Celebrity
Martin Scorsese Set To Stir Cannes Again, 47 Years After ‘Taxi Driver’
When Martin Scorsese’s latest picture, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” premieres at the Cannes Picture Festival on May 20th, he will return to a festival with a long history.
“Taxi Driver,” Scorsese’s masterwork of urban alienation, premiered at Cannes in 1976. Its premiere was raucous in Cannes history, with boos and some walkouts due to the brutality in Scorsese’s drama about disillusioned New York cab driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro). Tennessee Williams, the jury president at the time, denounced the film.
“Films should not take a voluptuous pleasure in spilling blood and lingering on terrible cruelties as though one were at a Roman circus,” Williams stated.
Nonetheless, “Taxi Driver” received Cannes’ highest honor, the Palme d’Or. Scorsese and crew had already returned home after learning of Williams’ rejection, and their aspirations for a major award shattered.
“I got a call around five o’clock in the morning from (publicist) Marion Billings saying, ‘You’ve won the Palme d’Or,'” Scorsese later told The Hollywood Reporter. “We thought we might get best screenplay or best actor for De Niro, so it was very surprising.”
Scorsese’s appearance in Cannes for “Taxi Driver” was not his first. Two years prior, he premiered his breakthrough movie, “Mean Streets,” in Directors Fortnight, a selection of films from emerging directors that play outside Cannes’ main stage, the Palais des Festivals.
“Cannes was the international platform for ‘Mean Streets,’ a film I didn’t think would even get distributed,” Scorsese stated at a Cannes lecture celebrating the film’s debut in 2018.
“Taxi Driver,” Scorsese’s masterwork of urban alienation.
“My visit was almost perfect in terms of anonymity.” And he’s working hard to alter that!” he stated. “On the Croisette, I could go from table to table and meet actors, directors, and many others.” It was still a period of discovery, not only for new filmmakers, but also for older, underappreciated directors.”
Between “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver,” Cannes was instrumental in establishing Scorsese as a prominent filmmaking artist. Scorsese has maintained a close relationship with the festival ever since, though launching a film there has grown increasingly rare.
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” his eagerly anticipated adaptation of David Grann’s best-selling novel, is his first new film to screen in the official selection at Cannes since “After Hours” in 1986. Scorsese won best director for that film, a darkly comedic midnight New York adventure.
His next film, which will be released in theatres on October 6th by Apple in collaboration with Paramount Pictures, will not compete in Cannes. In announcing this year’s roster, Festival Director Thierry Frémaux said he pushed Scorsese to enter it for the Palme d’Or but was turned down.
Scorsese has frequently attended Cannes in other capacities in the interim.
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” which has a running time of 206 minutes, is about a series of Native American murders in 1920s Oklahoma and the FBI investigation that followed. Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins, Jillian Dion, and Tantoo Cardinal star in the film.
Scorsese has frequently attended Cannes in other capacities in the interim. He presided over the jury that awarded the Palme d’Or to Theo Angelopoulos’ “Eternity and a Day” in 1998. In 2002, he also presided over the Cinéfondation jury.
And Scorsese has frequently been associated with other films in Cannes, either as an executive producer (for Joanna Hogg’s two-part “The Souvenir”) or to unveil freshly restored classics by the Film Foundation, the organization he created. This year, the Film Foundation, in collaboration with the Walt Disney Company, will screen a previously unseen “Spellbound,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 thriller.
Before a 2009 Cannes screening of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 masterwork “The Red Shoes,” Scorsese stated that restoration is only important if people see the work.
“The more audiences see these films, the more they want to see other films like them, and then what happens is the audience changes, which means the films that are being made change,” Scorsese explained. “There is an audience for special and good films, for a different way of looking at the world — not just blockbusters.”
SOURCE – (AP)
Washington — On Friday, “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill visited the White House with President Joe Biden, leaving with a pair of the president’s aviator sunglasses and a newfound respect for the job.
“I love the merch,” he added, removing his glasses briefly at the White House daily press briefing following his meeting with Biden. Hamill, 72, famous for playing Luke Skywalker, joked with reporters that he’d answer a few questions as long as they weren’t about “Star Wars.”
AP – VOR News Image
‘Star Wars’ Actor Mark Hamill Drops By White House For A Visit With ‘Joe-Bi-Wan Kenobi’
“I was honored to be asked to come to the White House to meet the president,” he told reporters. He’d been to the White House previously, during the Carter and Obama administrations, but he’d never seen the Oval Office, which he described as impressive. According to Hamill, Biden displayed photographs and other memorabilia from the Oval Office.
Hamill claimed Biden told him to call him “Joe,” to which Hamill responded with an alternative suggestion: “Can I call you Joe-bi-Wan Kenobi?”
“He liked that,” said Hamill, who also portrayed the Joker in “Batman: The Animated Series.”
AP – VOR News Image
‘Star Wars’ Actor Mark Hamill Drops By White House For A Visit With ‘Joe-Bi-Wan Kenobi’
Both Mark and the White House were hazy about the cause for his visit. But Mark, a Democrat and Biden supporter with a sizable social media following, has been posting about the president’s reelection campaign this week.
“May 1 Not Quench Your Thirst For Biden’s Re-election!” he tweeted on May 1.
On Friday, he wrote, “May 3 be absurd that the guy who tried to steal a fair election is allowed to run again,” referring to Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
May 4 is unofficially known as “Star Wars” Day, partly due to the famous Jedi line “May the Force Be With You.” The pun is “May 4 be with you.”
AP – VOR News Image
‘Star Wars’ Actor Mark Hamill Drops By White House For A Visit With ‘Joe-Bi-Wan Kenobi’
Mark also provided his voice for “Air Alert,” a downloadable program linked to Ukraine’s air defense system. His voice warns citizens to take cover if Russia launches another aerial strike on Ukraine.
SOURCE – (AP)
Celebrity
Kevin Spacey Denies New Allegations Of Inappropriate Behavior To Be Aired On UK Television Next Week
LONDON — Kevin Spacey, the Oscar-winning actor, has denied new charges of inappropriate behavior by men who will appear in a British television documentary airing next week.
In an online interview with journalist Dan Wootton, Spacey stated that he has never done anything unlawful and has struggled to return to work since being convicted of criminal charges in a London court last year.
“I can’t go through this again, allowing myself to be baselessly attacked without defending myself,” he said in the “Kevin Spacey: Right Of Reply” interview, which aired late Friday on Wootton’s YouTube channel.
AP – VOR News Image
Kevin Spacey Denies New Allegations Of Inappropriate Behavior To Be Aired On UK Television Next Week
Last July, a London jury cleared Spacey of sexual assault charges stemming from 20-year-old allegations made by four men. The court triumph was his second since defending himself against a $40 million lawsuit filed in New York in 2022 by “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp.
The documentary “Spacey Unmasked” will be shown on Channel 4 in Britain on May 6 and 7 and on Max in the United States.
“I take full responsibility for my past behaviour and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologize to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me,” said Spacey, who received Academy Award nominations for “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty.”
“I’ve never told someone that if they give me sexual favors, then I will help them out with their career, never,” he said.
Rolling Stone – VOR News Image
Kevin Spacey Denies New Allegations Of Inappropriate Behavior To Be Aired On UK Television Next Week
Spacey, the creative director of the Old Vic Theatre in London from 2004 to 2015, said that he was a “flirt” with men in their twenties and occasionally made “clumsy” advances.
“I’ve clearly hooked up with some men who thought they might get ahead in their careers by having a relationship with me,” he went on to say. But there was no conversation with me. It was all part of their plan, a plan that was always destined to fail because I wasn’t in on the deal.”
The actor also stated on X, formerly Twitter, that he had “repeatedly requested” that Channel 4 give him more than seven days to reply to the claims brought against him in their program.
Spacey said that the network turned down his request “on the basis that they feel that asking for a response in 7 days to new, anonymized and non-specific allegations is a ‘fair opportunity’ for me to refute any allegations made against me.”
ABC – VOR News Image
Kevin Spacey Denies New Allegations Of Inappropriate Behavior To Be Aired On UK Television Next Week
Spacey said he had struggled to return to work since being acquitted of all criminal charges, characterizing the experience as a “life sentence.”
His acting career had suffered since 2017 when he was publicly accused of inappropriate behavior at the start of the #MeToo movement. He then lost his starring role as Frank Underwood in the Netflix thriller “House of Cards”.
SOURCE – (AP)
SAN FRANCISCO — The Securities and Exchange Commission charged an auditing firm hired by Trump Media and Technology Group only 37 days ago with “massive fraud” on Friday, but not for any work done for former President Donald Trump’s media company.
The SEC accused the accounting firm BF Borgers and its owner, Benjamin F. Borgers, of “deliberate and systematic failures” in over 1,500 audits.
CNN – VOR News Image
Trump Media’s Newly Hired Auditing Firm Was Just Busted By The SEC For ‘Massive Fraud’
The charges include failing to follow accounting regulations, falsifying documents to conceal flaws, and falsely claiming in audit reports that its work fulfilled audit criteria.
To settle SEC accusations, BF Borgers agreed to pay a $12 million fine, while its owner consented to pay a $2 million fine, according to the SEC. Benjamin Borgers did not immediately return a phone for comment.
BF Borgers and Benjamin Borgers both agreed to permanent sanctions, which will take effect immediately and prevent them from handling SEC-related matters as accountants.
According to the company’s most recent annual report filing, Trump Media appointed BF Borgers as its auditor on March 28. The business acknowledged that BF Borgers had similarly addressed its audits before its public offering by combining with a cash-rich shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp.
The company had already hired at least two other auditors, one who resigned from the account in July 2023 and another who was fired by the board in March, just as it was rehiring BF Borgers.
Trump Media “looks forward to working with new auditing partners in accordance with today’s SEC order.”
AP – VOR News Image
Trump Media’s Newly Hired Auditing Firm Was Just Busted By The SEC For ‘Massive Fraud’
The SEC discovered that BF Borgers’ shortcuts included:
- Copying audit documents from the prior year.
- Changing the pertinent dates.
- Passing it off as current documentation.
In addition to inaccurately recording work that was never completed, the fake documentation detailed planning meetings with clients that never took place and “falsely represented” that both Benjamin Borgers and another reviewer had authorized the audit work.
AP – VOR News Image
Trump Media’s Newly Hired Auditing Firm Was Just Busted By The SEC For ‘Massive Fraud’
“Ben Borgers and his audit firm, BF Borgers, were responsible for one of the largest wholesale failures by gatekeepers in our financial markets,” stated Gurbir Grewal, the SEC’s enforcement director. “Thanks to the painstaking work of the SEC staff, Borgers and his sham audit mill have been permanently shut down.”
SOURCE – (AP)
‘Star Wars’ Actor Mark Hamill Drops By White House For A Visit With ‘Joe-Bi-Wan Kenobi’
Kevin Spacey Denies New Allegations Of Inappropriate Behavior To Be Aired On UK Television Next Week
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