Weinstein Treats Cannes Festival to Previews of Tarantino and PTA's New Films

On Monday, May 21, The Weinstein Company offered a sneak of the company's fall lineup at the Cannes Film Festival.

According to Variety, The Weinstein Co. invited 50 journalists to a 15 minute screening at the Majestic Theater. Harvey Weinstein, the co-chairman, stated during the conference that the directors of the films are some of the unique masters of cinema and that "these are some of the best films we have ever been associated with, if not the best."

The first film to be introduced was Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" which is still in production. Weinstein stated that there are still many surprises to be seen. The preview of Django began with a chain gang of slaves trudging through a Western landscape. According the Hollywood Reporter, Christoph Waltz looks to turn in a performance even more baroque than the one that won him a best supporting Oscar for Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds." He appears as a travelling dentist, who is actually a bounty hunter. He arranges for one of the slaves, Jamie Foxx, to be freed, and together they strike a pact to kill three brothers and free Django's wife, played by Kerry Washington. The preview also featured Leonardo DiCaprio as a self-amused, cigar-wielding plantation owner. As is to be expected from any Tarantino film there was plenty of humor, lots of fast-draw gunplay and liberal use of the n-word throughout. Django opens December 25.

The next film to be previewed was "The Master" by Paul Thomas Anderson which has been said to be inspired by the founder of scientology L. Ron Hubbard. The clips showed a series of tense exchanges between Phillip Seymour Hoffman, the title character, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams. It was not as revealing as Tarantino's offering but it did leave journalists craving for more. The film opens on October 12.

Finally the last film to be previewed was David O. Russell's "The Silver Lining Playbook" starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. The film which suggested itself as a more conventional drama covers a man trying to re-establish life after four years in a mental institution. The film opens on November 21.

The conference this year was less elaborate and much smaller in comparison to last year's cocktail party. Nevertheless Weinstein has been dominant at Cannes with two films in competition: Andrew Dominik's "Killing them Softly" and John Hillcoat's "Lawless." The Company has also acquired Christian Vincent's "Haute Cuisine," Wayne Blair's "Sapphire," and Bernard-Henry Levy's documentary on the fall of Muammar Gaddafi "The Oath of Tobruk. "