What Just Happened

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 2008, 100 min
Section: Official Selection - Out of Competition

Synopsis

Aging Hollywood producer Ben is trying to breathe new life into his declining career. His reasons for this are very personal: a daughter who is growing up a bit too fast, two ex-wives and plenty of colleagues in the industry, all of whom would take pleasure in his humiliation. Having to finish his new film on a brutally short schedule is turning Ben’s life into a living hell. Everything is made all the worse by the studio chief Lou, the neurotic agent Dick, a screenwriter named Scott and the ambitious British director Jeremy – and worst of all, the audience in the first test screening, who loathe his film’s harsh finale. With this comedy based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Hollywood producer Art Linson (who also wrote the screenplay), director Barry Levinson takes a dig at his fellow filmmakers and ties in to the genre of classic Hollywood satire and his own successful 1997 film Wag the Dog. The star-studded film with Robert De Niro in the lead had its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance festival and enjoyed the keen interest of the audience at the closing ceremony of this year’s Cannes IFF.

About the director

Barry Levinson (b.1942, Baltimore, USA) studied journalism and made his name as a screenwriter first in television and later in film as well. He debuted as a director with the melodrama Bistro (1982 – Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay). While his filmography is dominated by drama projects (Bugsy, 1991 – Oscar nomination for Best Director, Sleepers, 1996, Rain Man, 1988 – Oscar for Best Director), it also includes an action/adventure film (Young Sherlock Holmes, 1985), a sci-fi (Sphere, 1998) and comedies (such as Wag the Dog, 1997). Levinson received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for the drama ...And Justice for All (dir. Norman Jewison, 1979) and also for the screenplay for his own film Avalon (1990). In 1990 he established the company Baltimore Productions which has produced works such as Kafka (dir. Steven Soderbergh) and Donnie Brasco (dir. Mike Newell, 1997).