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    Haynes’ “Wonderstruck” Lands At Cannes With Deaf Newcomer Simmonds

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    Director Todd Haynes poses for photographers during the photo call for the film "Wonderstruck" at the 70th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

    By Jake Coyle, Film Writer

    CANNES, France (AP) --

    The cacophony of the Cannes Film Festival was tamed Thursday by a deaf 14-year-old actress, Millicent Simmonds, whose screen debut is being hailed as a breakthrough.

    Todd Haynes' partly wordless fable "Wonderstruck" premiered in competition at Cannes, bringing the festival one of its most anticipated films and a possible Academy Awards contender. The film, Haynes' follow-up to his much Oscar-nominated "Carol," is based on the young-adult novel by Brian Selznick.

    Fanciful and sentimental, "Wonderstruck" is an unlikely family-friendly turn for Haynes, the director of "Far From Heaven" and "Mildred Pierce." But it doubles down on his fondness for period tales, weaving parallel story lines from 1927 and 1977.

    In the '70s setting, an orphaned boy who loses his hearing due to an accident, played by Oakes Fegley, runs away from his Minnesota home for New York. In 1927, the deaf Rose, played by Simmonds, escapes her overbearing father in New Jersey for New York, seeking a silent movie star played by Julianne Moore.

    The film, richly evocative of different eras in film history, toggles between color and black-and-white, and between sound and silence.

    Haynes and his casting director, Laura Rosenthal, cast the role of Rose via the deaf community, rather than choosing an actor playing deaf. Simmonds, from Utah, had no previous film experience but astonished the director with her audition tape.

    "It was our incredible good fortune to find this girl, Millie, who from the very beginning – the very first time I saw her tape – I just shivered," he told reporters Thursday. "There was something about the integrity of her as a person that showed through that was true and ultimately you see it on the screen. Our good fortune in finding Millie can't be overstated."

    Simmonds sat next to Haynes while a translator fed her sign language from the front row. She said "Wonderstruck" changed her life.

    "It was such a wonderful story, I just re-read it. I'd go: 'Stop reading ahead. I have to focus on today's scene.' I just got lost in the story," Simmonds said, using sign language. "It was such an honor. I can't even find the words to explain what it was like to work with Todd. I never dreamt my life would come here, to this."

    Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios have given "Wonderstruck" an awards season release date, slating it for Oct. 20 in the United States.

    Category:News
    Tags:Millicent SimmondsTodd HaynesWonderstruck



    Growth Brings Growing Pains–and Bots–To Bluesky

    Sunday, December 22, 2024

    Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U.S. presidential election, boosted by people seeking refuge from Elon Musk's X, which they view as increasingly leaning too far to the right given its owner's support of President-elect Donald Trump, or wanting an alternative to Meta's Threads and its algorithms.

    The platform grew out of the company then known as Twitter, championed by its former CEO Jack Dorsey. Its decentralized approach to social networking was eventually intended to replace Twitter's core mechanic. That's unlikely now that the two companies have parted ways. But Bluesky's growth trajectory — with a user base that has more than doubled since October — could make it a serious competitor to other social platforms.

    But with growth comes growing pains. It's not just human users who've been flocking to Bluesky but also bots, including those designed to create partisan division or direct users to junk websites.

    The skyrocketing user base — now surpassing 25 million — is the biggest test yet for a relatively young platform that has branded itself as a social media alternative free of the problems plaguing its competitors. According to research firm Similarweb, Bluesky added 7.6 million monthly active app users on iOS and Android in November, an increase of 295.4% since October. It also saw 56.2 million desktop and mobile web visits, in the same period, up 189% from October.

    Besides the U.S. elections, Bluesky also got a boost when X was briefly banned in Brazil.

    "They got this spike in attention, they've crossed the threshold where it is now worth it for people to flood the platform with spam," said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University and a member of Issue One's... Read More

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