Cannes 2022, remote notes

[Chris Knipp]

MAY 27, CANNES DAY 11: KELLY REICHARDT'S FOURTH COLLABORATION WITH MICHELLE WILLIAMS


MICHELLE WILLIAMS IN SHOWING UP

SHOWING UP (Kelly Reichardt)
Cannes. In Competition. Features Michelle Williams as a sculptor assembling a gallery show in the "outsidery-y" artistic community of contemporary Portland, Oregon in what Rodrigo Perez in The Playlist thinks "one of Reichardt’s most playful, warm, sweet, and funny works," and another of her oblique statements about political and emotional survival in America. Variety points to this as the best with Williams since WENDY AND LUCY (of four collaborations). In The Guardian, Bradshaw is not so entranced (3/5 stars) and finds SHOWING UP "downbeat but diverting" and sees the action as "torpid," the dialogue as "murmured." He finds this film "a bit studied and passionless" especially compared with the previous one, the (I think) very subtle and touching FIRST COW. David Rooney in Hollywood Reporter would disagree: he calls this "a gorgeous reflection on making art," an " unpolished jewel of a film." The warmth of FIRST COW has lingered, and I'll want to see this new movie, whose milieu sounds close to home.

[Chris Knipp]

DAY 11 JURY GRID UPDATE

PACIFICTION landed mid-pack with 2.6; Kore-eda's BROKER tanked at 1.9; and CLOSE fell below Serra's film with 2.4. Kelly Reichardt's SHOWING UP and Leonor Serraille's MOTHER AND SON remain to be graded by the poll.



JURY GRID CURRENT SUMMARY:

3.2 DECISION TO LEAVE - Park Chan-wook
2.8 ARMAGEDDON TIME - James Gray
2.7 EO - Jerzy Skolomowski
2.7 TORI AND LOKITA - Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
2.6 CRIMES OF THE FUTURE - David Cronenberg
2.6 PACIFICTION - Albert Serra
2.5 TRIANGLE OF SADNESS - Ruben Östlund
2.5 R.M.N. - Christian Mungiu
2.5 NOSTALGIA - Mario Martone
2.4 CLOSE - Lukas Dhont
2.3 BOY FROM HEAVEN - Tarik Saleh
2.2 TCHAIKOVSKY'S WIFE - Kirill Serebrennikov
2.0 THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS - Felix Van Groeningen
2.0 HOLY SPIDER - Ali Abassi
2.0 BROTHER AND SISTER - Arnaud Desplechin
1.9 STARS AT NOON (Claire Denis)
1.9 BROKER - Hirakazu Kore-eda
1.8 FOREVER YOUNG - Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

[Chris Knipp]

MORE ON THE LAST DAY: A GAY TALE FROM MOROCCO


LUBNA AZABAL AND SALEH BAKRI IN THE BLUE CAFTAN

THE BLUE CAFTAN/LE BLEU DU CAFTAN (Maryam Touzani)
Cannes. Un Certain Regard. The Moroccan director is back in Un Certain Regard after being reviewed favorably by Deborah Young in Hollywood Reporter for her 2019 debut there, ADAM, about a small bakery owner who rescues an unwed pregnant woman. This time her subject is the triangle of a gay tailor, his assistant, and his accepting wife in a Salé medina shop where the man must hide his true sexuality. Jonathan Romney showers this film with praise in Screen Daily, calling it "beautifully textured," "an elegant artisanal film" and a "superbly acted and emotionally resonant offering." In his Hollywood Reporter review, David Rooney calls it "a film of exquisite sensuality and sadness."

UN CERTAIN REGARD AWARDS TO THE WORST ONES, JOYLAND, CORSAGE

At the awards Jury President Valeria Golino gave a little mentioned French film called LES PIRES/THE WORST ONES by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret the top prize. THE WORST ONES is "a playful film-within-a-film about the challenges and perils of street casting." It's more about how using non-actors culled from a poor "cité" can be more exploitive than beneficial. a review in A Moveable Feast explains. This may mean THE WORST ONES is in line for the prize for best first film, the Caméra d'Or. The runner up was the Pakistani film JOYLAND, which was a popular favorite. The acting prize went to another favorite, praised by critics like Variety's Jessica Kiang: Vicky Krieps for her performance as the Hapsburg Empress Elisabeth in Austria in Marie Kreuzer's CORSAGE, a Variety article explains.


TIMEO MAHAUT IN THE WORST ONES

[Chris Knipp]

MAY 28, CANNES DAY 12 - JURY GRID COMPLETED

The last two Competition films - SHOWING UP (Kelly Reichardt) and MOTHER AND SON/UN PETIT FRÈRE (Léonor Serraille) - have been added to the Screen Daily Jury Grid. SHOWING UP scored 2.7, tying it for third position with the Dardenne brothers' TORI AND LOKITA. MOTHER AND SON got 2.4, tying it in the middle with Lukas Dhont's CLOSE. So the winner is Park Chan-wook's DECISION TO LEAVE. This is a good picture of the journalists' reactions to the Competition films, but not a prediction of the top awards to be granted by the Competition Jury presided over by Vincent Lindon.

JURY GRID FINAL SUMMARY:

3.2 DECISION TO LEAVE - Park Chan-wook
2.8 ARMAGEDDON TIME - James Gray
2.7 EO - Jerzy Skolomowski
2.7 TORI AND LOKITA - Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
2.7 SHOWING UP - Kelly Reichardt
2.6 CRIMES OF THE FUTURE - David Cronenberg
2.6 PACIFICTION - Albert Serra
2.5 TRIANGLE OF SADNESS - Ruben Östlund
2.5 R.M.N. - Christian Mungiu
2.5 NOSTALGIA - Mario Martone
2.4 CLOSE - Lukas Dhont
2.4 MOTHER AND SON/UN PETIT FRÈRE - Léonor Serraille
2.3 BOY FROM HEAVEN - Tarik Saleh
2.2 TCHAIKOVSKY'S WIFE - Kirill Serebrennikov
2.0 THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS - Felix Van Groeningen
2.0 HOLY SPIDER - Ali Abassi
2.0 BROTHER AND SISTER - Arnaud Desplechin
1.9 STARS AT NOON (Claire Denis)
1.9 BROKER - Hirakazu Kore-eda
1.8 FOREVER YOUNG - Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

[Chris Knipp]

CANNES AWARDS


STILL FROM TRIANGLE OF SADNESS

Palme d’Or: TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (Ruben Östlund)
Grand Prix: (tie) CLOSE (Lukas Dhont) and STARS AT NOON (Claire Denis)
Jury Prize: (tie): THE EIGHTH MOUNTAIN (Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen) and EO (Jerzy Skolimowski)
Best Actress: Zar Amir Ebrahami, HOLY SPIDER (Ali Abbasi)
Best Actor: Song Kang-Ho, BROKER (Hirakazu Kore-eda)
Best Director: Park Chan-wook, DECISION TO LEAVE
Best Screenplay: Tarik Saleh, BOY FROM HEAVEN
Camera d’Or: WAR PONY (Gina Gammell, Riley Keough)
Un Certain Regard Prize: LES PIRES/THE WORST ONES (Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret)
Short Film Palme d’Or: BIAN SHENG QI YI ZUO XUAN YA/ THE WATER MURMURS (Jianying Chen)
Short Film Special Distinction: LORI/MELANCHOLY OF MY MOTHER'S LULLABIES (Abinash Bikram Shah)
Special Jury Mention for Short Film:
Honorary Palme d’Or: Forest Whitaker; Tom Cruise
75TH Award: TORI AND LOKITA (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

Ostlund is one of eight ever to get two Palmes. Did he need another one? There was a lot of critical disagreement over the merit of his new satire. Its Metascore is 66%. Last year's Palme, TITANE, did better: 75%. Bottom line: the critics and the people who give out the big awards at Cannes (mainly actors and directors) are two different camps. But not totally different. The Jury Grid's favorite, DECISION TO LEAVE, gets serious acknowledgment in the Best Director nod for Park Chan-wook. EO, which ranked high on the Grid, co-received the Jury Prize. TORI AND LOKITA, which tied for third spot on the Grid, is acknwledged in the special 75th anniversary award for the Dardenne brothers. But ARMAGEDDON TIME, which kept its 2nd spot on the Grid, and Cronenberg and Serra, who tied for 4th place, got no mention here. Nor did much-admired mid-rankers Mungiu's R.M.N. and Mario Martoni's NOSTALGIA. There was a lot of talk about Serra's PACIFICTION toward the end and some journalists thought it might be destined for a top prize. From some critics points of view, these top prizes represent relative mediocrity. I suspect DECISION TO LEAVE stands above the awarded films. As a James Gray fan, I'm glad ARMAGEDDON TIME was here and came 2nd on the Jury Grid.

And here's Peter Bradshaw's roundup in The Guardian- what he thinks of the awards and the festival, HERE. I've read all his Cannes reviews and summarized most of them, so we should check out his conclusions - which are more or less as I suggest: some good choices, but the best was not rewarded. Bradshaw himself deserves an award. No English language film critic is more tireless and present at Cannes. He earns his top spot on The Guardian and then some.