CANNES 2024 - remote notes

[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)



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

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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." 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, if it gets a cool US distributor like A24 or Neon.