So it turned out that two youngest American filmmakers with films in competition here — Southland Tales‘s Richard Kelly, 31, and Marie-Antoinette‘s Sofia Coppola, 35 — got slammed the hardest. Had to hurt. For what it’s worth, the Southland Tales team said they were on schedule to finish the film in mid-June, and when they heard they’d been accepted (they expected to show it out of competition, at best) it was general quarters, no notes handed to Kelly, not enough money to finish some of the things they had to finish and rush-rush-rush. I’m certain there will be another big critics’ viewing down the road (maybe in Toronto) and by that time some of the length and clarity issues will, I presume, be resolved.
