- Title: Sean Penn reacts to criticism of his latest movie The Last Face
- Date: 20th May 2016
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 20, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** DIRECTOR, SEAN PENN, AND CAST OF THE LAST FACE WALKING IN FOR NEWS CONFERENCE PENN SEATED, ACTRESS, CHARLIZE THERON, TAKING HER SEAT PEOPLE TAKING PICTURES NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, SEAN PENN, ON CRITICAL RESPONSE, SAYING: "I finished the film, so it's not a discussion that I think I can be of any value to, I stand behind the film as it is and certainly everyone is going to be well entitled to their response." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, SEAN PENN, ON WHY HE DID THE MOVIE, SAYING: ''It's important to entertain - if entertainment is not synonymous with Donald Trump's behaviour. too much of film is today I think, I think we have lost sense of - there's almost a Greek tragedy is almost forgotten what the hunger is now, I find is pulling us away from our humanity a lot of the time. But to find beauty in things is the way to fix things, I just think that what we are calling beauty today is largely a perversion of it and that's lamentable." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, SEAN PENN, ON WHY HE DID THE MOVIE, SAYING: "As a process I think you know looking at a world, where the definitions of empowerment have great accepted successes, there's a strange dichotomy where the world itself is on its hardest times and more people are suffering. With a film like this where it's as much a story of the question of love as it is in war and the way that those things seem to blend; there was a constant, it was constantly interesting to me to learn the movie and to wonder if it's a love story." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS, CHARLIZE THERON, SAYING: "We were just trying to be in the environment - we were always dressed as our characters we were always ready we didn't have camper vans around they were kind of up on a mountain miles away and so we created a space that felt like you could turn a camera 360 degrees and just shoot whenever you wanted to - I think that helped so it didn't feel like a normal movie where you could only shoot here - or there were things set up - there was nothing really set up - there was a world created for us and then we walked into it and we were just in it." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, JAVIER BARDEM, SAYING: 'Heroes - I don't know - for me heroes are normal people who are trying to feed their kids with a horrible salary or unemployment, those are heroes the people that we portray in this movie I would say that the big responsibility as an actor in this movie was to not er - betray what they do for a living, I mean they are being bombed as we speak in Syria, the last pediatrician in Syria was killed which by the way nobody has taken the blame for and I mean those people are not heroes and of course that attraction to that way of life to what they do for others it was huge in the decision of making the movie and also puts you in a place where you can see yourself in your own mirror of what do you do about it in comparison of what they do. And what they do is so big, is so huge, is so unreachable for me that I would call them heroes." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, SEAN PENN, ASKED ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCE ON THE JURY, SAYING: "Coming here as part of the jury that was the best Cannes experience I have ever had, but partly because as American's we don't, unless we really pursue it we have a very mono cultural selection of films that we see and to come to Cannes and to be forced to go to two movies a day for a couple of weeks and to realise 'oh we are not better than a Filipino director' you know and to be able to be exposed to that stuff, and not just the special movie that makes it the United States or has a great French star in it or so on, but to really get a sense of what's going on with world cinema, that was a great experience, and then to be able have an opinion about something and voice it with a few people and say you know ra ra to it - that's some fun." CAST AND CREW LEAVING CONFERENCE THERON LEAVING / PENN SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS
- Embargoed: 4th June 2016 16:45
- Keywords: Sean Penn Cannes The Last Face Palme d'Or
- Location: CANNES, FRANCE
- City: CANNES, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA0014IM4HN1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Sean Penn stood by his latest opus after "The Last Face", which will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later on Friday, was ripped apart after the media screening.
"I just finished the film, so it's not a discussion that I think I can be of any value to, I stand behind the film as it is and certainly everyone is going to be well entitled to their response," Penn told a news conference on Friday (May 20).
Set against the backdrop of the Liberian war, "The Last Face" revolves around a ten year love story between two aid workers, failing to convince the viewers who started to boo in the opening minutes.
The Daily Telegraph wrote that "Penn has never made a film this bad before" while The Hollywood Reporter labelled the effort as a "stunningly self-important but numbingly empty cocktail of romance and insulting refugee porn."
When asked why he decided to make the film Penn said: "As a process I think you know looking at a world, where the definitions of empowerment have great accepted successes, there's a strange dichotomy where the world itself is on its hardest times and more people are suffering. With a film like this where it's as much a story of the question of love as it is in war and the way that those things seem to blend; there was a constant, it was constantly interesting to me to learn the movie and to wonder if it's a love story."
Actor Javier Bardem, who plays one of the film's main characters, his decision to take part in the film was partly out of respect for those he called "heroes".
'Heroes - I don't know - for me heroes are normal people who are trying to feed their kids with a horrible salary or unemployment, those are heroes the people that we portray in this movie I would say that the big responsibility as an actor in this movie was to not er - betray what they do for a living, I mean they are being bombed as we speak in Syria, the last pediatrician in Syria was killed which by the way nobody has taken the blame for and I mean those people are not heroes and of course that attraction to that way of life to what they do for others it was huge in the decision of making the movie and also puts you in a place where you can see yourself in your own mirror of what do you do about it in comparison of what they do. And what they do is so big, is so huge, is so unreachable for me that I would call them heroes," he said.
The Last Face, which is one of the 21 films competing for the Palme d'Or, is set to have its premiere later on Friday. The winner will be announced on Sunday (May 22). - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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