Notícias

Belgian actress Emilie Dequenne, known for her breakout role in Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Palme d’Or winning Rosetta, has died aged 43.

Her agent announced that she had died of a rare cancer at a hospital just outside of Paris on Sunday evening.

Dequenne, who starred in more than 50 films during her long career,won the best actress prize in Cannes for Rosetta in 1999 and has been nominated for five Cesar awards, including a win in 2021 for Emmanuel Mouret’s Love Affair(s).

She balanced commercial films with more auteur fare and worked with acclaimed filmmakers including Claude Berri,...

Émilie Dequenne, the Belgian actress who first achieved fame with her 1999 Cannes d’Or-winning, big screen debut in Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s drama Rosetta, has died at the age 43.

The actress, who revealed in October 2023 that she was battling a rare adrenal gland cancer, died in hospital on the outskirts of Paris on Sunday evening, her agent Danielle Gain announced to Afp.

Born on August 29, 1981, Dequenne studied at Belgium’s Music & Spoken Word Academy in Baudour from an early age, taking up drama there at the age of 12, alongside joining the La Relève Theater troupe.

She landed her first cinema role at age 17 in Rosetta. She clinched Best Actress at Cannes in 1999 for her performance as the titular teenager living in a caravan with an alcoholic mother in the film, which also won the Dardenne brothers their first Palme d’Or.

“It’s terrible, life is disgusting sometimes,...

Robert De Niro and Kathy Bates' star power wasn't enough to save the 2004 drama The Bridge of San Luis Rey from bad reviews. The star-studded cast, which also included Gabriel Byrne and F. Murray Abraham, couldn't elevate the sluggish and poorly executed film. The Bridge of San Luis Rey's profound premise was overshadowed by a lackluster script, leading to a dismal 4% critical score.

Robert De Niro and Kathy Bates' star power wasn't enough to save a 2004 drama film from a frightful 4% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. De Niro and Bates are two supremely influential and highly adorned American performers. De Niro has shone in Hollywood classics throughout his six-decade-long career, captivating moviegoers with performances in staples from The Godfather Part II to The Irishman, many of which have proved themselves significant feats in cinema. A multi-talent having produced and directed on top of performing in film (and TV), De...

This is an astonishingly heart-warming film, full of light and life, but no quantity of content warnings could steel you for the darknesses it visits. Sufficiently close to 'based on a true story' that it ends with the almost obligatory montage of the cast and the real people they have been portraying, this does not at the start say 'true story'. It says 'based on the testimony of Ifrah Ahmed.'

A Girl From Mogadishu is Ifrah's tale, but a key element almost shares the same acronym as Agfm - Female Genital Mutilation.

This is powerful stuff, a story brought dazzlingly to life by the talents of its veteran cast and crew. Writer/director Mary McGuckian has almost a dozen films under her belt. As Ifrah, Aja Naomi King brings a delight, a drive, further signal of a talent that's been rewarded with key roles in US drama series. As the film follows Ifrah.

Even tantalizing glimpses of 20th-century Anglo-Irish modernist Eileen Gray’s most iconic designs, including scenes shot in the seminal E-1027, a seaside villa she built for her former lover Jean Badovici on France’s Côte d’Azur, fail to compensate for the rest of the treacle comprising “The Price of Desire.” Essentially a recounting of how envious Swiss architect Le Corbusier effectively undermined Gray’s artistry and for many years obscured her place in the design pantheon, this tedious 2014 production from Irish multi-hyphenate Mary McGuckian (“Man on the Train”) receives a belated digital and on-demand release via Giant Pictures on June 2.

Gray’s remarkable life, talent and legacy receives more inspiring treatment in “Gray Matters,” a companion documentary helmed at the same time by Marco Antonio Orsini, available on iTunes.

“It’s the price of desire,” quips the collector queried about the unprecedented $28 million she pays for Gray’s sensual...

Exclusive: Principal photography has begun on Pembridge Pictures and Umedia’s A Girl From Mogadishu starring How To Get Away With Murder‘s Aja Naomi King. The female empowerment film is a true story based on the testimony of Ifrah Ahmed, who — having escaped war-torn Somalia — emerged as one of the world's foremost international activists against gender based violence. Mary McGuckian (The Price Of Desire) is directing and wrote the script. Filming is underway in Belgium…...

Other recipients include Virginia Woolf romance Vita & Virginia and new Hong Khaou, Carmel Winters films.

Lenny Abrahamson’s forthcoming adaptation of Sarah Waters’ acclaimed wartime ghost story The Little Stranger is among the films being supported by the Irish Film Board in its latest round of funding decisions.

Projects by Mary McGuckian, Carmel Winters and British/Cambodian filmmaker Hong Khaou are also among those given production funding support, as is a drama about Virgina Woolf’s love affair with the poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West.

In a diverse and wide-ranging first quarter, Room director Abrahamson’s [pictured] adaption of The Little Stranger has received production funding of €350,000.

The novel, which centres on the strange goings on in a country house in rural Warwickshire, has been adapted for the big screen by English novelist and screenwriter Lucinda Coxon (The Danish Girl). Domhnall Gleeson is attached to the project, which will be co-produced by Element Pictures.

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Total of 13 projects backed with €1.06m investment.

In its first funding round of 2017, European body Screen Brussels has invested €1.06m into 13 projects.

Of the selected projects, 10 are primarily in Belgium. Eight of the 13 are feature films, while there are four TV projects including one documentary and one animation.

The eight features are:

A Girl From Mogadishu

From Belgium outfit Umedia and co-produced by Ireland’s Pembridge Film, this English-language feature will be directed by Northern Ireland’s Mary McGuckian. The film follows a Somali social activist and her journey to obtain a vote against Fgm (female genital mutilation) in the European parliament. It will shoot for two weeks in Brussels.

Undergods

Produced by Belgium’s Velvet Films and co-produced by the UK’s Venner Film and Estonia’s Homeless Bob, this this tragicomic science-fiction feature film tells the story of how the comfortable life of a modern family is interrupted by an otherworldly event. Shot in English...

Featuring footage of Gray’s playfully practical works, this layered and interesting study of the architect and designer stands up well

Although this is screening at select venues as a companion piece to director Mary McGuckian’s drippy biopic The Price of Desire, Marco Antonio Orsini’s documentary represents a far more interesting and densely layered exploration of the life and legacy of architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray. For a start, it covers all the same basic biographical stuff: Gray’s bisexuality, her long romantic relationship and design collaboration with Jean Badovici, which itself evolved into a sort of fraught, creative menage a trois with the architect Le Corbusier, and then the withdrawal from public life that cloaked her reputation in obscurity until scholars rediscovered her work later. But what makes this even more compelling is the supporting art-historical input from its numerous interviewees (I developed a particular soft...

The Price of Desire is about influential modernist Irish designer Eileen Gray (Orla Brady), who made significant contributions to the development of furniture design and architecture. The film follows her artistic relationship with Le Corbusier, and Alanis Morrissette plays one of her lovers, the singer Damia. This sequence was deleted from the final film, but the song remains on the end credits. Directed by Mary McGuckian, The Price of Desire is released on 27 May in the UK

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Exclusive: Northern Soul sub-distributor boards drama following the true story of Irish artist Eileen Gray.

Distribution outfit Munro Films - the company which sub-distributed Northern Soul and Cobain: Montage Of Heck - has taken rights to Mary McGuckian’s biographical drama The Price Of Desire for the UK and Ireland.

The films tells the story of how Irish artist and designer Eileen Gray was virtually erased from history due to an ongoing conflict with revered architect Le Corbusier.

Orla Brady (A Love Divided) plays Gray, while Vincent Perez (Cyrano De Bergerac) plays Le Corbusier, with musician Alanis Morissette also amongst the cast.

Director McGuckian also wrote the film’s screenplay and produced, along with Jean-Jacques Neira and Hubert Toint.

The project was an English-Belgian co-production, shot on location in Belgium and the south of France in a villa designed by Gray. Eg Film Productions were the primary production outfit.

The Little Film Company is handling sales on the...

Exclusive: Northern Soul sub-distributor boards drama following the true story of Irish artist Eileen Gray.

Distribution outfit Munro Films - the company which sub-distributed Northern Soul and Cobain: Montage Of Heck - has taken rights to Mary McGuckian’s biographical drama The Price Of Desire for the UK and Ireland.

The films tells the story of how Irish artist and designer Eileen Gray was virtually erased from history due to an ongoing conflict with revered architect Le Corbusier.

Orla Brady (A Love Divided) plays Gray [pictured], while Vincent Perez (Cyrano De Bergerac) plays Le Corbusier, with musician Alanis Morissette also amongst the cast.

Director McGuckian also wrote the film’s screenplay and produced, along with Jean-Jacques Neira and Hubert Toint.

The project was an English-Belgian co-production, shot on location in Belgium and the south of France in a villa designed by Gray. Eg Film Productions were the primary production outfit.

The Little Film Company is handling sales on the...

Alanis Morissette, Vincent Perez and Orla Brady star in Mary McGuckian feature.

The 13th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (March 19 – 29) will host the Irish premiere of Mary McGuckian’s Eileen Gray biopic The Price of Desire and Alan Rickman’s period drama A Little Chaos.

McGuckian’s drama stars Alanis Morissette, Vincent Perez and Irish actress Orla Brady as iconic designer Eileen Gray.

Playwright David Hare will take part in the festival’s Screenwriting Focus.

Exclusive: Principal photography has wrapped on Mary McGuckian’s The Price Of Desire, about modernist designer Eileen Gray.

On the final day of the shoot the production staged a reenactment of the February 2009 record-breaking $28m Paris sale at Christie’s of Gray’s Dragon Chair.

The reenactment will be the opening scene and recreates what remains the highest price paid for an item of 20th century design.

Cheska Vallois of Galerie Vallois, who bid for the anonymous private client who bought the chair, plays herself in the production and famously explained the high price-tag to reporters immediately after the auction by saying “it can only be the price of desire.”

The Price Of Desire focuses on how rival modernist Le Corbusier questioned Gray’s reputation as one of the most powerful influences on modern architecture and design.

Orla Brady plays the lead role of Gray opposite Vincent Perez as Le Corbusier. Alanis Morissette and [link...

The last time Alanis Morissette graced the big screen was back in 1999 for Kevin Smith’s Dogma. Now, some 14 years later she’s signed up to star as singer Marisa Damia in The Price Of Desire.

Based on the true story of modern architect pioneer, Eileen Grey, The Price of Desire has also bagged Shannyn Sossamon for the lead role. The film will chart the changes that her personal relationships had on the architecture world. While falling in love with her nemesis, Swiss/French designer Le Corbusier (Vincent Perez), Grey also maintained a relationship with Marisa Damia.

Mary McGuckian, who directed The Bridge Of San Luis Rey, will helm the piece, which will be produced by Eg Film Productions Limited, Lightstream Pictures and Saga Film.

Continuing the Kickstarter trend which has struck Hollywood, the filmmakers have created a campaign to fund restoration on Gray’s villa. Located in Roquebrune Cap Martin,...

Vincent Perez, Alanis Morissette and Shannyn Sossamon have joined the cast of the romantic period drama "The Price of Desire" at Eg Film Productions Limited, Lightstream Pictures and Saga Film.

Sossamon will play architect Eileen Gray who falls in love with the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier (Perez). Morisette will play Gray's lover Marisa Damia.

Much of the movie takes place in Gray's authentic French villa, one of the first homes she designed, and a Kickstarter campaign has been launched to help restore the home with re-created Parisian interiors.

Mary McGuckian ("The Bridge of San Luis Rey") directs the project.

Source: The Chicago Tribune...

HollywoodNews.com: The 16th Annual Hollywood Film Awards, presented by the Los Angeles Times, has announced that two-time Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro will be honored with the "Hollywood Supporting Actor Award" at the festival's Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony for his fantastic performance in David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook." The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder and Executive Director of the Hollywood Film Awards. He said: "Robert De Niro is not only highly regarded for his body of work as an actor, producer, and director, but also for the passion, integrity, and dedication he brings to his performances on camera, as well as his intense off-camera preparation and study of the characters he brings to life. His performance in the upcoming film "Silver Linings Playbook" is outstanding." The 2012 Hollywood Film Awards has also announced that it will honor Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard with the "Hollywood Actress Award,...

Everybody always says that you should never meet your heroes and idols because it could change your opinion of them. So, when it came time to do a phone interview Larry Mullen, Jr. (best known as the drummer of U2) for his acting debut, Man on the Train (available on VOD through December 26th), I was nervous, but not about to pass up the opportunity. Thankfully, I found him to be a great guy, passionate about both life and work, and more gracious and humble than I ever would have imagined. During this exclusive phone interview with Collider, Larry Mullen, Jr. talked about how his dream of someday trying his hand at acting actually came to fruition, what he learned from working with a veteran like Donald Sutherland, the feeling that he just didn’t want to be embarrassing on film, how nobody, including himself, could have imagined the life...

Photo courtesy Tribeca Film / credit: Sophie Girau Now playing across the country on VOD via Tribeca Film, Mary McGuckian's The Man on the Train is an English-language remake of Patrice Leconte's atmospheric L'Homme du Train [2002], which starred musician-turned-actor Johnny Hallyday and Jean Rochefort. In the current film, Irish musician Larry Mullen Jr. makes his acting debut opposite the legendary Donald Sutherland. Mullen, who did triple-duty on the film - actor, producer, and soundtrack supervisor - recently talked to us about his "baptism by fire," his acting method, and what it was like to work with an icon. Tribeca: Congratulations on your acting debut! Clearly, you've always been a creative man. When did you realize that you had an interest in acting, and was there something particular that prompted you to tackle this new challenge? Larry Mullen Jr.: I've always had an interest in doing something that was...

Tribeca Enterprises Larry Mullen Jr. and Donald Sutherland

What happens when a masterful veteran actor who has made over 160 films teams up with a rock star drummer making his first foray into acting?

I t was anyone’s guess, and a bit of a gamble. But Donald Sutherland and U2′s Larry Mullen Jr. are still bathing in the afterglow of their unlikely friendship—on and off-screen—after an intensive 17-day shoot of “The Man on the Train”. Skillfully directed by Irish filmmaker,...

Ever wanted to see U2's drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. act? Well, here's your chance. In the English-language remake of Patrice Leconte's award-winning French film of the same name, "Man on the Train," Mullen plays a mysterious thief who rolls into a small town to rob a local bank. His plans veer off track when he meets a retired poetry professor (Donald Sutherland) who envies the criminal's position. Mary McGuckian directs. ...

Here is the first trailer for the English remake of Man on the Train directed by Mary McGuckian and starring Donald Sutherland and Larry Mullen Jr. (yes, U2′s drummer) in his acting debut. The original French film was released in 2002 from director Patrice Leconte. Mullen stars as “a thief whose plans get thrown off track when he meets Sutherland in a small town where he’s looking to knock off a bank.” The film looks like a slow burner that could lead to something great, the cast looks strong here – when isn’t Sutherland in top form?

We are still waiting on a release date, check out the intriguing trailer below:...

Here is the first trailer for the English-language remake of Man on the Train. The original French film was released in 2002 from director Patrice Leconte. The remake is directed by Mary McGuckian and stars Donald Sutherland as a "retired poetry professor" and oddly U2's drummer Larry Mullen Jr. in his acting debut. Mullen stars as "a thief whose plans get thrown off track when he meets Sutherland in a small town where he's looking to knock off a bank."

I enjoy movies that involve bank heists and for some reason have a love of trains. If you are looking for a good train thriller watch Transiberian and Silver Bullet. 

Check out the traielr below via Moviefone:

Here is the synopsis:

A mysterious criminal (Mullen Jr.) rolls into a small town planning to knock off the local bank, assuming it will go off without a hitch. But when he encounters...

Another day, another remake. Never even heard of the original? Neither have I. Man on the Train is an English-language remake of Patrice Leconte's 2002 French film also titled Man on the Train. However, the appealing aspects of this are that it stars not only Donald Sutherland as a "retired poetry professor", but also Larry Mullen Jr., better known as U2's drummer, making his feature acting debut. Mullen plays a thief whose plans get thrown off track (no pun intended) when he meets Sutherland in a small town where he's looking to knock off a bank. It doesn't look terrible, but not that great either, but give it a shot anyway. Watch the first official trailer for Mary McGuckian's Man on the Train, via Moviefone: A mysterious criminal (Mullen Jr.) rolls into a small town planning to knock off the local bank, assuming it will go off without a hitch.

The U.S based Sales Agent and Production Co. company comes to Cannes with items for sale and surprisingly enough, they've got a Main Comp entry in Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive. We've got big eyes for a title Sierra/Affinity is repping in Oren Moverman's Rampart which I predict great things for, and Matt Piedmont directorial debut film which might confirm the genius I found in his Sundance winning short films. Here are some items in their upcoming slate. Casa De Mi Padre (House Of My Father) by Matt Piedmont - Post-Production Drive by Nicolas Winding Refn - Completed Shark Night 3D by David Ellis - Post-Production A Beginner's Guide To Endings by Jonathan Sobol - Completed Beastly by Daniel Barnz - Completed Catch .44 by Aaron Harvey - Completed Darling Companion by Lawrence Kasdan - Post-Production Man On The Train by Mary McGuckian - Completed Rampart by...

THR reveals that Larry Mullen Jr., the drummer of U2, is acting in, producing and composing a remake of Patrice Leconte‘s comic thriller or crime drama, whatsoever, Man On The Train (L’Homme du train).

In fact, film is currently in the late stages of post-production since Production Company has finished shooting in the same period last year and will be selling in Cannes next month.

Irish director/producer Mary McGuckian (The Bridge of San Luis Rey) directed the film and produced with Mullen Jr. and Martin Katz whilst Jon Goodman was an executive.

Original French drama, starring Jean Rochefort and Johnny Hallyday, won the audience awards at the Venice Film Festival for Best Film and Best Actor (Jean Rochefort) in 2002.

A retired teacher and an aged gangster come across in a small town pharmacy. As a special friendship develops between these diverse personalities, each starts to envy the...

U2 Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. Heading Up Man On The Train Remake

The Hollywood Reporter is telling us that U2's Larry Mullen Jr. (the drummer), is getting ready to take a step into the world of film. He will produce, act in and compose a remake of Patrice Leconte‘s comic thriller Man On The Train. Mullen Jr. will co-star with Donald Sutherland, Graham Greene, Tony Nardi, Carlo Rota and Kate O’Toole and Mary McGuckian will direct. Mullen Jr. is usually the quiet one in the band, not usually commanding a lot of the spotlight. So it's nice to see him get a chance to shine. He's a fantastic drummer but seeing as this is his first film role, I'm not sure how he'll hold up in front of the camera. The project seems to have come out of nowhere so we don't know much about it but...

Take that Bono! It looks like the drummer of U2 is finally gonna get some of the spotlight shone on him instead of one the Mr-Save-The-Planet-i-Invested-In-Blackberry-Started-My-Own-Clothing-Line-And-Charitable-Organization-Which-Gives-Seems-Not-To-Do-Anything-Charitable frontman for the popular rock group. THR reveal that Larry Mullen Jr. is acting, producing and composing in a remake of Patrice Leconte's comic thriller "Man On The Train." Co-starring Donald Sutherland, Graham Greene, Tony Nardi, Carlo Rota and Kate O'Toole, the film follows "a retired small town school-teacher (Sutherland) prepping for open-heart surgery who crosses paths with a stranger (Mullen Jr.) planning to rob the local bank" and was directed by Mary McGuckian…...

Taormina Film Festival

TAORMINA, Italy -- A supposedly satirical look at assisted reproduction, the storyline to Mary McGuckian's "Inconceivable" stays true to its title. And its visual concept -- fast-paced editing, fragmented audio and sound superimposition/effects and sped-up and slowed-down images straight from "CSI" -- ensures that the film never loses its television feel.

Although full of biological inaccuracies, the film demands that its underlying drama be taken seriously as it negates the very women that make up its core audience. Nine women go to a renowned Las Vegas fertility clinic run by Doctor Freeman (Colm Feore) and miraculously all but one end up pregnant. The ninth and least fertile (Jennifer Tilly), however, winds up naturally pregnant shortly thereafter.

A year later, when comparing baby pictures, one of the women, Tutu (Elizabeth McGovern), notices that most of the children could be identical twins. A seasoned journalist, she blows the whistle on their fertility group and an investigation begins. Did Freeman or his assistant (Jordi Molla) give them all the same sperm to bolster his clinic's success rate and continue raking in the dough? Should the beneficiaries even care or just be happy that they finally got the miracle no one else could grant them?

To add to the pathos, the stories run the gamut of the human spectrum -- a gay couple with a surrogate mother, a lesbian couple, a wealthy elderly woman (Geraldine Chaplin) who must produce an heir to keep her husband's trust fund and various middle-aged women (from meek to wild) desperate to become mothers.

The mystery is solved by simply tossing the workings of DNA (children get 50% of their chromosomes from the mother and the other half from the father) to the wayside -- i.e., by the existence of a "super sperm that out-spermed all the other sperm." Thus, women are nothing more than carriers who bear no influence on the physical appearance of their children. With so many valid and complex ethical, emotional and dramatic questions related to artificial insemination, was creating a physiologically impossible situation really necessary?

What is saddest here is that a female cast that further includes Amanda Plummer and Andie McDowell should be so wasted. It would have been more interesting to see these women, now grappling with their own issues of reaching or surpassing middle age, sink their teeth into material on aging and motherhood with much more depth.

Production companies: Pembridge Pictures, Scion Films, Prospero Pictures. Cast: Colm Feore, Jennifer Tilly, Elizabeth McGovern, Andie McDowell, Amanda Plummer, Jordi Molla, Geraldine Chaplin, Lothaire Bluteau. Screenwriter/Director: Mary McGuckian. Producer: McGuckian, Jeff Abberley, Martin Katz. Director of Photography: Mark Wolf. Production designer: Max Gottlieb. Music: Kevin Banks. Costume Designer: Sally O'Sullivan. Editor: David Freemantle. 105 minutes.

TAORMINA, Italy -- Turkish cinema was in the spotlight at the Taormina Film Festival on Thursday, with director Ferzan Ozpetek kicking things off with a special cinema roundtable discussion and Zeki Demirkubuz's "Kader" (Destiny) among the day's key screenings.

Ozpetek made his first major appearance of the festival Wednesday, when he was pulled onto the stage at the Green Theater to act as an impromptu Italian-to-Turkish translator for Paolo Villaggio, the 75-year-old Italian comic actor.

Friday will be the heaviest day for Turkish films, with screenings of half a dozen Turkish films including the world premiere of Ozay Fecht's short "The Touch" and Fatih Akin's Lola winner "The Edge of Heaven", part of the Turkish gala in the Greek Theater hosted by Turkish actress Serra Yilmaz.

The world premiere of Mary McGuckian's "Inconceivable" was the main event Thursday evening at the festival's 3,000-year-old Greek Theater.

The first Los Angeles Irish Film Festival will take place Oct. 2-5 at the Clarity Theatre in Beverly Hills with a closing-night celebration and screening at the Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles.

Focusing on recent Irish production as well as classic films, the fest will showcase Irish culture through its films.

Lisa McLaughlin-Strassman and Niall McKay will serve as the fest's directors. Its advisory board includes film directors Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan and Mary McGuckian, screenwriter and critic F.X. Feeney and THR international editor Steve Brennan.

In advance of the fest, programmer John Lyons will offer monthly screenings of Irish films at the Clarity Theatre, with the next program set for June 29.

ROME -- Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek will head the six-person jury that will award the 54-year-old Taormina Film Festival's Golden Tauro prize for new films from the Mediterranean region, the festival said Wednesday.

Organizers also announced that a restored print of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" -- filmed in part in Sicily -- will screen in the festival's 2,300-year-old Greek Theater as part of a lineup that includes restored versions of Federico Fellini's little-known 1968 short "Toby Dammit" and Paul Schrader's 1985 biopic "Mishima".

David Mamet's martial arts drama "Red Belt" also will screen in the 6,000-seat theater in addition to a special gala screening of "The Edge of Heaven", from Fatih Akin, which will coincide with the special sidebar on Turkish cinema.

The "Beyond the Mediterranean" competition -- voted on by audiences -- will feature six films including three world premieres: Iranian director Mohammad-Ali Talebi's "The Wall", "Inconceivable" from Ireland's Mary McGuckian and "Love Live Long" from the U.K.'s Mike Figgis.

The main U.S. film screening will be Errol Morris' Abu Ghraib documentary "Standard Operating Procedure".

The Mediterranean competition titles named Wednesday are Egyptian films "Eye of the Sun" from Ibrahim El Batout and Yousri Nasrallah's "Aquarium"; "Burned Hearts" from Morocco's Ahmed El Maanouni; French director Jean Becker's "Deux Jours a Tuer" (Love Me No More); "Tractor, Love and Rock 'n' Roll" from Slovenia's Branko Djuric; and "Summer Book" from Turkey's Seyfi Teoman.

LONDON -- Andie MacDowell and Rupert Graves have joined the cast of Mary McGuckian's latest comedic feature, Art in Las Vegas.

U.K. production company Pembridge Pictures said Tuesday that Art in Las Vegas will begin production this summer, filming in London and Las Vegas.

"Drawing on the evolving talent pool of cast and crew from (previous movies) 'Rag Tale' and 'Intervention, ' the production will continue to redefine the film production process, focusing on performance and collaborative improvisation," the company said in a statement.

Art, or Assisted Reproductive Technology, presents a look behind the scenes of the fast-growing "test-tube baby" industry. The film follows a number of women undergoing the procedure when something goes amiss.

Other cast members include John Sessions, Jennifer Tilly, Lucy Davis, Donna D'Errico, Colm Feore, Geraldine Chaplin and daughter Oona Chaplin.

Pembridge Pictures is producing alongside U.K.-based Scion Films and Toronto-based Prospero Pictures.

Mary McGuckian's Rag Tale is supposedly a satire of British tabloid newspapers and their insatiable hunger for sensation but it is a dreadful misfire that assaults the eye and offends the ear with a scattershot cinematic style that suggests it was made using David Letterman's monkey-cam.

Screamingly unpleasant, it's difficult to imagine audiences remaining in their seats except those incapacitated by the relentless flashing of its meaninglessly gymnastic mix of hand-held color and black-and-white footage; hideous mish-mash of jump cuts, quick zooms, fast-action, and sharp pans; and raucous soundtrack.

In the chaotic set-up, a tabloid editor (Rupert Graves) is sleeping with his deputy editor Jennifer Jason Leigh) although she is married to the mogul who owns the paper (Malcolm McDowell).

The cretinous plot has the owner taking out his revenge on the editor by forcing the paper to change its policy from knocking British royalty to championing it so that he may keep his wife, make her editor and win a knighthood or, better still, a lordship.

The editor's response is to fabricate a scandalous story about the owner that his ex-wife's broadsheet newspaper will threaten to publish so that the owner's only recourse is to ask for his own editor's help as only he can persuade his ex-wife to spike the story.

The behavior of tabloid journalists and paparazzi is ripe for satire and even tragedy, but it would take a far greater knowledge of that furiously desperate and cynical world than is on display here.

In Rag Tale, the senior editors of a tabloid newspaper risk their jobs and possible criminal charges by leaving their desks to spend a drunken afternoon concocting a completely phony and libelous story simply in order to save their editor's job. Sure.

The actors apparently improvised the witless dialogue in the film ("We have a paper to put out; who are we going to get this week?"), but the full blame for this misbegotten nonsense must lie with filmmakers who, on this evidence, apparently know as little about making films as they do about newspapers.

CANNES -- Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates has signed on to star in Mary McGuckian's Funny Farm, joining a cast that includes Malcolm McDowell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rupert Graves, Lucy Davis and Ian Hart. Made by U.K. indie production company Pembridge Pictures, Farm is set in a celebrity drug and alcohol rehab clinic and is a follow-up to McGuckian's experimental satire Rag Tale, which is being screened at the Marche du Film here. Billed as an edgy black comedy, Rag Tale examines the "amorality" of the tabloid newspaper industry.

CANNES -- Davis Films, the production arm of Samuel and Victor Hadida's Metropolitan Filmexport, has unveiled a $120 million four-picture slate for this year topped by the Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel starrer The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Flush with the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Metropolitan has also re-upped its output deal with New Line, giving it exclusive French rights to the studio's movies for the next four years. Bridge of San Luis Rey is an adaptation of Thornton Wilder's 1927 Pulitzer Prize winning novel and is directed by Mary McGuckian.