By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
CANNES, France (AP) --In a pair of films at the Cannes Film Festival, Kristen Stewart makes a plaything of her celebrity, giving a homes-of-the-stars Hollywood tour in Woody Allen's 1930s-era tale "Cafe Society" and playing a fashion assistant in Olivier Assayas' psychological drama "Personal Shopper."
Though "Personal Shopper" was met by a smattering of boos at its press screening in Cannes, Stewart has won raves for both performances. Her sly subversions of her fame — playing characters that exist just outside the real-life spotlight always fixed on her — follow her award-winning role as a famous actress's personal assistant in Assayas' "Clouds of Sils Maria."
In the mysterious "Personal Shopper," her character buys designer clothes and jewelry for a star, while mourning her late twin brother, with whom she believes she can communicate spiritually. On Tuesday, Stewart discussed fame as a constraint that can immobilize her.
"Sometimes I do feel a little bit like I've had my limbs cut off," Stewart told reporters. "That's not to say it's a bad feeling, it's just surreal."
Cannes has been a valuable place for Stewart to explore new, more adventurous avenues for herself, and she has been a common, much-photographed presence throughout this year's festival. She has at turns welcomed the notoriety — dancing on the red carpet premiere of Andrea Arnold's "American Honey" — and sought to evade it.
Summoning the fright of her character in "Personal Shopper," she said, needed no communion with the supernatural.
"The constant nature of life is so terrifying," she said, under press-conference lights. "You can't get away from it. Like right now, I can't get out. I can't get out of here! I cannot get out of right here."
"Personal Shopper" is a shifty, enigmatic film that drew mixed reviews from critics. Booing has a long tradition at Cannes where many jeered or divisive films have gone on to become well-regarded.
Asked about the booing, Assayas ("Carlos," ''Summer Hours") said he accepted that "movies have a life of their own" and that Cannes, in all its feverish intensity, is "the extreme version of that."
The 26-year-old Stewart voiced her strong support for the director.
"There's a flame that he lights under my ass that is stronger than I have ever felt," said Stewart. "I really try to navigate my career by feel. I just feel him."
Stewart was particularly forthcoming about the challenges of the film ("I didn't know what the hell I was doing ever," she said) and how she sought to be "the most thoughtless, present, naked version of myself I could possibly be." It was a vindicating experience, said the actress.
"This movie made me feel like there's nothing that I can put myself through that will ever actually make me not be able to keep going," she said.
In Allen's "Cafe Society," Stewart plays the assistant to a powerful Hollywood agent (Steve Carell) who's drawn to the larger-than-life figures of the movies. But in one scene, Stewart seems to be commenting on her own place in the industry: "I think I'd be happier being life-size," she tells the visiting out-of-towner, played by Jesse Eisenberg.
Asked whether she connected with her character's mysticism in "Personal Shopper," Stewart pondered it.
"Do I believe in ghosts? I don't know, I guess I believe in something," she said. Later she added: "I'm really sensitive to energies and I truly believe I'm driven by something I can't really define. It gives me a feeling we are not alone."
Forsman & Bodenfors Shifts Its Singapore Group Creative Director Ivan Guerra to Its NYC Hub
Forsman & Bodenfors (F&B) has expanded its creative leadership in New York by relocating longtime group creative director Ivan Guerra from the Singapore office to the Big Apple to support a quickly growing list of new client wins.
As a group creative director in Singapore, Guerra racked up numerous accolades and participated in a myriad of new business wins that fueled the agency’s growth year over year. He explained why now was the right time to come back to the states, adding more nuance in the process. ”Singapore is the business hub of Asia, New York is the business hub of the world,” he said. “Our office in Singapore was small when I arrived. Since then, we’ve more than tripled in size, and became the [number one] most creative agency in the country, and work with more and bigger clients than ever before. There’s always more to be done, but the agency I’m leaving behind is in fantastic shape and ready to take on the world, as I know they will.”
For Guerra, there’s an opportunity to replicate in New York the success he had in Singapore. During his career, he repositioned and promoted businesses and products across a wide variety of markets and industries including P&G, Coca-Cola and Booking.com. Some of his well-known work includes a campaign that increased Samsung’s sales in the Middle East by almost 200%, one of the most iconic films in the history of Converse, Verizon’s most successful sports partnership program “Data Dunk” with the NBA, and a “Proud Whopper” campaign in 2014 that reignited Burger King and garnered 13 Cannes Lions and a Grand Clio.
Coming back to New York after 15 years in the business, including a stint where he spent time at the likes of top-shelf agencies like R/GA,... Read More