Cannes 2012

[Michael Kerpan]

Well, I'm drawing my conclusions from plot synopses - but I'm prepared to eat my words of course.

And we all know cinema is about plot outlines, right? ;~{

[MichaelB]

I doubt Nothing was going from a plot synopsis when he insisted that Béla Tarr's The Man from London was a shoo-in for the Palme d'Or!

["membrillo"]

Funny fact, 23 y.o. Xavier Dolan was extremely disappointed to be "only" in Un Certain Regard... He was expecting a Palme d'or for his third film... What a funny character...

He should consider himself extremely lucky. Was anyone else able to make it through all of Heartbeats? I tried, I really tried.

Excuse my ignorance, but do people in Montreal really speak french with thick english accents?

[Hail_Cesar]

[quote=""membrillo""]
Excuse my ignorance, but do people in Montreal really speak french with thick english accents?[/quote]
I'm not sure to understand your question. When they speak french you ear an English accent or when they speak English you hear some kind of British accent?

[Drucker]

[quote=""membrillo""]Excuse my ignorance, but do people in Montreal really speak french with thick english accents?

I'm not sure to understand your question. When they speak french you ear an English accent or when they speak English you hear some kind of British accent?[/quote]
Based on the two weekends I've spent in Montreal, people switch between French and English with great ease, and there is no trouble because of an accent at all!

["membrillo"]

[quote=""membrillo""]
Excuse my ignorance, but do people in Montreal really speak french with thick english accents?

I'm not sure to understand your question. When they speak french you ear an English accent or when they speak English you hear some kind of British accent?[/quote]
The former: "When they speak french you ear an English accent"

In other words, someone who's first language is English not french. So when they speak french, they have a thick accent.

[thirtyframesasecond]

I really enjoyed it. It's very much indebted to French New Wave but the kid's only 23 and a very promising talent. He's obviously getting slightly ahead of himself though.

[quote=""membrillo""]

Funny fact, 23 y.o. Xavier Dolan was extremely disappointed to be "only" in Un Certain Regard... He was expecting a Palme d'or for his third film... What a funny character...

He should consider himself extremely lucky. Was anyone else able to make it through all of Heartbeats? I tried, I really tried.

Excuse my ignorance, but do people in Montreal really speak french with thick english accents?[/quote]

[willoneill]

[quote=""membrillo""]In other words, someone who's first language is English not french. So when they speak french, they have a thick accent.[/quote]
We prefer the terms "Frenglish" or "Franglais"

[Mr Sausage]

[quote=""membrillo""]

[quote=""membrillo""]
Excuse my ignorance, but do people in Montreal really speak french with thick english accents?

I'm not sure to understand your question. When they speak french you ear an English accent or when they speak English you hear some kind of British accent?[/quote]
The former: "When they speak french you ear an English accent"

In other words, someone who's first language is English not french. So when they speak french, they have a thick accent.[/quote]
No, they don't speak French with an English accent.

[Alan Smithee]

I didn't think Heartbeats was very good, but I recognize he has talent. I guess we can chalk up the hubris to something along the lines of the young Von Trier. He wasn't a Palme talent to start with but kept insisting he was until he really was one.

[Hail_Cesar]

Someone could just move that in a «Pardon my french» or «Vive la poutine!» topic...

The characters in Heartbeats speaks with a very ostentatious tone to fit with the constant hipster auto derision. Although in Montreal Downtown and in the west people switch regularly from English to French. In the rest of Quebec almost everybody speaks french though...

Other funny Xavier Dolan story, on tv before an interview he insisted to say that the spokesman for the current student movement was "very sexy". After that, the interviewer asked what was the difference between the two section and he said «in Compétition officielle you compete for the Palme d'or, and in Un certain regard its for... well... its for nothing...»

[domino harvey]

Well, if anyone deserves to be recognized for nothing, it's Dolan!

[Alan Smithee]

Well I definitely mean that Von Trier grew into the inflated ego. Finally started writing checks that he actually was capable of cashing. If I were to choose I'd say Dolan doesn't even belong in Un Certain Regard based on his two previous films.

[Saturnome]

OFFICIAL SELECTION (SHORTS)

"CHEF DE MEUTE" - Chloé Robichaud (Canada)

Quite disturbing to see an old classmate making it there! Maybe I should have followed that part of my class that later went to study film, in Montreal. Oh well

[puxzkkx]

The big question mark in the Official Selection - for me - is Yousry Nasrallah. It is always refreshing to see an African film In Competition but - those who have seen any of his previous films - what should we expect?

[yoshimori]

Critics' Week features:

Antonio Mendez Esparza, Aqui y alla
Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Au gallop
David Lambert, Hors les murs
Vasan Bala, Peddlers
Alejandro Fadel, Los salvajes
Ilian Metev, Sofia's Last Ambulance
Meni Yaesh, Les voisins de dieu
Rufus Norris, Broken
Alice Winocour, Augustine
Sandrine Bonnaire, J'enrage de son absence

All first features except the Bonnaire.

[puxzkkx]

The Mendez Esparza, de Lencquesaing, Lambert, Bala, Fadel, Metev and Yanesh films are In Competition. Norris, Winocour and Bonnaire are special screenings.

[puxzkkx]

Directors' Fortnight (Features)

3 - Pablo Stoll Ward
A RESPECTABLE FAMILY - Massoud Bakhshi
ALYAH - Elie Wajeman
CAMILLE REDOUBLE - Noémie Lvovsky
DANGEROUS LIAISONS - Hur Jin-ho
EL TAAIB - Merzak Allouache
ERNEST ET CÉLESTINE - Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar & Benjamin Renner
FOGO - Yulene Olaizola
GANGS OF WASSEYPUR - Anurag Kashyap
GRANNY'S FUNERAL - Bruno Podalydès
HOLD BACK - Rodney Ascher
INFANCIA CLANDESTINA - Benjamin Ávila
LA NOCHE DE ENFRENTE - Raúl Ruiz
LA SIRGA - William Vega
NO - Pablo Larraín
OPÉRATION LIBERTAD - Nicolas Wadimoff
ROOM 237 - Rachid Djaïdani
SIGHTSEERS - Ben Wheatley
SUEÑO Y SILENCIO - Jaime Rosales
THE KING OF PIGS - Yeun Sang-ho
THE WE AND THE I - Michel Gondry

Bakhshi, Ascher, Djaïdani, Vega, Yeun and Wajeman are first features. Stoll Ward, Yeun and Ascher are the only three films that are not world premieres.

Ruiz and Wheatley are special screenings - I assume this puts them out of competition but there is no indication on the website that this will be the case (yet). Gondry is the opening film and Lvovsky is the closing film.

This year's festival has an Indian film in each sidebar - MISS LOVELY by Ashim Ahluwalia in UCR, PEDDLERS by Vasan Bala in Critics Week and GANGS OF WASSEYPUR by Anurag Kashyap here. I wonder if that is a first?

[Michael Kerpan]

Either Japan and China have absolutely no good new films -- or Cannes just wasn't interested in Japan and China this year (but seems to be in love with South Korea). ;~}

I find it hard to imagine HUR Jin-ho taking on yet another adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons (I checked -- and it is). He is typically wonderfully low-key -- often compared to Ozu, but actually closer to Naruse. His previous film, A Good Rain Falls, his sweetest-natured (in the best possible way) film to date, never got the attention it deserved. So maybe he is going to an extreme opposite.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Well, Cannes put the new Wakamatsu and Lou Ye in Un Certain Regard, which might've been a bad sign at one point but indicates pretty much nothing these days. Other than that, there's a part-Japanese film in the main competition (Like Someone in Love is apparently entirely in Japanese with an all-Japanese cast), and Dangerous Liaisons is Chinese-produced with Chinese dialogue and settings. It looks like there were a lot of films that should've been ready and were simply turned down, though some of these were real stretches to begin with (Yang Shupeng? Really?). No doubt some of the rejects decided to wait for Venice instead of settling for the Directors' Fortnight, a pretty common tactic and one that also doesn't indicate much quality-wise.

[Michael Kerpan]

I knew that Hur's Dangerous Liaisons was Chinese -produced -- but didn't realize it was IN Chinese. A Good Rain Knows -- though set in China (mostly) -- had mostly English dialog (some Chinese and Korean, but not much, as the only common language of the two leads was English).

[puxzkkx]

Either Japan and China have absolutely no good new films -- or Cannes just wasn't interested in Japan and China this year (but seems to be in love with South Korea). ;~}

Only 11 films by Asian directors in the entire selection so far! Im and Hong in the Official Selection, Miike and Weerasethakul OOC, Wakamatsu, Lou and Ahluwalia in UCR, Bala in CW and Yeun, Hur and Kashyap here in DF.

And of course the Kiarostami film is in Japanese.

[Michael Kerpan]

Missed the UCR list when I made my comment...

In any event, I wasn't saying there were no _Asian_ films -- I was just noting the specific absence (in the other categories) of Japanese and Chinese films. No doubt that Korea is well-represented. ;~}

Kiarostami's film is "in Japanese" -- but it is not, strictly speaking, "a Japanese film".

[HistoryProf]

Man, Audiard, Loach, Cronenberg, Haneke, Dominik, Daniels, Hillcoat, Kiarostami, Nichols, and Loznitza all look like winners to me. Despite Shia Lebouf in Lawless, that looks like a fantastic 3rd feature from Hillcoat. Really looking forward to that.

and watch out France...a double dose of Matthew McConaughey on the way! I hope he goes shirtless on the red carpet.

[puxzkkx]

The jury is rumoured to be comprised of:

Ryan Gosling
Jean-Paul Gaultier
Diane Kruger
Emmanuelle Devos
Ewan McGregor
Raoul Peck
Alexander Payne

Take this with a grain of salt...