Cannes 2014

[Oedipax]

The only thing I feel like I've seen mostly universal raves for so far is Alonso's Juaja, which unfortunately isn't even in the main competition (and apparently only has one official screening).

[repeat]

Everything I've seen on Östlund's Turist (or Force Majeure by its international title) has been unanimously positive. Apparently it got a standing ovation at the screening as well.

[yoshimori]

> Alonso's Juaja
> Östlund's Turist

Tourist did get the biggest reaction at any press screening I've been to. Still, it's no Involuntary or PLAY. Spent the best part of an hour today chatting with Ostlund. Personable and obviously smart, but his (somewhat muddled) ideas about the end of his movie didn't quite make it onto the screen.

Jauja had a couple press screenings in addition to the official one. Haven't read the print reviews -- they'll probably be in the trades tomorrow -- but can assure you the reaction was not universally positive. I desperately wanted to see it, but couldn't. Hoping it'll play again Saturday during the repeat screenings of some of the Official Selection.

Another dreadful day today -- Jung, Ferran, Kawase.

Tomorrow morning the Dardennes, then an pre-official screening of the Dumont. I suspect the latter'll be the best film this fortnight. But, sadly, that won't be hard.

[Michael Kerpan]

I keep hoping Kawase will regain the prowess she had in her first films...

[John Cope]

But isn't this her masterpiece?

[Michael Kerpan]

But isn't this her masterpiece?

So it has been said.

(I wish I could track down the unsubbed Japanese VHS of Hotaru).

[James]

The only thing I feel like I've seen mostly universal raves for so far is Alonso's Juaja, which unfortunately isn't even in the main competition (and apparently only has one official screening).

Good, this is the film I'm most anticipating. It looks incredibly dreamlike. Hopefully Lisandro Alonso will finally get the recognition he deserves.

[yoshimori]

I keep hoping Kawase will regain the prowess she had in her first films...

Reaction last night was tepid. Some beautiful shots to be sure -- slightly more epic, slightly more 'nature doc'-ish than usual -- but little drama/richness that might justify the running time. Several of the folks sitting near me were dozing.

Nothing as engaging as Suzaku or Shara, if those're the films you have in mind.

[Finch]

A rave for the Dardennes' Two Days One Night

A tense dramatic situation and a subtly magnificent central performance from Marion Cotillard add up to an outstanding new movie from the Dardenne brothers: impassioned, exciting and moving – a Twelve Angry Men of the 21st-century workplace. Cotillard plays Sandra, a married woman with children who returns to work at a solar panel factory after a breakdown, only to find that the management have effectively made her the sacrificial victim of a Sophie's Non-Choice offered to the rest of the staff. (....) It is another great performance from Marion Cotillard, who does not look out of place, like a starry A-lister, in the more austere Dardenne habitat. She is restrained and dignified, and again Cotillard shows what a marvellous technical actor she is: every nuance and detail is readably present on her face. She is compelling and moving – and so is the film.

Scott Foundas' take

As much as she stood out from the crowd in her Oscar-winning turn as Edith Piaf, that’s how much Marion Cotillard blends into the unfettered working-class environs of “Two Days, One Night,” a typically superb social drama from directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. Rich in the Dardennes’ favored themes of work, family and the value of money, and infused with the suspense of a ticking-clock thriller, “Two Days” may be dismissed by some as more of the same from the Belgian siblings who rarely stray far from the industrial port town of Seraing. Yet within their circumscribed world, the Dardennes once again find a richness of human experience that dwarfs most movies made on an epic canvas. Cotillard’s presence will assure the widest exposure to date of any Dardenne effort, particularly in the U.S., where IFC will distribute later this year.

[Jeff]

Seems like every critic on Twitter is calling for un an unprecedented third Palme for les frères Dardenne.

Every day there's a new critical favorite. Glad to see that things are picking up after a slow first couple of days.

[Michael Kerpan]

Nothing as engaging as Suzaku or Shara, if those're the films you have in mind.

Those are them. ;~}

[Finch]

D'Angelo's Day 6 at Cannes

Two Days One Night

The Dardennes use this admittedly somewhat contrived scenario to fashion a magnificently complex cross-section of humanity, with each of Sandra’s co-workers occupying a slightly different place on the continuum from altruism to selfishness. Cannily, the brothers have made Sandra not some go-getting Erin Brockovich/Norma Rae type, but a woman who’s still battling depression and sometimes barely even has the energy to stand, much less beg for what seems to her like charity. Cotillard’s defeated-yet-persistent performance here eclipses her Oscar-winning work in La Vie En Rose, and she’s ably supported not just by Dardennes regular Fabrizio Rongione, as Sandra’s endlessly supportive husband, but by a stellar cast of unfamiliar faces who represent… well, all of us, at our best and worst. I tend to bridle when the word “humanism” gets tossed around in film reviews, but the extent to which Two Days, One Night (which deserves a less prosaic title) embraces humanity, in all its alternately affirming and debilitating messiness, genuinely feels profound. At this moment, I feel like it may be the Dardennes’ best film to date. But ask me again in exactly three years.

Bird People

Ferran’s last film, Lady Chatterley—an assured, slightly offbeat D.H. Lawrence adaptation—in no way suggested the go-for-broke combination of microscopic procedural anarchy and anthropomorphic whirlwind insanity seen here. Most other critics seem to strongly prefer the Audrey half (which features some of the most quietly impressive F/X work I’ve ever seen) to the Gary half, but to my mind, they complement each other perfectly—so perfectly, in fact, that the denouement that formally brings them together is unnecessary. That’s a quibble, though, as is my involuntary wincing at a cheesy “Space Oddity” needle drop. Bird People (which screened in Un Certain Regard, but should be in Competition) is exactly the kind of ambitious lunacy Cannes needs.

Still The Water

Cannes regular Naomi Kawase, by contrast, couldn’t be more invested, though in her case, that’s more liability than asset. Before the festival began, she declared Still The Water her masterpiece, and it’s at least a bit less tiresome than her previous films (Hanezu, The Mourning Forest, Shara, Suzaku), with some welcome familial warmth and some stirring shots of the Japanese coast. The film’s nominal story involves a terminally ill mother, a corpse found floating in the ocean, and a tentative teen romance; as usual, though, Kawase is mostly interested in having these characters speak her ideas aloud, handing them endless turgid dialogue about nature, death, and the link between the two. (When words won’t suffice, Kawase serves up unsimulated goat-slaughter footage; squeamish viewers should know that two get their throats cut here, with one dying slowly on camera over a period of several minutes.) Cannes’ love for this director is tough to fathom, as her films are always shapeless and ponderous, relying far too heavily on landscapes—like Malick minus the poetry, or with bad poetry substituted. She does win prizes, though (The Mourning Forest took the Grand Jury Prize in 2007, and Suzaku won the Caméra d’Or), so I guess it makes sense that she keeps getting invited back. Does anyone who doesn’t go to Cannes ever see her films, though? Doesn’t seem like it.

[Finch]

If Ryan Gosling stayed at home after his pal Refn's Only God Forgives got very mixed notices, maybe he should book the next plane home because his directing debut Lost River isn't faring any better.

[Michael Kerpan]

A positive review of Kawase's film:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/ ... s-20140520" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A moderate to positive one:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/ma ... eview-2014" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(I think the goat slaughter scene described in the various reviews would put me off).

[James]

I'm not sure how inclusive this is, but I remember a similar list years ago. It's nice to see Jauja leading the pack.

[yoshimori]

That's a very nice link, James. Thanks. Of course, it's important to look at the number of reviews and to be clear that it's not the same folks who're reviewing the films in the various sections -- Critics' Week, Directors' Fortnight, UCR., Competition -- so there's a bit of "apples and oranges" here. The films are sections are relatively conveniently indicated, though, by different type faces.

Still, though I'd quibble with the designation "very good" for any of these movies, this list seems to be a fair representation of the ranking of competition films amount critics here. So far, Dardenne-Ceylan-Sissako, then Turner et al.

The UCR ranking (Jauja > Blue Room > Tourist) looks a little skewed from my (limited, of course) perspective. Both the Le film francais poll and the Screen poll this morning have Tourist and Blue Room ahead of Jauja.

[shaky]

Scott Foundas just tweeted that "Loznitsa's MAIDAN is a staggering, you-are-there immersion into the epicenter of the Ukrainian Revolution. One of the best of #cannes."

[accatone]

http://next.liberation.fr/cinema/2014/0 ... ge_1022997" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Jean-Luc Godard: «Tarantino est un pauvre garçon»
JLG won't attain the festival but send a «lettre filmée» that will be shown via the festivals web site later today…says Gilles Jacob.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Godard on his film with subs.
http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/Jea ... ign=buffer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Finch]

The latest from The Artist director elicits a negative response from Mike D'Angelo but he likes the new Andre Techine (reviewed in the same link).

[Michael Kerpan]

The latest from The Artist director elicits a negative response from Mike D'Angelo but he likes the new Andre Techine (reviewed in the same link).

I think I disagree with MdA FAR more often than I agree -- his critical wave length seems totally unaligned with my own.

[LittleFerret]

Reverse Shot weighs in on Winter Sleep

The clear main competition highlight of the first wave of titles, however, is Winter Sleep, from Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan. An even denser, more philosophically and emotionally draining experience than his masterpiece Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Ceylan’s latest, a 196-minute dissection of familial and matrimonial bonds, moves from the dirt-shrouded expanses of the former to a simultaneously vast and suffocating vertical fortress carved into the mountainous Turkish topography. It’s here where we meet Aydin (Haluk Bilgner) and Nihal (Melisa Sözen), a May-December married couple who run the Hotel Othello, which is wedged into the cliffs above the crest of the Anatolian steppes. Aydin’s sister Necla (Demet Akbag) lives with the couple, and in early scenes we watch the three attending to work-related duties when not otherwise mulling about the grounds. Tension mounts and cracks begin to show in the family facade as the winter snow slowly starts to blanket the hovel. Soon buried resentments surface as the two women take turns confronting Aydin about his professional and personal indiscretions.

Ceylan shoots these sequences and, in particular, a pair of extended argument scenes, in his typically patient style. His mastery of editing and crosscutting are on full display here as well, a stark contrast to the generally removed and drifting compositions of Anatolia. Dialogue, which has become an increasingly essential component of Ceylan’s cinema, is likewise utilized to a plentiful degree, eclipsing even his prior film in expository detail. Thus, to the list of influences, including Antonioni and Kiarostami, we can add the always verbal Bergman, who took a similar interest in aging and the disintegration of passion. In the wake of these verbal duels, Aydin considers and eventually takes steps toward leaving for Istanbul, while Nihal begins a journey of her own, away from the strictures of marriage and to a moral reconsideration of her autonomy, which she just as quickly finds is insufficient in the face of male insolence and egoism. One final, seemingly heartfelt gesture on the part of Aydin (and by extension, Ceylan) stings the most: an apparently heartfelt attempt at reconciliation reflected in the expression of a traumatized Nihal as simply further evidence that the psychological storms in this household are far from over.

[criterion10]

Xavier Dolan's Mommy seems to be getting very positive remarks, particularly from The Playlist, Awards Daily, The Guardian, and many others.

Godard's latest Adieu au Langage seems to be eliciting the sort of response one would expect from a Godard film at this point, though many have praised his use of 3D. The Film Stage has posted a fragmented review, and Sound on Sight has some very positive remarks as well.

[yoshimori]

Xavier Dolan's Mommy seems to be getting very positive remarks … Godard's latest Adieu au Langage seems to be eliciting the sort of response one would expect from a Godard film at this point, though many have praised his use of 3D.

Check James' link above again. As of now, the Godard is the consensus top-rated competition film. Mommy was well-received, but it's fourth, and likely heading down a bit. [Note: the execrable Hazanavicius is scoring below the Egoyan! That's right -- it's THAT bad!]

The Godard was a blast, btw, a collection of startlingly composed images set against a soundtrack made up of Godard’s typical politico-philosophical musings and “starring” his own dog, Roxy. His use of 3D was hilarious. Gnarled winter branch flutter in our faces. Bright yellow tulips block our view of the characters. An accusatory finger almost pokes us in the eye. Subtitles stand out in front of the image. One amazing shot, a left eye/right eye superimposition, generated spontaneous applause.

The first half hour of the Dolan was surprisingly fun too. But then it dragged a bit.

The Dumont, on the other hand, was 200 minutes of whacky fun!

[Gaddis]

The Dumont, on the other hand, was 200 minutes of whacky fun!

Tell us more if you can.