Canne Film Festival: Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann zooms in for a close-up with Carey Mulligan

 
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Nick Clark15 May 2013

Director Baz Luhrmann got up close and personal today with Carey Mulligan and Leonardo DiCaprio, the stars of his film The Great Gatsby, which was opening the Cannes Film Festival.

London actress Mulligan, 27 — who plays Daisy Buchanan, love interest to DiCaprio’s Gatsby, in the 3D blockbuster adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel — dazzled in a black jumpsuit alongside her dapper American co-star, 38.

Isla Fisher, who plays Myrtle Wilson in Gatsby, also flew in for the screening of the film, which is not in competition for the Palme D’Or prize and has already opened in the US to mixed reviews.

Mulligan revealed some of the research that went into the making of the film, and preparation for her part. "When I was cast and we started to read about Daisy, Baz gave me six books about Zelda Fitzgerald and told me to read them," she said. "We also went to Princeton to talk to people who were scholars of Fitzgerald. I started reading about this woman Ginevra King who was another inspiration for Daisy.

"I was lucky enough to be given a copy of all of her letters to him, his don't exist, and immediately you can see the language, the way that she worked. it was completely how Daisy talks and writes. And in Zelda's diaries and her letters she wrote one to Scott... being nostalgic, of course this whole thing is about people who can't release themselves from the past, she was talking about her birthday. She said: 'It was my birthday and we were walking beneath the pine trees. You were a young Lieutenant and i was a fragrant phantom.' It just struck me. We just soaked up all of these amazing words and amazing descriptions from these two and that's how we tried to put Daisy together."

Earlier, Nicole Kidman wowed the crowds on La Croisette when she arrived to join the star-studded judging panel at the start of the 12-day event, Europe’s most prestigious film festival.

The Australian actress, 45, hasn’t got a film in contention this year, but was joining fellow Oscar winners Ang Lee and Christoph Waltz in assessing the competitors, with the panel presided over by Steven Spielberg.

The 20 films competing for the Palme d’Or include Only God Forgives, starring Ryan Gosling; the Coen Brothers’ latest, Inside Llewyn Davis, and Steven Soderbergh’s film about Liberace, Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon.

Lynne Ramsay, whose film We Need to Talk about Kevin was in the running for the Palme d’Or in 2011, provides British representation on the panel.

There are no British films in the official contest, but several have been selected in other parts of the festival including Paul Wright’s For Those in Peril, being screened as part of Critics’ Week.

The jury was due to give its first thoughts on the Palme D’Or contenders later today.

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