Okay, there are so many and there were so many performers City of Asteroids who attended the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s film at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night, that the question was which of them would be at today’s midday press conference.
They had climbed the 28 steps of the Sala Lumière Jason Schwartzman – a historian in the cinema of the director of The Eccentric Royal Tenenbaums-, Scarlett JohanssonAdrien Brody, Tom Hanks (with his wife Rita Wilson, who does not star in the film), Bryan CranstonMaya Hawk, Matt Dillon, Steve Carell, Jeffrey Wright, composer Alexandre Desplat, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend and Jake Ryan, plus, of course, Anderson.
There were eight chairs in the conference room, in addition to the presenter’s chair, who asked more questions than usual this time, which angered more than one of those who wanted to ask. I mean, there was no Hanks, no Brody, no Dillon, no Carell, no Ryan…
Yes, there was Alexandre Desplat, winner of two Oscars, for the music of The Grand Hotel Budapestby Anderson, E the shape of waterto which the director pointed out in the audience, sitting in the front row, to the side.
And then there was Scarlett Johansson, who with so much talent sitting there didn’t have much chance to say a word, and also Cranston, the actor from breaking BadWith which clarion Yesterday he gave an exclusive interview, which we will publish close to the film’s premiere in June.
Scarlett Johansson, vintage star
The film is set in the 1950s, where a group of precocious genius children and their parents travel to a small desert town (Asteroid City), to a stargazing convention and an awards reception, and have a close encounter with the third guy with an alien. Already in the credits at the beginning of the film we read that it is Jeff Goldblum, so he is not a spoiler.
Scarlett plays a movie star of the time, named Midge Campbell, and reflects on the community’s unique way of working Wes Andersonopenly comparing it to a stage production.
“It’s not the process we’re used to, being on a film set and then going through your trailer and having all this downtime,” he said of the shoot, which was done entirely on set in Spain. “It feels very vibrant, like you’re working in the theater.”
And Cranston, who plays a TV presenter, tried to be a little more comprehensive. “It’s a film about a TV show that tells a story that happens in a theater. And I think it’s Wes’s love letter to performance art. He has embraced the three main outlets that we are involved in ”.
He noted that, for the actors, they feel like they’re living in Wes Anderson’s world.
“It sounds like Wes Anderson is a conductor. And we are all musicians of our particular instrument. We focus a lot on our tool and do it without knowing exactly how everything is going to turn out. And he directs: a little less Bryan, a little more Scarlett, or whatever, adjusting as he goes.
There is a part inside City of Asteroids in which Auggie (his character) walks in and talks to the play director (Edward Norton, absent from everything, the premiere and the lecture) and says, “I just don’t think I understand play.” And the director says, “Well, you don’t have to. I just kept telling the story.” And I think, in a nutshell, that’s what the film meant to me.
We go through life. We don’t know exactly what will happen, how long our life will last, who will be in our life, how everything will unfold. We just have to keep telling the story. Keep moving forward and be a storyteller. And to widespread applause, he got up from his chair and walked towards the exit. But the actor of breaking Bad returned to the panel.
Anderson, who is loved more here than by the Hollywood Academy, which nominated him for seven Oscars and won none, clarified that yes, perhaps theater can save us from all evils, and if he has never directed one show «It’s because I’m afraid of having to go out on a certain date and not being able to do anything. In the cinema I can sit down and edit the material…”, and he said that once yes, he had acted.
In what? they asked him. “In an American Express commercial,” he said, and laughter erupted.
After pondering a question about dreaming and acting, Scarlett replied, “I’ve been in filmmaking for so long, making films and acting is like an extension of my subconscious and my consciousness.” And she has ensured that she uses her dreams for her work.
And there he looked at Anderson, who was sitting next to him, when he said “sometimes I texted you with my dreams”. The director was able to acknowledge that “sometimes I find solutions to my script problems in my dreams, but in the end they usually don’t work.”
The first question to Wes Anderson was whether he really believed in extraterrestrial life.
“Well, you know… I wouldn’t trust my opinions on this in any way,” Anderson said with a laugh. “The research that went into this, as extensive as it was, wasn’t something you would find in some academy.”
And he concluded: “Stephen Hawking has insisted that it is numerically unlikely that there is no extraterrestrial life”, to close by saying that “He really doesn’t” believe in aliens.
Source: Clarin
