Cannes 2007

[yoshimori]

Somehow I didn't notice you had already said you were going to see this when I posted.

That's what I figured. I just read it as funny.

In any case, the Kawase was Kawase-y, a kind of Kawase retread. For me, contentwise, this new film is not up to the standards of Moe no Suzaku or Shara. Here, the action and especially the performance of the "senile old man" are overwrought. There are some excellent images and a "powerful" ending but I was somewhat resistent to the beautiful last shots given the hour of non-stop angst that preceded. Of course, you'll judge for yourself, since her earlier work demands one watch this too.

I love her camera operator. Very natural, yet idiosyncratically hers.

The Kusturica was, sadly, unwatchable. Three gags a minute, not one of which is funny. I was hoping for something of a return to the fun of Underground after his funny, light-hearted short in the All the Little Children compilation film, but no. Promise Me This is all horrible "comic" acting, heavy-handedness, and a dreadful score by Kusturica's son.

Off to London for four days' rest. No idea what will win here tomorrow, and I don't really care. My favorite was the van Sant, though it too didn't wow me like Elephant did. There's no Tropical Malady or anything like that this year, sadly. [Though, as noted above, I didn't see the Coens' pic.]

Grades!
A-: van Sant
B+: Sokurov, Andersson
B: Corbijn, shorts by Moretti/Wong/Tsai
B-: Seidl, Zviaguintsev, Kim, Ratanaruang, Kawase, Korine (A for 15 minutes, D for the rest),

C and below: Wong, Hou (F), Winterbottom, Lee Chang-dong (C+), Tarr, Philibert (sadly), Schnabel, Kusturica (F), and many others who shall remain nameless.

[Nothing]

Sorry, but no Winterbottom film is equal to a Tarr film, it's not mathematically possible

Hmm. Predictions?

Palme d'Or: Diving Bell & the Butterfly
Grand Prix: Alexandra, or Persepolis if they're wanting to jam a woman in there
Jury Prize: 4 Months, 3 weeks & 2 days
Director: Fincher or Coens (pic and mix)

Any thoughts on the Breillat? Sounds wonderful.

[marty]

Currently in Paris for a few days after an exhaustive Cannes festivale. My fave film xas Julian Schnabels THE DIVING BELL AND HE BUTTERFLY which will win some award and I heard it has been picked up for Australia already for a high fee. This film will be nominates come Oscar ti,e for sure. The worst films were MISTER LONELY and PARANOID PARK. Both films feel incomplete and need a lot more work. Gus Van Sant was all style in first 20 minutes and then it started to get interesting with the murder investigation and then went nowhere. Very irritating. MISTER LONELY is one of he very worst films I have ever seen. There is nothing redeeming about it. I liked IMPORT EXPORT but then again I like looking at womens assholes. I also liked SICKO which was way more moving and less manipulative than FARENHEIT 911. James Grays WE OWN THE NIGHT was also great and my second best film.

If anyone in Paris knows if I can catch INKAND EMPIRE in a cinema here please let me know as I went to the David Lynch exhibition at Foundation Cartier today and I feel inspired to see it. Australia is releasing it some time in 2012, I believe.

This French keyboard is giving me the shits so I will write more when I return.

[Michael Kerpan]

Grades!
A-: van Sant
B+: Sokurov, Andersson
B: Corbijn, shorts by Moretti/Wong/Tsai
B-: Seidl, Zviaguintsev, Kim, Ratanaruang, Kawase, Korine (A for 15 minutes, D for the rest),
C and below: Wong, Hou (F), Winterbottom, Lee Chang-dong (C+), Tarr, Philibert (sadly), Schnabel, Kusturica (F), and many others who shall remain nameless.

You really disagree with almost everything I've read on the HHH film. Did you ever provide any reason why you loathe this so much?

[colinr0380]

Any thoughts on the Breillat? Sounds wonderful.

Here is a review.

[Nothing]

Amusing Todd McCarthy article. The French 'bias' against The Diving Bell & the Butterfly must surely be anti-Americanism... couldn't possibly be a problem with the film... and the Tarr/Reygadas films are not for ordinary eyes

[MichaelB]

They assign the French keyboards to non speakers to get a laugh, just stand your ground.

You should try using one of the terminals at the Sarajevo Film Festival - it took me a good 24 hours to find the apostrophe.

[chaddoli]

COMPETITION

Palme d'Or: "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," directed by Cristian Mungiu

Grand Prix (runner-up): "The Mourning Forest" (Mogari No Mori), directed by Naomi Kawase

Prix de la Mise en Scene (Best Director): Julian Schnabel for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon)

Prix du 60th Anniversaire: Gus Van Sant, director of "Paranoid Park"

Prix du Scenario (Best Screenplay Award): Fatih Akin for "The Edge of Heaven" (Auf Der Anderen Siete)

Camera d'Or (For best first feature): "Meduzot," directred by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen

Camera d'Or Special Mention: "Control," directed by Anton Corbijn

Prix du Jury (Jury Prize) (tie): "Persepolis," directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud; and "Stellet Licht," directed by Carlos Reygadas

Prix d'interpretation feminine (Best Actress): Jeon Do-yeon for "Secret Sunshine" by Lee Chang-dong

Prix d'interpretation masculine (Best Actor): Constantine Lavronenko for "Izgnanie" by Andrei Zviaguintsev

Court-Metrage (Short Film):
Palme d'Or (short film): "Ver Llover," directed by Elisa Miller
Prix Du Jury: - TBA -

UN CERTAIN REGARD
Prix Un Certain Regard - Fondation Gan Pour le Cinema: "California Dreamin'" (Nesfarsit), directed by Christian Nemescu
Prix Special du Jury Un Certain Regard: "Actresses," directed by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi
Jury Coup de Coeur: "Bikur Hatizmoret" (The Band's Visit) directed by Eran Kolirin

CINEFONDATION
Premier Prix: "Ahora Todos Parecen Contentos" (Now Everybody Seems to Be Happy), directed by Gonzalo Tobal (Universidad del Cine, Argentina)
Second Prize: "Ru Dao" (Way Out), directed by Chen Tao (Beijing Film Academy, China)
Third Prize (shared): "A Reunion," directed by Hong Sung-Hoon (The Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA), South Korea) and "Minus," directed by Pavle Vuckovic (Fakultet Dramskih Umetnosti, Serbia)

OTHER AWARDS:

Directors' Fortnight:
Prix Regards Jeunes (Young Eyes Prize): "Control," directed by Anton Corbijn
Prix Art et Essai: "Garage," directed by Lenny Abrahamson
Label Europa Cinéma Prize: "Control," directed by Anton Corbijn
SACD Prize for Best Short Film: "Meme pas Mort," directed by Claudine Natkin

International Critics' Week:
Grand Prize: "XXY," directed by Lucia Puenzo
The SACD French Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Award: "Meduzot," directed by Etgar Keret Shira Geffen
The Canal + Grand Prize - Best Short Film: "Madame Tutli-Putli," directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Sczerbowski

FIPRESCI - Official Selection Prize: "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days," directed by Cristian Mungiu
FIPRESCI - Critics' Week and Directors' Fortnight Prize: "Elle s'appelle Sabine," directed by Sandrine Bonnaire

Ecumenical Jury Prize: "The Edge of Heaven," directed by Fatih Akin

Youth Prize: "The Band's Visit," directed by Eran Kolirin

French National Education Administration Prize: "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days," directed by Cristian Mungiu

Prix France-Culture (career achievement): Rithy Panh

[Grimfarrow]

One of the films that really impressed me was MUNGYURANGABO, in Un Certain Regard. Too bad it didn't win the Camera d'Or.

[marty]

Just returned from Paris and Cannes yesterday morning and back at work this morning so still a bit vague.

On a rainy Sunday afternoon in Paris last week, I thought it would be good to go catch a film at a cinema. Unless you are fluent in French, you can't see any foreign-langauge films as they are either dubbed or subtitled in French only which is a bugger since the cinemas were showing some really interesting French films. The only chance of seeing a movie in Paris is at select cinemas showing English-language films that are not dubbed in French and have French subtitles instead.

So I decided to go see Zodiac as I missed it in Cannes and the only other films that were not dubbed was Pirates 3 and Spiderman 3.

I thought Zodiac was terrific and its 2.5 hrs running time breezed by. The performances were great and the film's narrative structure was clever but subtle. It reminded me of the great films of the 1970s and I immediately thought of All the President's Men, especially the production design of the newsroom offices. I don't quite understand the criticisms of the film where some people are peeved off at the film's ambigious and unresolved ending. Did they see the same film? It is clearly obvious who the killer was, they just didn't catch him in real life before he died. Are audiences so dumbed down these days that they need everything spoon-fed to them as if they have the intellect of a 10 year-old (sorry make that 6 year old).

This brings me to another observation I made whilst watching the film. If the box office is said to be dying around the world, then no-one told the French. Every night there were queues outside in the rain at the cinemas in Paris and the screening I saw on Sunday afternoon was 95% full (let me know what 300 seat cinema in Australia is 95% full on a Sunday afternoon).

Also, despite Zodiac's leisurely-paced narrative and its 2.5 hrs running time, the French cinema audience was amazingly silent and attentive (I only saw one person get up to go to the bathroom). The film was screening at a multi-plex Pathe cinema so I was absolutely astonished at the silence of the cinema audience throughout the entire film. As for pure cinema watching sophistication and maturity, the French have us beaten hands down. In our mutliplex cinema, we would get our idle and fiddly crowd talking and moving around the cinema. It was one of the best cinema experiences I have had in recent years.

[Lemmy Caution]

Is there a thread devoted to the 33 short films which were part of the 60th anniversary of Cannes?

Was wondering about reactions, and wanted to add my own impressions. Well, here goes (it can always be moved).

I appreciated that the short film series was dedicated to Fellini, and a number of the 3-minute films paid homage to the Maestro. I think my favorite was Konchalovsky's sweet tribute to 8 1/2, complete with a couple in heat in the back of the theater.

My other favorite would be Walter Salles impressive tambourine-singing duet/ cut-down contest, which cleverly referenced Cannes.

The films mostly confirmed my previous impressions of various directors' work.

Chinese directors were well-represented with 5 entries. Zhang YiMou and Chen Kaige had nice homages to Fellini set among the Chinese countryside. I preferred Zhang's stylish, earthy film over Chen's more artificial approach. Hou H-H and Wong Kar-Wai made nice looking films which seemed a bit empty and simple to me. I think Tsai Ming Liang's arty, nostalgic depiction of film-going was the best of the lot.

The Middle Eastern directors (Youssef Chahine, Amos Gitai, Abbas Kiarostami) turned in some of the least interesting of the 33 films. But I can't recall Elia Suleiman's entry, which isn't much of an endorsement either.

Otherwise, Egoyan and Cronenberg work solidly within their familiar interests. Aki Kaurismaki and Gus Van Sant were let downs. Polanski and Von Trier both went in for black humor, each with a 2 1/2 minute build-up and then the punchline. VT's was more amusing and successful, while Polanski's was a bit too obvious.

Jane Campion had the most unusual approach (along with Salles), but her entry seemed largely unrelated to the others and the overall theme of film-going experiences. The Dardennes had a nice take on a pretty young girl watching the ending of Au Hasard Balthasar (which now that I think of it, their film has more layers than I realized at first ... and is moving up in my estimation). Innaritu had the best of the three films which involved a blind movie-goer.

Angelopolous had one of the more nostalgic films, featuring an aged and hoarse Jeanne Moreau conversing with the image of Marcello Mastroianni. I think this was recreating a scene from Antonioni's La Notte ... reminding me that I need to see that as soon as it's available here. Not having seen La Notte, I didn't fully catch what was going on here.

And speaking of not having seen a film, for some reason the Coen Bros. entry is missing from the Dvd. Not sure what that means.
Well, all these paragraphs and I'm still missing a good dozen films from this post.

Lastly, Ken Loach made a fun film which could play in the lobby of all theaters. Which leads to the question how these films will be shown in the future. Are they just going to be slapped on a dvd and forgotten, or is there any plan to show these before screenings in theaters, beyond Cannes?

[Grimfarrow]

Von Trier's short was hilarious!

HATED Gitai's with a passion - what utter nonsense. Chahine's was a complete self-congratulatory mess.

Zhang/Chen - Both had insufferable happy peasant children - all that nostalgic China BS.

Tsai's is great, but the 20-minute version showing at the Venice Biennale is even better.

[Jeff]

Is there a thread devoted to the 33 short films which were part of the 60th anniversary of Cannes?

yes

[Lemmy Caution]

Is there a thread devoted to the 33 short films which were part of the 60th anniversary of Cannes?

yes

Thanks for the linkage, though that thread hasn't generated much discussion yet. After I posted here, I realized that Cannes is over and done, so I wouldn't be interrupting anything.

GF, I didn't know that Tsai had made a 20 minute version. Not sure where/how to catch that (unless it makes it on to the Internet).
I hope more people get to see these films.

[Grimfarrow]

GF, I didn't know that Tsai had made a 20 minute version. Not sure where/how to catch that (unless it makes it on to the Internet).
I hope more people get to see these films.

Like I said, you can catch it at the Venice Biennale. I think he's planning on setting up the installation at other places around the world after as well. So if you live near a MOMA or so then you will have a good chance
maybe... But no festival plans for now it seems.