Gossip Central

Diane Lane in Paris Can Wait: Closing Night of the Sarasota Film Festival

Wearing a red cocktail dress, her hair in elegant chignon, Diane Lane accepted the Sarasota Film Festival’s Award for Excellence in Cinema on Saturday night, introduced by Rosanna Arquette. A screening of her new movie, Eleanor Coppola’s Paris Can Wait, followed, and a few minutes in, Lane as Anne was dressed for dinner in a romantic inn, wearing the same dress and coif, a sly nod, perhaps, to the movie’s realism. Based on Coppola’s true road trip with a business associate of her husband through the gastronomic riches of France, Lane as Coppola’s stand-in portrays the film’s central character, proper but beguiled by a Frenchman who pays more attention to her than does her work-obsessed husband. Alec Baldwin performs that role, almost a reprise of his Hal in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. In the post-screening Q&A, Lane called Baldwin a “hero,” rescuing the production after another actor pulled out. What could be bad? Three days on location in the south of France, a wet dream for any foodie.

Rosanna Arquette in Born Guilty at the Sarasota Film Festival: If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother

The actress and filmmaker Rosanna Arquette was filling a shopping cart at Whole Foods in Sarasota, Florida. Having just arrived to support her latest film, Born Guilty, written and directed by Max Heller at this year’s Sarasota Film Festival, she realized she had forgotten, well, everything, toothbrush, hairbrush, and other necessities. Cart piled high, she said she had not yet seen the film. Was it okay, she asked, and I was struck by how much this comic market scene could have played in the landmark 1985 Desperately Seeking Susan in which Arquette starred with Madonna. In fact, the next day at Sarasota’s Ritz Carlton, at an interview with Arquette, Heller and executive producer Bill Mahoney, Heller reminded his star that she prepared for the role of Judith, a New York Jewish mom based on his own, imagining herself in “Susan” 20 years later, divorced with a grown son living in LA, on whom she depends for every whim and crisis.

Kevin Kline in Present Laughter: “ I Am Always Acting”

Kevin Kline descends a staircase, not nude, but hung over, his leg making a fancy ballet over the bannister. As the suave, debonair stage actor in his twilight, Garry Essendine, in Noel Coward’s Present Laughter in a charming production at the St. James Theater, he doesn’t remember the cute fan Daphne (Tedra Millan, truly adorable in her Broadway debut), now ensconced in the study behind a closed door, but for his staff, used to taking care of these nights, it’s nuisance as usual. His ménage includes his secretary Monica (the hilarious Kristine Nielsen), his ex-wife Liz (the formidable Kate Burton), two pals/ business associates Henry Lyppiatt (a prim Peter Francis James) and Morris Dixon (a hysterical Reg Rogers). Under Moritz von Stuelpnagel’s expert direction, characters come and go in comic rhythm. When a visiting—read crashing--would be playwright, Roland Maule (Bhavesh Patel) arrives, doors slam vigorously in the manner of a Feydeau farce. Enter Henry’s wife Joanna (Cobie Smulders) in a seductive, slinky gown, a “predator” and Garry’s equal in witty banter, looking for her latest conquest.

Amelie: Cornering Cute on Broadway

Based on the 2001 hit movie from France, Amelie, brings original music and distinctive whimsy to the Walter Kerr Theater.  (“Hoping to see you/ In Macchu Picchu” is one tickling lyric. What’s not to love?) Characters may don fish heads and in one incredibly silly bit, an Elton John sequined suit, but it’s all to Amelie’s happy theme: love conquers even acute cases of fear of closeness to others. And if this musical’s Paris looks familiar, look to the bridge, reminiscent of the children’s classic, “Linnea in Monet’s Garden” for inspiration. Best of all, Amelie is played by Phillipa Soo, Hamilton’s original Eliza; for the 100 minute, no intermission duration of this show, you are in great company.

Going in Style: Sir Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Arkin as Gentlemen Robin Hoods

Zach Braff’s comedy, Going in Style, from Theodore Melfi’s script, epitomizes the genre of geezer heist. Starring a trio of venerable superstars of a certain age, Sir Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Arkin, the movie’s chase takes place in a shuttle bus rather than a speeding car; everything goes at the pace of a walker, except for the comic timing. A bank is successfully robbed. Matt Dillon investigates, and John Ortiz aids and abets the crime. A forgetful Christopher Lloyd provides contrast to the dynamic three. The laughs keep coming. With Ann-Margret as a hot chick on the make for Alan Arkin, there’s sex too!

Cezanne et moi: Breakfast with Daniele Thompson and Guillaume Gallienne

Introducing her friend Daniele Thompson’s new film Cezanne et moi at a special screening at the Whitby Hotel last week, Diane von Furstenberg noted the painterly look, the sheer beauty of this movie. The audience of artists in all media could not have been more fitting: Marina Abramovic, Eric Fishl, Ahn Duong, Bennett Miller, Ellen Burstyn, Fran Leibowitz, Brigitte Lacombe, Art Spiegelman, among many others. Cezanne et moi, limns the intense and passionate friendship between two towering figures of world culture, painter Paul Cezanne and writer Emile Zola, imagining them as schoolmates, and rivals in art and love.

Just before the movie’s premiere, I had breakfast with Daniele Thompson, the esteemed director of Avenue Montaigne, co-writer of Cousin, Cousine, and the actor Guillaume Gallienne, who stars as Cezanne. Both Thompson and Gallienne identified with these artists’ struggles, while recognizing Cezanne as something of a mad genius. Thompson originally wanted Gallienne to play Zola. As it turned out, Guillaume Canet, the film’s Zola, and straight man in the bromance, could not make the celebration as his real-life partner Marion Cotillard was just giving birth to their child.