The Globe and Mail - Elizabeth Renzetti Columns

How Tarantino scored his most inglourious basterd

Wed, 20 May 2009 23:00 EDT

At Cannes, Brad Pitt chuckles about the night Quentin came a-courting

Apr�s le scandale, good surprises

Tue, 19 May 2009 03:05 EDT

Some things you expect from the Cannes Film Festival; others are like finding a gold nugget in your Cheerios, writes Elizabeth Renzetti

Apr�s le scandale, good surprises

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Some things you expect from the Cannes Film Festival; others are like finding a gold nugget in your Cheerios. Lars von Trier, Denmark's baddest boy, receiving a bellyful of grief from the press, and giving it back in turn? That was written in the stars. But Ken Loach, chronicler of the unhappy working classes, delivering a joyous comedy?

For now, the Croisette belongs to women

Sat, 16 May 2009 00:00 EDT

erenzetti@globeandmail.comThings are quieter on the Croisette this year - there are somewhat fewer movie folk attending the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, and definitely fewer tourists. Without the incessant booming of party music to drown them out, a few voices rise above the crowd - women's voices, as it happens.

The All-Stars of Absurdism face off

Sat, 16 May 2009 00:00 EDT

Dear Simon,Who knew so much would begin with so little? Samuel Beckett opens Waiting for Godot with these stage directions: ''A country road. A tree.'' A country road, a tree, five characters, one without a name - humble ingredients for a play that many regard as the most influential of the 20th century.

Look Up, then look way, way down

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00 EDT

erenzetti@globeandmail.comUp, the animated 3-D film that opened the 62nd Cannes Film Festival last night, is as effervescent as its name suggests, but there's little indication that either the prevailing mood or the cinematic subject matter of the next 10 days will match Up's buoyancy.

Look Up, then look way, way down

Wed, 13 May 2009 17:19 EDT

The prevailing mood at this year's Cannes Film Festival is unlikely to match that of its opening movie

Why is fluffing the 'West Lothian spinster' so terrible?

Sat, 9 May 2009 00:00 EDT

erenzetti@globeandmail.comMy 17-year-old neighbour headed out the other day to audition for the British reality show The X Factor. She's a strikingly beautiful girl, with a great laugh and long blond hair. Except that in the week before the audition she was transformed: She'd dyed her hair dark, and her mood matched her roots. Her mother, a very sensible Frenchwoman still unused to British ways after 30 years in this country, had refused to buy her a new outfit for the tryout. ''Why do you need new clothes?'' her mother asked. ''Did Susan Boyle have new clothes? She didn't need them!''

The mixed-up boy who would join Sgt. Pepper's band

Sat, 9 May 2009 00:00 EDT

It's 1957 and 15-year-old Paul McCartney is in a cramped kitchen singing the first song he wrote, I Lost My Little Girl. Lounging in the doorway watching him is John Lennon, struggling to reconcile envy and awe.