10 Things We Learned at the "Café Society" press conference
A Woody Allen film opened the Cannes Film Festival for the third time in the festival's history.
The latest film by Woody Allen, Café Society, officially opened the 69th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The screening marked the third time the great American director opened the festivities on the Croisette. Last year, he presented his film Irrational Man, also out of competition, to relatively good success.
It is unfortunate, however, that the event of the day was for all provided by that one joke from a standup comedian, which referenced sexual abuse allegations and rape. Chances are, at time of writing, the event is still the #1 Cannes related trend on Twitter. In fairness, Allen's use of the Cosby-like silent treatment to these accusations is not doing him any favours. As fans, we certainly hope for the best, but eventually hope to find out the truth and rest easy.
In the meantime, let's give him the benefit of the doubt, and let's highlight the fact that the legend that is Woody Allen, at 80 years old, is still going strong. The man who created such classic masterworks as Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors, is dishing features out on an annual basis, and there is reason to believe that this film could be another gem in his illustrious and prolific filmography where, despite the quantity of titles, the good cats still outweigh the occsional bad ones.
The press conference, relatively amicable and inevitably slightly awkward (as per usual with press conference formats) was a good source of interesting tidbits that revealed things about Café Society and beyond. Things that are worth summing up in this list. Present at the press conference for Café Society were filmmaker Woody Allen, actors Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively and Corey Stoll and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.