FRANCE: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt wow crowds in Cannes at premiere of new film about slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl "A Mighty Heart"

Record ID: 219771

  • Title: FRANCE: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt wow crowds in Cannes at premiere of new film about slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl "A Mighty Heart"
  • Date: 24th May 2007
  • Summary: PITT WAVING TO CROWD
  • Embargoed: 8th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA4SDY7YWKW5V15KYAAKEP47ZIW
  • Story Text: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt cause frenzy at Cannes film festival with premiere of "A Mighty Heart", a new film about the wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, one of the most talked about films at the festival this year even though it is outside the main competition.
    Angelina Jolie takes on probably her most challenging role to date in a film about Mariane Pearl, wife of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic militants in 2002.
    "A Mighty Heart" premiered in Cannes on Monday (May 21), and is one of the most talked about films at the festival this year even though it is outside the main competition.
    The movie unites Jolie with her partner Brad Pitt, who is a producer, and is directed by Britain's Michael Winterbottom, who has made films including "The Road to Guantanamo" and "9 Songs".
    It is based on Mariane's book "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Daniel Pearl", which recounts the events leading up to and following Daniel's death when she was around six months pregnant.
    Celebrities who arrived for the screening included actor Gerard Depardieu, actress Michelle Yeoh and actress and model Mischa Barton.
    Fans waited eagerly outside the entrance to the Festival Palace, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jolie and Pitt. A woman held a sign reading 'Angelina Jolie, Adopt me!'.
    Some fans had even climbed up trees to get a better view of the actors and take photos.
    Jolie and Pitt posed for the crowd before walking on the red carpet with director Michael Winterbottom and Mariane Pearl, holding her son in her arms.
    The Pearls' child Adam was born after Daniel's death.
    There was a moment of raw emotion in the press conference when former CNN reporter Chris Burns asked Mariane if she forgave him for asking her live on television shortly after Daniel's death whether she had seen the video of his murder.
    Stony faced, she pointedly avoided the word "forgive", saying only: "I accept your apologies."
    The film takes the viewer into the teeming streets of Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, where Daniel was abducted, although scenes involving Jolie were shot in India.
    It paints a picture of chaos and confusion as Mariane, Pakistani intelligence, U.S. consulate officials and Daniel's newspaper colleagues seek unsuccessfully to track him down via e-mail and mobile phone trails and old-fashioned police work.
    They are up against not only a ruthless and professional group of abductors, but also prejudices in Pakistani society that led some to speculate that Daniel worked for U.S. or Israeli intelligence and that India was behind the kidnap.
    Early critical reaction to "A Mighty Heart" has been positive, with trade magazine Variety calling Jolie's performance "a subdued, carefully considered portrait of a woman caught between premature grief and persistent hope."
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