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CANNES — The Da Vinci Code will succeed despite the negative reviews and the fuss stirred up by Roman Catholic leaders, Sir Ian McKellen said yesterday.
While acknowledging in an impromptu interview that “it’s not a great movie,” McKellen praised it as a good thriller and told the Sun that “the curiosity factor is too strong for people to ignore this film.”
With a flamboyance that is unique to him, McKellen plays the key character of Leigh Teabing, a rich British gentleman obsessed with discovering the Holy Grail and unveiling its mythic secrets about the life of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. While McKellen has fared reasonably well in reviews, Ron Howard’s film has been devastated by a wave of critical pans which rank the project from middling down to dismal.
“That doesn’t really matter in this case,” the genial McKellen said. “You have to look at the phenomenal success of the novel (by Dan Brown). It seems to have tapped into something primal, don’t you think, that compels even those who are not that interested in religious history to read it.
“The movie evokes the same interests so there has to be something here beyond either the book or the movie that holds and fascinates people.”
As for the religious controversy, McKellen repeated an earlier assertion that, “It is a case of snobbery,” for clergy to attack the film more than the book over the same issues. “It is as if they don’t trust the film audience, as if viewers are less sophisticated than readers in understanding the fiction.”
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As a personal experience, however, McKellen said it was a delight to work with Howard, “really a very nice fellow — and very talented.” So the filmmaking was a pleasure, the company was good, “and they paid me a lot of money!”
BAILING OUT: Several key actors bombed out of their interview obligations for The Da Vinci Code yesterday. Both Ian McKellen and Jean Reno reportedly cancelled all their formal interview schedule (Reno cancelled on the Toronto Sun). Tom Hanks was already elusive. While some select press was done, the overall effect was to abandon the beleaguered film, which is being released around the world after making its world premiere as the opening night film in the 59th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
Howard’s last film, Cinderella Man, failed miserably at the box office despite good reviews. His cast, led by Russell Crowe, did little mainstream print press in aid of the release and little happened for it in theatres and in its feeble Oscar campaign. Howard looks as if he may be doomed again, because The Da Vinci Code needs a lot of talking-up — and not just in TV soundbites — to succeed beyond the curiosity factor that should pack theatres this weekend.
STUNNER: Is there any less affected and more humble movie star in the world than Malaysian-born, Chinese superstar Michelle Yeoh? Adept at both action and drama (she was one of the few wonderful elements of Memoirs Of A Geisha), Yeoh is at Cannes in a meet-and-greet capacity for the cosmetics giant L’Oreal. But she is almost giggly about all the attention she is getting.
“I’m not a big star, so I don’t know what the fuss is about,” she offered demurely when I ran into her late Wednesday night, at the formal dinner for The Da Vinci Code. But all eyes were riveted on her as she stopped to drop kisses on my cheeks and chat. The gorgeous Yeoh was dressed as a goddess, moved with grace and yet acted as if we were hanging out in jeans and T’s in a funky cafe.
STUNNING: Leftist British filmmaker Ken Loach is at it again, making a strong film, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, that denounces the brutal role of the British in stirring up the wave of violence in Ireland that began in the wake of World War I. The film is in Cannes competition.
Not surprisingly, Loach said the film is a lesson in what happens when foreign troops conquer and occupy a country, a direct reference to Britain’s role in the war in Iraq.
“Our view is that it was an illegal war,” Loach said of Iraq.
“It breached the Geneva convention, it has broken the United Nations charter, it’s based on lies and it’s completely indefensible. It has resulted in the most appalling destruction of Iraq. It is an appalling scar on the British government’s record and clearly on America’s.”
Loach said the British experience in Ireland since 1920, when his film is set, falls into the same category.