CANNES 2023 - remote notes

Cannes...

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JUDE LAW AND ALICIA VIKANDER

FIREBRAND ( Karim Aïnouz)
Peter Debruge, writing in Variety,disapproves of the way (he says) the Brazilian director's good-looking but overly grungy first English-language film, which feels unrelated to his other work, freely adapting Elizabeth Fremantle’s The Queen's Gambit about Henry VIII's last wife Catherine Parr (Alicia Vikander, weak and underused), chooses to grossly rewrite history to serve a modern agenda. With a full-on gross-out Jude Law as the fat, pustulent king who this version makes die in a way Henry VIII didn't, to suit modern ideas, with other ahistorical changes and puzzling omissions. In the past people were beheaded for such "flagrant disregard for the facts." Bradshaw's GUARDIAN review , seeming less aware of thE historical subtleties, goes easier on it ("a watchable piece of faux history") and gives it three stars. Lots of press so far and an 8-minute standing ovation but no US distributor pickup yet. In Competition.

Cannes...


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VIRGINIE EFIRA, MELVIL POUPAUD

JUST THE TWO OF US/L'AMOUR ET LES FORETS (Valérie Donzelli)
French psychological drama starring Virginie Efira and Melvil Poupaud of a woman caught and isolated in the trap of a possessive and dangerous man. From the Gallimard novel by Éric Reinhardt. Cannes "Premieres" section, it's just out in Paris and got 3.9 (78%) on AlloCiné. L'Obs says "Donzelli delivers her most mature and accomplished film." Seems not to have gotten Cannes or English-languish reviews.

FALLEN LEAVES (Aki Kaurismäki)
Bradshaw: This "Ddeadpan Aki Kaurismäki comedy" has "springtime in its heart"; the Finnish auteur's "sweet-natured oddcouple romance," Bradshaw says, "fills you with a feel-good glow and laughs in the face of Putin’s threat to the country." He gives it four stars in his GUARDIAN review.

Cannes..

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[ASTEROID CITY (TOM HANKS, RIGHT)

ASTEROID CITY (Wes Anderson)
Peter Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN gives Anderson's Competition film four stars, calling the sci-fi "tale of earth-shattering events in a space-obsessed desert town" "an exhilarating triumph of pure style" that "leans nicely into its own artificiality," he says: "every delicious, microscopic detail is a delight." The film has a plethora of known actors including Tilda Swinton, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johanssen and Jason Schwarzman and has a pervasive distinctive pastel-tinted look. Committed Anderson fans will of course love it, but some will be like David Rooney of HOLLYWOOD REPORTER who found it too lifeless and detached to relate to; he doesn't think Anderson himself seems all that engaged. (I have been finding the TRAILER off-putting.) David Erlich in INDIEWIRE says it's one of Anderson's best movies yet and of his comedies " the most cosmic and radical of them all." However this may be a minority critical opinion. Oswen Gleiberman in VARIETY finds the film "visually dazzling and dramatically inert." Consider: the Metacritic rating is 76%. There are some low ratings from those top writers. We'll just have to see...

The Cannes PRESS CONFERENCE FOR ASTEROID CITY was great and now I'm enthused about seeing it.

Cannes...2 Italians in Competition

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KIDNAPPED

KIDNAPPED/RAPITO (Marco Bellocchio).
Four stars from enthusiastic Bradshaw who says the "antisemitism drama" (A Jewish boy is kidnapped by the Vatican and converted to Catholicism in 1858) is "a classic in the making." He was genuinely moved by the main events of the film. "Kidnapped hides a bleak and bracing message inside lovely old costumes and sumptuous set pieces and this double nature will serve the film well both at home in Italy and abroad," says Lee Marshall in SCREEN DAILY. At 83, Bellocchio continues his lively late-stage career. his last big thing was the Aldo Moro kidnapping miniseries "Esterno Notte," in 2022, which was well-received, atms was THE TRAITOR in 2019, though the anglophone audience was less appreciative.

A BIGHTER TOMORROW/IL SOL DELL'AVENIRE (Nanni Moretti)
It's either densely complex (Lee Marshall) or "bafflingly awful" (Bradshaw), but clearly this film isn't easily summarizable, a "greatest hits" self-summary of Moretti's self-referential style film about a filmmaker in crisis. Strictly for fans, perhaps. It's Moretti's 9th film in Competition at Cannes, and Bradshaw declares his THE SON'S ROOM (2001) to be the finest Palme d'Or winner of this century so far. Moretti has a history of being very uneven. Perhaps it's hard to tell sometimes. Peter Debruge in VARIETY calls this new film "a welcome return to form" but also notes his popularity in Italy, far beyond his status elsewhere, "reminds just how far Italian cinema has fallen from its early-’60s high."

Cannes...

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ZERO CLUB

CLUB ZERO (Jessica Haussner)
In the GUARDIAN Bradshaw finds "not much to chew on in this baffling non-satire" and gives this Competition film only two stars out of five. She avoids saying anything specific about her "obvious subjects," which are "body image, eating disorders and western overconsumption." The form is a girl's school where the students are "encouraged to live without food" and anorexia becomes a cult. Bradshaw thinks Haussner's work hasn't been helped by her switch to English-language from her chilly, elegant German. Leslie Felperin in HOLLYWOOD REPORTER calls it "uneven" satire. She notes the set design and cinematography are fine but the points are poorly defined, the inexperienced young actors are inadequately directed and the dialogue frequently unidiomatic.

Cannes...

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CERRAR LOS OJOS

Lower profile Competition films and a comeback after 30 years.

CLOSE YOUR EYES/CERRAR LOS OJOS (Victor Erice)
The 82-year-old Spanish SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE director’s first feature in 30 years uses a film-within-a-film structure to ruminate on memory, aging and cinema itself in telling the enigmatic tale of a disappeared actor, recounts Peter Bradshaw, who gives in four stars in his GUARDIAN review. "There is something deeply civilized and gentle about this film,"he says, referring to late bloomers like Malick and Manoel de Oliveira. Jordan Mintzer in HOLLYWOOD REPORTER calls the film "a moving homage to the power of movies." Run time 2 hours 49 minutes: it requires patience to see it unfold. In the Cannes Premiere section.

PERFECT DAYS (Wim Wenders)
In the Competition section. Bradshaw found it a tad lightweight, but gives it three stars. "Bittersweet tale of an apparently contented toilet cleaner has an ambient urban charm, but feels a little too understated," Bradshaws wrote. Guy Lodge in VARIETY thinks it's Wenders' "best narrative film in decades." "After a long run of off-the-boil fiction features," Lodge writes. "The German veteran hits the sweet spot," Lodge says, with "this simple, touching ode to working routine and everyday human connection."

LAST SUMMER/L’ÉTÉ DERNIER (Catherine Breillat)
Her Competition film, Bradshaw says, is a "too safe" remake of 2019 Danish drama QUEEN OF HEARTS and "pointlessly draws the sting" from a "dangerous romance" with the teenage stepson. Only two stars from Bradshaw for it. But Peter Debruge in VARIETY sees this film as a strong comeback. Léa Drucker is the femme who errs, who's a lawyer, and Samuel Kircher who plays the seductive stepson, is the brother of Paul Kircher, who debuted starring in Christophe Honnoré's WNTER BOY/LE LYCÉE last year and "is every bit as formidable a new acting talent," says Debruge.

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L'ETÉ DERNIER

Cannes...

Peter Bradshaw's GUARDIAN Cannes award predictions and personal favorites:

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Palme d’Or The Zone of Interest (dir. Jonathan Glazer)
Grand Prix La Chimera (dir. Alice Rohrwacher)
Jury prize Anatomy of a Fall (dir. Justine Triet)
Best director Wang Bing, Youth
Best screenplay Aki Kaurismäki, Fallen Leaves
Best actor Jude Law, Firebrand
Best actress Sandra Hüller for Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest

Braddies for Cannes prize categories that don’t exist:

Best supporting actor Paolo Pierobon, Kidnapped
Best supporting actress Merve Dizdar, About Dry Grasses
Best cinematography Amine Berrada for Banel e Adama
Best production design Adam Stockhausen for Asteroid City

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Cannes...

VARIETY predictions by Clayton Davis for Cannes prizes.

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Palme d’Or (Golden Palm), Grand Prix (Grand Prize of the Festival), Prix du Jury (Jury Prize):

1. “Anatomy of a Fall” – Justine Triet
2. “The Zone of Interest” – Jonathan Glazer
3. “May December” – Todd Haynes
4. “Monster” – Hirokazu Kore-eda
5. “Asteroid City” – Wes Anderson

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Both ZONE OF INTEREST and ANATOMY OF A FALL star Sandra Hüller, so it's quite her moment.

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Prix de la mise en scene (best director)

1. Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”
2. Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”
3. Todd Haynes, “May December”
4. Hirokazu Kore-eda, “Monster”
5. Alice Rohrwacher, “La Chimera”

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ZONE OF INTEREST could be lined up for multiple award slots, and move on to the Oscars, where the out of Competition Scorsese titlE KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON seems also a likely contender. See the VARIETY review of KILLERS and on the emerging stardom of Lilly Gladstone.

Cannes...on with the show

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THE OLD OAK


THE OLD OAK (Ken Loach)
His final film in Competition (he is 86); he has won two Palmes d'Or and two Jury Prizes at Cannes before. THE OLD OAK deals with prejudices against Syrian refugees surrounding the titular pub in a struggling working-class town adjacent to Durham, England. It's compassionate toward racist reactions because poor Brittons lives post-Thatcher have "gone to shit" (this is 2016, pre-Brexit). Damon Wise of DEADLINE says this movie "as as much fire and fury as his debut Poor Cow did in 1967." Bradshaw calls it "fierce' and give it four stars. Jordan Mintzer's HOLLYWOOD REPORTER review suggests this is a very moving, if sometimes schematic, film.

LA CHIMERA (Alice Rohrwacher)
Is "enchanting" (VARIETY) and "uproarious" and "captivating" and "teems with life," receiving one of only two five-star ratings from Bradshaw. It's a rollicking fantasy that features Josh O'Connor as a disheveled English archeologist now teamed up with a Felliniesque gang of grave-robbers who falls in love with the gone daughter of Isabella Rossellini. Watch the TRAILER see if it's your kind of thing.

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[SIZE=1]JOSH O'CONNOR IN LA CHIMERA

Cannes finishes ...

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JUSTINE TRIET AND SANDRA HÜLLER AT THE PALME D'OR AWARDING

Awards and summing up of Cannes 2023.

The Palme d'Or went to Justine Triet's ANATOMY OF A FALL. Triet is only the third woman to win the Palme d’Or (after Jane Campion for THE PIANO and TITANE director Julia Ducournau). Here is our summary on Triet's film again:

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ANATOMY OF A FALL/ANATOMIE D'UNE CHUTE (Justine Triet).
"There’s a bracing and chilly high-mindedness about Justine Triet’s psychothriller, about a suspicious death whose only reliable witness happens to be blind", says Peter Bradshaw, who gives it four stars in the GUARDIAN. That blind person is the dead man's devastated eleven-year-old son. Triet's previous films were THE AGE OF PANIC (2013), IN BED WITH VICTORIA (2016), AND SYBIL (2019). Critics admire the lead performance by Sandra Hüller as the German writer put on trial for murder when her less successful French writer husband falls to his death (it could well be a suicide). Joh Frosch in HOLLYWOOD REPORTER calls this a "rivetingly complex" drama. Peter Debruge elucidates that complexity further in VARIETY.

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Bradshaw says it wan't his choice and mentions "from Glazer to Kaurismäki to Wenders there was brilliant competition elsewhere." But he acknowledges FALL is "deeply intelligent and very grownup, a film whose meanings recede even as you pursue them... It absorbed and gripped me like Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution." It's not a left-field choice.

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QUENTIN TARANTINO GIVES THE GRAND PRIX TO JONATHAN GLAZER

The Grand Prix went to Jonathan Glazer's ZONE OF INTEREST. This is an obvious choice since there was a lot of buzz about this story about the manager/creator of Auschwitz living a comfy bourgeois life right next to the wall behind the incinerators. Also in a curious way a timely choice since the author of the source novel Martin Amis died (in Florida) only nine days ago.

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Glazer adapts Martin Amis’s chilling Holocaust drama. Focusing on the everyday domesticity of the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss’s family might only reflect the horror indirectly, but the film pulls the banality of evil into pin-sharp focus, reports Peter Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN, giving it four stars. Note: Martin Amis has just died at 73.

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Bradshaw confesses to being "a little uneasy at the sleekness and pure style of the film" and preferring "László Memes’s Son of Saul in Cannes in 2015."

Anyway ANATOMY OF A FALL and ZONE OF INTEREST are two films we want to see.

THE JURY PRIZE WENT TO AKI KAURISMAKI'S FALLEN LEAVES/Kuolleet lehdet. This helped soften the windup after those more severe choices, with a sweet romantic comedy in the Finnish director's uniquely quirky style.

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"Koji Yakusho won the best actor prize for Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days and clearly won the jury’s hearts with his gentle, complex performance as the toilet cleaner who has a seraphically Zen acceptance of his modest life" (Bradshaw)

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Merve Dizdar got the Best Actress award for her performance in ABOUT DRY GRASSES/Kuru Otlar Üstüne (Nuri Bilge Ceylan). "She plays Nuray, the woman who saves the villager schoolteacher Samet (Deniz Celiloglu) from depression in this Turkish film.

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Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s garrulous, densely considered drama About Dry Grasses was another of his absorbing and Chekhovian works; it was given a particular fierceness by Merve Dizdar, who wins best actress as a disabled woman Nuray, whom the conceited male lead — a teacher in trouble for an inappropriate relationship with a pupil — has got his eye on. She radiates a kind of wounded intelligence and shrewd skepticism, amounting to contempt, for the male world in which she is surrounded, and the men who appear to be interested in her" - Peter Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN.

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MERVE DIZLAR AT BEST ACTRESS AWARDING

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BEST SCREENPLAY:
Yuji Sakamoto, for MONSTER (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Winner

Ken Loach, for THE OLD OAK
Nominee

Alice Rohrwacher, for LA CHIMERA
Nominee

Wang Bing, for YOUTH (SPRING)
Nominee

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"This was an outstanding Cannes competition and every single film on this list is to be savoured. A vintage year." - Peter Bradshaw.

Cannes final hours...

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STILL FROM ANATOMY OF A FALL

Justine Triet caused controversy at Cannes in a "fiery" Palme d'Or acceptance speech, VARIETY says, that "took aim at the French government," an "impassioned plea" that "became instantly viral" and has been widely cited in French news headlines.

Triet referred to the "shocking manner" in which the very broad anti-pension reform movement was repressed, and referred to a "pattern of increasingly uninhibited dominating power" that is "now at work in several areas." There was an implied reference to French film industry figures who have pushed for drastic cuts in funding for auteur films, claiming such films are reducing box office returns.

It was pointed out that Triet's film was made with government support. So then she should shut up?

France's unique film support system is responsible for the high quality of the output. It's supported auteur films that account for the many of the exports of French films abroad, which would not happen with nothing but popular crowd-pleasers.

ANATOMY OF A FALL is expected to be a Best Foreign Oscar contender, despite having a lot of English-language dialogue.

Cannes... red carpet looks

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PERFECTLY GORGEOUS

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HELEN MIRREN STILL MAKES A SPLASH AT 77, AND NO "WORK" DONE (MAYBE)

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JENNIFER LAWRENCE: EXQUISITE SIMPLICITY of 'look' (WORK DONE THOUGH)

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JULIANNE MOORE: THIS ONE HAS HAD "WORK" DONE

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LIV ULMANN: THIS ONE HAS NOT HAD "WORK" DONE

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NATALIE PORTMAN IS ELEGANT, BUT LOOKS A BIT TOO THIN

The new Nuri Bilge Ceylan film opens in Paris today under the title Les herbes sèches. (Movies open in France on Wednesdays.) The AlloCiné press rating is 4.0 (80%), audience 3.7 (74%). This is a high-profile film in France sine Merve Dizdar got the Cannes Best Actress award for her performance in this film.