Grace Kelly returns to Cannes as Grace of Monaco
(see updated post: Grace of Monaco Opening Day at Cannes)
After much drama in the making of Grace of Monaco, it is now official that Grace Kelly will be opening the Cannes Film Festival – portrayed by Nicole Kidman.
It was while attending the Cannes Film Festival in 1955 when Grace Kelly met her charming Prince and thus began a fairy tale that has endured time. Grace Kelly, herself an Academy Award Winning Actress, went from playing a princess in her last Hollywood Film “High Society” (with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby) to becoming a real life princess as Her Serene Highness Grace de Monaco.
Although this movie has already had more than its share of drama and ongoing controversy, it is fitting that Grace of Monaco brings Grace Kelly back to where it all began.
This is the official Cannes Festival Press Release:
Grace of Monaco by Olivier Dahan to open the 67th Festival de Cannes
French director Olivier Dahan’s Grace of Monaco is to open the next Festival de Cannes. The world preview will take place on Wednesday 14 May, 2014, in the Grand Théâtre Lumière of the Palais des Festivals, in the Official Selection category, Out of Competition. Grace of Monaco follows on from The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann.
The film portrays a period in the life of American Actress Grace Kelly (played by Nicole Kidman) who became Princess Grace of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III (Tim Roth) in 1956, in what was dubbed “the marriage of the century”. An Oscar winner, she was already a huge film star, having worked with the very greatest (John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Zinnemann) and acclaimed the world over. Six years later, amid occasional difficulties in fulfilling her role, she was invited back to Hollywood by Alfred Hitchcock, to play in his new film Marnie. At the time, France was threatening to tax and even annex Monaco, the tiny Principality whose monarch Kelly had become. Was she still an actress? Was she really Princess of Monaco?
Produced by Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Uday Chopra and Arash Amel, who also wrote the screenplay, Grace de Monaco sees Nicole Kidman play the role of Grace, with Tim Roth as Prince Rainier. Their co-stars include Frank Langella, Parker Posey, Jeanne Balibar, Sir Derek Jacobi and Paz Vega, who plays Maria Callas. The film was shot in Scope 2.35 using Kodak 35mm film. The Director of Photography was France’s Eric Gautier and the 16-weeks shoot took place in Monaco, South of France, Paris, Vintimille, Gand and Bruxelles.
Born in 1967 in La Ciotat, Olivier Dahan previously directed La Vie en Rose (2007) which garnered Marion Cotillard the Oscar for Best Actress in 2008. Grace of Monaco will be released on the opening day of the Festival, Wednesday 14 May, in France and in several cities around the world. The opening ceremony will be broadcast to participating cinemas, with the kind cooperation of Canal+.
Grace of Monaco (2014). A Stone Angels and YRF Entertainment production. Co-production by TF1 Films Productions, Gaumont, Lucky Red, OD Shots, Ufilm, in association with Silver Reel – Ufund. Distribution in France: Gaumont. Internationales Sales: Lotus Entertainment.
This is the way news spread around the world
The big-budget biopic Grace of Monaco will hold its world premiere at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival in May, after its original release date was twice delayed. Landing in the prestigious opening slot of the festival is a dramatic change of fortune for a film that had seemingly been relegated to an after-thought release. Originally scheduled for November with presumed Oscar aspirations, Grace of Monaco was booted to March amid claims of an editing dispute. But with stars Nicole Kidman and Tim Roth, the film assures Cannes of a glitzy opening night with a film fittingly set just along the coast of the French Riviera. The film about Grace Kelly, directed by the Frenchman Olivier Dahan, will open the May 14-25 event. The film stars Kidman as Grace, who went from Oscar-winning actress to princess of the Mediterranean principality and died after a car accident in 1982.
USA Release – October?
Despite everything, one can not discount the possibility for a Fall release in the USA …there are many factors at play …time will tell.
