Cannes 2021 selections; notes

[Chris Knipp]

CANNES FILMS.


TILDA SWINTON IN WEERESETHAKUL'S MEMORIA

More competition films have been shown: FRANCE by Bruno Dumont and MEMORIA by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Apichatpong Weeresethakul's MEMORIA is a metaphysical meditation staged in Colombia, his first film outside Thailand and first in English. In i ta Scottish woman (Tilda Swinton), while traveling, becomes obsessed with tracing a sound that invades her sleep, than comes to her when awake. David Rooney in his HOLLYWOOD REPORTER review finds the film partly entrancing, partly inscrutable, and true to form for the director. Peter Bradahaw finds Tilda and "Joe" a "dream team" and gives the film five out of five stars. It made him feel like he was 17 again.

Dumont's FRANCE is a dry indictment of public media focused on France de Moeurs, a TV celebrity journalist (Léa SEydoux), who manipulates the truth in everything she does, then has her life upended when she hots a poor person while driving her car. BFI's SIGHT AND SOUND (Giovanni Marchini Camia) calls this film "a satire of the blackest kind" and says "In FRANCE, he doesn’t go for laughs; his withering and implicating critique of our hyper-mediated present exaggerates its absurdities but denies us the catharsis of laughter." SCREEN DAILY: Jonathan Romney says this is a new turn for Dumont indeed, "flamboyantly lavish visually, and dramatically pitched on an epic scale," but that it makes its point "quickly and forcefullly" and then goes on to make it over and over, "with different modulations, for over two hours."



LÉA SEYDOUX IN DUMONT'S FRANCE

[Chris Knipp]

CANNES: UN CERTAIN REGARD FILMS.



From SCREEN DAILY these descriptions of the films.

After Yang (US)
Dir. Kogonada
Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith star in this drama about a family in the near future who face big existential questions after their AI helper unexpectedly breaks down. A24 holds global rights to the film from Korea-born director Kogonada, who made a splash with his 2017 debut feature Columbus starring John Cho. Theresa Park of Per Capita Productions, who produces with Cinereach, kickstarted the project after she bought the rights to Alexander Weinstein’s short story Saying Goodbye To Yang and attached Kogonada.
Contact: A24

Blue Bayou (US)
Dir. Justin Chon
Chon’s timely tale sees the filmmaker/actor star opposite Alicia Vikander as a Korean man in Louisiana struggling to make a better life for his family when he learns he could be deported. Focus Features snapped up the film at the virtual Cannes market last year and will release in the US on September 17. Charles D King’s Macro (Judas And The Black Messiah) and eOne financed the project. California-born Chon starred in the Twilight series and has been gaining stature as a director. His Los Angeles riots drama Gook won the audience Best of Next! award at Sundance in 2017.
Contact: Focus Features

La Civil (Bel-Rom-Mex)
Dir. Teodora Ana Mihai
Romania-born, Belgium-based Mihai travels to northern Mexico for her debut fiction feature. Inspired by true events and co-written with Mexican writer Habacuc Antonio De Rosario, La Civil follows a mother desperate to find her daughter who has been abducted by a drug cartel. Mihai previously directed documentary Waiting For August, which was nominated for a European Film Award in 2014. La Civil was developed at Cannes Cinefondation and TorinoFilmLab. Hans Everaert produces for Belgium’s Menuetto Film (Girl), and co-producers include the Dardenne brothers’ Les Films du Fleuve, Cristian Mungiu’s Mobra Films and Michel Franco’s Teorema.
Contact: Frédéric Corvez, Urban Distribution International

Commitment Hasan (Turkey)
Dir. Semih Kaplanoglu
The second in a planned trilogy of films exploring family bonds, Commitment Hasan — which follows 2019’s Commitment Asli — is the story of a man trying to make a living from his father’s fruit garden and taking a pilgrimage to Mecca. Kaplanoglu won the Berlinale’s Golden Bear in 2010 for Honey and Tokyo’s grand prix in 2017 for Grain. Commitment Hasan is produced by the director’s own Kaplan Film.
Contact: Films Boutique

Freda (Haiti)
Dir. Gessica Généus
Haitian actor/filmmaker Généus’s debut narrative feature tells of three working-class women who resolve to leave their town after a traumatic event. The film received backing from Doha Film Institute, and Généus shot it in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince in 2019 and 2020. Freda was produced by Ayizan Production, which the filmmaker established after she returned from acting school in Paris, and Merveilles Production.
Contact: Faissol Gnonlonfin, Merveilles Production

Great Freedom (Austria-Ger)
Dir. Sebastian Meise
Meise played San Sebastian and then Rotterdam with debut feature Still Life (2011), while in 2012 his documentary Outingscreened at Hot Docs in Canada and Zurich. Reuniting with Still Life co-writer Thomas Reider, the Austrian filmmaker presents a drama set in post-war Germany about a man (Undine’s Franz Rogowski) imprisoned for being gay, who forms an attachment to his convicted-murderer cellmate (Georg Friedrich). Austria’s FreibeuterFilm produces with Germany’s Rohfilm Productions. Filmladen Filmverleih releases in Austria and Piffl Medien in Germany.
Contact: The Match Factory

House Arrest (Rus-Ger-Can)
Dir. Aleksey German Jr
Following Venice bows for his first three features, and Berlin premieres for 2015’s Under Electric Clouds and 2018’s Dovlatov(winning a Silver Bear with the latter), Russia’s German Jr makes his Cannes debut with a drama about a professor who takes to social media to criticise his Russian city’s administration and soon finds himself accused of embezzlement and placed under house arrest. The film is produced by Artem Vasilyev’s Moscow-based Metrafilms with Germany’s LM Media and Canada’s Outrageous Film as co-producers.
Contact: mk2 Films


THE INNOCENTS (CANNES)

The Innocents (Nor-Swe-Fin-Den-Fr)
Dir. Eskil Vogt
Vogt has a doubleheader at Cannes — he is also co-writer of his frequent collaborator Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World, which is in Competition. The Norwegian filmmaker’s second feature as a director after 2014 Sundance award winner Blind is a supernatural thriller that sees the innocent play of four children turn into something else when they harness special powers. Maria Ekerhovd produces for MER Film, which will also release in Norway. Actress Ellen Dorrit Petersen (Blind) reteams with the director, and her daughter Rakel Lenora Flottum takes the lead role as nine-year-old Ida.
Contact: Protagonist Pictures

Lamb (Ice-Swe-Pol)
Dir. Valdimar Johannsson
This Icelandic supernatural drama stars Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snaer Gudnason as a couple living on a remote farm who adopt a mysterious newborn child — half-human, half-sheep — to raise as their own. First-time feature director Johannsson co-wrote the script with acclaimed Icelandic author and poet Sjón, who also worked with Robert Eggers on his upcoming The Northman. The film’s executive producers include Bela Tarr. New Europe has already sold Lamb to territories including France (The Jokers), Germany (Koch Films), Benelux (The Searchers) and Denmark (Camera Film).
Contact: Jan Naszewski, New Europe Film Sales

Let There Be Morning (Isr)
Dir. Eran Kolirin
Israeli filmmaker Kolirin returns to Un Certain Regard having previously screened his debut feature The Band’s Visit and third film Beyond The Mountains And Hills in the sidebar in 2007 and 2016 respectively. For his fourth feature, Kolirin adapts Palestinian writer and journalist Sayed Kashua’s 2006 novel Let It Be Morning. It follows a Palestinian man with Israeli citizenship who believes himself to be assimilated into Israeli society until he is caught up in an army blockade while attending a wedding in his native village. Kashua’s 2002 debut novel Dancing Arabs was likewise adapted for the big screen, by Eran Riklis in 2014
Contact: The Match Factory

Moneyboys (Austria-Fr-Tai-Bel)
Dir. CB Yi
China-born, Austria-based Yi makes his Cannes debut with a filmed-in-Taiwan LGBTQ+ drama about a young man working as a rent boy and torn between traditional values and rampant capitalism. The cast includes Kai Ko, Chloe Maayan and JC Lin. The project was backed by Arte France Cinema, Taipei Film Commission and La Cie Cinematographique with support from the Austrian National Film Fund and Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture. Yi studied directing with Michael Haneke and photography with Christian Berger at the Vienna Film Academy.
Contact: Totem Films

My Brothers And I (Fr)
Dir. Yohan Manca
Short filmmaker Manca’s feature debut follows a 14-year-old boy who strikes up a friendship with a young opera singer during one stifling summer. Produced by France’s Single Man Productions, which also has Samuel Benchetrit’s Love Songs For Tough Guys playing in Cannes Premiere, My Brothers And I was supported by France’s National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) via its Images de la diversité fund. Ad Vitam will distribute in France.
Contact: Jean-Félix Dealberto, Charades

Nora (Fr)
Dir. Hafsia Herzi
French actress/director Herzi’s second feature revolves around a cleaner in her 50s living in a housing estate in Marseille who stands by her son as he awaits trial on robbery charges. Herzi broke into cinema in Abdellatif Kechiche’s 2007 Couscous and now has around 50 acting credits to her name. Her directing debut You Deserve A Lover, in which she starred as a woman trying to get over a problematic relationship, premiered in Critics’ Week in 2019. Halima Benhamed makes her big-screen debut in the title role.
Contact: SBS International

Onoda — 10 000 Nights In The Jungle (Fr-It-Bel-Jap-Ger-Camb)
Dir. Arthur Harari
France’s Harari makes his Cannes debut with his second feature, following 2016’s Dark Inclusion, which netted a César nomination for best first film and Niels Schneider the César for most promising actor. Shot in Japanese, this international co-production tells the story of Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda, who ignored news of Japan’s Second World War defeat and held out in the Philippines jungle until 1974. Harari co-writes with Vincent Poymiro (Dark Inclusion, French TV series En Thérapie). Nicolas Anthomé produces for his own Bathysphere Productions, alongside To Be Continued and in co-production with eight other partners.
Contact: Camille Neel, Le Pacte

Playground (Bel)
Dir. Laura Wandel
Seven years after bringing Foreign Bodies (Les Corps Etrangers) to Cannes’ shorts competition, Belgium’s Wandel now presents her debut feature. Playground follows new primary school student Nora who discovers her brother is a victim of bullying and is billed as “an immersive dive, at child’s height, into the world of school”. Titled Un Monde in French-speaking markets, Wandel’s film is produced by Dragon Films and co-produced by Lunanime.
Contact: Indie Sales



Playground - Copyrights DRAGONS FILMS copy

SOURCE: DRAGON FILMS

PLAYGROUND

Prayers For The Stolen (Mex-Ger-Bra-Qat)
Dir. Tatiana Huezo
Mexico-based, El Salvador-born Huezo has established herself on the festival circuit mostly through documentary shorts as an unflinching chronicler of women’s response to violence in Latin America. She stepped up to features with her 2016 Berlinale documentary Tempestad (selected by Mexico as its 2018 foreign-language Oscar contender). Huezo now presents her narrative feature debut, which came through Morelia/Sundance Story Lab and portrays life in a town at war seen through the eyes of three pre-adolescent girls. Pimienta Films, run by Nicolas Celis (Roma), is lead producer.
Contact: The Match Factory

Rehana (Bang-Sing-Qatar)
Dir. Abdullah Mohammad Saad
Saad’s second film is the first from Bangladesh in Cannes’ official selection. The story follows the title character, an assistant professor who seeks justice for one of her medical students and her six-year-old daughter in a patriarchal society. The project was a recipient of Busan’s Asian Cinema Fund and Doha Film Institute’s post-production grant. Saad’s debut feature Live From Dhaka won best director and actor prizes at Singapore International Film Festival in 2016, and went on to screen at festivals including Rotterdam and Locarno.
Contact: Films Boutique

Streetwise (China)
Dir. Na Jiazuo
Executive produced by The Eight Hundred director Guan Hu, Na’s debut feature is set in the early 2000s revolving around a group of impoverished young men who stay behind in their small town, rather than following the usual path and moving to a big city for work. The project won prizes from both Shanghai Film Festival’s project market and Pingyao festival’s WiP lab. The film was first announced by the festival under the title Gaey Wa’r — seemingly a local dialect version of the Mandarin title Jiē wá er, which roughly translates as ‘street kids’.
Contact: Sebastien Chesneau, Cercamon

This was the winner of the Un Certain Regard top prize:

Unclenching The Fists (Rus)
Dir. Kira Kovalenko
Russia’s Kovalenko made her debut in 2016 with Tallinn Black Nights premiere Sofichka, and now presents her follow-up. The film follows traumatic events when a father moves his three children to the small North Ossetia mining town of Mizur, but his two elder offspring soon aim to escape his suffocating presence. Alexander Rodnyansky and Sergey Melkumov — who together produced Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena, Leviathan and Loveless, as well as Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole — produce.
Contact: Antoine Guilhem, Wild Bunch International

Women Do Cry (Bul-Fr)
Dirs. Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova
Continuing the collaboration between animator/filmmaker Mileva and actress/filmmaker Kazakova (an EFP Shooting Star at Berlin in 2006), Women Do Cry is the second feature the pair have co-directed, alongside several shorts and documentaries. Their film Cat In The Wall premiered in Locarno’s main competition in 2019. Women Do Cry, which is based on a true story, follows an unconventional family of women in Bulgaria at a time when the country is being shaken by anti-equality protests.
Contact: mk2 Films

Cannes profiles by Nikki Baughan, Charles Gant, Melanie Goodfellow, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Lee Marshall, Wendy Mitchell, Jean Noh, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser, Silvia Wong

[Chris Knipp]

CANNES FILMS. Two more Competition films July 15.



SIMON REX IN RED ROCKET

Sean Baker's RED ROCKET says Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN is a "vivid portrait of a washed up porn star" (4/5 star. He and IndieWire see metaphorical links with Trump in =Simon Rex aka Mikey Saber's plan to reinstate himself as a star after his schtick being wiped out by events. THE WRAP finds this link too. All admire Baker's ease with his characters and Texas milieu and ability to get around staging problems economically. It woulds like Baker maintains is distinctive voice. David Erlich of INDIEWIRE catchily says "RED ROCKET is so arresting because of how it keeps hope alive by rescuing devastation from the jaws of happiness." This is a movie, he says, "that wonders if America’s pathological narcissism will ever burn itself out." At the bottom end Peter Debruge of VARIETY finds t"Everything in RED ROCKET happens just a little too easily, which is one of the weaknesses of a self-indulgent regional satire that stretches its perhaps-80-minute plot over more than two hours. . ." But the Metascore of the film is a very healthy 78%.


FROM CASABLANA BEATS


Nabil Ayouch's CASABLANCA BEATS: Wend Ide of SCREEN DAILY calls it "A vibrant musical from Nabil Ayouch, shot over two years at the cultural centre he founded. Ayouch enlivens a genre gone dull with his vibrant hiphop music from the Moroccan ghetto, says Deborah Young in HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. This is Ayouch's first film in Cannes competition, his third at Cannes (HORSES OF GOD played in Un Certain Regard, MUCH LOVEDin Directors’ Fortnight). This is a fitionalized version of his own experience. It's about the power of the music and the art form, not primarily about individual development.

[Chris Knipp]

CANNES FILMS: final results



CALEB LANDRY JONES IN NITRAM

Apichatpong Werrsethakul's MEMORIA has shown and received 3.4 on the SCREEN DAILY JURY GRID, putting it second just below Hamaguchi's DRIVE MY CAR. (Some critical response to it I cited earlier, above.)

Justin Kurzel’s NITRAM as I'd expected features a fiery performance by Caleb Landry Jones in the role of the perpetrator of Australia's 1996 Port Arthur Massacre in a film that focuses on the years, days, and weeks leading up to the event in an effort to understand how it came about. The rave review in VARIETY suggests this is a brilliant and sober entry into this "genre"" and Kurzel's best work yet in which "If NITRAM is ... born in flames, it’s in the nervy blue fire of Jones’ devastating, skittish performance, which is astonishing precisely because it does not invite us to share in the killer’s private thoughts and tortured motivations." Sounds like this extremely talented and go-for-broke actor has gotten his best role yer, enhanced by equally good performances by Judy Davis, Essie Davis, and Anthony LaPaglia. 4/5 stars from Bradshaw who calls this "a hypnotically disquieting movie."

Just watched it myself [June 14, 2022] and yes, it is a striking film with an arresting lead performance - and pretty depressing stuff.

[Chris Knipp]

CANNES PREDICTIONS.


WES ANDERSON'S THE FRENCH DISPATCH - SAORSE RONAN?, BILL MURRAY, ELIZABETH MOSS

Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN has some predictions of tomorrow's awards, as usual. And some fun, well-judged, and very diplomatic and openhearted "imaginary awards" of his own to add in addition.

Before that he has a comment on non-Competition favorites, English ones. "Perhaps the two most passionate films, and the films I responded to most," Bradshaw writes today, "were outside the competition, in the Director’s Fortnight strand: Joanna Hogg’s autobiographical THE SOUVENIR PART II was an engrossing self-portrait of the artist as a young woman. And Clio Barnard’s ALI & AVA was a wonderful love story in the manner of Ken Loach’s AE FOND KISS." Indeed Clio Barnard's THE ARBOR and THE SELFISH GIANT are very special, very moving work, and Joanna Hogg's THE SOUVENIR (PART I) introduced me to a wonderful director and I went back and watched her other films eagerly. These two may be the best directors working in the UK today. This is a reminder that there is a lot of important new cinema at Cannes I haven't had time to mention. Now for Bradshaw's predictions below. (I've added the directors' names.) Of course he's not in charge of the jury - Spike Lee is - and so we have no idea what will win.

Bradshaw: "Here are my predictions for this year’s Cannes prizes, and I have also included my imaginary prizes (AKA 'Braddies d’Or' for categories that are not officially rewarded).

Predictions
Palme d’Or: Drive My Car [Hamaguchi]
Grand Prix: Memoria [Weeresethakul]
Jury prize: The Worst Person in the World [Joachim Trier]
Best director: Sean Baker for Red Rocket [Sean Baker]
Best screenplay: Jacques Audiard, Céline Sciamma and Léa Mysius for Paris, 13th District [Jacques Audiard]
Best actor: Amir Jadidi for A Hero [Asghar Farhadi]
Best actress: Achouackh Abakar for Lingui [Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, from Chad]

Imaginary Cannes awards – AKA Braddies d’Or
Best supporting actor: André Dussollier for Everything Went Fine [François Ozon]
Best supporting actress: Essie Davis and Judy Davis for Nitram [Justin Kurzel]
Best cinematography: Robert D Yeoman for The French Dispatch [Wes Anderson]
Best music: Ron and Russell Mael for Annette [Leos Caraz]
Best production design: Adam Stockhausen for The French Dispatch"
-Peter Bradshaw, the GUARDIAN

[Chris Knipp]

ACTUAL CANNES AWARDS


AGATHE ROUSSELLE IN TITANE

Palme d’Or: TITANE (Julia Ducournau)
Grand Prix: (tie) A HERO (Asghar Farhadi) and COMPARTMENT NO. 6 (Juho Kuosmanen)
Jury Prize: (tie): AHED'S KNEE (Nadav Lapid) and MEMORIA (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
Best Actress: Renate Reinsve,THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (Joachim Trier)
Best Actor: Caleb Landry Jones, NITRAM (Justin Kurzel)
Best Director: Leos Carax, ANNETTE
Best Screenplay: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, DRIVE MY CAR
Camera d’Or: MURINA by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović
Short Film Palme d’Or: TIAN XIA WU by Tang Yi
Special Jury Mention for Short Film: CEU DE AGOSTO by Jasmin Tenucci
Honorary Palme d’Or: Marco Bellocchio


I guess I say "actual Cannes awards" because they seem so different from how we imagined them. The JURY GRID led us to put all focus on the top two film awards. Well, DRIVE MY CAR only got the screenplay award. And MEMORIA, which came in 2nd on the GRID, is in the third rank, the Jury Prize, and both that and the Grand Prize are doubled with another film. I am glad to see Joachim Trier's film win an award; I love his films. It's nice that at least the GRID top rankers do at least appear in the awards.

The PALME D'OR win is a shock. Not a happy shock and, on top of that, Spike Lee goofed and mentioned this award meant to come at the end, right at the start of the ceremony, thus creating chaos and ruining the evening. Boo! A BBC review of TITANE said: "Julia Ducournau's new film is "a nightmarish yet mischievously comic barrage of sex, violence, lurid lighting and pounding music". It seems unlikely that I'm going to like this, or consider it worthy of Cannes' top award. But it is described as being beautiful, well designed, clear. The Jury looks for something fresh, original, groundbreaking. This is what they found.

Julia Ducournau previously made a film called RAW that I didn't like very much. This one, with its main character a woman with a metal plate in her head who copulates with her car, goes for shocking, disgusting, and sensational again. There was a sensation when TITANE was shown at Cannes. But the jury seems to have taken that for originality, brilliance, freshness, etc. (And it costars Vincent Lindon, one of France's most respected screen actors and a Cannes Best Actor winner for THE MEASURE OF A MAN in 2015.) Ducournau now becomes only the second female winner of the Palme d’Or after Jane Campion, who won in 1993 for THE PIANO.

There are also three films at the lower end I didn't see any reviews or mentions of.

TITANE TRAILER


SPIKE LEE AT CANNES AWARDS CEREMONIES. LORD OF MISRULE?

[Chris Knipp]

THE "MASTER" AT WORK: BENEDETTA

CHECKLIST OF CANNES 2021 COMPETITION FILMS.

My personal viewer's comments on those of these that I've caught up with:

Ahed's Knee/הַבֶּרֶךְ‎‎ (Habereḵ) (Nadav Lapid) Israel, France - I got something good out of this because it didn't seem that strong, which led me to go back and rewatch Lapid's memorable, oddball Synonyms, and looking up what else the star Tom Mercier has been in, I discovered the Luca Guadagnino HBO series "We Are Who We Are," and I loved it! (Ahed's Knee wasn't as angry as I was expecting it to be.)

Annette (opening film) (Leos Carax) France, Germany, Belgium

Benedetta (QP)/Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven) France, Netherlands. Variety puts it this way: "not a groundbreaking film, but just another entry in the tawdry nunsploitation genre." Huppert had the power to lift Elle into something better; Efira hasn't her level of authority.

Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve) Brazil, France, Germany, Mexico - This seemed a complete bore to me; I just don't get it. And I saw it in the big screen. And I have liked her other films very much. Is it a case of the damage done by transplanting from the filmmaker's native country?

Casablanca Beats/Haut et fort (Nabil Ayouch) Morocco, France

Compartment No. 6 (QP)/Hytti nro 6 (Juho Kuosmanen) Russia, Finland - Loved this film and have watched it twice. Partakes of the romance of the long train trip without being a romance at all, really. And so it is fresh and memorable.

The Divide (QP)/La Fracture (Catherine Corsini) France

Drive My Car/ドライブ・マイ・カー (Doraibu mai kā) (Ryusuke Hamaguchi) Japan - Another one that I finally just don't quite get; where his other film this year is very accessible.

Everything Went Fine/Tout s'est bien passé (François Ozon) France

Flag Day (Sean Penn) United States

France Par un demi clair matin (Bruno Dumont) France, Italy, Germany, Belgium - Missed this title because I thought it was just called "France." This is a laborious film and shows Léa Seydoux at her most industrious. Dumont really does not know how to make this kind of genre of social commentary and satire. Only the sets and costumes stand out.

The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson) United States - A friend says this is one of the Wes films he doesn't respond to. I liked it very much, went out of my way to see it early, and have seen it twice. Wes' films are so complicated and self-referential you can, you actually need to, watch them over and over. Unless you hate them or don't get them.

A Hero/قهرمان (Ghahreman) (Asghar Farhadi) Iran - I like it and have reviewed it, but now it is ovdershadowed in my mind by Rasoulof's A Man of Integrity (overlapping titles?). The earnest moral social commentary film is something both Iranian filmmakers do very well but it's a little hard to tell the two directors apart by now.

Lingui (Mahamat Saleh Haroun) Belgium, Chad, France, Germany

Memoria (Apiichatpong Weeresethekul) Colombia, France, Germany, Mexico, Thailand, United Kingdom - This is a beautiful film and I would like to see it again, but it cries out for the big screen. Be prepared for a meandering tale. You could say (as others have) that this is the most accessible "Joe" film yet.

Nitram (Justin Kurzel) Australia, United Kingdom - Watched this at home and was depressed the whole rest of the day. It's neutrality is impressive and Caleb Landry Jones is memorable (as you'd expect since he won the Best Actor award). But do you really have to make this grim kind of film?

Paris, 13th District/Les Olympiades (Jacques Audiard) France - A bit of a disappointment coming from Jacques Audiard, who was the most exciting younger French director 15 years ago, but still enjoyable, even if you feel Audiard is trying a little hard to be young and multicultural now.

Petrov's Flu/Петровы в гриппе (Petrоvy v grippe) (Kirill Serebrennikov) France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland

Red Rocket (Sean Baker) United States

The Restless/Les Intranquilles (Joachim Lafosse) Belgium, France

The Story of My Wife/A feleségem története (Ildikó Enyedi) Hungary, France, Germany, Italy

Three Floors/Tre piani (Nanni Moretti) Italy, France

Titane (QP) (Julia Ducournau) Belgium, France - Exactly as I expected, loud, glitzy, audacious, offensive, colorful, and, of course, with Vincent Lindon costarring in it, weirdly touching and human; and it's better than Raw, but I still don't like Ducournau, and she still knows how to provoke.

The Worst Person in the World/Verdens verste menneske (Joachim Trier) Norway, Sweden, France - Trier is a director I love and this was not a disappointment, a film full of life and full of understanding and indulgence toward its young female protagonist; that's what's new: it's not a boy movie now but a girl movie.
________________
(QP) indicates film in competition for the Queer Palm.xx