"HitFix" about... Cosmopolis and Cannes Buzz...

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From HitFix/Guy Lodge:

Cannes Check: David Cronenberg’s ‘Cosmopolis’
Continuing our series of Cannes competition previews

The auteur: David Cronenberg (Canadian, 69 years old) 

The talent: At this stage in his career, we don’t expect an undistinguished cast from a Cronenberg film, and true to form, this one is packed to the rafters with interesting names — though not ones you’d necessarily expect on one bill. Juliette Binoche (returning to Cannes for the first time since winning Best Actress two years ago), Samantha Morton, Paul Giamatti, Mathieu Amalric and Jay Baruchel are all on board — as, more improbably, is Somalian rapper K’Naan. (On a side note, this is the director’s first feature in 10 years not to star Viggo Mortensen.)

The big attraction, however, is some guy called Robert Pattinson in the lead. It’s perhaps the poppiest casting coup of Cronenberg’s career, and the best chance yet for the talented British heartthrob to win some admirers beyond the fiercely devoted “Twilight” faithful. 

A major point of interest is that this is Cronenberg’s first self-scripted feature since 1999′s “eXistenZ,” which rather increases the possibility of the director letting his freak flag fly. Below the line, meanwhile, it’s business as usual: cinematographer Peter Suschitzky has shot all Cronenberg’s films since “Dead Ringers” in 1998, composer Howard Shore has scored all but one since “The Brood” in 1979, while editor Ronald Sanders and costume designer (and sister) Denise Cronenberg go similarly far back. This sturdy team is just about as integral to the Cronenberg brand as Cronenberg himself. 

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The buzz: Through. The. Roof. Casting Pattinson in the lead has ensured that, in an unusual occurrence, the arthouse intelligentsia and the screaming teen hordes are going to converge on the same red carpet, making “Cosmopolis” surely the hottest ticket of the festival. What that means for the film itself is harder to gauge. With the festival’s flashbulbs fixed squarely on it, the film’s under pressure to deliver — but it’s likelier to satisfy, or at least stimulate, the Cronenberg acolytes than the mainstream media drawn more by the casting than the challenging match of director and source material. Mixed reviews wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing: it could be one of those strange festival brews for which critical consensus is slow to emerge. 

The odds: The bookies like the film’s Palme chances — Paddy Power currently gives it strong odds of 11-2 — but in this case, I don’t think they’re necessarily being deceived by the bright lights. Cronenberg is well overdue for some major festival hardware, and the film’s themes would make it an attractively timely winner. I have my doubts about the Palme going to a big-name North American dreamer two years in a row, but of all the English-language films in Competition, this feels to me like the best bet. R.Pattz for Best Actor, on the other hand? I’m not sure the internet can handle that.

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source: HitFix via ToR