Cannes 2008

[chaddoli]

Did you see Afterschool in Un Certain Regard? A kid I know directed it...

[portnoy]

... have you seen Mundruczo's JOHANNA?

I wanted to see this at some fest last year (was it at Cannes?) since it sounded interesting, but unfortunately I didn't get around to it. Sorry.

It played at Cannes and Telluride to cold receptions a few years back, had a distributor in Tartan but a terribly subtitled print (nearly unreadable white-on-off-white subs) and never got a release, though I did see that it was shown as part of some Lincoln Center Recent Hungarian Cinema thing a year or so ago.

It's not an entirely successful film, but it's an incredibly interesting one - fully operatic take on Joan of Arc set in a dank, underground Hungarian hospital, where Joan heals the sickly old patients by fucking them. Ridiculously virtuosic steadicam long-takes and grotesque art direction. Made me physically uncomfortable. One arthouse exhibitor I know described as 'the single least watchable movie I've ever seen.'

[miless]

Isn't Mundruczo's Johanna an Opera to boot?

[jmansfield333]

hey...i just thought i'd quickly delurk to add to the appreciation of yoshimori's Cannes updates...it's been really great for me to use these capsule reviews as a starting off point for further investigation - Cheers, james.

[Fierias]

very brief, not too insightful observations of mine:

Three Monkeys
For the most part I couldn't stand this. This was the first film I've seen by Ceylan, and I don't think I want to seek anything else out. It did look good, though artificially filtered. Too much screaming made for bad drama and a ridiculous sex/rape scene left a bad taste.

Tokyo Sonata
Started very well, and I liked the overall look and pacing of the film. The movie became laughable at one point, making serious themes feel silly (i.e. the brutal treatment of a child elicited laughs from the audience). The last scene was very well-handled and moving, making me leave the theatre liking the film more than I think I actually did.

Modern Life
I liked this very much. Very precisely focused on French agriculture, I enjoyed listening to all of the subjects perspective on their careers and the overall grim outlook for the thing they love to do. The interviews were well-done, allowing ample time for the subjects to work through their thoughts and give detailed and often idiosyncratic commentary. Long takes of roads and great film stock lent a fictional tone to the whole thing.

Two Lovers
Pretty bad . The parents are the only likable characters and are rarely on screen. Joaquin doesn't do much to help what I thought was a terrible, contrived script, the worst dialogue saved for Paltrow. All characters are irresponsible and make stupid decisions that are explained by either the character's depression and suicidal tendencies or with just being a woman.

Lorna's Silence
I liked it more than L'enfant and The Son. Every scene features Lorna (Arta) and she is terrific and just as natural as any character from any of the Dardennes' other films. Typically realistic and tense, with an ominous ending.

The Exchange
Overrated. Having actually really liked everything that Clint has done in the last 6 years, the 5 star reviews that flooded this movie had me eager to see the movie in a Day-After screening and the only impressive thing is Jolie. The dialogue was lame, the characters were one-dimensional, movie didn't know when to end. The look of the film is gorgeous, and there are some tear-inducing moments that may or may not have been earned.

Surveillance
Daddy Lynch seems to have helped a lot on this one, and his typicall high-quality transferred to his daughter, as this was a very fun, funny, and, at times, disturbing crime thriller. Definitely follows a more structured plot more than David has been for the last decade+. Very good, especially considering Boxing Helena.

The Dawn's Shore
What started as a beautiful-looking romance turned into a muddled and ridiculous account of a man being in love with his deceased girlfriend. Many walkouts at this one, some booing, and some viewers clapping prematurely hoping to end the film themselves. A "scary" moment late in the film induced more laughs than any film I've seen at the festival so far. Left most people in a good mood, as it is was very fun to make fun of.

[yoshimori]

Did you see Afterschool in Un Certain Regard? A kid I know directed it...

Sadly, missed this one too. Too few hours in the day. Campos' first film had the most wide-ranging reviews. Screen panned it. Variety liked it. And Hollywood Reporter, as so often, following its own drummer, printed a review of Kenji Uchida's After School in the box for Campos' Afterschool. At least it was positive review!

Day 9

Garrel, La frontiere de l'aube. Competition. The main character falls for a lunatic actress, the kind of character who, you know, burns hr apartment down if you don't call … or who thinks it’s a good idea to drink every bottle of perfume in the house. Sadly, none of this works very well. The movie got the strongest negative audience reaction so far – hisses and boos drowning out the smattering of polite applause. Even William Lubtchansky’s photography was uninspired. C-

Egoyan. Adoration. Competition. I’m shocked. I liked an Atom Egoyan film! And indeed, this one kept everyone in his or her seat and got the strongest ovation I’ve heard yet. Bizarre combo tragic-family-history autopsy and terrorist fantasy, the film feels like a tense, surgical horror movie. Grade: A-

Sorrentino, Il divo. Competition. Giulio Andreotti bio-pic. Sorrentino either has no clear idea what tone he wants to strike (the film fluctuates between 3rd-rate Il conformista knock-off and 3rd-rate 70s Rosi crime drama knock-off) is simply incapable of striking it. Either way, pretty tough going. D.

Reichardt, Wendy and Lucy. Un certain regard. Maybe a step up from Old Joy, but that means little to me. Very minimalist. A young woman on the way to Alaska for work. Her car breaks down and she loses her dog. She looks for her dog while the garage works on her car. The end. C.

[colinr0380]

Isn't Mundruczo's Johanna an Opera to boot?

Yes, I picked up the Tartan UK disc at bargain price from the much missed Bensons World at the end of last year but I'm afraid I haven't got around to seeing it yet.

[Orphic Lycidas]

very brief, not too insightful observations of mine:

Surveillance
Daddy Lynch seems to have helped a lot on this one, and his typicall high-quality transferred to his daughter, as this was a very fun, funny, and, at times, disturbing crime thriller. Definitely follows a more structured plot more than David has been for the last decade+. Very good, especially considering Boxing Helena.

The trailer for this one looks like it might be interesting. Did you get a vibe for how the rest of the audience generally felt about it?

[Dylan]

Sorrentino, Il divo. Competition. Giulio Andreotti bio-pic. Sorrentino either has no clear idea what tone he wants to strike (the film fluctuates between 3rd-rate Il conformista knock-off and 3rd-rate 70s Rosi crime drama knock-off) is simply incapable of striking it. Either way, pretty tough going. D.

How was the cinematography in this one? I've seen one Sorrentino film, The Consequences of Love, which for me fell apart in its last third, but it looked breathtaking (and the woman was gorgeous).

[Zazou dans le Metro]

Isn't Mundruczo's Johanna an Opera to boot?

Yes, I picked up the Tartan UK disc at bargain price from the much missed Bensons World at the end of last year but I'm afraid I haven't got around to seeing it yet.

Level 7 Kevyap alert!

[yoshimori]

Sorrentino, Il divo. ... How was the cinematography in this one? I've seen one Sorrentino film, The Consequences of Love, which for me fell apart in its last third, but it looked breathtaking (and the woman was gorgeous).

Hmm. I didn't think the previous Sorrentino film looked breathtaking so we may not be on the same wavelength here. The new movie is professionally made, of course, but it's way more the world of the TV movie than the world of Il conformista, lighting-and-camerawise, iyam.

One day left, and it’s probably clear that I’ve found this year’s event pretty disappointing. Of the 40 movies I’ve seen I’m likely to rewatch just three or four in the coming years – the Desplechin, Soi Cowboy, probably Adoration, and, for purely personal reasons, Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata. For the world’s top art film festival, that’s pretty lame. Last year’s Paranoid Park, Alexandra, and Silent Light were, for me, better than any of these. And there were half a dozen other decent films in 2007. Oh well.


Day 10

Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York. Competition. Funny first half (Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Hope Davis were excellent) lead to a tedious and stridently self-reflexive second half (featuring the much less entertaining Emily Watson) in which the main character (PS Hoffman) wins a MacArthur grant with which he rehearses, for 17 years, the play of his life – that play not so cleverly called “Simulacrum” – in a giant warehouse space. Neither part has the least visual style. B (first half) /C (second half)

Dvortsevoy, Tulpan. Un certain regard. A young shepherd needs a wife, but there’re no women left on the plains. Generic comedy from Kazakhstan. C

Chung, Tin Che (Parking). Un certain regard. Amateurish first film starring Chen Chang (surely the reason the film was presented here at all) as a guy whose car gets blocked by a double park and ends up spending the night trying to find the culprit. How’bout calling for a tow, Mr Chen? Film-schooly zooms and camera movements that don’t cut together well or form any kind of unified whole. F

Khoo, My Magic. Competition. In 2005 Khoo wrote Royston Tan’s 4:30 (which I quite liked) and directed Be With Me, which had its emotional moments, despite looking horrible. This new movie is a total disappointment. It was supposedly made in nine days and it looks like it. Though only 75 minutes, a tedious story of a drunken single father who undergoes body torture in order to earn his son’s respect. F

[whaleallright]

Dvortsevoy, Tulpan. Un certain regard. A young shepherd needs a wife, but there’re no women left on the plains. Generic comedy from Kazakhstan. C

I'd like to hear more about this. This is Dvortsevoy's first fiction film, and his documentaries are extraordinary, so I had high hopes. What is the visual style like? The pacing? Etc.

[MichaelB]

Isn't Mundruczo's Johanna an Opera to boot?

Yes, and an original one by Zsofia Taller - who claims that this is the first ever opera specifically written for the screen, but that's debatable (Jacques Demy's Les Parapluies de Cherbourg must surely qualify, being sung throughout).

Anyway, here's the trailer - I gave it a guardedly upbeat review in Sight & Sound, but I don't think it's available online.

[yoshimori]

Dvortsevoy, Tulpan. ... I'd like to hear more about this. This is Dvortsevoy's first fiction film, and his documentaries are extraordinary, so I had high hopes. What is the visual style like? The pacing? Etc.

I don't know those docs, but I'm not surprised that they look good. The photography is good here too - nice, consistent, but not at all unusual compositions; good choices for locations; good contrast; looks like they had a great lens - ever so slightly reminiscent of, say, Kalatazov, but not nearly so extreme, much more careful here. All, however, in the service of something quite generic, with forced performances.


Day 11

Cantet, Entre les murs. Competition. A nice treat for the last morning. A year with a class of 14-15 year olds. Not a doc, but plays more like Wiseman’s High School than any of the innumerable American inner-city HS teacher films. The lessons include conjugation of irregular verbs and he imperfect subjunctive! Each of the kids is wonderfully idiosyncratic. Energizing but relatively unobtrusive handheld camera throughout, obviously lots of coverage, nicely cut to keep things moving. Bogs a bit after 90 minutes when the screenwriters seem to have felt obligated to throw in an unnecessary “dramatic” flair up which leads to an expulsion hearing. A-/B+

Kim, The Good, the Bad, the Weird. Special Screening. Tries to combine Raiders-like action adventure (quest for a map that leads to hidden treasure) and the spaghetti Western, this one set in Manchuria. Forced.

Screen and Variety didn’t publish today or yesterday, but here’re the final tallies (in order of rank) from the French critics (Cahiers, Positif, Humanite, Le monde, etc) compiled by Le film francais.

A: 3.2 Christmas Tale, 3.0 Entre les murs

B: 2.9 Le silence de Lorna, 2.8 Waltz with Bashmir, 2.7 The Changeling (they love their Eastwood here)

C: 2.5 Gomorra, 2.4 24 City, 2.3 Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2.2 Two Lovers, 2.1 Che, Linha de passe, The Chaser, 2.0 Adoration, Lion’s Den, Three Monkeys, My Magic

D: 1.8 Il divo, 1.6 La frontiere de l’aube, Indiana Jones and KOCS, 1.4 Serbis, Delta, 1.3 Synecdoche NY, Blindness

F: .8 Woman without a Head

For me: Christmas Tale, Soi Cowboy, Adoration, Entre les murs, Tokyo Sonata, and Birdsong.

I'll be on a plane to London tomorrow when Mr Penn's awards are announced. No predictions, don't really care, but it would be nice to see Mr Desplechin get the Golden Palm.

[yoshimori]

Prizes from Fatih Akin's Un certain regard jury:

"Tulpan by Kazakh director Sergey Dvortsevoy was awarded the Un Certain Regard GAN Fondation Prize by the Jury President Fatih Akin at this evening’s awards ceremony.

The Un Certain Regard Jury, presided by Fatih Akin, consisting of José Maria Prado, director of the Spanish national film archive, as well as journalists Anupama Chopra, Catherine Mtsitouridze, and Yasser Moheb, awarded four other prizes: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire garnered the Hope Prize for Johnny Mad Dog, James Toback accepted the KnockOut Prize for Tyson, the Jury Prize went to Kiyoshi Kurosawa for Tokyo Sonata, and Cloud 9 by Andreas Dresen won the One-From-The-Heart Award."

Gotta love Akin's "One-from-the-Heart" prize ... and of course, the "KnockOut" prize. No prize from AKin's crew to the most interesting movie in UCR, Soi Cowboy.

[rs98762001]

Glad to see KK rewarded once more, but...what exactly are these prizes and what on earth do they mean?

[Berlueur]

So... If you're itching for the prizes and aren't able to find the info:

- Caméra d'or: Hunger
- Best screenwriting: Le silence de Lorna
- Best actress: Sandra Corveloni for her role in Linha de Passe
- Best actor: Benicio del Toro for his role in Che
- Jury prize: Il divo
- Best direction: Three monkeys
- Grand prize: Gomorra
- Special prizes to Catherine Deneuve and Clint Eastwood for their career's work
- Palme d'or: Entre les murs

So, despite all the buzz, Waltz with Bashir gets nothing...

I'm disappointed to see that Desplechin comes out empty-handed... (Did he ever win something at Cannes BTW...?)

[Barmy]

I wonder how much of this tedious garbage people will still be flocking to see in 20, 30 years or more. I bet none. Cannes-winner "Blowup" completely filled MoMA's large theater yesterday despite being available on DVD. Very little of the Cannes slate seemed "for the ages" to begin with, but the slate of "winners" in particular is sad, grim and pathetic. No we Cannes't.

[ptmd]

Indeed, although I guess it could be worse. In the past half-decade, the Palme d'Or has not only been given to mediocre, completely unremarkable features like The Wind that Shakes the Barley but also to Fahrenheit 9/11... Still, I'm a bit shocked that Desplechin didn't get anything at all.

[chaddoli]

Yes, but they also awarded Elephant and L'Enfant, which are films for the ages.

[domino harvey]

I'm shocked that Christmas Tale didn't get anything for as much as people were talking about it-- but then again, that's one film that's not going to have any problems getting distributed.

[Cold Bishop]

How many have flocked to such canonical masterworks as Hagmann's THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT, Parker's BIRDY, or Duarte's O PAGADOR DE PROMESSAS?

The first two are fine films, neither of which won the Palme d'Or. While I can't vouch for Duarte's, it is more than likely to be forgotten for not coming from sexy Europe or exotic Japan, more than any reasons of quality.

Yeah, looking at the history of winners, the last decade has seen a rather large ratio of uninspired choices for the Palme, but Farenheit 9/11 is the only one that has been out and out terrible, and I think the main problem this year was that overall films in competition seem pretty dull and unexciting.

[Sanjuro]

If you're itching for the prizes and aren't able to find the info:

- Caméra d'or: Hunger
- Best screenwriting: Le silence de Lorna
- Best actress: Sandra Corveloni for her role in Linha de Passe
- Best actor: Benicio del Toro for his role in Che
- Jury prize: Il divo
- Best direction: Three monkeys
- Grand prize: Gomorra
- Special prizes to Catherine Deneuve and Clint Eastwood for their career's work
- Palme d'or: Entre les murs

Il divo? So what happened to Tokyo Sonata? I heard last night Kurosawa won the Jury Prize, then saw this list when I logged on this morning.

Dammed complicated this Cannes thing. Are there two jury prizes or something?

Edit: So...Un Certain Regard is a separate competition, is that it?

[portnoy]

I wonder how much of this tedious garbage people will still be flocking to see in 20, 30 years or more. I bet none. Cannes-winner "Blowup" completely filled MoMA's large theater yesterday despite being available on DVD. Very little of the Cannes slate seemed "for the ages" to begin with, but the slate of "winners" in particular is sad, grim and pathetic. No we Cannes't.

Which of these movies, exactly, have you seen?

[Grimfarrow]

ENTRE LES MURS is a great film. I was very happy to see the film, and see the director deservedly get the award (unanimous decision!).

GOMORRA I'm really not so hot on. It's a rather patchy work that has multiple strands that don't weave together well. It's OK for what it is - a modern gangster film (albeit with 2 really stupid kids). But not sure it warrants a Gran Prix.

I have no idea what people's problems are with SERBIS. I think it's a strong film. I talked with Dennis Lim and Scott Foundas and they agreed.