Every Sapphires-related article from this point on needs to be affixed with “And other gem-related puns” because they’re a dime a dazzle.
That aside, Cannes-do director Wayne Blair’s film about a group of young Aboriginal girls who are sent to Vietnam to entertain the troops has entertained the cinema-going crowd at the Cannes, with Forbes.com reporting that:
“Last night’s premiere at the Palais got a 10 minute standing ovation. Harvey [Weinstein] was extremely enthused when I saw him later at the Vanity Fair party at the Hotel du Cap. Now there’s a rumor that Diana Ross may be a surprise guest Sunday night at a private screening of the film. Sean “Diddy” Combs is hosting the after party.”
Weinstein, who last week bought the US distribution rights to the film, has been quoted as saying “Have you seen ‘The Sapphires’? ‘The Artist’ just happened again!“a comment which he has since seen fit to rescind. Speaking to Deadline.com, Harvey said he did not think that The Sapphires was an Oscar contender and has no intention to market it as so, and instead settled for calling it “an entertaining comedy musical [he] homes will draw good word of mouth and turn out to be a sleeper hit.“
Hey, nothing wrong with being an entertaining comedy musical on the Weinstein Company books.
The Sapphires will open the Melbourne International Film Festival ahead of its release in Australian cinemas on August 9th.
