Cannes 2008

[yoshimori]

Day 1

Opening Film.
Meirelles, Blindness. Grade: F. Laughable dialogue, one-dimensional characters, formally uninteresting. A silly allegory in which suddenly, inexplicably blinded folk are ghettoized and soon succumb to gang warfare and prostitution. Literally painful to watch.

Folman, Waltz with Bashir. Grade: C-. A semi-documentary animation about a Lebanese Christian group’s massacring of Palestinian Lebanese in the 80s. Slow-starting - the narrator “can’t remember” what happened “back then when I was in the army” and so goes from old friend to old friend trying to piece the thing together – the movie becomes engaging in the last half hour when it stops being dream-focused and wannabe-poetic and starts describing real events. The animation is technically poor and not particularly imaginative.

[colinr0380]

A Guardian round up of press so far and review of Waltz With Bashir. Also in the Guardian podcast Alice Braga talks of looking at Black Sun while researching for her role in Blindness.

[yoshimori]

A Guardian round up of press so far ...

Yes. That better sums it up. The Screen poll of international critics on Blindness averaged 1.5 out of 5 stars, all 1s and 2s.

Day 2 summary.

Tapero, Lion's Den. Competition. Grade: D. HBO-ish "Terrible Trials of a Clueless Single Mom in an Filthy Argentine Prison" movie. It's everything you expect given the content and nothing of interest.

McQueen (Steve), Hunger. Un certain regard. Camera d'or. Another prison flic. This one way more in-your-face. All about the brutalization of bodies. Brit prison guards whacking the hell out of IRA prisoners. Prisoners painting the walls of their cells with feces. Bobby Sands' hunger strike (and the vivid decay of his body) v. Thatcher's intransigence. Hard to watch and rarely worth it. One quite extraordinary fifteen minute take - a static conversation between Sands and an Irish priest - is spoiled by cutting in to reverse CUs in the middle of the shot. Grade: C.

Gondry, Carax, Bong, Tokyo! Un certain regard. Grades: C+, A-, C-. Gondry's movie's about a young woman who's dating a pretentious filmmaker and who turns into a chair. A couple good laughs and nice woman-to-chair transition effects. Carax's movie is shockingly hilarious racism; a sewer-dweller (Denis Lavant) teaches the stiff, repressed Japanese how to be human. Bong's short is pointless quirk and sap.

Ceylan, Three Monkeys. Competition. More drama (minor political intrigue, infidelity, murder) than in his earlier work, and overall more beautiful, but still very slow burning. A couple of amazing shots of a dripping boy mid-film. Stylistically solid. A muddled ending. Grade: B

Skolimowski, Four Nights with Anna. Director's Fortnight. Grade: C+. Black comedy elements which teased us (for about the opening ten minutes only) with memories of 60s Polanski and Skolimowski. In introducing the film, JS said, after 17 years without a film, "I'm back". Sadly ...

Looking forward to the Desplechin tomorrow. I declare it the best of the fest in advance.

[John Cope]

Didn't feel like starting a whole new thread on this but I did want to point people to Variety's review of Thomas Clay's Soi Cowboy. I'm very intrigued by this follow up to his great Great Ecstasy but I'm most intrigued by the fact that his lenser is Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who has worked with Apichatpong as well. I'm not sure whether Clay's continued use of world class cinematographers (Giorgos Arvanitis on Great Ecstasy) testifies to an inherent wisdom or an inherent capitulation to known and reliable effects. I'm inclined to think it's the former as the results last time were tremendous and suggested a very real understanding of the potency of compositional technique integrated within a larger formal or narrative structure, not just as an aesthetic high for its own sake. Still, that film was and remains difficult to say anything definitive about so I reserve judgment on whether Clay is the real deal or just an "allusionist" who got lucky. Did you see Soi Cowboy, yoshi?

[yoshimori]

Did you see Soi Cowboy, yoshi?

Yep. See below. Though I didn't care for The Great Ecstasy, I doubt you'll be disappointed with Soi Cowboy.

Day 3

Desplechin, A Christmas Tale. Competition. Grade: A. Classic Desplechin. Superb acting, hilarious and wacky characters, uniquely Desplechin/Galtier compositions and use of fades and eclectic music. What struck me this time was Desplechin’s and his editor’s utter economy of scene. Ten times as many scenes here (in a breezy 2.5 hours) as in the typical Hollywood film. You feel like you’ve spent days with these people. A few missteps (a rather dull painter character who seems perhaps to close to the writer’s heart for the editor to pair down), for example.

Na, The Chaser. Out of Competition. First film. Korean serial killer detective movie which has a nice premise – the killer, an impotent Korean Christian with a crucifixion fixation, likes to hammer spikes into the heads of his prostitute victims. The thing borrows tropes from a host of similar movies but, sadly, organizes them in a way which makes very little sense. Grade: D

Clay, Soi Cowboy. Un certain regard. This will no doubt be the most rigorously hideous and personal and frustrating and interesting movie of the festival. Though not as good as a Weerasethakul film – the Thai setting and several moments explicitly bring Tropical Malady and Mysterious Object at Noon to mind – this puts the Thai director’s work to shame re formal severity. The first hour is near unwatchable (tons of walk-outs and hoots) as a moronic, fat pig director stand-in (initials T.C.) bangs on a laptop while his tiny, pregnant, vacuous Thai girlfriend watches TV. This goes on for a long time. He showers and showers and showers. They sleep. TC calls Europe wondering whether the financing for his movie is coming through. Sadly, no. Shot on what looks like 16mm Tri-X, super grainy, with horribly mundane compositions. By the time most of the audience has left the theater, TC and girlfriend walk past a wall of a temple, disappear from the frame, then film fades to black. When it fades up after some leader scratchings, it’s in color and features characters most of whom we’ve not seen before. TC and his wife have apparently been forgotten. The new film has a new camera style and some little bit of drama but doesn’t try to make the least bit of sense. Explicit reference, in the first part of the film, to Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE, seems apropos at this point. Grade: this movie is beyond grading. (My friend would say, “I proclaim it an utter masterpiece, but don’t make me watch it!” ... I might in fact watch it again.)

Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Out of Competition. Slightly sub-par for even late period Allen.

[colinr0380]

Looking forward to your posts each day yoshimori! A couple of positive reviews of the Desplechin film from Glenn Kenny and the BBC festival blog:

It's a classic French family drama - lots of talking, heavy on the philosophy - but that's no bad thing in my book.

Catherine Deneuve stars as Junon, a radiant matriarch whose first child died of a rare blood disorder at the age of six, throwing relations with her other children into turmoil.

Things are particularly strained with Henri, the son she had in the fruitless hope his bone marrow could save his brother. Things get worse for Henri when his wife dies, and his sister banishes him from the family fold. Mathieu Almaric brings the character to life with a bravura performance that perfectly balances desperation and humour.

But the family is forced back together when Junon, too, is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

As with all great family sagas (I was reminded of Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums), things unravel when the siblings gather under duress. Among the standout scenes are Henri scaling a wall to escape his sister, and a Christmas play which shows that two of Junon's grandchildren have been absorbing the adult tensions around them.

At two-and-a-half hours, it is perhaps a little overlong, but it is by many miles the best film of the festival so far.

[foggy eyes]

Clay, Soi Cowboy. Un certain regard. This will no doubt be the most rigorously hideous and personal and frustrating and interesting movie of the festival. Though not as good as a Weerasethakul film – the Thai setting and several moments explicitly bring Tropical Malady and Mysterious Object at Noon to mind – this puts the Thai director’s work to shame re formal severity.

This sounds way more interesting than I expected. I was reading an article in The Guardian on Clay the other day, and the film was described as follows (the article doesn't appear to be online, so here's a transcript):

The new film takes its name from a street in Bangkok's red-light district, and is in two parts. The first half, the writer-director explains, is about a "bar-girl and her client, looking at the details of their life together", shot in the spirit of classic European arthouse cinema - in particular, the work of Clay's beloved Antonioni. It isn't, he says, necessarily a study of a white western male exploiting a Thai woman. "It's not, despite initial appearances, necessarily clear who is exploiting who, and who is complicit in what." The second half is more "inspired by genre cinema. It's like a gangster narrative."

After reading that, I was thinking that the film sounded pretty disastrous, and certainly didn't expect anything as unusual, intriguing and seemingly perverse as yoshimori's description - thanks for the report!

[yoshimori]

I don't think anyone will think the first half of the new Clay is Antonioni-esque, certainly not aesthetically. In content too it seems way more early Akerman than Antonioni.

There're a couple of bits of Thai gangster genre elements in the second part, but it's still very subdued. Interestingly though, the first half is soooo slow, that the two or three plot beats we get in the second half make it seem like an action film by comparison.

[Grimfarrow]

I utterly disagree on TOKYO! - the best by far is Bong Joon-ho's part. The rest sucked.
Desplechin might be thebest film yet at the fest.

[Michael Kerpan]

I utterly disagree on TOKYO! - the best by far is Bong Joon-ho's part. The rest sucked.
Desplechin might be the best film yet at the fest.

Variety liked Tokyo!

OT -- have you seen PER's Ploy yet -- and is it something to wait hopefully for?

[AWA]

Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Out of Competition. Slightly sub-par for even late period Allen.

According the reviews coming, absolutely not. Glowing reviews, even one from one of Woody's worst critics at Time who declares it his best since Crimes & Misdemeanors.

But you're entitled to your opinion, however harsh the standards may be. Keep the reviews coming!

[yoshimori]

OT -- have you seen PER's Ploy yet -- and is it something to wait hopefully for?

Ploy was in the Director's Fortnight last year. I liked it, but it's very minimalist.

[Michael Kerpan]

Ploy was in the Director's Fortnight last year. I liked it, but it's very minimalist.

Still no DVD anywhere, so far as I can tell. ;~{

[yoshimori]

Still no DVD anywhere, so far as I can tell. ;~{

You're right. I'm disappointed, though not especially surprised, since its commercial viability is probably limited. [But it's better by far, if you ask me, than Last Life or the other Chris Doyle shot freighter + Macau sous chef slash murder movie whose name I forget, but unlike those, Ploy has no name stars.]

[colinr0380]

Invisible Waves

[miless]

Invisible Waves

That movie was great... it was like a lonely gangster Tati film. As if Melville and Tati had collaborated.

[yoshimori]

Day 4

Bonello, De la guerre. Directors' Fortnight. B/B+. Mathieu Amalric plays a filmmaker named Bertrand who obsesses over death and spends two weeks in Asia Argento's bizarro "militant but not belligerent" retreat camp. Activities there include crawling through sand, dancing in a forest for extended periods of time, three days with no food, sleep or speech, and bedtime stories from de Sade. What it all adds up to, I'm not sure. But it was engaging. Argento is hotter han ever as the Clausewitz reading "new music" composer-slash-messiah. A strange (and not very satisfying) homage/parody of Apocalypse Now and Tropical Malady at the end.

Jia, 24 City. Competition. Beautifully composed doc - though it's hard not to beautifully compose factories. I'll be surprised, though, if many will be interested in the stories former workers tell about the relocation of their factory to Chengdu. I wasn't. But I do like to watch regular people explain themselves, and this movie let me do that. On the down side, the couple of professional actors here seemed hollow compared to the non-pros.

Mendoza, Serbis. Somehow in competition. I don't like any Mendoza movie I've seen. This one was a family drama cum sex pic set in a run-down porn theater. Lots of Tsai Ming-liang tropes, but none of the lightness and charm. Heavy-handed, inconsistent soundtrack of over-mixed street noise.

Kurosawa, Tokyo Sonata. Un certain regard. In the vein of License to Live - a dysfunctional family drama - but more muted. Very carefully made. The best parts were all in the second half, where Kurosawa's sense of comedy finally showed ... and set up the flood-of-tears (for me, at least) ending.

[Grimfarrow]

I'm glad you liked TOKYO SONATA I'm so so so happy with the response.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Ploy was in the Director's Fortnight last year. I liked it, but it's very minimalist.

Still no DVD anywhere, so far as I can tell. ;~{

It's out in Thailand. No English subs on the disc but fansubs are out there. It's arguably more of a mood piece than even Last Life or Invisible Waves -- another paper-thin storyline and more zombified protagonists, but with baffling dream sequences (maybe even dream sequences-within-dream sequences, I never quite figured it out) and a barely-related subplot (if it can even be called that) to keep interest up. The early reports that it was more in the vein of 6ixtynin9 than Last Life/Waves struck me as horseshit after I actually watched it, but in retrospect, they have a similar fever-dream quality.

I managed to get through all nine hours of Tie Xi Qu and was only infrequently bored, so 24 City sounds right up my alley. I didn't realize it would lean so heavily towards the documentary side of things (although Still Life pointed in that direction). And on a sour note: why the hell does Variety keep letting Derek Elley review Jia's films, or anything even slightly non-mainstream for that matter? I can't even figure out what he's trying to say in that third-from-last paragraph. And naturally it would "benefit from trimming by 15-20 minutes" -- I'm guessing he has that phrase permanently on his clipboard.

[yoshimori]

why the hell does Variety keep letting Derek Elley review Jia's films, or anything even slightly non-mainstream for that matter?

Amen.

[whaleallright]

Jia, 24 City. Competition. Beautifully composed doc - though it's hard not to beautifully compose factories. I'll be surprised, though, if many will be interested in the stories former workers tell about the relocation of their factory to Chengdu. I wasn't. But I do like to watch regular people explain themselves, and this movie let me do that. On the down side, the couple of professional actors here seemed hollow compared to the non-pros.

Is this a doc, or a fiction film, or some kind of hybrid?

[ellipsis7]

LINHA DE PASSE by Salles & Thomas? A couple of reviews say it's interesting, sharp filmmaking, but not particularly groundbreaking... Anyone seen it?....

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Is this a doc, or a fiction film, or some kind of hybrid?

It's a hybrid -- the Screen Daily review seems like a decent précis. There's also the press kit on Cannes' website.

[sidehacker]

Kurosawa, Tokyo Sonata. Un certain regard. In the vein of License to Live - a dysfunctional family drama - but more muted. Very carefully made. The best parts were all in the second half, where Kurosawa's sense of comedy finally showed ... and set up the flood-of-tears (for me, at least) ending.

I'm really getting my hopes up for this one. I've always been fond of Kurosawa, but always thought he needed to get out of the "J-horror" genre. Now that he is, it looks like he's doing great things.

[yoshimori]

Yes. 24 City is a hybrid, though it pretends to be all doc. Funny, I detected only two of the supposedly four staged interviews (Joan Chen's of course and Zhao Tao's). I wonder which the others were.

I hope to see the Salles tonight.

Day 5 (so far)

Garrone, Gomorra. Competition. By-the-numbers drug and gang movie set in some Italian slums. Grade: D

Depardon, La vie moderne. Un certain regard. Disappointing doc, ostensibly about modern day family farming in France, from the director of 10th District Court. Chats with sometimes strange octogenarian farmers don’t add up to anything. Grade: C-

Spielberg, Indiana Jones and KOCS. Out of Competition. More fun than 2 and 3, but chase scenes are a bit rote. The principals’ ages are really showing. Constant jokes about “grandpa” and “old man” from the unwitting Henry Jones III seem a but too appropriate as Ford tries to negotiate his physically demanding role. Grade: well, you’ll probably like it if, like the enthusiastic crowd in the Lumiere, you’re IJ fans.