Many filmmakers make a point of studiously avoiding anything even potentially "controversial" when meeting the press.
Not French director Francois Ozon, in Cannes with his film Young and Beautiful, who has been advancing his theory that many women would secretly like to be prostitutes.
Referring to the main character in his film, a 17-year-old prostitute, he tells an interviewer: "I think women can really be connected with this girl because it's a fantasy of many women to do prostitution.
Ozon is challenged by interviewer Rhonda Richford from publication The Hollywood Reporter, who tells him: "I really don't think that's the case."
But Ozon is adamant. "It is the reality," he insists. "You speak with many woman, you speak with shrinks, everybody knows that. Well, maybe not Americans."
KUNG FU
Details have been emerging of Keanu Reeves' directorial debut A man of Tai Chi, a Chinese co-produced kung fu movie.
Set in modern-day China and filmed in Beijing and Hong Kong, it has dialogue in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
The Matrix star told reporters he started to think about directing about five years ago having always said he "would only direct if I had a story to tell".
The film will open in China on July 5 before being released internationally later in the year.
IN TOO DEEP
Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie spent time in decompression chambers and dived to a depth of 60 metres in preparation for Insomnia director Erik Skjoldbjaerg's new film. But nothing prepared him for the reality of the mostly night-time shoots in Iceland close to a glacier.
Pioneer, a thriller about super competitive alpha-male divers, is set at the height of the Norwegian oil boom of the early 1980s.
"It was the most challenging shoot I've ever been on. It was crazy dangerous... it's just super scary. If the air stops, it stops!" Aksel told Screen magazine.
-AFP
