Cannes Man

Call it a parody or a mockumentary. It reminds me a lot of Trading Places. Two old farts: Sy Lerner (Seymour Cassell) and his buddy (Jim Stark) bet that Sy can't make a star out of anybody. Frank (Francesco Quinn) just delivered some goods to Lloyd Kaufman and was just roaming around when the friend picked him for Sy to develop. All Frank had to do was smile and look good, an Sy did all the work.

The action takes place at Cannes, so there are stars and producers and directors aplenty around, and Sy is conning them all. The nice thing is that it is Cannes and there is plenty to see other than stars. There are legs all over the place.

The bet is over on the last day of Cannes, and Frank doesn't get it. He was just a pawn. he's a loser.

O, well, It is another movie on the way to seeing all of Johnny Deps, and there is a nice pair in the middle.

This is an oddball film that Jaime and I watched for our podcast, Depp Dive: A Depper Look into Johnny's Feature Filmography. In hindsight, this isn't a great one to watch when exploring the films of Johnny Depp, since he's only a cameo here. I'll be honest though; this is a mockumentary that sucked me in. Jaime wasn't as big a fan, but since the movie and the industry behind it fascinates me, this was wild.

The plot here is that Sy Lerner (Seymour Cassel) has passed away. We are at his funeral, which is mostly attended by his former secretaries, his widow of Rebecca (Rebecca Broussard) and Frank 'Rhino' Rhinoslavsky (Francesco Quinn). This man goes into telling the wild tale of how Sy won a bet at Cannes film festival by making him the talk of it and pitching people on a movie that he made up on the spot.

One of the best parts is the fact that Frank Rhino goes to Cannes as a courier. I love the fact that he's bringing promotional material to Lloyd Kaufman (as himself) for a movie he brought there. He helps but doesn't have a place to stay and discovers everything is book. Sy makes a bet with Jim Stark (as himself) and things go wild from there as they sucker in the likes of John Malkovich, Dennis Hopper, Peter Gallagher, Frank Whaley, Lara Flynn Boyle, Depp and Jim Jarmusch, all playing themselves.

I should then shift here that I love what they did by going to Cannes, finding these people and then getting them to have cameos as fictionalized versions of themselves. Adding to that, none of them trust Sy and that adds to hilarity. There are more that I didn't include like Chris Penn who tries to avoid Sy. He makes comments about these this producer did. There's charm in the acting here that doesn't need it to be great, but it is still fun.

I'll then finish out with filmmaking. There is an intimate feel that you'd get with a documentary. It looks like it was filmed with more handheld cameras. I'd go as far to say that many of the shots probably weren't planned. It feels like someone just doing a home video at Cannes and this is what we got. For me, that adds realism and I could see the characters being who they are. Not one I can recommend to everyone, but if you like more behind the scenes ideas and how it seems deals like this get made, check this out.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.

The film takes place at the famous Cannes film festival. It's about a producer who, as a bet, tries to hype up a nobody, and make everyone believe he's the greatest writer since Hemmingway. This writer's non-existent story is appropriately called 'Cannes Man', but pronounced 'Con Man'. Lots of cameo appearances by some big names, and pretty funny performance by Johnny Depp. An enjoyable little spoof of the movie industry!

I've been to Cannes, and this is EXACTLY what it's like to be there. Not to mention that Johnny Depp and Jim Jarmusch do one of the most hilarious cameos I've ever seen. Seymour Cassel has never been funnier, and this film captures the indie icon like he's never been captured before. I saw this film at a screening in LA not long ago, and wonder why it didn't make it to the theaters. Look for Ann Cusack as a buyer who gets ripped off by Sy Lerner (Cassell) and Robert Evans telling a story about his glory days.

Although the film has a great premise and a good point to make as I was watching it I couldn't help but think how much better it would have been had it been made by Woody Allen. The execution would have been so much better. I can only think they relied too much on improvising and whoever they could presumably talk into participating while they were at Cannes, rather than scripting it all and making it from scratch as Allen would have. Much of the acting isn't quite of a high enough standard either, but none the less its still and enjoyable film to watch.

Trading Places is another film that comes to mind when watching this - along with The Player - and ensemble pieces like Best In Show and This Is Spinal Tap. All of them cover either similar themes, or were made in a similar way, but yielded a better result. Perhaps the difference with Best in Show and Spinal Tap is that their makers had a firmer idea of what each scene was meant to cover before it was improvised, and from the outset they had a stronger script/structure - this film seemed to lack a little in that regard, as well as having some average acting. I thought Sy Lerner's character was a bit confusing too - at the start he seems to be a bit of a schmuck past his best days, yet he still seems to carry a lot of clout and when he starts wheeling and dealing.