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Isn't pretentious French for "I didn't get it"?

Cde. wrote:

Duncan Hopper wrote:

Cde. wrote:Wow, the Screen International poll really didn't turn out well for Carax. Surprising after all the praise, but those polled are a somewhat conservative bunch.

Really? Most of the reviews I've read said its a load of pretentious nonsense.

It's ranked #4 on the Film Français poll.
The Hollywood Reporter raved. Peter Bradshaw gave it a 5 stars. Xan Brooks loved it too.
It's one of the best received films of the festival so far. I'll be very surprised if it doesn't take one of the major prizes.

Yes, you're absolutely right, I hope the good reviews are on the money, it really would be nice to have a such an audacious looking film actually deliver the goods.

Though I wouldn't pay much mind to the French critics, there is generally a swell towards the country of origin, look at last year, the UK critics RAVED about We Need to Talk About Kevin, turned out they were pretty much alone, and rightly so!

jury updates:
SCREEN: Salles 2.6/4, Carax 2/4 (high SD)
FILM FRANCAIS: Salles 1.6/4, Carax 2.6/4

Day 9:

1. Hur, Dangerous Liaisons (Directors’ Fortnight). Queasy feeling I’d seen it all before. Not an Asian re-imagining of Laclos’ play so much as a plagiarism of Frears’ version of Hampton’s adaptation with Asian impersonators of Malkovich, Pfeiffer, Close, et al. A literal translation of dialogue. A simulation of affectations. Baudrillard’s demon incarnate. F

2. Ahluwalia, Miss Lovely (Un certain regard). Great credit sequence. Tiresome plot and some awful acting from what must be Indian pop stars or producers’ brothers or investors who insisted on starring roles in the film.

3. Loznitsa, In the Fog (Competition). WWII drama, based on Bykov’s novel. 127 minutes, 72 shots. The first half, a tedious monotone. Like the “down time” parts of Come and See run in slow motion. C

Very positive early tweets about Loznitsa's In the Fog.

Nick James
Loznitsa's slow cinema Ukranian WWII partisan drama IN THE FOG hits all my buttons at once: loved it

Peter Bradshaw ‏
In The Fog (dir. Sergei Loznitsa) is mysterious, compelling and grim

David Jenkins
IN THE FOG (Loznitsa) Beautifully directed, soul-pummellingly bleak Ukranian war/western hybrid.

Jonathan Romney
Loznitsa's IN THE FOG: a lucid, complex war drama of Tolstoyan simplicity and quiet depth. Haneke now has a real Palme rival.

German critic Ruediger Suchsland writes on his Cannes blog that Amour may not scoop the Palme D'Or due to Moretti's dislike of the Austrian pair Haneke and Seidl. When Funny Games screened in Cannes in 1996, Moretti was on the jury and was alleged to have threatened anyone who planned to vote for Haneke to beat them up. Next anecdote was officially confirmed: when Seidl's debut screened at Venice in 2001, Moretti threatened to walk when the majority of the jury planned to give the Golden Lion to Seidl's film. Moretti won't mind then that a lot of people are tipping Holy Motors for the main prize as it's the type of polarising film that Cannes likes to award (think Wild at Heart in 1990 and Dancer in the Dark in 2000).

Koehler says Mud is very good. Predicts possible late surge. I wish.

Meanwhile, Neil Young still has Kiarostami out ahead. He may be right but I highly doubt it (he's had LSIL at the top of his list since before the beginning).

Mud is indeed getting excellent reviews, however, quite a few critics have an issue the length of the film and the final 15/20 minutes are apparently a let-down, not in keeping with the rest of the film.

That said, I have high-hopes for this one.

critics update: FILM FRANCAIS prefers Lee Daniels to Carlos Reygadas! 1.3/4 for the former, 0.7/4 for the latter. C’est la vie! [Or maybe they're just trying to clear the way for their fave, Mr Carax.]

If I were Moretti's jury, it'd be Post Tenebras Lux, no question, for the Palme d'or. I'd withhold all the other prizes and make an angry speech about the end of cinema!

Off to see the Claude Miller closer. After which ...

La Commedia è finita!

Now that all the titles have shown for the press I'm predicting:

Palme d’or - COSMOPOLIS
Grand prix - YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET!
Prix du jury - BEYOND THE HILLS and IN THE FOG (Tie)
Prix de la mise en scène - Leos Carax for HOLY MOTORS
Prix d’interprétation masculine - Jean-Louis Trintignant in LOVE
Prix d’interprétation féminine - Marion Cotillard in RUST AND BONE
Prix du scénario - IN ANOTHER COUNTRY

Reading the beating Paperboy is taking made me realize I had totally blocked Precious from my consciousness and had no idea at all that Lee Daniels was responsible for both. I think I simply could not conceive that Cannes would put his next film in competition. How does that happen? I just saw the synopsis and assumed we were getting some good Paris Trout southern gothic backwoods swampdrama. eesh.

Most of the film blogs hated The Paperboy but it actually got good reviews from The Guardian, Hollywood Reporter, Screen Daily among other trades. It also received one of the longer standing ovations at Cannes. The big question seems to be if it's a camp/cult classic by design or if that was unintentional. From the clips available online, it seems to me that the camp elements were intentional. I've never seen a Lee Daniels film but I might check this out. It seems like he made a successful movie. If it is a great camp/cult movie, reviews don't matter much. Critics tend to be dismissive of that kind of cinema.

Why not. My guesses. (And with Moretti as president, they really are guesses)

Palme d’or - BEYOND THE HILLS
Grand prix - HOLY MOTORS
Prix du jury - IN THE FOG
Prix de la mise en scène - Michael Haneke for AMOUR
Prix d’interprétation masculine - Jean-Louis Trintignant in AMOUR
Prix d’interprétation féminine - Emmanuelle Riva in AMOUR
Prix du scénario - REALITY

If Moretti was not the jury head, I would say AMOUR for the Palme.

Moretti really does have me wondering here. On the one hand he is said to be really knowledgeable about world film and will therefore be hard to please... but on the other hand you have his disdain for Haneke, his own rather generic filmmaking and his history at Venice with a Golden Lion winner as banal as "Monsoon Wedding". So we could end up with "Holy Motors" or "The Hunt". Lol...

Jonathan Romney's Cannes round-up

my predictions

Palme d’or - HOLY MOTORS
Grand prix - AMOUR
Prix du jury - THE HUNT
Prix de la mise en scène - Andrew Dominik - KILLING THEM SOFTLY
Prix d’interprétation masculine - Mads Mikkelsen in THE HUNT
Prix d’interprétation féminine - Emmanuelle Riva in AMOUR
Prix du scénario - Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola for MOONRISE KINGDOM

edit: changed actors' category

Bear in mind that according to the festival rules no film can get more than one prize unless ONE of those prizes is an acting prize and the other is either the Screenplay award or the Jury Prize. "Amour" will not be able to win both acting awards.

Another recent change to the rules makes it against the rules for a tie to occur for the Palme d'or. So it looks as if 1997 will be the last time that ever happens!

I'm sure GAULTIER will be championing HOLY MOTORS.

puxzkkx wrote:Bear in mind that according to the festival rules no film can get more than one prize unless ONE of those prizes is an acting prize and the other is either the Screenplay award or the Jury Prize. "Amour" will not be able to win both acting awards.

Another recent change to the rules makes it against the rules for a tie to occur for the Palme d'or. So it looks as if 1997 will be the last time that ever happens!

Ah, good point, I guess I'll switch RIVA for Stratan (Beyond the Hills) or Cotillard.

A small reminder that Jury President Nanni Moretti did previously make the short IL GIORNO DELLA PRIMA DI CLOSE UP/THE DAY OF THE PREMIERE OF CLOSEUP, a tribute to Kiarostami's film, so he's an established fan, although LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE seems like a lesser work...

Catch IL GIORNO DELLA PRIMA DI CLOSE UP (1996) here...

The Jury decides.

A few people are saying they've seen the list of winners, expect surprises seems to be the word.

Anyway, here's a link to where you can watch the whole thing live

Is there a reason for the Morretti/Haneke dislike?

What time of day does the Palme D'or usually get announced?