CANNES 2023 - remote notes

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes...


ANSELM (WIM WENDERS)

ANSELM (Wim Wenders)
Wim Wenders’ "reverent 3D portrait of artist Anselm Kiefer" writes Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN, gets four stars from him. "The creator of paintings, photographs, colossal installations and illustrated book artefacts is celebrated but in some quarters criticised for his engagement with German fascism and the Holocaust, mediated through his lifelong love for the poetry of Paul Celan." Shows Kiefer's 40-hectare studio in the South of France that's virtually "his own city state." A TRAILER showing Kiefer riding around another studio on a bike shows the ateliers may even be more jaw-droppingly monumental evan than the paintings. Looks like a "wow" of an art doc. This may also make you run to refuge in the upcoming [I]Close to Vermeer for contrast and solace... Small really is beautiful, ain't it? The film doesn't show assistants, but Kiefer obviously has used an army of them.

STRANGE WAY OF LIFE/ESTRAÑA FORMA DE VIDA (Pedro Almodóvar)
It gets four stars from Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN, who says "Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke sizzle in Almodóvar’s queer cowboy yarn." It's an "entertaining divertissement," a 30-minute short that's a "queer western with a hint of kink." "There is some very robust and old-fashioned storytelling here." It is "certainly good to see Almodóvar back in the saddle at Cannes." But are we ready for a gay Western - even now? TRAILER Sony Pictures Classics.


STRANGE WAY OF LIFE (PEDRO PASCAL)