HILARIOUS SET PIECES
Clint Eastwood does not rule out a return to Westerns
CANNES, FRANCE — Clint Eastwood does not rule out making another Western, he said on Saturday as he presented a 25th anniversary restored copy of
at the Cannes Film Festival. “When I read the (
script 25 years ago, I always thought that this would be a good last Western for me to do,” said the 86-year-old actordirector.
“And it was the last Western, because I have never read one that worked as well as this one since that.
“But who knows, maybe something will come up in the future,” said Eastwood, who made his name in the TV series and the so- called spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, now considered classics.
Film industry Web site The Wrap ran the headline “Wow, Adam Sandler Might Actually Belong in Cannes” while Indiewire said “it remains hugely frustrating how great Adam Sandler can be when he’s not making Adam Sandler movies.”
The Guardian hailed Sandler as “a formidable screen actor,” as the Daily Telegraph’s critic Robbie Collin tweeted: “Kind of love that Adam Sandler is so rarely as great as he is in The Meyerowitz Stories, because when he is it feels so revelatory.”
Sandler looked moved as he was greeted with a cheer by Cannes reporters and thanked Baumbach for an “amazing script.”
“It got me so many times, I was misty-eyed, laughing. I just couldn’t believe we were going to get to do this movie and show this story. I loved it,” he said.
After enduring some good-natured ribbing from Stiller about
At the rollicking press conference, Stiller joked that he thought the script’s “first 30 or 40 pages were kind of slow” until his character appears.
He said he only agreed to take the part when he heard “Dustin Hoffman was auditioning to play the dad,” drawing a big laugh from the veteran two- time Oscar winner.
The bittersweet film combines hilarious set pieces with starkly emotional scenes of a dysfunctional family trying to work out its conflicts before its cantankerous patriarch dies.
Ho f f m a n said Baumbach insisted the cast perform his script “wordf o r - w o r d , whether we like it or not.”
“I think not since The Graduate was I required to say every single word, and it pays off because there is a music to his writing,” he said, referring to the 1967 movie that made him a star.
“Any of us would work for him for free.”
Fellow two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson, who drew big laughs for her turn as the father’s alcoholic fourth wife, called the movie’s humor “the deepest bit” about it.
“It’s funny and then it’s suddenly terribly moving which for me anyway is the most satisfying form of drama that there is,” he said.
“If it’s not funny I can’t really cope with watching it actually.”
The Meyerowitz Stories is one of 19 movies vying for the Palme d’Or top prize at Cannes, which runs until May 28. —
won four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood who also starred. —