Cannes 2013

[Chris Knipp]

Official Festival de Cannes website.

The Guardian Cannes coverage is usually good.

Cannes Competition Jury(headed by Spielberg).

Their Classics section this year is a celebration of the great films of the 20th Century.

Here's the whole slate for all the main sections:

IN COMPETITION
Opening Film
Baz LUHRMANN THE GREAT GATSBY (H.C.) 2h22
***
Valeria BRUNI TEDESCHI UN CHÂTEAU EN ITALIE (A CASTLE IN ITALY) 1h44
Ethan COEN, Joel COEN INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS 1h45
Arnaud des PALLIÈRES MICHAEL KOHLHAAS 2h09
Arnaud DESPLECHIN JIMMY P. (PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN) 1h54
Amat ESCALANTE HELI 1h45
Asghar FARHADI LE PASSÉ (THE PAST) 2h10
James GRAY THE IMMIGRANT 1h59
Mahamat-Saleh HAROUN GRIGRIS 1h41
Jim JARMUSCH ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE 2h02
JIA Zhangke TIAN ZHU DING (A TOUCH OF SIN) 2h13
KORE-EDA Hirokazu SOSHITE CHICHI NI NARU
(LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON) 2h
Abdellatif KECHICHE LA VIE D’ADELE - CHAPITRE 1 & 2 (BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR) 2h59
Takashi MIIKE WARA NO TATE0 (SHIELD OF STRAW) 2h05
François OZON JEUNE & JOLIE (YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL) 1h35
Alexander PAYNE NEBRASKA 1h50
Roman POLANSKI LA VÉNUS À LA FOURRURE (VENUS IN FUR) 1h36
Steven SODERBERGH BEHIND THE CANDELABRA 1h58
Paolo SORRENTINO LA GRANDE BELLEZZA (THE GREAT BEAUTY) 2h22
Alex VAN WARMERDAM BORGMAN 1h53
Nicolas WINDING REFN ONLY GOD FORGIVES 1h30
***
Closing Film
Jérôme SALLE ZULU (H.C.) 1h50

UN CERTAIN REGARD
Opening Film
Sofia COPPOLA THE BLING RING 1h30
***
Hany ABU-ASSAD OMAR 1h37
Adolfo ALIX JR. DEATH MARCH 1h45
Ryan COOGLER FRUITVALE STATION 1st film 1h30
Claire DENIS LES SALAUDS 2h
Lav DIAZ NORTE, HANGGANAN NG KASAYSAYAN (NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY) 4h
James FRANCO AS I LAY DYING 2h
Katrin GEBBE TORE TANZT (RISING) 1st film 1h50
Valeria GOLINO MIELE 1stf ilm 1h36
Alain GUIRAUDIE L'INCONNU DU LAC 1h32
Flora LAU BENDS 1st film 1h32
Rithy PANH L'IMAGE MANQUANTE 1h30
Lucia PUENZO WAKOLDA 1h30
Diego QUEMADA-DIEZ LA JAULA DE ORO 1st film 1h42 ANONYMOUS 2h14
Chloé ROBICHAUD SARAH PRÉFÈRE LA COURSE (SARAH WOULD RATHER RUN) 1st film1h34
Hiner SALEEM MY SWEET PEPPER LAND 1h40
Rebecca ZLOTOWSKI GRAND CENTRAL 1h35

OUT OF COMPETITION
J.C CHANDOR ALL IS LOST 1h45
Guillaume CANET BLOOD TIES 2h24
Claude LANZMANN LE DERNIER DES INJUSTES (THE LAST OF THE UNJUST) 3h40

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Amit KUMAR MONSOON SHOOTOUT 1st film 1h28
Johnnie TO BLIND DETECTIVE 2h09

JERRY LEWIS TRIBUTE
Daniel NOAH MAX ROSE 1h26

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Stephen FREARS MUHAMMAD ALI'S GREATEST FIGHT 1h37
Roberto MINERVINI STOP THE POUNDING HEART 1h41
Frank SIMON WEEK END OF A CHAMPION 1h33
James TOBACK SEDUCED AND ABANDONED 1h40

Cinéfondation :
Taisia IGUMENTSEVA OTDAT KONCI 1st film
(BITE THE DUST) 1h41

GALA SCREENING, TRIBUTE TO INDIA
Anurag KASHYAP, Dibakar BANERJEE,
Zoya AKHTAR, Karan JOHAR BOMBAY TALKIES 2h10

DIRECTORS FORTNIGHT
A Strange Course of Events dir Raphaël Nadjari
Les Apaches dir Thierry de Peretti
Ate Ver a Luz dir Basil Da Cunha
Blue Ruin dir Jeremy Saulnier
The Congress dir Ari Folman (opening film)
La Danza de la Realidad by Alejandro Jodorowsky
L'Escale dir Kaveh Bakhtiari
La Fille du 14 Juillet dir Antonin Peretjatko
Henri dir Yolande Moreau
Ilo Ilo dir Anthony Chen
Jodorowsky's Dune dir Frank Pavich
Last Days on Mars dir Ruairi Robinson
Les Garçons et Guillaume, à Table! dir Guillaume Gallienne
Magic Magic dir Sebastian Silva
On the Job dir Erik Matti
The Selfish Giant dir Clio Barnard
Tip Top dir Serge Bozon
Ugly dir Anurag Kashyap
Un Voyageur dir Marcel Ophuls
El Verano de los Peces Voladores dir Marcela Said
We Are What We Are dir Jim Mickle

CRITICS WEEK
The Dismantlement dir Sébastien Pilote
Los Dueños dir Agustín Toscano & Ezequiel Radusky
For Those in Peril dir Paul Wright
The Lunchbox dir Ritesh Batra
The Major dir Yury Bykov
Nos Héros Sont Morts ce Soir dir David Perrault
Salvo dir Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza
Suzanne dir Katell Quillévéré (opening film)
Ain't Them Bodies Saints dir David Lowery (special screening)
Les Rencontres d'Après Minuit dir Yann Gonzalez (special screening)

CANNES CLASSICS
Hal ASHBY THE LAST DETAIL 1h44
Jacques BARATIER GOHA 1h18
Bernardo BERTOLUCCI THE LAST EMPEROR 2h43
Lino BROCKA MAYNILA: SA MGA KUKO NG LIWANAG (MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF LIGHT) 2h04
Patrice CHEREAU LA REINE MARGOT (QUEEN MARGOT) 2h39
René CLÉMENT PLEIN SOLEIL (BLAZING SUN) 1h55
Jean COCTEAU LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) 1h34
Mark COUSINS A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM 1h41
Jacques DEMY LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG (THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG) 1h32
Arielle DOMBASLE OPIUM 1h17
Marco FERRERI LA GRANDE ABBUFFATA (THE BIG FEAST) 2h10
Diego GALAN CON LA PATA QUEBRADA (BAREFOOT IN THE KITCHEN) 1h23
Alfred HITCHCOCK VERTIGO 2h09
Ted KOTCHEFF THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ 2
Pierre LHOMME,
Chris MARKER LE JOLI MAI (THE LOVELY MONTH OF MAY) 2h25
Joseph L. MANKIEWICZ CLEOPATRA 4h03
Youri OZEROV, Milos FORMAN,
Mai ZETTERLING, Claude
LELOUCH, Arthur PENN,
Michael PFLEGHAR, John
SCHLESINGER, Kon ICHIKAWA VISIONS OF EIGHT 1h49
Yasujiro OZU SANMA NO AJI (AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON) 2h13
Satyajit RAY CHARULATA (THE LONELY WIFE) 1h57
Alain RESNAIS HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR
(HIROSHIMA MY LOVE) 1h32
Francesco ROSI LUCKY LUCIANO 1h55
Ousmane SEMBENE BOROM SARRET 20'
Billy WILDER FEDORA REMASTERED 1h50
Treva WURMFELD SHEPARD & DARK 1h29
Valerio ZURLINI IL DESERTO DEI TARTARI (THE DESERT OF THE TARTARS) 2h20

THE POSTER: A photograph of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman taken during the shoot of the aptly named A New Kind of Love, by Melville Shavelson in 1963 is the image used for the poster for this year's Festival de Cannes, which runs May 15 through 26, 2013.

[Johann]

Insane lineup. Wish I could be there.

Just a note on Ted Kotcheff's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz: it was recently restored and will screen soon here in Toronto.
It took Kotcheff himself to ask why the film is being allowed to deteriorate, why it wasn't being restored.
His cult classic (and long-thought lost) Wake In Fright was saved from destruction too.

What has happened to Canadian film restoration practices?
Duddy is a landmark of Canadian cinema and it wasn't even considered for restoration. Then they got on it, at Ted Kotcheff's urging.
See it restored on a big screen if you can guys.
It will screen later this year in Toronto and I'll be there to see it.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for the note. Insane lineup indeed. Is anybody wondering after seeing it why Cannes is the world's No. One film festival? This is really class. This is where it all begins, and to a certain extent this is also where it all ends, in festival world.

I am intrigued to see the name Arnaud de Pallières. Watching a new feature by him would be an exciting prospect. His ADIEU lingers in memory as one of the mind-blowers ever since I saw it at the MK2 Beaubourg in Paris some years ago. And James Gray, Jim Jarmusch, Jia Zhang-ke, Koreeda, Abdellatif Kechiche, Miike, Ozon, Alexander Payne, Sorrentino, Refn. Maybe Polanski's got something good up his sleeve. And Claire Denis.

[Chris Knipp]

Remember: I'm not at Cannes! This is all just borrowed reporting.

16 mai 2013 (as they write it)--Thursday May 16th): CANNES began yesterday with THE GREAT GATSBY; see my and tabuno's reviews on our Filmleaf thread for it My back getting better and allowing me to see GATSBY and review it yesterday turned out to be good timing. This is one that opened in Paris (as do all the Cannes opening night films and some others) the same evening, and I see the hip Paris weekly Les Inrockkuptibles like me had feared the movie would be overdone, but also, like me, found Gatsby le Magnifique "une bonne surprise." Allociné rating: 3.7. A nice surprise. Not their top rating, but a sign the French reviews are very good, apparently way better than the American ones if the Metacritic 55 is accurate. NB: Wednesdays are the days when movies open in France. so it's logical to open Cannes on that day too. Note also Luhrmann has a history of being favorred at Cannes. When STRICKTLY BALLROOM debuted during the Crictis's Fortnight in 1992 it was a popular success. Then his MOULIN ROUGE opened Cannes in its year.



A shaky, emotional Audrey Tautou opened the festival, along with Spielberg and DiCaprio.

I'll again be collating Mike D'Angelo's numerical ratings and tweet "reviews" of the Cannes films he sees as I did last year showing his rankings. So far he has already seen and rated six films, starting with the "Market" screenings as before. He has already seen the Jia Zhang-ke and François Ozon ones, as well as Sofia Coppola's, about which the buzz was already bad. D'Angelo's real reviews will appear on a day-to-day basis on AV Club again; they are financing at least in part his Cannes presence. You'll find some of the following more fully described in his AV Club Day One report. His AV Club letter grade ratings for Coppola, Ozon, and Escalante are C, B+, and C+, respectively.


D'ANGELO'S (MAY) 2013 CANNES TWITTER REVIEWS (so far, in descending order of rating):

Young & Beautiful (Ozon): 66. Character study of teen hooker inititally seems banal, but banality proves to be its secret weapon.

Go for Sisters (Sayles): 61. I've been saying for yrs he should do something trashy and this comes pretty close. Possibly too close.[Market]

A Touch of Sin (Jia): 59. Big change of pace, 4-parter w/loads of explicit violence. Individual stories compel; juxtaposition a bit tract-y.

Touchy Feely (Shelton): 51. Dismayingly inorganic, w/lots of writer's heavy hand. Great cast still finds moments of authenticity. [Market]

Heli (Escalante): 44. When bad things happen to made-up people. Like his previous films, as formally impressive as it is pointless.

The Bling Ring (Coppola): 32. Two words: Who cares?

______________________

From Barbara Scharres, Roger Ebert's Journal Cannes report:

"Heli by Mexican director Amat Escalante (Los Bastardos, Sangre) is a sad and exceptionally brutal tale of violence that emanates from the drug trade." I had to look up this name because I didn't know it. Lynne Shelton is the director of HUMP DAY and YOUR SISTER'S SISTER; she acted in SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm wondering of THE BLING RING is less or more superficial and silly than Sophie Letrouneur's frivolous (but vernacular) account of some young women man-hunting at the Venice Film Festival, LES COQUILLETTES (Rendez-Vous 2013). D'Angelo calls in "the firt big bummer" at Cannes for the American press since it was the de facto opener, GATSBY having already been seen by American critics.

But Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN liked it, saying "Sofia Coppola's intuitive and atmospheric tale of teen burglars who target Hollywood celebrities is an unexpected pleasure" and giving it a three out of five rating. The GUARDIAN ran another review giving FRUITVALE STATION a four-out-of-five star rating.

D'Angelo's evaluations can be seriously flawed but his Cannes tweets provide a fuller than usually detailed record of the competition films shown there in real time, compared to Manohla Dargis' say, who may write one or two articles reviewing only a handful of films.

Anyway the GUARDIAN Cannes 2013 blog is really generous with reviews, color, videos, and information.

[cinemabon]

Cannes and Coppola both made news today when a jewel heist was reported and compared with Sophia's entry - free publicity. Forgive me Chris for posting a new review over Cannes. This is far more important and hopefully my film will quickly die off as platitudes.

[Chris Knipp]

I had seen somewhere, though, that the leading member of the original "bling ring" Alexis Neiers (basis for the Emma Watson character) called the movie "trashy and inaccurate." That was just on the basis of the trailer, though. I should think those are always trashy and inaccurate. She has also said all the news stories about the thefts were also inaccurate, and that since there has been no trial the real nature of the thefts has never come out.

So now Cannes is "over" STAR TREK again, but all new movies are worth reporting on. So far STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (which the New Yorker's Lane mocks this week) has done really well with the reviewers, Metacritic 73.

[Chris Knipp]

Arnaud Desplechin's JIMMY P.: THE PSYCHOATHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN
With: Benicio del Toro and Matthieu Amalric

Some difference of views -- VARIETY (Scott Foundas) and SCREEN DAILY like it, but the Guardian calls it a bomb and Mike D'Angelo's tweet review is

Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Desplechin): 35. I was not expecting to leave this film thinking fondly of GOOD WILL HUNTING.

I'm continuing to collate D'Angelo's tweet reviews. The NY Times' Manohla Dargis' Cannes intro piece doesn't seem worth summarizing. Reviewing Cannes' friendly relations with Hollywood seems merely filler at this point and her GATSBY and BLING RING remarks add nothing notable. But since the NY Times may be the most seen US print coverage of the festival I'll keep following.

JIMMY P. sounds very dubious; Desplechin's first since his excellent A CHRISTMAS TALE. Since Foundas praises it and Kent Jones co-wrote it, it looks likely to get Lincoln Center favor and I may get to judge for myself at the fall NYFF. Is there something D'Angelo and the GUARDIAN review to make it brilliant and deep and not what it sounds like, the silliest thing ever?

Peter Bradshaw of THE GUARDIAN wrote an excellent short and admiring review of Farhadi's THE PAST. He calls it "absorbing, rewarding, slightly contrived" and that is my feeling about A SEPARATION, the previous Farhadi film that won him international recognition; but I'm hoping I'll like him better in French. I watched an hour-long Q&A with Farhadi and the main cast members on the Cannes website. Impressive to see how the multi-lingual event is handled at Cannes, with simultaneous translations from English, French, and Farsi throughout. They do it with class. Even the two kid stars came up and listened through the headsets. Farhadi apparently did the entire interaction with the mostly French cast while rehearsing and shooting the film using an interpreter. Everything points to this being over-determined and over-choreographed but the cast said they loved it as a way of working. But that explains the "contrived" feel for Bradshaw, I imagine. A few too many plot twists, more than one reviewer has commented, and that again was true of A SEPARATION -- though it's the essence of how Farhadi works. In the Q&A he says he rejected Holywood invitations because scenario-writing is his first love, and he will not ever shoot other people's scripts.

[cinemabon]

Saw the mention of re-mastering Billy Wilder's "Fedora" with Bill Holden. I never saw it in the theater. It came and went so quickly. I had forgotten this next to last film by Wilder until just now. Had such mixed reviews. Love the reporting on Cannes. I feel like I have a front row seat.

[Chris Knipp]

Rebecca Zlotowski's GRAND CENTRAL
In French
With:
Léa Seydoux, Tahar Rahim, Olivier Gourmet

D'Angelo walked out of Rebecca Zlotkowski's GRAND CENTRAL, which concerns workers in a French nuclear plant. Interestingly, this features Tahar Rahim (of Audiard's prizewinning A PROPHET), the second man in the triangle of Farhadi's THE PAST. He really glowed at the Cannes THE PAST Q&A and it's looking like he's clearly now a star, which was a bit iffy after Audiard made him one so young. With a cast like this (Olivier Gourmet, a Dardennes favorite, so great recently in THE MINISTER is one of the best and Seydoux's filmography is already impressive) it's hard to justify D'Angelo's W/O and there is a positive buzz about GRAND CENTRAL but we'll see. I can see how its class and nuclear issue focuses might seem too earnest and Screen Daily describes it as a fine effort that in the end seems too thin. Plus to be honest others esp. women loved Zlotowski's debut BELLE EPINE (ND/NF 2011), also with Seydoux but I didn't. However, I'll watch anything with Seydoux in it.

Tom Lamong (GUARDIAN) Saturday (May 18) sprightly Cannes roundup like others, headlines the daily heavy rain so far on the Cote d'Azur so far this year.

Thanks for the FEDORA information, cenemabon and for the thumbs up on my (second-hand) Cannes reports.

[cinemabon]

Oh, Cannes... you just can't get enough publicity!

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...for-cover?lite

[Chris Knipp]

The Coen brothers' INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
With
Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham

D'Angnelo's tweet:

Inside Llewyn Davis (Coens): 57. A close cousin to O BROTHER, not just musically but in its picaresque semi-randomness (+ Goodman ogre).

He again seems grumpy and out of tune, since Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN in his "first look" review gives it five out of five stars and says it's the best of the fest so far and Hollywood Reporter and Variety reviews are also glowing. I value D'Angelo for his independent mindedness, so I can't have it both ways, but his linking LLEWYN DAVIS with O BROTHER sounds dubious, since it's about the folk singing scene in NYC in the Sixties, a far cry from country music in the Thirties deep south.

NOTE: Also shown Saturday or by Sat. were Alejandro Jodorovsky (who's in his 80's) La Danza de la Realidad/THE DANCE OF REALITY and David Lowery's AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, which I'll look for responses to further tomorrow. Bradsaw gives REALITY four out of five stars, and filmmaker Rian Johnson tweeted of AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS "Still reeling. Pretty incredible."

[Chris Knipp]

THE CANNES JURIES

Oh, Cannes... you just can't get enough publicity!

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...for-cover?lite

A man perhaps also carrying a grenade fired several shots from a pistol and interrupted a live interview about to begin with Chrstof Waltz and Daniel Auteul at Cannes on the Croisette, an outdoor stage overlooking the water where a lot of stuff happens. It turns out they were blanks, and we can't see it directly but they say he was pointing it at Waltz. In the video the woman declares at the end: "Il y a quequ'un qui tire!" - "There's somebody shooting!" See it on this Youtube video.

In case you're wondering what Daniel Auteuil and Christof Waltz were doing being interviewed together, both are on the Cannes Competition "Longs Métrages" (Feature Films) Jury.

Here's this "main" Cannes Jury:

LONGS METRAGES/FEATURES
Steveen Spielberg, President, USA, director
Ang Lee, Taiwan, director
Daniel Auteuil, France, actor, director
Christof Waltz, Austria, actor
Nicole Kidman, Australia, actress
Lynne Ramsey, UK, director

I might as well give here the other juries.

UN CERTAIN REGARD
Thomas Vinterberg, President, Denmark, director
Enrique Gonzalez Macho Spail, distributor, producer, promoter
Ludivine Sagnier France, actress
Ilda Santiago Brazil, Director of the Rio Festival
Zhang Ziyi China, actress

CAMÉRA D'OR
Agnès Varda President, France, director
Michel Abramowicz, France, cinmeatographer, represenative of AFC
Gwénolé Brunea France, Ficam sales representative
Isabel Coixet Spain, director
Éric Guirado, France, director
Chloé Rolland, France, critic
Régis Wargnier, France, director

CINÉFONDATION AND SHORT FILMS JURY
Jane Campion, President New Zealand, director and screenwriter
Maji-da Abdi, Ethiopia, actress, director, producer
Nicoletta Braschi, Italy, actress and producer
Nandita Das, India, actress and director
Semih Kaplanoğlu , Turkey, director and producer

Sélection Cinéfondation includes 18 films submitted by students at film schools in 13 countries.

The Sélection de la Quinzaine des réalisateurs/Directors Fortnight Films, is 19 films and is a bit like New Directors/New Films (much more globally visible though). There is also Critics Week (La Semaine de la critique), two prizes, seven feature films and ten shorts. These are all ones to watch for new emerging talent. There are three FIPRESCI awards given at Cannes. There is also a youth jury (age 18-25) which often gets overlooked. There are a number of youth awards given from the various categories.

[Chris Knipp]

OTHER CANNES REPORTS

I find Keith Ulrich on TimeOut New York has good early Cannes reviews. You'll find his column on A TOUCH OF SIN, Farhadi's THE PAST, and Alain Giraudie's STRANGER BY THE LAKE here. Ulrich's reviews are more detailed than the Guardian's perhaps, certainly than D'Angelo's, less personal than his but more open minded.

Of course if you want to get an idea of a festival film's US distribution possibilities and mainstream potential, you generally are better off going to Variety or Hollywood Reporter first. They provide a lot of good detail on films too, only sometimes they jut write them off because they think they're not commercial, or alternatively write publicity for them rather than a real critique. More to come. As I write this Cannes day five hasn't even started yet.

[Chris Knipp]

DAY FIVE: Sunday 19 May

UPDATING MIKE D'ANGELO TWITTER REVIEWS
These remain the most up-to-the-minute reports on Cannes screenings I'm aware of, in English... D'Angelo today, Sunday 19 May 2013, notes the general ratings of competition films thus far shown. (Note where it says "Market" below those are not competition.)

D'Angelo: "Screen ratings as of today (out of 4): Jia 3.0, Farhadi 2.8, Kore-eda 2.5, Ozon 2.4, Desplechin 2.0, Escalante 1.6. No Coens 'til tomorrow." He added about the French responses: "No time to compute Le Film Français avgs but they collectively love Farhadi, Jia, and (much more divisively) Guiraudie." And to that he adds: "Also the French haaaate FRUITVALE STATION. Good job the French." I think he may think the English-speakers positive response to FRUITVALE STATION is some kind of rote PC thing. We might need to be open to that possibility. However, he should not have walked out of GRAND CENTRAL or FRUITVALE in my view. (He watched 40 mins. if he's following his usual MO).

D'ANGELO'S LATEST TWEETS (as of 19 MAY):

Borgman (Van Warmerdam): 52. Basic anti-bourgeois surrealism, with little real-world resonance that I can detect. Forgettably intriguing.

Seduced and Abandoned (Toback): 52. Totally incoherent—is it about Cannes, financing, "the magic of the movies," death, what? But fun.

Bends (Lau): W/O. Never even really got a sense of what this is, to be honest. Totally enervating.

_________________


TAHER RAHIM AND BÉRÉNICE BEJO AT CANNES
WITH THE KIDS IN THE PAST

D'ANGELO'S PREVIOUSLY POSTED CANNES 2013 TWITTER REVIEWS:

The Past (Farhadi): 82. Farhadi may be the best pure dramatist in the world right now. Theme's a bit blunt here (The Past!); still superb.

The Selfish Giant (Barnard): 68. Had you shown this to me blind I'd have bet the farm it was Shane Meadows. Like SOMERS TOWN as tragedy.

Young & Beautiful (Ozon): 66. Character study of teen hooker inititally seems banal, but banality proves to be its secret weapon.

Go for Sisters (Sayles): 61. I've been saying for yrs he should do something trashy and this comes pretty close. Possibly too close.[Market]

A Touch of Sin (Jia): 59. Big chance of pace, 4-parter w/loads of explicit violence. Individual stories compel; juxtaposition a bit tract-y.

Inside Llewyn Davis (Coens): 57. A close cousin to O BROTHER, not just musically but in its picaresque semi-randomness (+ Goodman ogre).

Touchy Feely (Shelton): 51. Dismayingly inorganic, w/lots of writer's heavy hand. Great cast still finds moments of authenticity. [Market]

Stranger by the Lake (Guiraudie): 50. Might be too straight for this, as it's pretty close to being gay porn w/an unusually hefty plot.

Heli (Escalante): 44. When bad things happen to made-up people. Like his previous films, as formally impressive as it is pointless.

Like Father, Like Son (Kore-eda): 42. Imagine a film abt parents who learn they were given the wrong baby 6 yrs earlier. This is that film.

Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Desplechin): 35. I was not expecting to leave this film thinking fondly of GOOD WILL HUNTING.

The Bling Ring (Coppola): 32. Two words: Who cares?

Grand Central (Zlotowski): W/O. I'm 0-for-2 on Ms. Z so far. Details of working in a nuclear power plant are fascinating; nothing else is.

Fruitvale Station (Coogler): W/O. Because I was totally fine w/cops killing civilians until I saw what a super-nice guy the victim can be. . . . LATER TWEET ON THIS: @b_wolo Bitch to my face, pal. And lol to @Power_Lloyd suggesting I have some moral obligation to endure crappy films about black people.
THE GUARDIAN gave FRUITVALE STATION two favorable reviews with three out of five and a four out of five ratings.

Update on FRUITVALE STATION: reviews are generally positive (Metacritic 72, Rotten Tomatoes 88), but VARIETY's isn't: [Wiipedia] 'Geoff Berkshire of Variety called it "a well-intentioned attempt to put a human face on the tragic headlines surrounding Oscar Grant."' Though he praised Michael B. Jordan's performance, he critiqued the "relentlessly positive portrayal" of the film's subject: "Best viewed as an ode to victim's rights, Fruitvale forgoes nuanced drama for heart-tugging, head-shaking and rabble-rousing." But various reviews clearly state this is a strong directorial debut with good performances; that was the reaction at Sundance, apparently.

P.S. on the CANNES WEBSITE: All the post-screening Competition Q&A's are in videos on the site and are usually lengthy, and available in French and English if you like that sort of thing, and it's usually fun to see and hear actors and filmmakers one admires even if very often not much is added to what you get, in information, otherwise, from the films themselves.

THE PAST opened in Paris 17 May and has gotten raves: Allociné press rating 4.4 out of 5 based on 19 reviews. If you watch its trailer you'll find a warm and intense piece of work, belying its described "overwritten" and control-freak-direction qualities. I think I'm going to like at better than A SEPARATION.