- Title: FRANCE: Great Gatsby film criticism dismissed by director Baz Luhrmann
- Date: 15th May 2013
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 15, 2013) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR AMITABH BACHCHAN, SAYING: "I just feel that the Indian film industry has its own identity and to be referred to in matching terms to Hollywood is perhaps not right so I'd rather refer to it as the Indian film industry especially now we celebrate 100 years of the Indian film industry this year. May 3rd was
- Embargoed: 30th May 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA64Z1Q88XS6OCIA61EB44VZIDO
- Story Text: The cast and crew of 'The Great Gatsby', the Cannes film festival's opening movie, arrived for their first official function at the festival - a photocall followed by a news conference in front of the world's press.
Acting talent Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Tobey Maguire, Amitabh Bachchan and of course, Gatsby himself, Leonardo DiCaprio joined their director Baz Luhrmann at the festival's palace.
The 3D extravaganza, which was released in the United States over the weekend, received lukewarm reviews from critics on its release.
Luhrmann spoke of Fitzgerald's own criticism at the news conference.
"He was horrendously criticised when the book came out," said the Australian director. "The major critic of the day called him 'Fitzgerald - this clown.' This clown. His characters were 'marionettes', 'shallow.' And when he died -- and I always thought this was quite unbelievable but true -- he was so forgotten he was buying copies of his own book just so there were some sales."
DiCaprio teamed up again with Luhrmann for this project after he achieved great success with the movie "Romeo and Juliet" alongside Claire Danes.
When asked what it was like teaming up with Luhrmann again after so many years, DiCaprio said "What is so fantastic about Baz is many things. But one of them is that he inspires you every day in the workplace not only to do your best but to dream big and you can't get in a room with this man and not feel inspired, not feel nostalgic, not feel like you're a part of something special. He brings that out of everyone he works with and it's infectious. And he's also not afraid to take on incredibly classic stories that are embedded in our culture and ones that are very risky to do."
Despite some savaging by the critics, "The Great Gatsby" performed better than expected at the U.S. box office over the last weekend making $51 million dollars.
Responding to the criticism of the movie, Luhrmann said "Look. Do you know what? What about Fitzgerald? What about him writing that book? What about a clown? I just care that... I just care that people are going out and seeing it."
The Cannes film festival is gearing up with a celebration of 100 years of Indian cinema with the movie "Bombay Talkies". Amitabh Bachchan, who is seen as being the father figure of Indian cinema, appears in that movie as well as in "The Great Gatsby".
When asked how he felt about the terminology 'Bollywood', Bachchan said: "I just feel that the Indian film industry has its own identity and to be referred to in matching terms to Hollywood is perhaps not right so I'd rather refer to it as the Indian film industry especially now we celebrate 100 years of the Indian film industry this year. May 3rd was the first release in the year 1913 of the first Indian film and here we are in Cannes being honoured and it's a great privilege and a great honour."
"The Great Gatsby" will open the festival out of competition this evening (May 15).
The opening night kicks off 12 days of world premieres, champagne parties and celebrity spotting along Cannes' chic waterfront Croisette, with Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Watson among big names in town this year. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None