“Philistine President”

“I have such close feelings for the Festival de Cannes. Especially now when there’s so much in the world pulling us apart, Cannes brings us together — storytellers, filmmakers, fans and friends. It’s like coming home.” — Robert DeNiro during yesterday’s Cannes tribute event.

HE feels exactly the same way. Really good to be here. Plus it’s warm and sunny with blue skies above.

Hendrix Would Have Been Too Experienced for “Sinners”

Jimi Hendrix wasn’t a “black” musician per se or one given to blasting out white rock ‘n’ roll. He was completely defined by and borne aloft by his own genius…a gypsy mystic, a sensual smoothie, a Krishna-like figure, not of this earth, a virtuoso Spirit God.

If Hendrix been less cavalier or thoughtless about which pills he was dropping, he’d be 82 today, and if he’d gone to see Sinners in IMAX he would certainly love the Robert Johnson musical tribute stuff, but he would not be kowtowing and hyperventilating and talking endlessly about identity…trust me. Hendrix didn’t believe in devils and angels, and certainly not in the myth of schlocky Samuel Z. Arkoff vampires. He was way, way above that shit.

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Catching Furtive Zees

The cabin windows are open, the sun is bright and the cloud-free sky is a gleaming light blue as our SAS flight approaches Copenhagen. It’s 8:26 am in Copenhagen, 2:26 am in NYC and 11:26 pm in Los Angeles. I’ve gotten maybe 90 minutes of sleep, if that. HE’s connecting flight to Nice leaves from CPH terminal 3 at 11 am. Nice touchdown at 1:25 pm.

Bardot Says French Courts Should Let Depardieu Skate

The long-retired Brigitte Bardot, who turned 90 on 9.28.24, is obviously no #MeToo advocate. Earlier today she told BFM that she believes renowned French actor Gerard Depardieu, 76, who will soon face an array of sexual assault charges (13 women have accused him) under the French legal system, should be left alone.

This can only be filed under the general category of eccentric opinions. Bardot and Fanny Ardant aside, no one on the planet earth seriously believes that swaggering, hard-drinking, old-school rich guys known for occasional ornery behavior (like Depardieu) should just be forgiven and cut loose when it comes to allegations of louche or unlawful sexual behavior…nobody.

Middle-Class “Big Chill”-ish Commune

Several Fairfield County homies (myself among them) during the Nixon administration, posing on the side porch of a large, ramshackle, six-bedroom home in Southport, CT. There was a small barn out back where we’d pass the pipe around. The guy in the striped T-shirt made a 16mm short in which I starred, called Beyond Embarassment. I’ve never forgotten what a friend wrote on the dining room wall: “We are all merely sea men.”

Lone Wolf, Old-Timer…Nobody Wants A Wipe-Out

The new F1 trailer ends with the words “Filmed for IMAX”. Meaning what exactly? All of it will be projected in 1.43:1 IMAX? No IMAX-shot film has ever screened entirely in that process. It’s always sections. So this is different? They need to be specific.

“Hope isn’t a strategy”….true.

When a costar asks Brad Pitt, “Any other words of wisdom, professor?”, he says “Drive fast?” Good one, except he should have said this more emphatically.

In my head it’s a profound tragedy that F1 won’t be playing at Cannes.

Cruise Never Combs Hair or Uses “Product”…Odd

Every dude with hair uses “product” (Crew Fiber or Boost Powder, hair spray, Batiste dry shampoo, Brylcream…something) or at the very least a comb. To give it an intended attitude, a little shape. Otherwise your hair just flops and scatters out all over the place.

Tom Cruise definitely applied hair shapers and holders in the early days (Risky Business, The Firm, A Few Good Men) but not over the last few years. Nowadays he pretty much wears a raggedy-ass soup bowl. An odd way to go.