CANNES 2023 - remote notes

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes Film Festival May 16-27, 2023


JOHNNY DEPP AS KING LOUIS XV IN THE CANNES OPENING FILM, MAÏWENN'S JEANNE DU BERRY

A stellar lineup (as usual) includes new films by Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes, and Wes Anderson

Cannes. First look.
The festival is off and running and Johnny Depp got an ovation for playing a French king for a few minutes, his "comeback." There are new films by Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Jonathan Glazer, Todd Haynes. Harrison Ford is to be seen doing his last turn in the "Indiana Jones" franchise. This probably will be Ken Loach's last film; but Wim Wenders'? Will it be his?

There are also big international names such as Aki Kaurismäki, Nanni Moretti, Catherine Breillat, Alice Rohrwacher. There's the Turkish heavyweight Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the remarkable Marco Bellocchio, who's 83, the cultish Takeshi Kitano. A more sOlemn Japanese master, back for the first time since PARASITE won the Palme d'Or in 2019, IS Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose new film “Monster” is the first film he has shot in Japan since his Palme winner “Shoplifters.” Martin Provost, who has celebrated midwifery and the towering wartime female FRench writer Violette Leduc, not has one about the universally loved painter of interiors, PIerre Bonnard. Lisando Alsnso who produced the haunting, unforgettable LOS MUERTOS, is back. The challenging and powerful UK black auteur Steve McQueen has something that runs four hours. Almodóvar has something very short! Con Ethan Hawke. And much, much more.

But maybe the best of Cannes is the films from names we don't know yet. Because what comes in this most hallowed and exciting of the world's cinematic festival venues always matters.



Maïwenn's movie was inspired by Sofia Coppola's where the character of Jenne du Berry was played by Asia Argento. Here Maïwenn plays her herself. It's also got Louis Garrel and Melvil Poupaud in it. It may be mediocre, but it is also sumptuous. TRAILER.

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes Film Festival May 16-27, 2023

A stellar lineup (as usual) includes new films by Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes, and Wes Anderson

LIST OF THE MAIN FESTIVAL FILMS (subject to update):

IN COMPETITION

JEANNE DU BARRY by MAÏWENN – Opening Film Out of Competition
CLUB ZERO by Jessica HAUSNER
THE ZONE OF INTEREST by Jonathan GLAZER
KUOLLEET LEHDET (FALLEN LEAVES) by Aki KAURISMAKI
LES FILLES D’OLFA (FOUR DAUGHTERS) by Kaouther BEN HANIA
ASTEROID CITY by Wes ANDERSON
ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE (ANATOMY OF A FALL) by Justine TRIET
KAIBUTSU (MONSTER) by KORE-EDA Hirokazu
IL SOL DELL’ AVVENIRE (A BRIGHTER TOMORROW) by Nanni MORETTI
L’ÉTÉ DERNIER (LAST SUMMER) by Catherine BREILLAT
KURU OTLAR USTUNE (ABOUT DRY GRASSES) by Nuri Bilge CEYLAN
LA CHIMERA by Alice ROHRWACHER
LA PASSION DE DODIN BOUFFANT (THE POT–AU–FEU) by TRAN ANH Hùng
RAPITO (KIDNAPPED) by Marco BELLOCCHIO
QING CHUN (YOUTH) by WANG Bing
MAY DECEMBER by Todd HAYNES
THE OLD OAK by Ken LOACH
BANEL E ADAMA by Ramata-Toulaye SY | 1st film
PERFECT DAYS by Wim WENDERS
FIREBRAND by Karim AÏNOUZ
BLACK FLIES by Jean-Stéphane SAUVAIRE
LE RETOUR(HOMECOMING). by Catherine CORSINI
ELEMENTAL by Peter SOHN – Closing Film Out of Competition

UN CERTAIN REGARD

LE RÈGNE ANIMAL by Thomas CAILLEY – Opening Film
LOS DELINCUENTES by Rodrigo MORENO
(THE DELINQUENTS)
HOW TO HAVE SEX by Molly MANNING WALKER | 1st film
GOODBYE JULIA by Mohamed KORDOFANI | 1st film
KADIB ABYAD (THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES) by Asmae EL MOUDIR
SIMPLE COMME SYLVAIN by Monia CHOKRI
(THE NATURE OF LOVE)
CROWRÃ by João SALAVIZA, Renée NADER MESSORA
(THE BURITI FLOWER)
LOS COLONOS by Felipe GÁLVEZ | 1st film
(THE SETTLERS)
OMEN by BALOJI | 1st film
(AUGURE)
RAN DONG (THE BREAKING ICE) by Anthony CHEN
ROSALIE by Stéphanie DI GIUSTO
THE NEW BOY by Warwick THORNTON
IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE by Zoljargal PUREVDASH | 1st film
HWA–RAN (HOPELESS) by KIM Chang-hoon | 1st film
AYEH HAYE ZAMINI by Ali ASGARI, Alireza KHATAMI
(TERRESTRIAL VERSES)RIEN À PERDRE by Delphine DELOGET | 1st film
LES MEUTES by Kamal LAZRAQ | 1st film
(HOUNDS)
HE BIAN DE CUO WU by WEI Shujun
(ONLY THE RIVER FLOWS)
SALEM by Jean-Bernard MARLIN
UNE NUIT by Alex LUTZ – Closing Film Out of Competition
(STRANGERS BY NIGHT)

OUT OF COMPETITION

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY by James MANGOLD
GEO–MI–JIP by KIM Jee-woon
(COBWEB)
THE IDOL by Sam LEVINSON
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON by Martin SCORSESE
L’ABBÉ PIERRE – UNE VIE DE COMBATS by Frédéric TELLIER

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

KENNEDY by Anurag KASHYAP
OMAR LA FRAISE by Elias BELKEDDAR | 1st film
(THE KING OF ALGIERS)
ACID by Just PHILIPPOT
HYPNOTIC by Robert RODRIGUEZ
PROJECT SILENCE by KIM Tae-gon

CANNES PREMIERE

KUBI by Takeshi KITANO
BONNARD, PIERRE AND MARTHE by Martin PROVOST
CERRAR LOS OJOS (CLOSE YOUR EYES) by Victor ERICE
LE TEMPS D’AIMER (ALONG CAME LOVE) by Katell QUILLÉVÉRÉ
PERDIDOS EN LA NOCHE (LOST IN THE NIGHT) by Amat ESCALANTE
L’AMOUR ET LES FORÊTS (JUST THE TWO OF US) by Valérie DONZELLI
EUREKA by Lisandro ALONSO

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

MAN IN BLACK by WANG Bing
OCCUPIED CITY by Steve MCQUEEN
ANSELM by Wim WENDER
RETRATOS FANTASMAS by Kleber MENDONÇA FILHO
(PICTURES OF GHOSTS)
LITTLE GIRL BLUE by Mona ACHACHE
BREAD AND ROSES by Sahra MANI
LE THÉORÈME DE MARGUERITE by Anna NOVION
(MARGUERITE’S THEOREM)
AS FILHAS DO FOGO by Pedro COSTA | Short Movie
(THE DAUGHTERS OF FIRE)
EXTRANA FORMA DE VIDA by Pedro ALMODÓVAR | Short Movie
(STRANGE WAY OF LIFE)

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes....


HOMECOMING (CATHERINE CORSINI)

For daily coverage check out The Film Verdict which gives scheduled first screenings:

17 MARCH
19.00 MONSTER
by KORE-EDA HIROKAZU
22.15 HOMECOMING
by CATHERINE CORSINI

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes...


OCCUPIED CITY (STEVE MCQUEEN)

JEANNE DU BARRY (Maïwenn).
In his review for the GUARDIAN lead critic Peter Bradshaw gives it a 3/5. He calls it "a preposterous confection of a movie, like one of the rich sweetmeats being languidly nibbled at court. . ." but adds that it's :handsomely furnished: and "costumed with blue-chip character actors in the supporting roles" and features "wonderful locations" and "interiors at the Palace of Versailles itself." Not coming here anytime soon, though.

OCCUPIED CITY (Steve McQueen)
This "moving meditation on wartime Amsterdam" gets five stars from Bradshaw. It's a monumental, patient depiction of day-to-day life under Nazi rule based on McQueen's wife Bianca Stigter’s Dutch-language book Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940-1945. The four-hour film shows contemporary images of places in the city while narrating what happened in them under Nazi occupation. The effect is to "ask hard questions of what we think about the gulf between past and present," show us the past ain't so far away after all.

TIGER STRIPES (Amanda Nell Eu)
This is Bradshaw's 3rd Cannes 2023 review, a film by a Malasian filmmaker that depicts a repressive girls school and focuses on a natural rebel and is a "supernatural-realist drama and coming-of-age chiller" about the female body and sexuality, "with hints of Brian De Palma, David Cronenberg and Apichatpong Weerasethakul." It's "a bit derivitive" and "sometimes seems to be treading water in narrative terms" but nonetheless provides a "very woozy and hallucinatory experience."


TIGER STRIPES (AMANDA NELL EU)

[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)

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes... new headlines and previews


MONSTER (KORE-EDA)

From the GUARDIAN:

Homecoming review – Catherine Corsini’s tragic family drama misses an inner life - two stars (Bradshaw).

Monster review – 'Hirokazu Kore-eda’s hydra of modern morals and manners' - four stars (Bradshaw). Monster Review: "Kore-eda Hirokazu Hides Surprise Plea for Acceptance Beneath Much Darker Themes" - Peter Debruge, Variety. Action revolves around a fire, and at the end we find out who set it.

Youth review – heart-stopping stories in China’s sweatshop capital - four stars (Bradshaw). Doc by Wang Bing (Dead Souls, Cannes Special Screening 2018). "Exceptional" (Deadline), "unflinching" (Variety).

The Delinquents review (Rodrigo Moreno) – beguilingly surreal slow-motion Buenos Aires [bank] heist tale. "If Pedro Almodóvar and Eric Rohmer teamed up to compose a meanderingly long crime caper it might look like this" - five stars (Bradshaw)

More details later today.