I hope the great film actor Michel Piccoli (Buffalo Bill in "Touche
pas à la femme blanche" and the screenwriter in Goddard's classic "Le
Mépris") doesn't try to seduce Our Sarah. PLAYGOY magazine was
calling him "The Grand Old Man of French Erotic Cinema" a generation
ago....

--- In sarahpolleyfanclub@yahoogroups.com, maestroshelly98
<no_reply@...> wrote:
>
> Sarah Polley's big prize
> May 16, 2007 04:30 AM
> Peter Howell
>
> Sarah Polley has a problem many women would consider to be a
pleasure.
>
> She must decide which posh frock to wear tonight on the red carpet
> outside the Palais des Festivals for the world premiere of Wong
> Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights, at the start of the 60th Cannes Film
> Festival.
>
> "It's going to be one of two dresses by (Toronto designer) Wayne
> Clark, but I'm not sure which one yet," Polley told the Star
> yesterday, sitting for an interview in the lobby of her Riviera
> waterfront hotel.
>
> "I really love Canadian designers. The truth is, though, I'm not
good
> at this kind of thing."
>
> It's no small concern for the 28-year-old Toronto actor and
director,
> who is otherwise used to people gawking at her, having been in the
> public eye since age 4.
>
> As part of the nine-member competition jury this year at Cannes, the
> sole North American on the panel, she's charged with helping to
select
> which of 22 films will receive the fabled Palme d'Or and other
prizes
> 11 days from now.
>
> Which means she's required to appear considerably fancier than the
> jeans, T-shirt and no-makeup look she was sporting yesterday
afternoon
> after arriving here from Toronto, attire that natural beauty Polley
is
> much more comfortable wearing.
>
> This is her fourth trip to Cannes and her most demanding. She'll
have
> to dress up every night for the better part of two weeks, not just
for
> the night of a single premiere, as when she made her first visit
here
> at the age of 17 for Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter at the
> festival's 50th anniversary.
>
> It's putting it mildly to say that Polley has never enjoyed the
> glamorous side of her chosen profession, which lately has added
> screenwriter and director to her resumé for her well-received
helming
> debut Away From Her.
>
> "It's not in me to be walking up a red carpet and posing, but I've
> found a way to have a good time with it now," she said, tucking
into a
> salad Niçoise.
>
> "It's an odd thing, because I feel here if you wear the same thing
> twice you actually are making a statement. I don't really know what
> that statement is. But at the same time, am I going to buy 14 ball
> gowns? I don't think so.
>
> "I've brought a few dresses that I really love, mostly by Canadian
> designers."
>
> She calls the dress dilemma "a small price to pay" for being on the
> festival jury, an honour that brings forth a rush of superlatives.
>
> "It's the best job on Earth. The idea that you actually get to go
to a
> film festival and enjoy it! I've never even considered that," she
said.
>
> "I usually go to film festivals and for two days do interviews in
> hotel rooms. The idea of actually getting to see what's at the
Cannes
> Film Festival is really appealing to me. This feels like it will be
my
> first time experiencing Cannes, even though it's my fourth time
here."
>
> Many actors have dreams of winning an Oscar, but not Polley. For
her,
> being on the Cannes jury is a much grander prize.
>
> "I guess everybody has one moment in their life where they really
want
> something with sheer crazy excitement that makes no sense and is
> really over the top. This is totally my moment."
>
> She was scheduled to have a get-acquainted dinner last night with
the
> other eight members of the jury, led by British director Stephen
> Frears (The Queen).
>
> The others are Hong Kong actor Maggie Cheung, Australian actor Toni
> Collette, Portuguese actor/director Maria de Medeiros, French actor
> Michel Piccolo, Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, Italian
> director Marco Bellocchio and Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk.
>
> Polley has met just one of them before: she and de Medeiros were
both
> in the movie My Life Without Me. Polley is looking forward to
meeting
> Sissako, whose most recent film Bamako she describes as one of her
> all-time favourites.
>
> The jurors are tasked with watching an eclectic slate of
international
> cinema, which this year is dominated by American film. Included are
> world premieres by Joel and Ethan Cohen (No Country for Old Men),
> Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Gus Van Sant
> (Paranoid Park), James Gray (We Own the Night), and European
premieres
> by Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof) and David Fincher (Zodiac).
>
> Polley could have gained a head start by seeing Zodiac and Death
Proof
> in Toronto before coming here, the latter as part of the Grindhouse
> double bill (the Tarantino portion was severed for Cannes
competition
> purposes and for European release).
>
> Both films opened weeks ago in North America. But movie buff Polley
> deliberately avoiding seeing them, to avoid tainting her perceptions
> while on the Cannes jury.
>
> "I felt they should all be viewed in the same context. Also, I
didn't
> want them to fade from my memory. I really want to be aware of
> watching the films."
>
> She's also grateful there are no Canadian movies in the competition,
> so she can be completely objective. (Quebecer Denys Arcand's new
film
> The Age of Ignorance will close the fest May 27, and the closing-
night
> film isn't in the competition.)
>
> If it sounds as if Polley is taking her juror's job a tad too
> seriously, have no fear. She vows to try to have some fun while in
> Cannes, as much as her 22-movie schedule will allow her.
>
> "I'm going to try to find a balance," Polley said, smiling at the
> adventure that awaits her. "I don't think I'm going to be the person
> coming home at 5 in the morning, caked in their own vomit.
>
> "I'll be somewhere between that and the bespectacled woman with the
> tight little bun!"
>
>
> http://www.thestar.com/article/214231
>