Cannes 2012

[Jeff]

The final ionCinema critics poll ranks Amour first, followed by Holy Motors and Beyond the Hills.

[Finch]

Variety reviews the Maniac remake.

[Jazzkammer]

To get some context, I recently watched my first (and likely last) Moretti film, the Son's Room.

Now his quote "I noted in general that several directors seemed more in love with their own style than with their characters" makes perfect sense: Moretti wouldn't appreciate style, because he has no unique style of his own, if the Son's Room is any indication. Are all his films as bland?

[FerdinandGriffon]

I think he's saying that, assuming one disregards the jurors' decisions because of politics, there's no use paying attention to the results; he's not saying that there are no politics involved in those decisions.

What I'm saying is that the politics make the results interesting regardless (and that if anything is "worthless," it is to turn a blind eye to the complexities of awards distribution in favor of a washed out fantasy).

[zedz]

To get some context, I recently watched my first (and likely last) Moretti film, the Son's Room.

Now his quote "I noted in general that several directors seemed more in love with their own style than with their characters" makes perfect sense: Moretti wouldn't appreciate style, because he has no unique style of his own, if the Son's Room is any indication. Are all his films as bland?

I haven't seen The Son's Room, but only because I'd seen three (or four? - who knows?) of his previous films and figured I didn't need to bother. For the record, his earlier films were wannabe Woody Allen affairs without any significant degree of style, humour or insight. If you find Woody too edgy or challenging, help yourself.

[thirtyframesasecond]

The Son's Room is very good, though the middle class family grieving due to death of child film has been done over and over. I haven't seen any others. His comedies never appealed.

[colinr0380]

The Son's Room is understandably rather downbeat and I seem to remember it not having that much to say about grief. Though perhaps there simply is nothing to say in that kind of situation. I don't remember much about it years after last seeing it, though the final shot of the film of the family walking disconnected that feels as if it is filmed from a car passing them by always stuck with me. That shot features at the end of this video.

I quite liked Caro Diario if only because Moretti does a much more effective proto-Borat performance in one section, stalking Jennifer Beals on his moped, shouting her name at her in broken English and expressing his love for Flashdance!

It's all very meta and I assume is showing Moretti, playing himself, working through a homage to Kiarostami's Close-Up - Caro Diario is his film-film, since along with Beals we get his musings after a screening of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and a visit to the beach where Pasolini was murdered. Aprile was its less successful companion film from a few years later.