CANNES Festival 2019

[Chris Knipp]

Today, 20 May 2019 at the Cannes Film Festival.


NOÉMIE MERLANT, ADÈLE HAENEL IN PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma).

Céline Sciamma has built a distinguished reputation in the past 12 years for fresh and original femme-centric films, sometimes with a trans or gay bent. Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (the French title) is set in 1770 and concerns a painter, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), who must paint the marriage portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel, of Sciamma's debut Water Lilies), the young daughter of a countess who has just left a convent. Peter Debruge in Variety calls this "a gorgeous, slow-burn lesbian romance." Héloïse is uncooperative. Her mother, the countess, orders Marianne to observe her during the day and work on her portrait at night, so she must devour her with her large eyes. The mutual fascination that develops eventually turns physical. The result is a subtle, nuanced depiction of the female gaze that only a woman could paint, Debruge says. Peter Bradshaw heralds the film in his Guardian review as "superbly elegant, enigmatic drama," that reveals the director's "new mastery of classical style." He gives it his top rating, 5 out of 5 stars.


VICTORIA BLUCK AND IDIR BEN ADDI IN YOUNG AHMED

Young Ahmed (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne). Competition.

Le jeune Ahmed (the French title) is about a Belgian teenager (the actor, Idir Ben Addi, was 13) of paternal Moroccan Arab descent but with a white non-muslim mother (whose husband is no longer around) who hatches a plot to kill his teacher after being taught a radical interpretation of the Quran. Leslie Felperin of Hollywood Reporter thinks Addi a "blank" actor like those of the Dardennes' earlier films that won them two Golden Palms, but neither she nor the Variety critic thinks this quite up to their strongest work, though better than their blandest: Eric Kohn of IndieWire places it midway on the spectrum. Bradshaw thinks this (like Sciamma's new film) "subtle". He gives it 3 out of 5 stars. Ahmed goes from video games to jihad in the space of a month and begins lecturing his mother and sister on their behavior. Ahmed attacks his teacher for too liberal an approach to teaching the Quran, and is put in youth custody. He may rethink, or more likely not. A work release meeting on a farm with an attractive girl who likes him could make a difference. Bu how he will develop is uncertain. The movie is marred, says Bradshaw, by a silly chase sequence used to jazz things up for an artificial conclusion. Peter Debruge of Variety suggests that as a sympathetic (if ambiguous) portrait of a budding Islamic terrorist, this may be the Dardennes’ "most controversial film yet." It sounds at least like one of their most puzzling.