NEW YORK (AP) With a metal hull slathered in green paint and spotted with rust, the 72-foot swordboat that had docked at a pier along the Hudson River looked a lot like the Andrea Gail.

The rigging was similar, as was the placement of the wheelhouse and the galley. There was even a life preserver with black writing stating ''Andrea Gail,'' and orange buoys with the initials ''AG'' emblazoned upon their sides.

But this wasn't the Andrea Gail the Gloucester, Mass.-based fishing boat that sank during a 1991 nor'easter and is most likely scattered across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. This was the Lady Grace, which motored into port as the hyping began on Tuesday for the summer blockbuster film ''The Perfect Storm'' that premieres June 30.

''She's a beautiful boat, a good sea boat,'' said Capt. Sonny Layton, who skippered the Lady Grace on fishing trips deep into the Atlantic for almost eight years until Warner Brothers bought it last year for the film that stars George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.

''I've been in some hurricanes with her,'' he said. ''She does real well, leans a little to the side, but she does OK.''

The Lady Grace may have seen her share of storms, but she never faced anything like the 1991 storm that laid waste to the East Coast, turning the ocean into a churning mass of chaos.

Author Sebastian Junger chronicled the unleashing of 120-mph winds and 100-foot waves. He centered his book ''The Perfect Storm'' on the Andrea Gail's six-man crew, all of whom died racing home with a boat full of fish caught on the outskirts of the Grand Banks, which is off the coast of Newfoundland.

On Tuesday, the Lady Grace wasn't alone at Pier 40. Docked by her stern was the Tamaroa, a Coast Guard cutter that was also documented in Junger's best-selling book. The 205-foot former U.S. Navy warship battled the same storm that claimed the Andrea Gail while on a search-and-rescue mission to save five Air National Guard crewmen, who ditched their helicopter after exhausting the fuel supply during a rescue effort of their own.

During the Tamaroa's mission, 10 volunteers from the crew ventured out onto the ship's deck and pulled four guardsmen out of the sea. A fifth man was never found.

Nearly nine years after the adventure, Coast Guard Lt. William Moeller still remembers the distinct howl of the wind, the pitch-black night, and the cement-like waves that slammed upon them.

''It was frightening,'' said Moeller as he explained that waves were eye-level to the ship's 40-foot tall bridge. ''These days, I stop and think, why did things go right? We were on a 50-year old warship, not using the best equipment, and yet everything worked out well. I'd say it's because we had leadership and trust of people.''

These days, the futures of both vessels remain unclear. The Tamaroa was decommissioned four years ago. It's now owned privately and a group is working to have it turned into a sort of historical landmark.

The Lady Grace heads for more media hoopla in Gloucester, Mass., a coastal fishing town where the Andrea Gail left port for its final trip. Then the swordboat goes up for sale on eBay, the online auction house, on June 28.

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The premiere, highly anticipated Movieline event will showcase new actors, filmmakers and personalities that are the fastest rising talents in Hollywood. Nominees include new icons such as Spike Jonze, Christina Ricci, Leelee Sobieski, Mena Suvari and Mark Wahlberg. The talents will compete for honors in a variety of categories ranging from Superstar of Tomorrow and Breakthrough Performance to Best Bad Grrrl and New Style Maker. Nominees who have selected bebe apparel to wear to the event include Carmen Electra and Thora Birch.

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'I WOULD wish you the best of luck, but for all I know, you're planning to kill me," said Jackie Mason.

JOAQUIN PHOENIX. You know him best as Nicole Kidman's besotted victim in "To Die For" and as the degenerate Commodus in the current blockbuster "Gladiator." He's done lots in-between, but seemed destined to be a quirky indie actor, rather than a leading man in leading projects. Industry perception might change, however, once Joaquin's complex and wrenching performance in "The Yards" gets seen. (And he looks terribly dashing and movie-starish on the cover of the current GQ!) The young actor flew to Cannes for the gala premiere of James Gray's film and found himself "stunned" by the finished product, a dark tale of personal betrayal and political corruption in the NYC transit system.

"I tend not to react too well to my own work, or what ends up on the screen.

It's such a crapshoot," Phoenix said. "But James Gray exceeded every expectation any actor could have for a director-the rehearsal process, the intimacy he encouraged, his absolute determination never to let one moment of false emotion get by." Joaquin agreed to talk straight from getting off a plane from the U.S. and then being paraded around to various journalists at the Carlton Hotel on a hot, blinding white day. He was exhausted and anxious about going to the premiere of his sister's film that same night (Summer Phoenix stars in "Esther Kahn," playing a Hasidic woman who wants to be an actress). But tired or not, Joaquin's eyes- which change from blue to green to gray to hazel depending on the light-blazed with energy whenever he got deep into talk about the movie.

Joaquin had originally intended to play Leo, the ex-con. But he ended up with the role of Willie, who leads Leo, played by Mark Wahlberg-all frustrated emotion and vulnerability-back into trouble, destroying his own life in the process. "Willie is a guy who thinks he has it all figured out. He has the money, the girl (a mortally moving Charlize Theron), the life," Phoenix said.

"What I loved was the emotional deconstruction of the character. And how James Gray kept all of it so true to our characters, and how he did the most amazing things, had the most amazing ideas on the spur of the moment. This is definitely the best experience I've ever had with a movie. I am, for once, completely satisfied with myself and the work in total." "The Yards" definitely ushers in the era of Joaquin Phoenix, movie star.

He's not a quirky indie guy anymore.

 More union updates: Winona Ryder's publicist tells me she "knows" her client has not bedded Mark Wahlberg, contrary to what the rumors persist in making us believe.

Interesting. So, this flack follows Winona around every waking moment of her rarefied existence? And here I thought Whitney Houston was the only celeb these days with full-time babysitters.

No official word yet from Wahlberg's butch little camp. But let's get to the unofficial chitchat, shall we?

"I think it's true," said a member of the former Marky Mark's current staff. "And you know what's remarkable in this scenario is that everybody's forgetting Mark is not the dog in this picture. Remember, Winona's been with everybody in town!"

Well, maybe not everybody.

For instance, I don't believe she has any Billy Bob Thornton tattoos on her limbs.

E! Online gossipteer Ted Casablanca says Winona Ryder's publicist informed him that Ryder did not make whoopee with "A Perfect Storm" star Mark Wahlberg, despite hefty rumors to the contrary.

Casablanca's not buying it, he writes in his Awful Truth column. "I think it's true," a member of Wahlberg's staff told Casablanca. "And you know what's remarkable in this scenario is that everybody's forgetting that Mark is not the dog in this picture."

HOLLYWOOD -I've never been the actor who did one job, and everyone went 'Wow!'" William Fichtner admits. His name may be unfamilar, but his face has been all over the screen in the past five years — if you know where to look. He was...the blind astronomer in "Contact." the no-nonsense pilot who flies Bruce Willis to the asteroid in "Armageddon."
Bette Midler's philandering husband, who can't keep his hands off Jamie Lee Curtis' chest in "Drowning Mona."
a narcotics cop who has a not-what-you-think nude scene with Scott Wolf in "Go!" a thuggish gangster in "The Underneath." Brett Butler's sometime-boyfriend Ryan Sparks on "Grace Under Fire." But anonymity finally may be over for Fichtner, 44. Today, he romances Demi Moore in "Passion of Mind," a psychological drama about a woman who lives two separate lives.

"It's the first time I've gotten to kiss the girl," says the 6-foot, New York actor, whose film choices veer toward "quirky aliveness" instead of the steadfast hero. But playing romantic was "wonderful," he decided, "much better than having her shoot me."

On June 30, he slips into tattoos, greasy hair and a prominent scar to co-star with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg in "The Perfect Storm." In this testosterone-driven sea adventure, based on the best-selling book by Sebastian Junger, he plays Sully, a fisherman with a chip on his shoulder.

"I met some tough characters (like Sully) growing up in Buffalo," Fichtner says. "Guys like that run by themselves. Maybe they grew up rough and didn't have social skills."

But Fichtner, who's married to actress Kymberly Kalil,has got social skills and a relaxed attitude — which he attributes to growing up "in a household of all women — incredibly expressive women. I never heard the expression 'Big boys don't cry.' If one of my [four] sisters was sharing something over dinner, the whole table could break out in tears."

Nevertheless, his boyhood dream was to be a New York state trooper. "I liked that dark gray-and-purple tie," he says. He studied criminal justice, but took some electives in acting. In the middle of a police test for the city of Buffalo, he realized he wanted to be an actor, not a cop. So he auditioned and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Art.

To pay the bills, he first worked as a security guard at the New York Hilton.

"My duty was to walk up and down the halls looking for suspicious characters," he says. "If I'd see someone on a different floor several times in one night, I'd ask to see their room key."

Then he worked as a bartender for actor John Aniston, who owned 555 on 57th St. "I was really low on funds," Fichtner recalls. "And for a while I had a pickup truck, so I started a moving company. Another time I had an office-cleaning business, which was great because there were snacks in the fridge and I had access to telephones so I could keep my home phone bill down."

But finally, acting began to play the bills when in 1987, he joined the cast of "As the World Turns" for two years. "The first eight months I was so terrified that I was sure that the mike was picking up my heartbeat," Fichtner says. "Gradually I calmed down.

"Now, I feel quite at home when there are 40 people on the set and the camera is 2 feet from my nose."

Gloucester is buzzing about the return of the cast of ''The Perfect Storm'' to the seaside city. Stars including George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg are coming back to Harbor Point to meet national media at the site of some of the filming June 17. Warner Bros. has reserved all of Gloucester High School in case of rain. ... ''The Perfect Storm'' author Sebastian Junger may have coined an enduring term for ''tragic.'' Junger's title for his book about the 1991 storm that killed six Gloucester fishermen refers to meteorologists' description of the unusual convergence of weather systems. Now Esquire magazine editors have borrowed the term for the headline on local free-lancer Sean Flynn's July story about the Worcester warehouse fire that killed six firefighters; the mag calls it ''The Perfect Fire.''

When Wolfgang Petersen talked to actors about being in the film adaptation of Sebastian Junger's runaway non-fiction best seller, "The Perfect Storm" (opening June 30), he had one question he'd always ask first: Do you know what you're in for?

"I wanted them to know that this was not going to be an easy shoot," Petersen says. "I wanted to get them psyched up for something that would be a little frightening, but also very exciting."

Ultimately, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg signed on to play the leaders of the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, the fishing boat that endured a Force 12 storm off the coast of Newfoundland. Petersen, who, with "Das Boot" on his resume, knows a thing or two about waterlogged movies, spent three weeks filming at sea in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
But the majority of the shoot took place inside Stage 16 at Warner Bros., where the filmmakers created their own version of the great gale.

"You've never seen so many wind machines in your life," Petersen says. "The actors really were good sports because we pelted them with tons of water non-stop for days on end. Mark Wahlberg told me he felt like he was enduring a beating, but two days after we finished filming, he wanted to come back."

In the editing room, Petersen combined the soundstage work with state-of-the-art special effects from Industrial Light and Magic. He says the results were so seamless that he sometimes would ask his editor if they'd shot it or if it was a full CG (computer-generated) shot.

"You couldn't have made this movie even two years ago," Petersen says. "The technology is so advanced that I promise you the audience is going to feel like wringing the water out of their clothes when they leave the theater." 

Marvellous martial arts, plenty of social realism and a strange film from Sweden: but it wasn't exactly a vintage year for French film. Michael Dwyer concludes his reports from the 53rd Cannes Film Festival with a look at the final offerings of the festival

From the moment Lars von Trier turned up on the red carpet at the Festival Palais half an hour before the closing ceremony last Sunday evening, there was no doubt as to who had won the Palme d'Or at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival. We knew Von Trier was not interested in winning minor awards such as the Prix du Jury, given his petulant response when Europa won him that award in 1991.

Ever since his first feature, The Element of Crime, competed at Cannes, von Trier had his sights set on the Palme d'Or, and after 16 years and on his sixth entry in competition, he was about to receive it for the trite and risible Dancer in the Dark. The surprise was that he was accompanied by Björk, the Icelandic singer who stars in his film and who publicly shunned him at its world première in Cannes.

Taking a nod from last year's Cannes jury which gave its three acting prizes to unexperienced actors, the Cannes 2000 jury astonished the closing night audience by giving the best actress award to Björk. Even the staunchest supporters of the film - and there were many, on the evidence of the 12-minute standing ovation it received at its gala screening five nights earlier - were amazed.

In an awards ceremony dominated by Asian and Scandinavian winners, the most conspicuous omission made by the jury chaired by Luc Besson was of Besson's own national cinema. At least two of the four French films in competition this year were expected to take a prize on Sunday night - Les Destinées Sentimentales, directed by Olivier Assayas, and Harry, He's Here to Help by Dominik Moll - and the exclusion of such accomplished work by rising French talent was perceived as a slight inflicted by one of French cinema's most high-profile directors.

The four US entries did not fare much better, taking just one award - best screenplay award for Neil LaBute's clever and very funny Nurse Betty - and this ensures that the fraught relationship between Cannes and American cinema will get even worse before it ever gets better.

Shown on the penultimate night of the festival and undeservedly passed over in the awards, The Yards is a taut, classically structured, social realist crime drama of simmering power directed with firm assurance by James Gray and building on the promise of his first film, Little Odessa.

Adhering closely to its genre conventions, The Yards deals with two young New Yorkers who have been friends since schooldays and are driven apart when one gets deeper into crime. They are played with conviction by Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix in an exemplary cast which features Charlize Theron as the woman caught between them, along with three veteran actors giving their strongest performances in years - James Caan, Faye Dunaway and Ellen Burstyn.

On the same night Wong Karwai, the inventive Hong Kong film-maker named best director at Cannes in 1997 for Happy Together, was back in competition with In the Mood For Love, which took the best actor award for Tony Leung and the prize for best technical achievement, which was accepted by Wong's regular lighting cameraman, Christopher Doyle.

Arriving in Cannes wet from the labs and without a final sound mix in place, Wong's new film is a stylish and involving picture set in Hong Kong in 1962 with Leung as a a newspaper editor who moves into rented accommodation next door to a secretary played by Maggie Cheung. Gradually they are drawn to each other as they face up to the reality that their respective spouses are cheating on them.

In sharp contrast to the hyperactive visual style of Happy Together, In the Mood For Love is formed as a series of rich, graceful compositions and establishes a mellow mood enhanced by its romantic period song score and by the subtle, intriguing central performances of Leung and Cheung.

Sweden, which did not have a film in competition at Cannes since Joe Hill in 1971, took this year's Prix du Jury for Songs From the Second Floor, the first feature in 25 years from the prolific commercials director, Roy Andersson. This odd, rambling and eventually patience-stretching film features a non-professional cast as distraught characters in a city with chronic traffic gridlock. Its theme of the stress and pressures of modern living is treated heavy-handedly and only occasionally enlivened by surreal moments such as when an unwitting volunteer in a stage show finds himself being sawn in half by an inept magician.

The Prix du Jury was shared with The Blackboards, on which I reported last week, and which consolidates the growing reputation of the film's Iranian director, Samira Makhmalbaf - who, at 20, was the youngest film-maker ever to compete with a feature at Cannes. Iranian cinema was given further acknowledgement on Sunday night when the Camera d'Or for best first feature was shared by Bahman Ghobadi for A Time For Drunken Horses and Hassan Yekpatanah for Djomeh, both from Iran.

Shown out of competition in the official selection at Cannes, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, directed by the ever-versatile Taiwanese film-maker, Ang Lee, provided the festival with many of its most exhilarating moments. Following three formidable English-language literary adaptations - Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm and Ride With the Devil - the uncategorisable Lee returns to Asian cinema to revitalise the action movie with terrific panache in his new film.

Lee describes it as "a kind of a dream of China" inspired by the martial arts movies he watched in his youth. It is set in the early 19th century, spoken in Mandarin and shot on spectacular sets and exotic locations as it follows the exploits of the apparently demure but rebellious young aristocrat, Jen (Zhang Ziyi), who has ambitions to be a fighter and to escape the marriage arranged for her. Chow Yun-fat authoritatively plays the martial arts warrior whose legendary sword she steals, with Michelle Yeoh as his equally athletic long-time friend, and Chang Chen as the fiery, young bandit who falls in love with Jen.

The two women acquit themselves at least as adeptly as the men when it comes to combat in the dazzling action sequences brilliantly choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, who staged the fight scenes in The Matrix. Sparks fly as steel flashes in the movie's energetic swordplay, and the special effects work is quite extraordinary in the gravity-defying leaps and ascents made by the characters - at one point two of them are perched precariously high in the air on the branches of trees for a balletic aerial battle. At the heart of this charismatically played high-energy extravaganza is a tender, passionate love story.

Altogether more modest in its ambitions, Karyn Kusama's US indie, Girlfight, winner of two major prizes at Sundance in January, deals with a headstrong young Hispanic woman who takes up boxing at the Brooklyn Boys' Club, despite the initial reluctance of the trainer who takes her on and the objections of her surly, widowed father. Although it pushes credibility in its concluding stages, Kusama's film is commendably multi-layered and fresh in its outlook, and its star, newcomer Michelle Rodriguez, displays an impressive screen presence.

An 11-year-old English schoolboy incurs the wrath of his widowed father, a striking miner, when he switches from boxing to ballet lessons in Dancer, the moving and lovingly crafted first feature film from the renowned London and Broadway theatre director, Stephen Daldry. Set in a Durham mining village during the strike in 1983, and sympathetically scripted by Lee Hall, Daldry's film features glowing performances from the remarkable Jamie Bell as the boy, Gary Lewis as his father and Julie Walters as the ballet teacher, and as Daldry shamelessly taps into honest emotions, the audience responded audibly by choking and sobbing.

After Brassed Off and Little Voice, the similarly engaging Purely Belter is Mark Herman's third bittersweet picture of north of England lives, this time dealing with the often comic attempts of two wily close friends (Chris Beattie and Greg McLane) to raise the cost of season tickets to Newcastle United FC. The team's star player Alan Shearer appears briefly as himself - and is the subject of some goodnatured humour - in Herman's hard-edged comedy, which succeeds in pulling off a feelgood ending without ever compromising its integrity.

Girlfight, Dancer and Purely Belter were all shown in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar at Cannes. Back in the official selection, the closing film last Sunday night, screening out of competition, was Stardom, which follows the progress and problems of a young Canadian (Jessica Pare) propelled to superstardom as a model. Shaped as a shallow and redundant reflection on the nature of fame and our media age, this irritating trifle registered a deep disappointment from director Denys Arcand, whose Jesus of Montreal proved one of the most thrilling discoveries at Cannes back in the 1980s.

All this yapping about the weekend weather reminds us that ``The Perfect Storm,'' the made-in-Massachusetts megamovie that Warner Bros. believes will blow out the box office on the July 4 weekend, is heading straight for us.

The action starts June 16 when ``Storm'' stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and director Wolfgang Petersen blow into Boston for a round of interviews with the critics.

Usually the ``press junkets,'' as they are known, are held in either L. A. or New York. But because the fishing flick was filmed in Gloucester and the project has such close ties with the seafaring community, the Hollywood studio decided to bring the media mob to Massachusetts. As you can imagine, the Track is veddy grateful for yet another chance to gaze at George!

It is possible, however, that before the junket, the movie's replica of the ill-fated Andrea Gail, which has been chugging back to the East Coast from Long Beach Harbor, will dock in town. Adding to the Hollywood hype, of course.

And on June 28, plans for two local screenings of the flick are in the works. The Boston showing at the new souped-up General Cinema in the Fenway is a benefit for the Perfect Storm Foundation. It's already sold-out. Then the people of Gloucester, along with the movie's local cast and crew, will be invited to turn out at the Loews in the Liberty Tree Mall for a thank-you screening. So far, it's unclear whether any of the stars will make the scene.

The movie opens nationwide June 30, so do stay tuned for other ``Storm'' reports.

Look who's diving into this Ocean.
Hoping to live up to the spirit of the original by casting as much A-list talent as it can get, Warner Bros. is reportedly in talks with Bruce Willis and Oscar winner Michael Douglas to climb aboard the remake of Ocean's Eleven, the 1960 Vegas casino caper starring Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr..

No word yet on what roles Willis or Douglas would play, but both are part of a tidal wave of all-stars considering coming aboard for the action, according to Daily Variety.

Already taking the plunge into Ocean are George Clooney in the prime Sinatra role of gang leader Danny Ocean, Julia Roberts as his wife--a part originally played by Angie Dickinson, and Brad Pitt in the Dean Martin best-bud role.

Other names attached to the project--which follows a gang of 11 pals planning to knock off the five biggest casinos on the Strip in one night--include Johnny Depp, Mike Myers, Mark Wahlberg, Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson.

The actors are apparently lining up for a chance to work with filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. A fave of the critics, Soderbergh, who shot to fame with sex, lies and videotape, has recently directed Clooney in the hip heist gem Out of Sight, Terence Stamp in the the revenge-minded The Limey and Roberts in the smash Erin Brockovich.

According to the movie gossip site Ain't It Cool News ( www.aintitcool.com), the tagline appearing on an early draft of the script reads, "In any other town, they'd be the bad guys." Of course, in any other movie, these guys would be making $15 to 20 million.

To afford the bevy of box-office stars, Warners says the actors will have to forego their typically sky-high fee upfront in return for a large share of the back-end revenue. (The project has a reported budget of just $15 million.)

Warners' biggest trouble, though, may be making sure all the dream teamers can clear their calendars and find time to shoot the flick. And they may not happen until the fall.

The film has a tentative release date of summer 2001.

It had to happen, just when you thought you were finally free of them... they pull you back in! Yes, this morning Father Geek awoke to... yet another report from our Euro-crew on... CANNES! Well folks festivals that are bigger than life show lots of flicks and generate lots of deal making and that equals lots of news, some naturally late breaking. This report is a case in point. Check it out, they're talking about some good movies here...

Well... I know this comes a bit late... I know some of you are tired of reading about Cannes.... This is the last EURO AICN report on Cannes, Edgard here promises... the Festival ended a few days ago, since then everybody as seen images of Bjork and Lars Von Trier being happy... Personally, I am now really curious to see that movie... I love BREAKING THE WAVES, I thought THE IDIOTS was lame... we will see... meanwhile I have some more reviews from Grozilla in Cannes, the last movies he saw there... the delay is my fault, I was away and could not finish the translation in time, so forgive me people... You will find here a review from THE YARDS which I am also waiting for (I loved LITTLE ODESSA)... And also Eva is back for a (happy) announcement on her short film.

Here's Grozilla's reviews (with some news at the end):

THE YARDS
For the last 5 years, James Gray has been polishing up his second film after LITTLE ODESSA. Another family story taking the sacrosanct structure of the Greek tragedy. Leo (Mark Wahlberg) comes out of jail for a car robbery he did not commit. He comes home. His mother (Ellen Burstyn) is sick, his aunt (Faye Dunaway) has remarried with the boss of a railroad company (James Caan) who offers him a job. Leo finds again Willie (Joaquin Phoenix) whom he did not give away for the robbery and his cousin Erica (Charlize Theron). The railroad company is shrouded in corruption. Willie kills an employee and says Leo is guilty... Gray says he took inspiration from ROCCO ET SES FRERES (Rocco and His Brothers) and LA BETE HUMAINE (The Human Beast). Personally I saw more the shadow of "On the Waterfront" and the light of "The godfather". Which is already something good. "The Yards" keeps referring with respect to Coppola's film, with the beautiful photography very close of Vittorio Storraro's (if I remember well from the mob trilogy) or with the description of a family about to collapse. The is no doubt, "The Yards" is a working-class version of "The Godfather" . And that's one of the best idea of the fillm : trying to give some "aristocracy" in a working-class family. Having chosen James Caan as the father figure is certainly not innocent. When he sits in his big chair, the face half in the shadow, you could think he just took Marlon Brando's seat. A bit like if Gray had decided to give revenge to the Corleone brother murdered in the first "Godfather". The parallel keeps growing when "The Yards" can be seen as a transition between two generations : Mark Wahkberg is definitely a good actor, not overacting, and could be seen as young De Niro; Charlize Theron, at last in a great role, could replace Diane Keaton. But it's mainly Joaquin Phoenix who's amazing, and showing the strenght of a new Pacino. "The Yards" is then a very convincing film from an artistic point of view, Gray being an incredibly good director of actors, and just a good director of a beautifully shot film (thanks also to Harris Savides' photography). The only thing missing in "The Yards" it's a real inspiration; the film seems so controlled, so well directed that it finds itself prisoner of a too known story. "The Yards" could have been a big mob saga from this beginning of the years 2000; but is instead stuck by this comfortable directorial line which defines the all movie (when it should have been free to abandon itself to tragic lyrism). "The yards" is at the same time too ambitious and too classic to be rewarded here in Cannes. 

Ocean's Eleven" is luring enough star power for five movies. Bruce Willis and Michael Douglas are in talks to join George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in the remake of the 1960 Rat Pack comedy.

Also getting in on the caper, we hear, is Don Rickles, a man who's old enough to have known the original cast.

Clooney aims to fill the loafers of Frank Sinatra, who as Danny Ocean masterminded the heist of Vegas' five top casinos. Roberts will reprise Angie Dickinson's role as Danny's ex-wife. The names of some of the other original characters may change. But Pitt's part will be modeled after Dean Martin's suave Sam Harmon. Michael Douglas is expected to double for Peter Lawford. And Willis may play a casino owner.

Still to be filled are the roles of the rest of the buddies, who were played by Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, Richard Conte and Cesar Romero in the original.

Clooney may be rehearsing already. British film critic Mariella Frostrup says that after they met at Cannes, he invited her out last weekend in London.

"Danny DeVito was with us and he started doing the conga around the restaurant," Frostrup told the Telegraph. "[George] sang Frank Sinatra songs to me and knew all the words."

'CALCULATED and manipulated images-of fashion models with perfect airbrushed bodies, of pencil-thin actresses such as Calista Flockhart and Lara Flynn Boyle- have become so pervasive that we've lost a sense of our own physical limits...the scalpel can cut too deep, physically and psychologically." So writes Michael Gross in June's blistering and tragic George magazine cover story, "The Lethal Politics of Beauty: Why Women Are Dying to Look This Good." Gross, famous for his jaundiced books about the modeling world, and his New York magazine articles, will now write exclusively for George. You'll never be casual about plastic surgery again, after you read this one! AT "THE YARDS" pre- screening party at the Cannes Beach last week, Mark Wahlberg, one of the film's stars, arrived still sporting shoulder-length locks, "mostly me, except for the blond-ish parts, those are extensions. And it all comes off the second I finish 'Metal God"' (in which he plays a heavy-metal rock star). Wahlberg grows increasingly assured, articulate, at ease with his still-burgeoning film career. Complimented on his performance in "The Yards," Mark is pleased, but says, "I've done the very best I can do, now it's up to the critics and the audience. I don't agonize over the reaction. What's the point? I learn with every experience, and that learning is more important than if the movie's a hit-not that I don't appreciate a good box office!" Wahlberg, who has had more than a bit of edgy streetwise life, has come a long way. He is certainly unrecognizable in manner from the Calvin Klein poster boy-rapper of the early '90s. Mark is aware of how he started, where he is, and where he's going. "I feel like Cinderella, you know. I keep waiting for midnight to strike." Little chance of that happening. This year, he has "The Yards," "Perfect Storm" and "Metal God" (In the latter, he also displays a remarkable Cockney accent!) He laughed. "This means I have to take a rest-for five years. Too much Mark!" He has high praise for his "Perfect Storm" costar, George Clooney, and promised another Clooney-Wahlberg onscreen melding-they also did the terrific, but oddly underperforming "Three Kings." (Reviews were sensational, but it just didn't do the business anticipated.) On his way to the Palais for the big screening, Mark is told that Cannes audiences can be vociferous, in praise and disapproval. "Well, if they throw any food, I hope they hit my costars, Joaquin Phoenix or Charlize Theron or even Ellen Burstyn or James Caan. They have short hair. You have any idea how hard it is to wash this mop?" Wahlberg, by the by, was the only "Yards" star who stayed up late enough to join Harvey Weinstein's 3 a.m. boating party after the Palais festivities.

Well, it was his first time in Cannes. He couldn't get to sleep.

AT THE same party, Faye Dunaway and Milla Jovovich had a giddy, girlish get-together. Jovovich-a model-turned-actress-turned singer- was busy videotaping the event, possibly for her own amusement. Dunaway, who gives a remarkably subtle performance in "The Yards," finally said, after some minutes of jabbering away, "Am I talking to you, or to this thing?" Dunaway brushed aside remarks on her performance: "Oh, thank you. But you know, the big news this year is digital film, and movies online." Faye is one of the last of the old-style stars-she taught Sharon Stone about being a movie queen! But Faye stays au courant with the business of her business, which is why she never stops working.

THERE WASN'T a lot to gossip over at the Cannes fest this year. Stars-with the notable exception of Dennis Rodman and his rowdy troupe-were well-behaved.

And there weren't even that many truly glittery supernovas on hand. So maybe that's why there was so much chat about Mira Sorvino. Sorvino was in town with a film she produced, "Famous." The Oscar-winner looked adorable, and was gracious and accessible, but she seemed unrecognizable even to a lot of her peers. Oddly altered, somehow. Perhaps it is because she is so very slender these days? A WORD got lost in the transmission of our piece on Jared Leto and his "Requiem for a Dream" film the other day. What appeared in print as "It's not a movie!" should have been, "It's not a date movie!" Indeed not. This story of various addicted types leaves the audience shattered.

At ``The Yards'' pre-screening party at the Cannes Beach last week, Mark Wahlberg, one of the film's stars, arrived still sporting shoulder-length locks, ``mostly me, except for the blondish parts, those are extensions. And it all comes off the second I finish `Metal God' '' (in which he plays a heavy-metal rock star).

Wahlberg, who has had more than a bit of edgy streetwise life, has come a long way. He is certainly unrecognizable in manner from the Calvin Klein poster boy-rapper of the early '90s. Mark is aware of how he started, where he is and where he's going. ``I feel like Cinderella, you know. I keep waiting for midnight to strike.''

Little chance of that happening. This year, he has ``The Yards,'' ``Perfect Storm'' and ``Metal God.'' (In the last, he also displays a remarkable Cockney accent!) He laughed. ``This means I have to take a rest -- for five years. Too much Mark!'' He has high praise for his ``Perfect Storm'' co-star, George Clooney, and promised another Clooney-Wahlberg on-screen melding -- they also did the terrific but oddly underperforming ``Three Kings.'' (Reviews were sensational, but it just didn't do the business anticipated.)

Wahlberg, by the by, was the only ``Yards'' star who stayed up late enough to join Harvey Weinstein's 3 a.m. boating party after the Palais festivities. Well, it was his first time in Cannes. He couldn't get to sleep.

Le désir de perfection qui dévore et travaille de part en part The Yards, le nouveau film de James Gray, cinq ans après Little Odessa, en même temps que l’absence de toute forme de lyrisme, ont de quoi désarçonner. Pour qui attend une énième version du Parrain ou de Scarface, le film peut paraître frustrant dans la mesure où, s’il investit les codes du genre, c’est pour les remettre à plat et les congédier dans un geste de profonde lassitude. Une certaine mythologie mafieuse mord la poussière et meurt dans ce tombeau sans la moindre fanfare. Vrai de même que la splendeur enténébrée de chaque plan et la main jalouse que le cinéaste garde sur les moindres recoins de ses images peut agir comme un obstacle à qui carbure à l’identification express. C’est au fond que The Yards est très peu américain, on ne lui voit d’ailleurs pas d’équivalent, sinon peut-être en Asie, du côté du Hou Hsio-hsien de Goodbye South Goodbye. Même exigence formelle, même sang froid, même mélancolie.

Tragédie. The Yards (les entrepôts) se déroule dans le quartier du Queens à New York aujourd’hui. Leo Handler (le définitivement admirable Mark Wahlberg) sort de taule et revient chez les siens avec la ferme intention de mener une vie droite. Au cours d’une petite fête donnée en son honneur, il retrouve ses proches dont Willie (Joaquin Phoenix). Ce dernier prospère au sein de la Electric Rail Corporation, où il exécute les basses œuvres de corruption et de sabotage afin de maintenir la concurrence la tête sous l’eau. Il ne tarde pas à s’adjoindre les services de Leo. Un soir, une opération tourne mal, Willie poignarde un homme et Leo matraque un flic. La sacro-sainte loi du silence s’apprête à faire son œuvre de nettoyage par le vide, il lui faut un bouc émissaire, Leo est la victime toute désignée.

Les éléments de la tragédie sont en place, mais le destin ne s’accomplira pas selon le cours prévu, le glaive glacé de la justice passera dans les chairs pourrissantes de ce corps clanique aux solidarités douteuses. Dans ce processus quasi-cornélien, la figure de Leo élabore une stratégie des ponts coupés et à la toute fin, il n’y a pas ni victoire ni défaite mais un sentiment océanique d’être seul à jamais, contre tous et avec soi.
Pour construire méticuleusement cette apothéose de la désolation, James Gray invente un récit mezzo voce et un climat feutré. On a l’impression que la matière du film nous parvient avec la force vacillante d’une chandelle au fond d’un puits. Cet effet funèbre est parfois déchiré d’éclairs écarlates (sublime scène de boîte de nuit), drapé d’un halo verdâtre (une séquence d’hôpital) ou noyé dans une nuit d’encre pour quelques combats douteux. La violence des péripéties du scénario est ainsi prise d’une seule pièce dans la musculature du style qui veut étreindre nos poitrines à les rompre. La musique d’Howard Shore, un adagio désintégré, fait le reste. Larme, asphyxie mais aussi, quand l’étau se desserre enfin, catharsis et libération.

Un auteur. Parvenir à faire ça, avec cette classe-là, quand on a que 30 ans, c’est déjà avoir accompli une bonne partie du chemin. La proximité des motifs entre The Yards et Little Odessa, en particulier sur le lien secrètement incestueux des mères avec leur fils, l’abjection morale des pères, la trahison consubstantielle à l’amitié, prouve, s’il était besoin, qu’on tient en James Gray un de ces trop rares auteurs du cinéma US qu’il va être passionnant de suivre, dans ses obsessions bien sûr mais aussi dans son combat contre la logique des studios. Un combat qui pourrait le mener, à l’instar d’un Terrence Malick, à devenir un des ces mavericks qui apparaissent dans l’adversité, monstres altièrement indépendants et paranoïaques, autant que chevaux de Troie dans la forteresse de Hollywood.

Willis, Pitt, Clooney, Marky Mark, and Julia Roberts all to star in a big-time heist flick.

Hollywood is craving a true vanguard, hungry for a breakout player whose stuff is solid enough to handle the heat. Where's the next Scorcese, or Coppola, or Peckinpah? It seems that every time we deem someone the next big thing, they implode due to over-inflated media expectations. Heard much about Tarantino these days?

The desire to tap into hot up-and-comers has led to a steady flow of studio money into the hands of folks like Wes Anderson (Rushmore), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), David O. Russell (Three Kings) and P.T. Anderson (Magnolia) -- resulting in kickass flicks that aren't real box office performers. Yet despite their lack of monetary draw, the aforementioned filmmakers have a virtual blank check at any studio in town, with guys like Tom Cruise taking fat salary cuts to step up in supporting roles.

The Hollywood revisionism continues with Steven Soderbergh, fringe player who's become one of the top directors working in town. A long-time indie film poster boy, the big S has moved into wider industry acceptance due to flicks like Out of Sight and Erin Brockovich (which were both critical and financial successes). So it ain't much of a surprise that he's got a line of A-listers around the block, trying to get in on his remake of the Rat Pack flick, Ocean's Eleven. The movie revolves around 11 army buddies who plan an elaborate, five-casino heist in Vegas, featuring Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter Lawford, Cesar Romero and Angie Dickinson in the original. You think that's a line-up?

The Soderbergh flick is tacking on new big names by the week. Already locked are George Clooney (in the lead as Danny Ocean), Brad Pitt, Michael Douglas, Mark Whalberg and Julia Roberts. The latest addition comes from the beaches of Cannes (via Reel.com), where Clooney spilled the word that Bruce Willis would also be joining the crime caper.

With a cast like that, what could go wrong? Everything. We'd be amazed if this one manages to avoid ego headbutting. And with all the other projects this crew has on their respective plates, we can only imagine how fun scheduling is gonna be. But if everyone plays nice, this film could be insane. The Ocean's cast are all taking whopping pay cuts, cuz if they got their going rate the budget of the film would be at around $80 million in actor fees alone. If Soderbergh can pull this off, maybe he can avoid being the next name in the "Heard much about ___________ these days?" game.

-- Chris Bernier wonders who'll be the scene stealer in this one

CANNES, France -- Danish director Lars Von Trier won the Golden Palm on Sunday for the musical melodrama Dancer in the Dark.

Von Trier's film -- starring Icelandic singer Bjork, who took the best-actress award -- divided critics at the Cannes Film Festival. His Breaking the Waves won the runner-up grand prize in 1997.

Bjork, who also scored the film, plays a Czech-born immigrant to the USA who is losing her sight because of a hereditary disease and is framed for murder.

Asian films took the grand prize (China, Guizi Lai Le) and the awards for best director (Taiwan's Edward Yang for Yi Yi) and best actor (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai for Hong Kong's In the Mood for Love).

In other Cannes news:

* During the festival's final weekend, Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, James Caan, Faye Dunaway and Ellen Burstyn were on hand for the world premiere of The Yards, a gritty look at political corruption.

Phoenix reigns these days as the evil emperor in Gladiator, and he's being recognized all over. ''It's weird. Now taxi drivers have seen the film, and that's never happened. And people on the street are giving me lines.''

Baby sister Summer Phoenix was competing in Cannes with a drama, Esther Kahn.

Wahlberg was sporting the same shoulder-length shag haircut he had at February's Berlin International Film Festival, a sign that he has not finished filming the Judas Priest-inspired comedy Metal God.

Caan had a few words for stars who claim they don't want fame.

''Some actors live this massive contradiction, like 'I don't want to be bothered,' '' he said. ''They are such liars, man. Can you imagine if they weren't recognized? They'd have a heart attack.''

* Elton John attended the premiere of Dancer as a friend of Stephen Daldry, a London stage director (An Inspector Calls) who is making his film debut. Shown outside the main competition, Dancer, a Flashdance-style drama about a British mining-town kid who wants to be a ballet dancer, had everyone in tears.

''Elton was really sweet,'' Daldry said. ''I was pleased he enjoyed the film, because if he didn't, he'd tell me. Elton doesn't do polite.''

''My mum cried,'' said Jamie Bell, 14, who won the lead role after 2,000 boys auditioned.

* The festival's closing-night film was Stardom, a satire on a supermodel's life. It, too, spotlights a new talent, Canadian Jessica Pare, 18.

For director Denys Arcand, finding Pare was a last-minute stroke of luck.

He had cast an actress ''who wasn't right.'' Three weeks before filming, Pare came to read for a minor part, a VJ.

Arcand had her return to videotape a scene, and that night he reshot the test with a 35mm camera.

The next morning, he phoned his producers to say they had found their star.

''She never knew what hit her. We had to brush up her skating, cap her teeth, remove a mole and give her a personal trainer.''

Poolside at the Majestic Hotel, Wahlberg relaxed at a garden table under an umbrella in a snug T-shirt with green boxers peeking from the top of his baggy jeans and sporting wavy hair past his shoulders.

"I can't wait to chop it off," he says. "I'm counting the days. Friday it comes off."

So, I asked him, what's with all these movies he's been making with George Clooney (Three Kings, The Perfect Storm, Metal God, the upcoming Ocean's Eleven)?

"No, no," Wahlberg tells me with a smile, he's not dating Clooney.

Okay, so did you steal Jennifer Aniston from Brad Pitt while working with her on Metal God?

"My mother believes everything she reads," he says. "She calls me up screaming at me, 'You leave that boy's girlfriend alone! You have a girlfriend. What are you doing with Brad Pitt's girlfriend?' "

The tabloids have also accused him of stealing Winona Ryder from Matt Damon.

"I got shit for that one, too," he begins. "Matt wants to be from Dorchester [Massachusetts]. He doesn't want to be from Hollywood and be a movie star. He wants to have been from jail so he can say he's tough. I know him--he's a great guy. Ben [Affleck] is as well. They're very lucky that they didn't have to grow up in Dorchester. Unfortunately, there are a lot of guys in Hollywood who want to fuck up their careers because they want to believe the parts they play."

Ouch.

 Yards Party: At the après-premiere party for The Yards, Miramax converted a beach restaurant into a subway station, complete with corrugated aluminum, walls covered in graffiti and the best touch: trash-can bonfires in the sand.

While stars Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, James Caan and Faye Dunaway mingled, a very tired Charlize Theron huddled in a corner with Miramax's Harvey Weinstein. Though she looked fantastic in a white Narcisco Rodriguez column, Theron was exhausted. She's only been in town an hour from San Francisco, where she's shooting Sweet November.

Joining the stars were Milla Jovovich, in an original Boucheron necklace (a bejeweled butterfly) and Weinstein's date for the evening, Eva Herzivoga. ("Remind me never to take Eva to a premiere again," Harvey joked. "No one looks at me.") Eva, dripping in diamonds and rubies, accessorized her pink Dior gown with Harvey's tux jacket. When will she make a Miramax movie? "Soon," she says. "I hope sooner," he says.

Faye's Way: Faye Dunaway shipped out for lunch Sunday afternoon on a yacht anchored just offshore. What she didn't know was that her hosts are working on a documentary and use a video camera to interview everyone who comes aboard. Dunaway, who may have been startled, fully cooperated--while the tape was running. The minute that little red light went out, however, Dunaway launched into one of her famous temper tantrums. As a guest said to me after lunch, "No one videotapes Miss Dunaway without her permission." Maybe Dunaway was a little self-conscious about her prominent tummy, which was clearly visible in spite of her Gap T-shirt.

Hollywood veteran James Caan has criticised the artistic pretensions of method actors - including himself.

The Godfather and Misery star has told a Cannes Film Festival news conference he looked back with embarrassment on his time as one of the "angry New York contingency".

But he says he was also worried at the growing trend among some film-makers to sideline actors altogether in favour of digital gimmicks.

At the launch of his new film, The Yards - one of 23 competing for the Palme d'Or best picture prize - he says: "I was part of the angry New York contingency - we were the most pompous, arrogant bastards.

"At that time, if you didn't go to the Actors' Studio or whatever, we would look down on you. We looked down on everyone."

Caan praises the more instinctive, less self-important acting of his The Yards co-stars, ex-New Kids on the Block singer Mark Wahlberg and Gladiator actor Joaquin Phoenix.

Yet he says his decision to join the cast has been largely down to director James Gray's respect for the art of acting.

"There's a lot of directors today who would like to find a way of doing it without us," he says. "These little digital heads and so on."

Despite Caan's warm words for Gray, the pair provoked laughter as they clashed over the extent of the director's dominance on set.

When Caan said he was largely following Gray's instructions during filming, but then the latter interrupted.

"This is a guy who spends 20 minutes saying, 'Jimmy, Jimmy, there's a particular type of cigarette that this guy would smoke. A kind of Benson and Hedges, but not the regular kind of Benson and Hedges'," retorted Gray.

By Lee Yanowitch

CANNES, France (Reuters) - An ex-convict trying to get his life back on track is drawn into a world of sabotage, corruption and murder in independent U.S. director James Gray's Golden Palm Entry ``The Yards.''

Gray's second full-length feature after his tragic Venice festival Silver Lion winner ``Little Odessa,'' ``The Yards'' is set in the vast New York subway yards where two train-building companies lead a ruthless war over city contracts.

Both films are dark and violent, featuring a prodigal son with a strong relationship to the mother, played in ``The Yards'' by Ellen Burstyn.

``It's a social drama that combines the travails of a family with the collusion of business and government,'' Gray, 31, told a press conference.

``I have no problem with bright, cheery films though. I think ``Singing in the Rain'' is an absolute masterpiece,'' he added.

While ``The Yards'' struggles against the level of artistic achievement of a stack of Asian films competing, its fast-paced gangster story and high tension are likely to make it a greater commercial success than the more artsy productions.

The box-office appeal will probably get a further boost from its star-studded cast, which includes Charlize Heron, James Caan, Faye Dunaway, Joaquin Phoenix and Burstyn.

``There was an ambition to make the movie look like a collection of paintings, to make it seductively beautiful,'' Gray said.

``We under-exposed the film and milked the blacks to make them look like burnished browns. I even considered putting the film in an oven and baking it at 125 degrees to see what it would look like,'' he added. ``I just wanted to do something different than what's been done before.''

Leo Handler, played by Mark Wahlberg, serves time in prison after taking the blame for a crime committed by a group of friends, and upon his release goes to the one place where he thinks he will be safe -- his mother's home.

He takes a job in the subway construction company of his well-connected uncle (Caan) and is reunited with his best buddy, the hot-headed macho Willie (Phoenix) and Willie's girlfriend Erica (Theron).

``My character thinks he's the king of a kingdom which is really the size of an anthill,'' Caan said. ``He's pretty much on the way to emotional death when the film opens.''

One night, Willie takes Leo along with a group of friends to sabotage the competing company's subway cars. But the plan goes awry when the yard master is stabbed to death and a policeman beaten into a coma.

Leo is blamed for the crimes and flees.

Dunaway plays Kitty, Erica's mother, with darkened hair and large round glasses that make her almost unrecognizable.

``It was a chance to do something different -- a sort of restrained, interior, centered-inside kind of role. It was a great experience,'' she said.