 4:38 PM
comment #5
gruver1
says ...
Wells to Monument: Correct -- TV-show roots (funny-ironic soap opera with sexual delvings), and the presumed lack of depth, no matter how much it might invest in "seriousness." I don't have a problem with Parker's honker.
Posted by gruver1
at March 14, 2008 5:11 PM
comment #6
Dan Revill
says ...
Gotta agree with Burma, S&TC is no worse than X3.
Still, was this show actually popular? I thought it was a myth.
Posted by Dan Revill
at March 14, 2008 5:31 PM
comment #7
Luke Y. Thompson
says ...
Sex and the City puts women "in the mood." If I were at Cannes, I'd totally want it to play there for that reason alone.
Posted by Luke Y. Thompson
at March 14, 2008 6:11 PM
comment #8
a1
says ...
If the Cannes Film Festival ever books the A-Team movie, I'm buying a ticket next day. I want to be there when the fest, how you say, "saute l'aigrefin".
Posted by a1
at March 14, 2008 6:34 PM
comment #9
raygo
says ...
SATC was a smart AND popular show. Give it props for being filmed in NYC. At it's best it evoked Woody Allen's Manhattan. I watch movies and TV, and when SATC won the Emmy for best comedy, I remember the gasps in the audience. No cable show had ever won that award before. A real adult comedy. During the writers strike I watched both Lipstick Jungle and Cashmere Mafia, both pretty dreadful knockoffs. They only makes SATC look better by comparison.
The movie will rock. Plus, I have my original home-made VHS copies of Square Pegs. SJP rules.
Posted by raygo
at March 14, 2008 6:49 PM
comment #10
erniesouchak
says ...
Cannes lost whatever bit of prestige it had when it welcomed a Brett Ratner movie. Come on, it doesn't get any lower than that.
Posted by erniesouchak
at March 14, 2008 7:42 PM
comment #11
scooterzz
says ...
seriously, at what moment in time was the cannes film festival NOT tacky.....
i get that 'satc' is an easy target but there've been tacky movies at cannes for as long as i can remember(didn't seinfeld put on a bee suit and zip-line across the beach last year?)
Posted by scooterzz
at March 14, 2008 8:40 PM
comment #12
Undercover Brother
says ...
"So the show is about three whores and their mother?" Brian the dog on Family Guy after being forced to watch the show.
Posted by Undercover Brother
at March 14, 2008 9:29 PM
comment #13
NYC10036
says ...
Michael Patrick [King]
Posted by NYC10036
at March 14, 2008 11:29 PM
comment #14
Jay T.
says ...
This thing will either be huge, or open huge and drop off quickly. I don't want to be sexist or perhaps age-ist (?), but the four stars are -- in the words of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover -- getting too old for this shit.
Posted by Jay T.
at March 15, 2008 11:59 AM
comment #15
DarthCorleone
says ...
"Something that happens in this movie..."
Given this publicity photo and the purported seriousness, maybe Kim Cattrall's character dies.
Posted by DarthCorleone
at March 15, 2008 1:09 PM
comment #16
thatmovieguy
says ...
Raygo: Soon you can throw away those homemade VHS copies -- SQUARE PEGS is coming out on DVD in May, right around the time SEX AND THE CITY hits theaters. Sony just sent out the confirmation last week.
I'm guessing poor Kim is crushed to death by that giant hat she was wearing in the teaser footage.
Posted by thatmovieguy
at March 16, 2008 9:30 AM