CANNES 2024 - remote notes

[Chris Knipp]

CANNES 2024 - first overview.
SOURCE.
The 77th edition runs May 15-25, 2024


[Excerpt from the VARIETY intro:].

In what looks to be another robust year in the making, the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will bring together several iconic filmmakers, including Francis Ford Coppola with “Megalopolis” starring Adam Driver, George Miller with “Furiosa” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, as well as George Lucas who will be feted with an honorary Palme d’Or. Kevin Costner will also be on hand with the first installment of his Western epic “Horizon, an American Saga.”

Some of the high-profile films in the pipeline for this year’s competition include Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” a stylized three-part story set in the present that reunites the “Poor Things” helmer with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe; Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” with Richard Gere, based on a novel by the late Russell Banks (“Affliction”); Jacques Audiard’s musical melodrama “Emilia Perez” starring Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez; Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” with Gary Oldman; and David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds” starring Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger. There’s also Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” a female-powered horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley from Universal Pictures and Working Title Films.

Beyond the major studio titles, one of the features attracting the most attention on the Croisette could be Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice,” which sees Sebastian Stan take on the role of a Donald Trump in a biopic examining his time as real estate businessman in the 1970s and ’80s. Outside of competition, Irish director Lorcan Finnegan leaps from Critics’ Week (where he screened “Vivarium” in 2019) to official selection with the midnight movie “The Surfer,” featuring Nicolas Cage in the title role.

International movies slated for Cannes’ competition include Karim Aïnouz’s “Motel Destino”; Jia Zhang-Ke’s “Caught by the Tides”; Magnus von Horn’s “The Girl With the Needle” and Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Limonov: The Ballad.”

More will be added to the Competition list, festival director Thierry Frémaux says.

As previously announced, Greta Gerwig will head the Competition Jury. Xavier Dolan will head the Un Certain Regard one.

[Chris Knipp]

The whole Cannes 2024 lineup

SOURCE

SEE "THE OSCAR EXPERT" INTROS TO SOME OF THE MAIN FILMS

OPENING FILM

LE DEUXIÈME ACTE (THE SECOND ACT) by Quentin DUPIEUX – Out of Competition

COMPETITION

THE APPRENTICE by Ali ABBASI
MOTEL DESTINO by Karim AÏNOUZ
BIRD by Andrea ARNOLD
EMILIA PEREZ by Jacques AUDIARD
ANORA by Sean BAKER
MEGALOPOLIS by Francis Ford COPPOLA
THE SHROUDS by David CRONENBERG
THE SUBSTANCE by Coralie FARGEAT
GRAND TOUR by Miguel GOMES
MARCELLO MIO by Christophe HONORÉ
FENG LIU YI DAI (CAUGHT BY THE TIDES) by JIA Zhang-Ke
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT by Payal KAPADIA
KINDS OF KINDNESS by Yórgos LÁNTHIMOS
L’AMOUR OUF by Gilles LELLOUCHE
DIAMANT BRUT (WILD DIAMOND) by Agathe RIEDINGER | 1er film
OH CANADA by Paul SCHRADER
LIMONOV – THE BALLAD by Kirill SEREBRENNIKOV
PARTHENOPE by Paolo SORRENTINO
PIGEN MED NÅLEN (THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE) by Magnus VON HORN

UN CERTAIN REGARD

NORAH by Tawfik ALZAIDI | 1st film
THE SHAMELESS by Konstantin BOJANOV
LE ROYAUME by Julien COLONNA | 1st film
VINGT DIEUX by Louise COURVOISIER | 1st film
LE PROCÈS DU CHIEN (DOG ON TRIAL) by Laetitia DOSCH | 1st film
GOU ZHEN by GUAN Hu (BLACK DOG)
THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE by Mo HARAWE | 1st film
SEPTEMBER SAYS by Ariane LABED | 1st film
L’HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE by Boris LOJKINE
THE DAMNED by Roberto MINERVINI
ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL by Rungano NYONI
BOKU NO OHISAMA (MY SUNSHINE) by Hiroshi OKUYAMA
SANTOSH by Sandhya SURI
VIET AND NAM by TRUONG Minh Quý
ARMAND by Halfdan ULLMANN TØNDEL | 1st film

OUT OF COMPETITION

SHE’S GOT NO NAME by CHAN Peter Ho-Sun
HORIZON, AN AMERICAN SAGA by Kevin COSTNER
RUMOURS by Evan JOHNSON, Galen JOHNSON, Guy MADDIN
FURIOSA : A MAD MAX SAGA by George MILLER

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIOR WALLED IN by Soi CHEANG
THE SURFER by Lorcan FINNEGAN
LES FEMMES AU BALCON (THE BALCONETTES) by Noémie MERLANT
I, THE EXECUTIONER by RYOO Seung Wan

CANNES PREMIERE

EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA by Nabil AYOUCH
C’EST PAS MOI by Leos CARAX
EN FANFARE (THE MATCHING BANG) by Emmanuel COURCOL
MISÉRICORDE by Alain GUIRAUDIE
LE ROMAN DE JIM by Arnaud LARRIEU and Jean-Marie LARRIEU
RENDEZ-VOUS AVEC POL POT by Rithy PANH

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

LE FIL by Daniel AUTEUIL
ERNEST COLE, LOST AND FOUND by Raoul PECK
THE INVASION by Sergei LOZNITSA
APPRENDRE by Claire SIMON
LA BELLE DE GAZA by Yolande ZAUBERMAN

[Chris Knipp]

The 2024 Directors’ Fortnight lineup

[FEATURES]
THIS LIFE OF MINE by Sophie Fillières Opening Film
IN HIS OWN IMAGE by Thierry de Peretti
CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER'S POINT by Tyler Taormina
DESERT OF NAMBIA by Yôko Yamanaka
EAST OF NOON by Hala Elkoussy
EAT THE NIGHT by Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel
EPHUS by Carson Lund
GAZER by Ryan J. Sloan
GHOST CAT ANZU by Yôko Kuno & Nobuhiro Yamashita
GOOD ONE by India Donaldson
MONGREL by Chiang Wei Liang & You Qiao Yin
VISITING HOURS by Patricia Mazuy
SAVANNA AND THE MOUNTAIN by Paulo Carneiro (Portugal)
SISTER MIDNIGHT by Karan Kandhari
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING BORROWED by Hernán Rosselli
THE FALLING SKY by Eryk Rocha & Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha
THE HYPERBOREANS by Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña
TO A LAND UNKNOWN by Mahdi Fleifel
THE OTHER WAY AROUND by Jonás Trueba (Spain)
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE by Matthew Rankin
PLASTIC GUNS by Jean-Christophe Meurisse [Closing Film]

The old symbol for the series used the word "réalizateurs" for directors; the new image for this year uses the word "cinéastes".
The 2024 Cannes Film Festival runs May 14-25.

The Directors’ Fortnight creative director Julien Rejl announced the program on Tuesday. (Directors’ Fortnight, or Quinzaine des Cinéastes, is the big independent sidebar that presents 'adventurous' works simultaneously with Cannes.)

The 21 Directors' Fortnight feature selections come from 14 different countries including four American films (Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, Carson Lund’s Eephus, Ryan J. Sloan’s Gazer and India Donaldson’s Good One). There are five French films, two Japanese, one Palestinian, and films from Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Chile (eight films from the Americas). There will be a special screening of Chantal Akerman’s Histoires d’Amérique: Food, Family and Philosophy.

[Chris Knipp]

Milo Machado-Graner in SPECTATEURS by Arnaud Desplechin

Cannes 2024: newly added films

SOURCE

CANNES COMPETITION AND OTHER ADDITIONS.

The Festival de Cannes has added over a dozen titles to the Festival including three to the Competition roster. The latter include Michel Hazanavincius' animated feature THE MOST PRECIOUS OF CARGOES and Mohammad Rasoulof's THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG. Hazanavincius' is the first animated feature in Cannes Competition since Ari Folman's 2008 WALTZ WITH BASHIR. It is adopted from Jean-Claude Grumberg's bestselling novel about the Holocaust and WWII. Score by Alexandre Desplat. It will release in France Nov. 20. Voiced by the late Jean-Louis Trintignant with Grégory Gadebois and Dominique Blanc.

Mohammad Rasouloof has previously presented MANUSCRIPTS DON'T BURN and A MAN OF INTEGRITY in Un Certain Regard and his last film, THERE IS NO EVIL (2020), won the Golden Bear in the Berlinale, when he was barred from attending by the Iranian government, which has withdrawn the filmmaker's passport and repeatedly detained him in prison.

To Cannes Premiere has been added MARIA by Jessica Palud, a biopic about Maria Schneider based on the book by the subject's cousin Vanessa Schneider, about the tragic life of the actress who starred opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci’s LAST TANGO IN PARIS. It costars HAPPENING star Anamaria Vartolomei with Matt Dillon as Brando, also including Alain Attal.

International films joining the Special Screenings lineup include Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye’s untitled documentary feature set against the backdrop of the pandemic; Arnaud Desplechin’s feature SPECTATEURS depicting the filmmaker's youth with ANATOMY OF A FALL child actor Milo Machado-Graner and Mathieu Amalric as his alter ego; and Oliver Stone’s LULA, about Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Added to Un Certain Regard is actress Céline Salette’s directorial debut NIKI, another biopic, about the French-American artist Niki de Saint-Phalle, who is played by Charlotte Le Bon.

Full list of the Cannes additions:

Un Certain Regard
WHEN THE LIGHT BREAKS by Rúnar Rúnarsson
NIKI by Céline Sallette
FLOW by Gints Zilbalodis

Cannes Premiere
VIVRE, MORIR, RENAITRE by Gaël Morel
MARIA by Jessica Palud

Special Screenings
SPECTATEURS by Arnaud Desplechin
NASTY by Tudor Giurgiu
LULA by Oliver Stone
AN UNFINISHED FILM by Lou Ye

Out of Competition
LE COMTE DE MONTE-CRISTO by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte

Competition
THE MOST PRECIOUS OF CARGOES by Michel Hazanavicius
TROIS KILOMMETRES JUSQU'A LA FIN DU MONDE by jusqu`A Emanuel Parvu
HE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG by Mohammad Rasoulof

[Chris Knipp]

Tsui Hark's classic 1984 comedy SHANGHAI BLUES to be part of this year's Cannes Classics

Hong Kong – April 23, 2024 [From the press release.] – A restored 4K version of Tsui Hark’s SHANGHAI BLUES (1984) will be screened as part of the Cannes Classics program at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

Set against the backdrop of wartime Shanghai in the 1940’s, the film weaves a poignant love story involving a soldier (Kenny Bee) and a young woman (Sylvia Chang) who vow to meet after the war ends, but circumstances keep making them miss their reunion. The film is a blend of romanticism, satirical wit, and whimsical sophistication that showcases Tsui Hark's skill at fusing genres.

The film has been meticulously restored under Hark's supervision with new grading and new dubbing, with each character speaking in their native dialects - Mandarin, Shanghainese, Cantonese and other from various regions to add an extra layer of authenticity and depth to the entertaining script.

SHANGHAI BLUES has a special place for Tsui Hark as the first film of his production company, Film Workshop, established in 1984 with Nansun Shi. Itr also represents the heyday of Hong Kong cinema.

[Chris Knipp]

Nathalie Emmanuel (in black), Adam Driver (in car), on the set of COPPOLA'S MEGALOPOLIS, Jan. '23. GETTY IMAGES

Is Francis Ford Coppola's MEGALOPOLIS going to be a historic flop - or a sleeper classic?

SOURCE

TRAILER

TEASER

He was aged 80 when he began on it. It was his first film since 2010 when he delivered TWIXT, the third of three "small" (ca. $10 million) commercial failures. He first began writing on it in 1983.

He mortgaged part of his (now successful) Sonoma County vineyards to raise the $150 and it was shot in Augusta, Georgia.

He had long wanted to make this movie. It was a story based on ancient Roman history. Something starring Adam Driver, a struggle to rebuild a destroyed New York-like city.

He invited a handpicked crowd of family and friends and honchos for an exclusive IMAX screening, No US distributor resulted, and reactions were like "experimental," "confusing." Some think a small company like A24 or Neon might pick it up.

Whatever, it's certainly one of the talked-about movies at Cannes. In France response has been more positive: notorious risk-taker Le Pacte has taken it on. Maybe it will be a sleeper, like APOCALYPSE NOW, rejected by the US Press, which co-won the Palme d'Or with Volker Scheendorf's THE TIN DRUM, and eventulaly became acknowledged as a classic after very limited release.


Coppola on the MEGALOPOLIS set.


First official image from MEGALOPOLIS released by Coppola.

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes begins


LÉA SEYDOUX AND APHAEL QUENARD IN QUENTIN DUPIEUX'S LE DEUXIÈME ACTE

LE DEUZIÈME ACTE/THE SECOND ACT (Quintin Dupieux). Opening Night film. An amiable meta comedy that breaks down the fourth wall ("constantly folding in on itself, producing one illusion out of the shell of another") and is unlike Depieux's earlier material because it's got famous actors, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, Léa Seydoux (see Peter Bradshaw's 3 our of 5 star GUARDIAN review, which provides the trailer). It's a lightweight, yet ironic and complex tale - with one of the longest-ever "traveling" (tracking shots) and a great deal of dialogue - of people coming to new roadside restaurant called The Second Act whose first act was probably a gas station, and maneuvering over a woman (Seydoux); her father (Lindon) is coming and her boyfriend (Garrel) wants to turn her over to a new guy (Raphael Quenard). But the point is the actors keep coming in and out of character (see trailer). They are indeed apparently shooting "an unusually banal rom-com" and are disgusted with it, especially Lindon's character. Suzanne Bunburry's DEADLINE review calls this "a layer, bubbly, film world meta-fest" It's not long but Depieux seems to have lost interest before it ends. Voilà: the 2024 Cannes opening is Quentin-sentially French. (P.s.: A French language video review points out this is Dupieux's third feture in less than a year. )

[Chris Knipp]

First films Cannes 2024

DIAMOND BRUT/WILD DIAMOND (Agathe Riedinger)


MALOU KHEBIZI IN DIAMOND BRUT

First-time actor Malou Khebizi is a 19-year-old waitress from Fréjus (French sticks) who dreams of becoming famous in this "stylish but familiar" (Hollywood Reporter) study of the perils and snares of being an online "influencer" that channels "TikTok energy" (Bradshaw, GUARDIAN, 3/5 stars). This is not the first film about the perils of influencer culture to premiere at Cannes, and the director's up-in-the-air ending (does the desperate young protag get the reality show spot or not?) is weak, but there is urgency and a quasi-religious quality to the intimate, loving way she is filmed. (Hollywood Reporter). Xian Brooks in the GUARDIAN finds the film fake and condescending.

[Chris Knipp]

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (George Miller 2024)


SCENE FROM GEORGE MILLER'S FURIOSA

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA,World premiered out of competition at Cannes, has gotten generally positive reviews. Somebody wrote it's the best prequel ever. Peter Bradshaw gave it 4 our of 5 stars in his GUARDIAN review and calls it "immersive, spectacular." But David Rooney apologizing for being a grump in Hollywood Reporter says it's " a big step down from Mad Max: Fury Road.". Rooney says: "this fifth installment in the dystopian saga grinds on in fits and starts, with little tension or fluidity in a narrative whose shapelessness is heightened by its pretentious chapter structure." He acknowledges that "Anya Taylor-Joy is a fierce presence in the title role" (as Charlize Theron's character young) and that Chris Hemsworth is "clearly having fun as a gonzo Wasteland warlord" (the comic-evil Dr. Dementus), but he thinks that "the mythmaking lacks muscle," and similarly "the action mostly lacks the visual poetry of its predecessor." Though recognizing some viewers finds the new motorcycle nightmare too digressive, Xian Brooks of the GUARDIAN "really liked it."

Metacritic's review aggregator, based on 24 critics, has come up with a score of 82%, so there is probably not that big a falling off, but there is some, because FURY ROAD got a Metaceritic rating of 90%.

A TRAILER is being shown in theaters and you can find out for yourself soon, starting next Thursday, May 23, if you are a fan of the "Mad Max" movies.

[Chris Knipp]

THE DAMNED (Roberto Minervini). CANNES: Un Certain Regard.


IMAGE FROM MINERVINI'S THE DAMNED

The Italian has lived in the US for two decades chhronicling marginal people. I
've reviewed STOP THE POUNDING HEART and WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN THE WORLD'S ON FIRE? His Cannes release this year continues that process in his first period piece, set in the Civil WAr period when the U.S. Army sends a volunteer company to patrol the uncharted Western territories. See Peter Debruge's Variety review: he makes the film sound thin in story to put it mildly, but an "atmospheric and unscripted" depiction of young men in the war, mostly not in combat, and a "welcome extension" of the filmmaker's documentary work.

[Chris Knipp]

Today: KINDS OF KINDNESS, OH CANADA, BIRD, MEGALAPOIS

‘Megalopolis’ sparks Cannes frenzy and furious debate
Director Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded, decades-in-the-making $120M movie divided festival filmgoers: "Complete nonsense" vs. "an awesome experience." The article recounts how a crowd of young European cinephiles waited many hours to get in and some reported a film experience they'll remember forever, while others didn't like it or couldn't recommend it. - Washington Post

.
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA AND ADAM DRIVER AT THE CANNES MEGALOPOLIS PREMIERE.

METALOPOLIS (Francis Ford Coppola)

Peter Debruge in his Variety review summarizes the story as " a conservative politician and a forward-thinking urban designer clash over a mythic city’s future." He quesitons why $120 million had to be spent to make it; why Coppola insisted the press screening be shown at the Cannes venue's IMAX theater. He says there are so many closeups it would play fine on your iPhone, and because "world building," that "essential element of Hollywood franchises", isn't in Coppola's wheelhouse," this might have worked better as an animated film. He says the cast is "first-rate" but their performances "oddly cartoonish." It sounds dangerously like a colossal flop to me, but big pictures by great auteurs that spur hot debate are great for cinema. Manohla Dargis of the NYTimes, whose Cannes presence is usually fleeting, gives the film straightforward, respectful treatment, calling it "a fascinating film aswirl with wild visions, lofty ideals, cinematic allusions, literary references, historical footnotes and self-reflexive asides, all of which Coppola has funneled into a fairly straightforward story about a man with a plan. It is a great big plan from a great big man in a great big movie, one whose sincerity is finally as moving as its unbounded artistic ambition." So there. But have you learned anything? I'm more swayed by the so often enthusiastic and positive Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN, who says "Coppola’s passion project is megabloated and megaboring." He gives it a chilling 2/5 stars. Stephen Dalton's summary for The Film Verdict: "Francis Ford Coppola's long-gestating neo-Roman epic is a muddled misfire of overcooked kitsch and undercooked ideas." THE OSCAR EXPERT's "Brother Bro" (Mason Jaeger) has made a video review saying MEGALOPOLIS is "a $100 million-plus indie film that feels like it's going off the rails in every direction," though he suggests you might have fun watching it and he's excited to talk about it. One feels sad for Coppola. He made the film, he said, for his wife, and she died four days later. He looks so small and old. But who knows? The film may be a sleeper that even makes some money eventually, if it gets a cool US distributor like A24 or Neon.

[Chris Knipp]

KINDS OF KINDNESS (Yourgos Lanthimos)



IT HAS A NIFTY TRAILER

Bradshaw's 4/5 star GUARDIAN review shows he likes Lanthimos' followup to his big hit POOR THINGS (which Emma Stone got the Best Actress Oscar for) a lot. It's three overlapping narratives set in present-day New Orleans. Use of Lanthimos' "company of players" reappearing in each causes the overlapping - which seems underlined in the film poster (above). The three stories Bradshaw summarizes thus (1) "An office worker finally revolts against the intimate tyranny exerted over him by his overbearing boss." (2) "A police officer is disturbed when his marine-biologist wife returns home after months of being stranded on a desert island, and suspects she has been replaced by a double." (3) "Two cult members search for a young woman believed to have the power to raise the dead." Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mamoudou Athie, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau and Joe Alwyn each get three roles, some "intriguingly similar to each other," others "quite different." I suspect this is a return, after the relatively accessible POOR THINGS, to something closer to Lanthimos' mad Greek Weird Wave cinema manner, but with a new fluency; that he's in his prime and this will be a provocative, challenging watch - if it works for you. Stephen Dalton on The Film Verdict calls KINDS "classic Lanthimos, an English-language throwback to the full-blooded macabre absurdism of his time as a figurehead of the Greek Weird Wave movement." Metacritic rating: 78%. It takes an early lead in the SCREEN DAILY Cannes jury grid. Other leads: Andrea Arniod's BIRD and Emanuel Parvu's THREE KILOMETERS TO THE END OF THE WORLD.


STONE, PLEMONS, DAFOE IN KINDS OF KINDNESS

[Chris Knipp]

OH, CANADA (Paul Schrader).


RICHARD GERE, UMA THURMAN IN OH, CANADA

In this Leonard Fife, one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam, shares all his secrets to de-mythologize his mythologized life and meditate about mortality. Based on Russell Banks' next-to-last book, Foregone, this is a meandering interview by film students with a revered filmmaker dying and addled by medications to numb the pain of the not-nice kind of cancer he's dying of. Jacob Elordi plays him young, Richard Gere plays him old. It's Schrader's most experimental formally inventive film in years, but Schrader gets lost in his own experiment, according to Ryal Latttanzio in INDIEWIRE. In his Variety review Peter Debruge says this is one of Schrader's "best films in years." Uma Thurman plays the protagnist's much younger wife. Debruge calls the film "profound but slightly scattered." Uma has said in an interview she felt during the making of it that Schrader cared in a very personal way about the film. The film title is the one Banks had wanted to give the book.


JACOB ELORDI IN OH, CANADA

[Chris Knipp]

More Cannes

See Xian Brooks' roundup of the first week in the OBSERVER.


TESSA VAN DEN BROECK IN JULIE KEEPS QUIET

JULIE KEEPS QUIET (Leonardo Van Dijl)

After the fun of Luca Guadagnino's entertaining current tennis-based film hit CHALLENGERS, "with its hilariously imagined sexual dynamic between a female coach and male players," Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN likes this more realistic Belgian film about an elite tennis academy as shown by his 4/5 stars rating. The debut feature's star is an actual talented teen tennis player, Tessa Van den Broeck. This is a restrained film of many silences about how the teen tennis star keeps mum to protect her coach Jérémy (Laurent Caron) when he's accused of misconduct with his female pupils, one of whom commits suicide. More reserved and less explicit than Favrier's SLALOM (R-V 2020), which had Jéeémie Renier as the offending coach. A standout film of Cannes Critics' Week. Jonathan Romney provides a detailed Screen Daily review. Produced by the Dardennes and in French and Flemish, this is a realistic drama that naturally includes extended sequences where van den Broeck shows off her "ferocious skills" (Bradshaw).

KINDS OF KINDNESS is early at the top of the SCREEN DAILY jury grid, followed by BIRD and THREE KILOMETERS TO THE END OF THE WORLD. Coppola's MEGALOPOLIS is above OH, CANADA on a level with WILD DIAMOND.

[Chris Knipp]

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE (Magnus Van Horn)

This "arthouse-exploitation picture with a truly hellish theme" (Bradshaw) is loosely based on the Danish serial killer Dagmar Overbye, who helped impoverished women kill their unwanted children. Xian Brooks cals this "an expressionistic black fairytale haunted by the ghosts of the first world war and stumbling across every manner of monster in the shadows." A B&W film set in Denmark in the 1920s. Bradshaw in his GUARDIAN review gives it 4/5 stars; he's impressed and writes "fictionalized true crime nightmare leaves you with a shiver of pure fear." The director is a Swede based in Poland. Guy Lodge in VARIETY describes this as "an adult fairytale abundantly populated with witches and wretches, but where society is revealed as the true monster." Sounds scary, disturbing, possibly infuriating. It's only #4 of 7 on the current jury grid. But Leslie Felperin's more detailed review for the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER draws one in and shows this is a well filmed and edited film that could be watchable and relevant because it's about the exploitation of pregnant women. But if it's as expressionistic and only loosely based on fact as reviews say, does it really make sense for Felperin to call it "almost too much reality to handle"?