Cannes 2011

[Nothing]

Can't abide Sorrentino's work and this looks to be no different.

[Alan Smithee]

beh. The IMDB synopsis makes it sound like a revenge story. Much like that Tree of Life clip, you can't judge a movie from a minute long clip.

[Finch]

Bradshaw on Midnight in Paris

[ianungstad]

Reviews for Midnight in Paris and Sleeping Beauty are pouring in.

The general consensus on Midnight in Paris seems to be that it's light fare but an above average outing from Woody Allen. A lot of comparisons to The Purple Rose of Cairo.

Sleeping Beauty got very poor reviews from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Even the more positive reviews (ex. Indiewire) admit that the film has some pretty major problems. Most of the reviews note that the characters are obtuse and one dimensional and the film's emotional punches tend to fall flat. Sounds like a turkey.

[Finch]

French director Robert Guédiguian won't be watching Midnight in Paris because he objects to Carla Bruni's cameo and the fact that Allen shook hands with her controversial clown president husband. Of all the reasons to not watch the picture, this has got to be the stupidest.

[Finch]

Instant reaction on Kevin from Time Out's Dave Calhoun

Lynne Ramsay's We Need To Talk About Kevin v strong. Powerful. Top photography. Swinton mesmerising. Provocative. V creepy turn from boy.

Glenn Heath from Slant on Midnight in Paris, Bellflower & Sleeping Beauty

[Nothing]

it would appear that the world has ended - the British press like the new Lynne Ramsay film Still, if this can help folks forget about Andrea Arnold then I'm all for it.

Although it's doubtful whether the film deserved a competition place, I would take the Variety / THR reviews of Sleeping Beauty with a pinch of salt also - they're both approaching things from an extremely limited commercial (and uptight) perspective. Where's Todd McCarthy when you need him?

Snowtown sounds sort-of interesting, although I am dicouraged by the thought of yet another handheld camera.

[Finch]

Kevin press conference (contains spoilerish discussion of the final scene, so be aware)
So stoked for this. Bring it on, Artificial Eye (currently slated for 4 July UK release)!

[Jeff]

Van Sant's Restless, meanwhile, is getting eviscerated.

[Alan Smithee]

Damn. I new it was a stretch to think Restless would overcome that trailer but I held out hope. I really hate when filmmakers get slots just because of who they are. If the film sucks don't include it. I know that's just one review but it confirms everything I assumed. The festival organizers have to know it's bad.

[Duncan Hopper]

Not surprised by this at all, the trailer is vile!

[Nothing]

Oh dear, Todd McCarthy just slaughtered it.

The trailer is gobsmackingly awful, it has to be said, and dumping the film into UCR was quite a smack down for a past Palme d'Or winner. And then there's the delayed September release date (hoping to ride out the bad Cannes buzz...?!) I imagine Gus has got the message...

p.s. I feel sorry for Jasper Newell, the 6-year-old in We Need to Talk About Kevin - everyone keeps on talking about what a convincing psychopath he makes... Kirk Honeycutt says he has "the evil eye... the mind behind those eyes clicking away with devious plots"! It's only up from here, I guess

[Finch]

Same McCarthy concludes his generally positive take on Ramsay's film thus:

All these narrative tricks and the intense scrutiny on a single character do put a viewer at a remove from these events, however. This is a coolly cerebral film with odd music choices - everything from the Beach Boys to vintage country - and a few odd images such as a microscopic view of breast cancer cells dividing, apropos of absolutely nothing. It's a film to think about and debate over but not one to embrace.

[Finch]

Weinsteins buy film noir/martial arts hybrid Wu Xia but decide the title is too complicated for Western audiences and rename it as Dragon. Harvey excelling at what he does best: patronising his audiences. ](*,)

[Cosmic Bus]

Weinsteins have also picked up Michel Hazanavicius' silent The Artist. Bets on how long before Harvey announces they'll be adding a dub track for the US?

[zedz]

Same McCarthy concludes his generally positive take on Ramsay's film thus:

All these narrative tricks and the intense scrutiny on a single character do put a viewer at a remove from these events, however. This is a coolly cerebral film with odd music choices - everything from the Beach Boys to vintage country - and a few odd images such as a microscopic view of breast cancer cells dividing, apropos of absolutely nothing. It's a film to think about and debate over but not one to embrace.

Oh shit, not another of those films where you have to think. Didn't we get enough of those last year (i.e. four)?

[ianungstad]

Reviews from the press screening of Polisse are coming in. Reviews are mixed. The film apparently has really strong elements but it seems like a lot of people found that it crammed too much story and subplots into it's running time and the pacing is too episodic. A few have mentioned that the ending doesn't quite work either. Positives outweigh the negatives I guess.

We Need to Talk About Kevin seems to be the best reviewed film in the main competition so far.

[tavernier]

Manohla

[Nothing]

"Imagine HBO's The Wire streamlined and simplified by a French socialite posing as an artist. Polisse is a true crime."

Eew, sounds abominable - and yet likely to win something.

this immaculately produced, claustrophobic and unpersuasive drama turns on the shell-shocked mother (Tilda Swinton) of a 15-year-old bad seed who sprouts into a cartoon psycho. Ms. Ramsay sabotages her refined visual style with the bluntness of her storytelling, washing the screen with red and turning Kevin into a demon child of near-parodic proportions.

A more balanced appraisal? Although I'd lay the likely bluntness of the storytelling at the door of the BBC/UKFC as much as Ramsay herself (and given a free reign, is this the film she would have chosen to make?) Still, it does sound like one of the ones to watch so far, along with Sleepiing Beauty and Snowtown.

[Nothing]

Kim Ki-Duk's Arirang may be the first truly must-see film of the festival - derided in most quarters as preposterously self-indulgent, if not utterly deranged, yet already claimed as a masterpiece by others, it makes Brown Bunny sound like a journeyman's calling card...

[Finch]

It'd appear that the international press has taken more kindly to Moretti's Pope movie than in native Italy though the consensus seems to be that it's merely pleasant enough to pass the time.

[John Cope]

This resource, for instance, gives the impression that the international press has had a very different reaction overall to the screenings so far (i.e. the very high marks for Habemus Papam and Polisse; the genrally more measured reaction to the Ramsay film, etc.).

[rs98762001]

That's not the "international" press you linked to, it's the French press. And everyone knows you can't trust them....

[ianungstad]

Some reviews for Michael and The Kid with the Bike have emerged. Michael seems to be getting good reviews in spite of some petty dicey subject matter. (Could be a strong contender for the Camera D'or) Indiiewire says the latest from the Dardennes is a letdown.

[knives]

People said that about Lorna's Silence and that was as good as their other efforts even if the crying was a bit much.