Radiant academy award-winner Cate Blanchett broke the fashion mould with panache at Friday’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 screening at Cannes in a multi-coloured, bejewelled bodice and a chic black pleated floor length chiffon skirt, courtesy of Givenchy.
While Cannes is a mainstay of va-va-voom ball gowns, Blanchett stayed ahead of the fashion pack by thinking outside the box. Her bold look got her noticed for all the right reasons — sapphire chandelier Chopard earrings added a touch of class.
The colourful, tropical plume embellishments on the bust, taken from a fall-winter 2014 ready-to-wear look by Riccardo Tisci, also nicely mirrored the dragon-theme of Dreamworks’ latest animated picture, for which she lends her vocal talents.
Blanchett had plenty of witty replies — a couple on the saucy side — as she answered sometimes wacky questions during a Cannes news conference for the upcoming How to Train Your Dragon 2.
The two-time Oscar-winner got most of the questions at Friday’s event, which also included stars America Ferrera, Jay Baruchel, Djimon Hounsou and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffery Katzenberg.
Some of the queries were a bit off-kilter: One reporter asked if Blanchett let her children play with her trophies.
“Every morning, mommy sits them down, and I get my two Oscars out and I let them stroke them for 15 minutes before they go to school if they are good,” she said to laughter.
Another reporter mistakenly called her by the wrong prefix. “It’s Ms. Blanchett, not Mr. Blanchett. I’ve played a few men though,” she quipped.
The biggest laughs came when a reporter asked how was “the experience of training your dragon?”
“How do I train my dragon?” she said naughtily. “I don’t know if I want to answer that in public.”
How To Train Your Dragon 2 premiered on Friday at the Cannes Film Festival out of competition.
Man dives under Ferrera’s dress
A man rushed onto the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival and dove beneath actress America Ferrera’s dress.
Security officials quickly pulled the man away as he tried to hide under Ferrera’s voluminous dress before the Friday premiere of How to Train Your Dragon 2.
It was a surprising and rather bizarre development on a red carpet renowned for its strict decorum.
Yet Ferrera didn’t seem ruffled on the carpet and was in good spirits at the movie’s after-party, laughing with guests and taking pictures. She declined comment on the incident, however, and festival organisers didn’t immediately return messages about the matter.
The former Ugly Betty star was on her way into the Palais des Festivals for the world premiere of the DreamWorks animated sequel.
Solidarity with Turkey miners
The stars of the Turkish film Winter’s Sleep are showing their solidarity for those affected by a mining tragedy at home as they promote their film in Cannes.
The actors and director held up signs with the hashtag Soma during their photo call Friday for the movie.
Soma is the Turkish city where at least 284 people were killed in a fire in a coal mine, the country’s worst mining accident. There has been an outcry of anger and protests from the public, some of whom blame the government for not taking action to correct alleged safety problems in Turkey’s mines.
Winter’s Sleep, by director Nuri Blige Ceylan, is a family drama starring Haluk Bilginer, Demet Akbag and Melisa Sozen. All four held the signs for photographers on Friday.
Watts: Stop male comparisons
Oscar-nominated Naomi Watts says she’s had enough with female directors constantly being sized up to their male counterparts.
The Impossible star said that “female directors and actresses have a different voice, different stories. It’s not helpful to be compared to men.”
Watts was in Cannes on Thursday night to attend Calvin Klein’s Women in Film alongside Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o and Rooney Mara.
The underrepresentation of women in directorial roles has been a hot topic at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with Jane Campion — the first female filmmaker to have ever won the Palme d’Or — sitting as jury president.
“Jane Campion is right to say that there’s an inherent sexism in the film industry. But there’s also a lack of women putting themselves forward,” Watts added.
Phoenix’s last film to release
More than 20 years after his death, River Phoenix’s last film is finally getting a release.
Cinemavault announced on Friday that it has sold the North American distribution rights of Dark Blood to Lionsgate. The film has been in limbo since Phoenix died of a drug overdose in 1993. He was in production on the movie at the time.
Dark Blood was left unfinished and most expected it would never see the light of day. Director and co-writer George Sluizer, however, pushed to complete it, despite spending years battling an insurance company that made a claim about Phoenix’s drug use.
In 2012, Sluizer edited together an unfinished version that premiered last year at the Berlin Film Festival. Lionsgate is planning to release the film on video-on-demand. In Dark Blood, Phoenix plays a young widower who retreats to the desert after his wife dies of radiation following nuclear tests near their home.
Weinstein arrives for presentation
Harvey Weinstein’s annual Cannes presentation promoted films featuring a buff Jake Gyllenhaal, a Shakespearean Michael Fassbender and an old-school Bill Murray.
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