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Thread: Cannes Film Festival 2018

  1. #46
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    Time for the prize-predicting. News (good) of Terry Gilliam.

    The energetic Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian has a roundup article touching on the social-political-gender issues and listing the Cannes movies he disliked and the ones he loved and closing with the following predictions (though no one succeeds in guessing the Cannes awards that I know of - but the actual awards may be some rearrangement of these titles):
    Peter Bradshaw’s predictions
    Palme d’Or Happy As Lazzaro (dir Alice Rohrwacher)
    Grand Prix Cold War (dir Pawel Pawłikowski)
    Jury Prize Burning (dir Lee Chang-dong)
    Best director Matteo Garrone (Dogman)
    Best script Ebru Ceylan, Akin Aksu and Nuri Bilge Ceylan (The Wild Pear Tree)
    Best actor Yoo Ah-in (Burning)Best actress Joanna Kulig (Cold War)

    'Imaginary' Cannes awards – AKA Braddies d’Or
    Best cinematography Hong Kyung-pyo (Burning)
    Best music Roman Bilyk and German Osipov (Leto)
    Best supporting male actor Liao Fan (Ash Is Purest White)
    Best supporting female actor Kirin Kiki (Shoplifters)
    Best production design Curt Beech (BlacKkKLlansman)
    One I would mention for sure is Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey Into Night, which I'm pretty sure is one of the, thrillingly brilliant films of the festival, quite possibly the most thrillingly brilliant one. His debut Kaili Blues, seen by me in New Directors/New Films, was a uniquely memorable thrill.

    It would also be fun to list all the turkeys that have been reported on in the festival, and make a mini-festival feasting on them. To ponder on the mistaken reasons for including in such a prestigious and elegant event so much sheer expendable junk.


    Terry Gilliam (from the Guardian)

    News of Terry Gilliam.
    Terry Gilliam's long-pursued Don Quixote comedy will, as announced, be shown as the closing film at Cannes, tomorrow, Saturday May 19, opening in Paris the same evening, UK (or US) dates to be announced. Gilliam has now explained, in a Guardian article that while the symptoms were similar, what he had, "less painful than a stubbed toe," was a perforated medullary artery, something more minor than a stroke. And he is fine now, and will be on hand for the debut of the movie it's taken him decades and required overcoming so many obstacles to complete.

    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 05-19-2018 at 07:12 PM.

  2. #47
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    Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

    The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Terry Gilliam).

    (Shown as closing night film.)
    The film has been shown a day early to the press; Peter Debruge reviews it for Variety. In Miguel de Cervantes' great Spanish classic, Don Quixote was a man who read too many chivalric romances and thought he was a heroic knight. Gilliam's movie is, instead, about a contemporary man who starts to think he is Don Quixote. Debruge says the story fits Gilliam himself, sort of, because he's a "quixotic" sort of fellow himself; but, sadly, the story and the dream are better than the actual movie, which is "what the director’s fans most feared: a lumbering, confused, and cacophonous mess." Pryce's sonorous voices sounds braying due to over-high sound mix and Driver is saddled with too many F-words. I am sure that we will go to see it anyway, if we love "Monty Python" and Terry, or Adam Driver, or Cervantes, or all of the above. The story shows a maker of advertising shorts, Toby (Driver), wasting his life and moral fiber, who's drawn back to an old movie he made as a student based on Don Quixote and wants to find the people he cast in the main roles years ago. When he finds the humble shoemaker (Pryce) he'd cast as Quixote, turns out the man has lived all these years deluded that he is the Mournful Knight, and now mistakes Toby for Sancho Panza. But Gilliam jumbles the line between reality and fantasy here that he kept helpfully clear in his more successful 12 Monkeys and The Fisher King, according to Debruge. As one perhaps would expect, the Brit Bradshaw is kinder in his 3/5-stars Guardian review, hailing "a film of sweet gaiety and cheerful good nature." You decide.

    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 05-19-2018 at 07:13 PM.

  3. #48
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    The Wild Pear Tree

    The Wild Pear Tree (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

    (Shown in Competition.)
    (Turkish title: Ahlat Ağacı.) Ceylan's theme this time is a would-be writer's return to his native village in rural Turkey, where his father's debuts overwhelm his aspirations. Can you return home again? This is a "gentle, humane, beautifully made and magnificently acted" Chekhovian answer to this question that's "garrulous, humorous and lugubrious in his unmistakable and very engaging style," says a very enthusiastic Peter Bradshaw, who gives this movie his second 5/5-star rating at this year's Cannes in his Guardian review. One feels already that the theme and style are very close to Ceylan's previous film, Winter Sleep. Watching it was a special pleasure, but I miss the drier, more succinct style of his early films. Here Sinan, the graduate, comes back with a diploma and no job, wondering if he should take exams to become a teacher like his father. He also is irritated by home, but forced to be kind knowing it will be the subject of his first, autobiographical, novel. Ceylan's later films are like novels, consisting of a series of long conversations. Sinan wants to raise money for a book, but his father is a gambling addict drowning in debut; his mother has just managed to save them. The summary of Jay Weissberg's Variety review is "Another visually rich chamber piece from Nuri Bilge Ceylan that builds elaborate rhetorical set pieces of astonishing density." Other reviews are equally admiring. Deborah Young in her Hollywood Reporter review a bit less so. She says the three hours "do not exactly fly by," but "the final sequences are worth the wait." The Metacritic rating is the highest ever for a Ceylan film, 93. This is clearly a must-see, and another serious Cannes award candidate. (It did not get one. The US release date has not yet been announced.)

    The Wild Pear Tree is another big Cannes awards candidate, along with Burning, Shoplifters, Happy As Lazzaro, Ash Is Purest White andCold war, with Dogman, Leto and BlacKKKlansman. making a "top nine" of Competition favorites.

    Ayka (Sergey Dvortsevoy).

    (Shown in Competition.)
    The title (Айка) means "My Little One." Not so big, not so anticipated, as Ceylan's, by the director of the ethnographic, vivid, memorable but not great (in my opinion) Tulpan (NYFF 2008). That was Un Certain Regard; this is Competition. Using the same female star as the earlier movie, Samal Yeslyamova, who provides "an intense, committed performance," this seems like the Dardennes' Rosetta, says Leslie Felperin in her Hollywood Reporter review. Ayka starts by escaping out the window of a maternity ward to go back to work, knowing she's unable to support a baby. Perhaps Zain of Nadine Labaki's Capernaum would approve this realistic gesture. Then she runs around looking for different jobs. "Dvortsevoy deserves praise for making a film willing to show a woman ready to do anything she can to live," Felperin concludes.

    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 05-24-2018 at 05:48 PM.

  4. #49
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    A.A.Dowd's guesses
    (From his Cannes coverage for AV Club.)

    Palme D’Or
    Will win: Capernaum


    Last Saturday, jury president Cate Blanchett led a Women’s March up the red-carpeted steps of the Palais, partially to call attention to the fact that only 82 women have ever been eligible to win the Palme at Cannes, with Jane Campion the lone female winner (and she even had to split the award with Chen Kaige). Is it reductive to assume that Blanchett’s jury, which includes more women than men, will use the power it’s been granted to give top honors to a female filmmaker for once? Politics and principle have decided this competition before—just ask Michael Moore. Capernaum, while already critically divisive, went over like gangbusters at its big premiere last night, and social-realist seriousness is often a recipe for success at Cannes. The jury could also go with Alice Rohrwacher’s very well-received Happy As Lazzaro, but I have a hunch Labaki has the edge.

    Should win: Burning


    South Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s mysterious drama about class, privilege, and unrequited affection casts a spell that’s hard to shake. No movie at Cannes this year put its runtime to better use, and nothing built—quietly, carefully, masterfully—to a more satisfying endpoint. If it’s the movie itself that matters most, Burning deserves this.

    Grand Prix
    Will win: Burning


    Every year, Screen International holds an ongoing poll of the Cannes competition titles, soliciting star ratings from a panel of international critics. Burning hasn’t just topped the 2018 edition of the poll; it’s edged out the record-breaking average Toni Erdmann managed to become, with a 3.8, the most highly regarded film in the grid’s history. It’s hard to imagine the jury ignoring the acclaim showered on this movie; the Grand Prix, or second place, feels like the likeliest acknowledgment.

    Should win: Cold War

    My second favorite movie of the festival, Gaspar Noé’s nightmare dance party Climax, wasn’t in competition. (It premiered instead in sidebar fest Directors’ Fortnight, and handily won the top prize there.) So I’ll stump instead for Pawel Pawlikowski’s doomed romance Cold War, which condenses maybe a dozen years of life and history into a miniature epic, gorgeous and timely and “old-fashioned” in the best way.

    Jury Prize
    Will win: 3 Faces

    Every new movie by Jafar Panahi, the politically suppressed Iranian director, is a courageous act of rebellion. A win for 3 Faces, perhaps the most dramatically satisfying of the movies Panahi’s made since being banned from filmmaking, is a win for artistic expression in the face of state censorship. Third place could conceivably be its reward.

    Should win: Ash Is Purest White

    Jia Zhangke draws surprising lines of connection across his body of work in this playful, thoughtful drama about the tumultuous relationship between a gangster and his moll in post-millennial China. You don’t have to be a Jia diehard to get on its wavelength, though fans will get a special rush from what he does in the film’s self-referential second act.

    Best Director
    Will win: Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman

    Back in competition for the first time in 27 years, Spike has made a rollicking and timely crowd-pleaser about pushing back against the enduring horror of white supremacy, then and now and always. I suspect it will win something; given how every frame of the film has Lee’s signature on it, Best Director may be the one.

    Should win: David Robert Mitchell, Under The Silver Lake

    He hasn’t got a chance in hell, but if I’m spreading the wealth and not just choosing Lee, Pawlikowski, or Jia again, then Mitchell’s mastery of atmosphere and framing is my next favorite directorial achievement here. Remember, even a flawed film can be spectacularly realized.

    Best Actress
    Will win: Joanna Kulig, Cold War

    Although it screened all the way back on day three of the festival, the jury may still find a way to honor one of the lineup’s best and most well-liked films. And even those who find Cold War too remote can’t deny the star-making volatility of Joanna Kulig’s performance as a singer torn across Europe, in and out of a bad romance.

    Should win: Zhao Tao, Ash Is Purest White

    If they don’t go with Kulig, they may honor Chinese actor Zhao Tao instead. She’s been so good for so long in Jia’s movies, but has never won anything at Cannes. That Ash Is Purest White functions as a kind of career summation, allowing her to connect her past and present roles through a layered, years-spanning performance, is a great reason to choose Zhao.

    Best Actor
    Will win: Marcello Fonte, Dogman

    Fonte, a relative unknown, carries Dogman with his dignity, kindness, and acquiescence—all slowly crumbling as his character, a dog groomer caught in an abusive friendship with a local hoodlum, reaches the limits of his forgiveness.

    Should win: Marcello Fonte, Dogman

    His really is the best, meatiest male performance in competition—a turn that’s earned comparisons to Pacino, and they’re not ungrounded.

    Best Screenplay
    Will win: Happy As Lazzaro

    Reception to this whimsical Italian family drama was very warm, and the screenplay is a big part of that: Writer-director Alice Rohrwacher nestles a rather seismic, delightful twist into its second half—a gambit that elevates the film from an ambling country charmer to something much weirder and more ambitious.

    Should win: Asako I & II

    For a while, you wonder where it could be going. Then Ryûsuke Hamaguchi reveals the trajectory of his deceptively insightful romance about a love triangle linking a woman’s first love and her new one.

    P.s.: He got one right: Marcello Fonte, Best Actor - a prize many agreed with.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 05-19-2018 at 08:16 PM.

  5. #50
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    [Le Monde, Paris]
    The winners. (Those guys were completely wrong, of course.)

    Palme d’or..... Shoplifters (Hirakazu Koreeda)
    Grand Prix..... BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee)
    Prix du jury.... Capernaum (Nadine Labaki)
    More announcements coming.

    My (premature) comments: I have not seen any of the Competition films, not even watched the trailers, but I'd say from following reports, the predictions that this was a lackluster year were quite wrong: there were a lot of fine films. Just look again at the Screen Jury Grid of the 15th. At least the top seven sounded superb, or important (Godard), and beyond that Honoré is a personal favorite of mine for his gay-friendly, youthful pictures steeped in French New Wave traditions and with engaging actors; I have a personal relation to Egypt, so even if A.B. Shoukry's admission to Cannes Competition was a bit premature, I'd find his movie of interest. Heck, even the generally reviled Girls of the Sun has the gorgeous and vivacious Golshifteh Farahani in a key role. After these came films by Stéphane Brisé (once again with the great, by now one could say iconic, Vincent Lindon), and Lee Chang-dong's Burning, which got the Jury Grid critics' highest raing in Jury Grid history! Not too shabby. .
    3.2 Shoplifters (Hirakazu Koreeda)
    3.0 The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard)
    2.9 Cold War (Pawel Pawelowski)
    2.9 Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhang-ke)
    2.9 Happy As Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher)
    2.6 Three Faces (Jafar Panahi)
    2.5 BlacKKKlansman (Spike Lee)
    2.4 Leto (Kiril Serebrenekov)
    2.4 Asaki I & II (Ryunosuke Hamaguchi)
    2.3 Sorry, Angel (Christophe Honoré)
    1.8 Yomeddine (A.b. Shoukry)
    1.0 Girls of the Sun (Eva Husson)

    And that's just the Competition films. We haven't gotten to Un Certain Regard and Critics Week and Directors' Fortnight. The "Festival de Cannes" is still a pretty neat place to spend 12 days in spring if you're a cinephile, none better.

    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 05-19-2018 at 08:37 PM.

  6. #51
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    Steven Yeun in Burning

    All the Cannes prizes.
    (Adapted from Wikipedia page on the festival in English; the French wikipedia Cannes 2018 page gives additional information and I brought over some of the original language titles from there.) See also Peter Debruge's roundup Variety article. And see also Peter Bradshaw's Guardian comments on the prizes. He was disappointed but not surprised that Labaki's tear-jerker Capenaum won third prize, and simply disappointed that Burning, by Korean director Lee Chang-dong, which the critics liked so much - remember, it got a record 3.8 on the Jury Grid, wasn't rewarded with a top prize. (It did get the FIPRESCI Competition award, though.)

    I'm feeling good about the fact that Spike Lee is going away very happy with the Grand Prix. BlacKKKlansman clearly is his liveliest, most committed work in years, and he liked its starting out with high international recognition. It's notable that the transgender film Girl, a strong debut, got four prizes, the Un Certain Regard acting prize, the FIPRESCI award, the Caméra d'Or, and the Queer Palm, and Burning did get compensation in the Competition FIPRESCI award.

    Just remember: being in the Cannes Film Festival is an award in itself, the biggest award the world of cinema has to offer. And what happens at Cannes during these twelve days is seen around the world, whether it's Kristen Stewart taking her Louboutin spike heels to walk up the red stairway or Spike cursing at his press conference or a brilliant or bold new movie director hitting the silver screen.

    P.s.: I have missed the commentaries and "Tweet reviews" of Mike D'Angelo very much, this Cannes. I have followed D'Angelo at Cannes (and Toronto) since his Open Letter to Lars von Trier, Cannes for AV Club, May 2009, made me a convert.

    Cannes Festival 2018: Official awards

    In Competition (President of Jury: Cate Blanchett)
    Palme d'Or: Shoplifters/Une affaire de famille (万引き家族, Manbiki kazoku) by Hirokazu Kore-eda
    Grand Prix: BlacKkKlansman by Spike Lee

    Best Director: Paweł Pawlikowski for Cold War/(Zimna wojna)
    Best Screenplay:
    Alice Rohrwacher for Happy as Lazzaro
    and
    Jafar Panahi for 3 Faces/Trois visages ( سه رخ, Se rokh)
    Best Actress: Samal Yeslyamova for Ayka
    Best Actor: Marcello Fonte for Dogman
    Jury Prize: Capernaum/(كفرناحوم, Cafarnaúm) by Nadine Labaki
    Special Palme d'Or: The Image Book/Le livre de l'image by Jean-Luc Godard

    Un Certain Regard (Jury President: Benicio del Toro)
    Un Certain Regard Award: Border by Ali Abbasi
    Un Certain Regard Jury Prize: The Dead and the Others/Les Morts et les Autres (Chuva é cantoria na aldeia dos mortos) by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora
    Un Certain Regard Award for Best Director: Sergei Loznitsa for Donbass
    Un Certain Regard Jury Award for Best Performance: Victor Polster for Girl
    Un Certain Regard Award for Best Screenplay: Meryem Benm'Barek-Aloïsi for Sofia

    Cinéfondation (Jury President: Bertrand Bonello)
    First Prize: The Summer of the Electric Lion (El Verano del Léon Eléctrico) by Diego Céspedes
    Second Prize:
    Calendar (Kalendar) by Igor Poplauhin
    The Storms in Our Blood (Dong wu xiong meng) by Shen Di
    Third Prize: Inanimate by Lucia Bulgheroni
    Independent awards

    Independent Awards

    FIPRESCI Prizes
    In Competition: Burning (버닝 / Beoning) by Lee Chang-dong
    Un Certain Regard: Girl by Lukas Dhont
    International Critics' Week: One Day(Egy Nap) by Zsófia Szilágyi

    Ecumenical Prize
    Prize of the Ecumenical Jury: Capernaum by Nadine Labaki
    Special Mention: BlacKkKlansman by Spike Lee

    International Critics' Week (Jury President: Joachim Trier)
    Nespresso Grand Prize: Diamantino by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt
    Leica Cine Discovery Prize for Short Film: Hector Malot: The Last Day of the Year by Jacqueline Lentzou
    Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: Félix Maritaud for Sauvage
    Gan Foundation Award for Distribution: Sir by Rohena Gera
    SACD Award: Woman at War by Benedikt Erlingsson and Ólafur Egill Egilsson
    Canal+ Award for Short Film: A Wedding Day by Elias Belkeddar

    Directors' Fortnight (Artistic Director: Edouard Waintrop - 2012-present)
    Art Cinema Award: Climax by Gaspar Noé
    SACD Award: The Trouble with You/En liberté ! by Pierre Salvadori
    Europa Cinemas Label Award: Lucia's Grace/Troppa Grazia by Gianni Zanasi
    Illy Short Film Award: Skip Day by Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan
    Carrosse d'Or: Martin Scorsese[37]
    L'Œil d'or[38]

    Camera d'Or (President: Ursula Meier)
    Girl by Lukas Dhont

    L'Œil d'or (Jury President: Emmanuel Finkiel)
    Samouni Road by Stefano Savona
    Special Mention:
    Libre by Michel Toesca
    The Eyes of Orson Welles by Mark Cousins

    Queer Palm
    Queer Palm Award: Girl by Lukas Dhont
    Short Film Queer Palm: The Orphan by Carolina Markowicz

    Palm Dog
    Palm Dog Award: Canine cast of Dogman
    Grand Jury Prize: Diamantino
    Palm Dog Manitarian Award: Vanessa Davies and her pug Patrick
    Special Jury Prize: Security dogs Lilou, Glock and Even

    Prix François Chalais
    François Chalais Prize: Yomeddine by Abu Bakr Shawky
    Cannes Soundtrack Award

    Cannes Soundtrack Award: Roma Zver and German Osipov for Summer
    Trophée Chopard

    Chopard Trophy: Elizabeth Debicki and Joe Alwyn

    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 05-20-2018 at 08:25 PM.

  7. #52
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    Metacritic followup.

    Metacritic editor Keith Kimball has a 2018 Cannes roundup - "2018 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL RECAP & REVIEWS" today of the main films in all the main categories ("Not such a bad year after all"), and actually finds that statistically this was a better year for movies, more with top 90% Metascores, than 2017. The summary is followed by the "best and worst" of the Festival (though a lot of the "worst" aren't that bad, just in the 60's), with the Metacritc pages for the main films all in one thread. I still refuse to believe Under the Silver Lake, isn't cool despite a low percentage here, and some of the 60's could be much more interesting than that implies, but Metacritic still does reflect the reviews more precisely than my more hasty and impressionistic reports might have done. Don't give up on me though! I still reported on the films day by day and even hour by hour, and that's worth something.

    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 05-20-2018 at 08:21 PM.

  8. #53
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    A last look at the last or nearly last Studio Jury Grid. This is considered an indicator of the international critical assessment of the Cannes Competition films.



    Sorry it's not sharp.
    Burning was the record high with 3.8.
    Shoplifters (Korreda) won 3.2 (and the Palme d'Or).
    Godard's The Image Book got 3.0.
    2.9 scores went to each of:
    Cold War
    Ash Is Purest White
    Happy As Lazzaro
    The Wild Pear Tree
    2.5 to Three Faces (Jafar Panahi) and BlacKKKlansman (Spike Lee, who won the Grand Prix, the no. 2 Competition award at Cannes).
    2.4 to Asako I & II
    (Happy Hour director Hamaguchi
    Burning did win the FIPRESCI Competition prize, but not one of the top Competition Jury awards.


    So there are the top nine. Notice Nadine Labaki's Jury Prize winning Capernaum , a sentimental favorite for its timely refugee theme, got some very low scores including the x ("bad") scroe and an average of only 1.9, between David Robert Mitchell's cool-sounding (to me) Silver Lake (2) but above the least-favorite, Eva Husson's Girls of the Son. The opener Farhadi's Everybody Knows and the perhaps mis-categorized Yomeddine ((1.8).

    Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was of course not in competition, hence not on this grid, but I fear its Metacritic score, so far, is a meager 56 based on nine reviews.

    Remember, the Metascores and details about the high-scoring Cannes 2018 films can be found summarized here: CLICK.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 05-25-2018 at 12:58 PM.

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