I’ve now seen a bunch of Cannes titles, so here are some reactions.
In Competition
Winter Sleep (Ceylan) – I’ve already commented in the film’s dedicated thread. From what I’ve seen, this is a completely natural Palme winner, great filmmaking from a great filmmaker, with a much wider tonal range than its immediate competition or even the director’s previous work.
Wild Tales (Szifron) – Balls to the wall, blacker-than-black hilarity from start to finish, with only a couple of the six tales of lurid revenge dipping to average. Almodovar helped produce this, and that gives you a vague idea of the sensibility, but he hasn’t directed anything this energetic for a quarter century, and he’s never been so flat-out funny.
Adieu au Langage (Godard) – Spectacular non-naturalistic use of 3D elevates a typically simplistic intellectual structure (NATURE vs. METAPHOR, repeat incessantly). The film really soars when it indulges in pure spectacle and / or cute doggie stuff.
Leviathan (Zvyagintsev) – Typically dour and commanding drama from Zvyagintsev. In this case, a reasonable small-town facsimile of the trials of Job is visited upon a not-quite-total shit. It could do with being less humourless, but there’s no denying the directorial chops on display. The real target of the film is revealed very late in the piece and adds considerably to its sting.
Two Days, One Night (Dardennes) – More of the very good same from Los Bros. The core idea promises a very schematic narrative, since you know that Sandra is going to have to track down everybody on the list, she’ll encounter wildly varying responses, and the precise outcome will still be up in the air at the end of the process. I mean, everybody knows that she’s not going to get the same positive or negative answer from the first seven people she speaks to and then take the rest of the weekend off, right? But, the film pulls out an absolutely perfect ending that neatly sidesteps the shortcomings of the narrative format.
Maps to the Stars (Cronenberg) – OTT Hollywood satire that Cronenberg and his cast somehow manage to hold together against the odds. Julianne Moore is given a free pass for scenery-chewing and goes to town, and who doesn’t want to see that?
The Wonders (Rohrwacher) – Solid, earthy family drama that’s much darker than the media satire I anticipated. Lots of moody low-light photography and a couple of tricky, expressive
plans-sequences at the very end that add a welcome aura of mystery.
So, no duds among the competition films I’ve seen, which could either be a total fluke or a sign of a decent year.
Out of Competition
Maidan (Loznitsa) – Intensive documentary of the protests in Ukraine. A big step back from the formal innovation and mastery of the director’s previous films, but there’s still a lot of craft cleverly concealed beneath the appearance of naturalism (particularly on the soundtrack, which is often telling a different story from the visuals), and over its extended duration the film, as well as the events it relates, attain a staggering grandeur.
The Rover (Michod) – A dog of a film. Woefully underthought post-apocalyptic scenario in which characters repeatedly do inane things because they’re photogenic or will extend the running time. This is a first draft for a lame short film that somehow got funded as a feature.
Un Certain Regard
Turist / Force Majeure (Ostlund) – Spectacular, deadpan comic drama that’s consistently entertaining, mortifying and tense while still addressing some pretty meaty ethical and relationship issues.
The Salt of the Earth (Wenders) – Worthy photographer doc. Looks gorgeous, but Wenders’ earnest, hagiographical approach to his subject is about the dullest approach imaginable.
White God (Mundruczo) – After a stunningly cinematic, dreamlike opening, this goes downhill fast. A girl is separated from her beloved dog by uncool adults. We follow her angst and the dog’s misadventures in parallel. As those misadventures become more and more Dickensian, the film starts to submerge under the heavy weight of contrivance. But that’s nothing compared to the preposterousness that follows:
which is part standard rape-revenge template, part Night-of-the-Living-Dead-with-Puppies, part Pied Piper of Hamelin. At this point the film also oafishly demolishes the one thing it did right by revealing that the opening fantasy sequence was just a boring flash forward to the silliest part of the movie.
(Wiseman) – Three hours of people talking about art, and what to do with it. Utterly absorbing, a continuation of Wiseman’s wonderful purple patch of the last five years.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Takahata) – A very traditional subject, but the animation is simply exquisite. It’s a slightly more fleshed-out version of the expressive line drawings of
My Neighbours the Yamadas, but Takahata has the flexibility to explode into pure expressionism when the story calls for it.
Semaine de la Critique
It Follows (Mitchell) – A decent enough horror film that does everything it can with its outlandish, smartly cinematic premise (so much so that I can’t imagine the inevitable sequel will be anything but redundant). Some of the window dressing is depressingly familiar (predictable ‘bus’ moments; overbearing score; generic characterizations) but some is well done (characters mostly not making incredibly stupid decisions in order to get themselves into danger).
When Animals Dream (Arnby) –
Let the Right One In! With werewolves! And not very good!