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Thread: Cannes 2004

  1. #31
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    arsaib4, have you seen Clean? Which Assayas films are you talking about?

  2. #32
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    Originally posted by HorseradishTree
    Ah, Maggie Cheung. While I was a fan of Irma Vep, I also have to say that I thoroughly enjoy all of her smaller, quirkier martial arts pictures, like The Heroic Trio and a few with Jackie Chan.

    Oh, believe me, I meant no disrespect to such films, we all have a tendency to focus on more auteur driven features but I've seen a few of those and they contain pleasures I don't feel guilty about at all.

    You made a great post a little while back on such films. Tarantino would've been proud.

  3. #33
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    Assayas

    Originally posted by Chris Knipp
    arsaib4, have you seen Clean?
    No, what made you think that I have?


    Which Assayas films are you talking about?


    Assayas’ entire oeuvre is filled with situations where he examines the outer world and it’s effect in relation to his characters.

    In demonlover, it's the cold violence of business and the politics of corporate giants who have made his characters demons , unable to feel anything for themselves or for anyone else. They roam around, from here to there, looking for their next victim. The world around them has made them to behave the way they do. Assayas in the process blows up the film himself to get at the radical disconnection that comes with the image saturated world his characters live in. The film neither humanizes nor demonizes the whole culture but it poignantly points out the world, the way it is.

    In Les Destinées Sentimentales, it's the changing of time at hand. The film which spans four decades, including a war, recession, changing of ideals etc., finds it's ground in Berling and through him we experience those changes. Whether its in his decision to move back to Limoges , or finally accepting the more inherent methods of making porcelain.

    In Fin Août, Début Septembre, which at first might seem like just another Parisian-coffeeshop-talkathon, similar traits are present as Amalric doesn't know where he stands from one moment to the next and it's due to relationships he has with the people around him. Whether it's his relationship with the friend/mentor Clouzet, his girlfriend Ledoyen, or his ex. Balibar. Amalric constantly reacts to the events around him; Clouzet's sickness, Ledoyens' attitude etc,. In a most telling sequence which takes place in Amalric's office, after Clouzet has passed on, two of his colleagues talk up the latest work from Clouzet while Amalric rejects the notion of him being great even though while he was alive, he idealized him. Amalric is unsure and is unable to move on until the final sequence- a signature Assayas moment, perfectly timed and paced-when Amalric's sees Clouzet's young lover with someone else.

    And of course the great L’Eau Froide, the film I consider his best along with demonlover and one of the best of the 90's (I’m still trying to make a list)- in which Assayas and in extention his own characters create a world around themselves that even they aren't totally able to comprehend. The film is his ode to the 70's era rock music, it's cultural and emotional ambiguities and the inability of the surrounding world around his two protagonists to grasp them and vice versa while his youth continues to flow.

    Manohla Dargis recently stated that , "Few filmmakers get loneliness onscreen as persuasively as Assayas does--and with such feeling. The "with such feeling" part is what I think distinguishes him from others. There isn't a hint of self-pity due to over-analyzing but rather his character are like blank slates, waiting to be written on, some turn out for the better, others don't. From Ledoyen's blank stare while touching Fouquet’s face to Nielson slumped over on the backseat of the limo, his characters want to be understood by what’s around them and then Assayas through his images explores that notion thus exploring the world from the outside in. He has created portraits of aching loneliness while still adhering to realism . The mobility of his characters only adds to their solitude (an idea his good friend and fellow French filmmaker Claire denis has taken even further); Cheung in Irma Vep (and in Clean i guess), all three of characters (Berling, Beart, and Huppert) away from their homes in Fin Août, Début Septembre, same for Amalric and Nielson mostly seen traveling and of course Ledoyen in L'eau Froide, flowing behind the blank piece of paper held by Fouquet in the final sequence (it's one of the most indelible final shots I’ve ever seen on film).

    One effort of Assayas I’ve yet to see is his documentary on Hou, one great filmmaker on another, although Assayas is too modest and accessible an individual and a filmmaker in comparison to a Hou or Kiarostami to be written about in such manner, however, I believe that will change in time.

  4. #34
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    I thought you had seen Clean because I thought you'd been to Toronto this year, and you were talking about it a lot, so I thought that meant you'd seen it.

    Thanks for all the comments on Assayas. I still don't get what all the buzz is about, but I haven't seen two of the ones you mention, including the one you say is his masterpiece (and Les Destinées Sentimentales--and it'd be kind of hard to lose with Emmanuelle Beart and Isabelle Huppert). Fin Août, Début Septembre did seem sort of as you say, "just another Parisian-coffeeshop-talkathon." though I love those (e.g. Eric Rohmer), it's just that this one fell flat. In what I've seen lately (and I just didn't get Irma Vep) Assayas' rich mise-en-scène seems to overwhelm his depictions of inner transformation. I see this clearly in Clean. In demonlover, the latter parts were incoherent; even he admitted you could read what meaning into them you liked; well, I like a director who has a plan, or a vision that he sticks to. Maybe a generational thing, which goes with my not liking the music, though my generation is supposed to. A French online movie writer deplores the newspaper critics' elitism and snobism in France that leads to their putting films like (de Pallières') Adieu and Clean in a special category, he says, which alienates the public.* http://www.dvdrama.net/rw_news-9287-.php. However, I'm not against avantgarde stuff. I happened to find Adieu very impressive. But Clean seemed to me hasty (someone wrote that Cheung seemed underrehearsed) and unsuccessful, despite the elaborate mise-en-scènes and the lovely Maggie and charismatic Nick. There's a lot going on, it moves, but I don't see the inner transformation, even though it's spelled out that it's happening. I would have to look at it again to see, and also need to see Assayas' other films that you mention. But I think I've enjoyed Clean as much as I can. It's colorful, but emotionally it doesn't deliver. Cheung in inexpressive. ONe of the unenthusiastic Allocine viewer commentators asked a couple of questions: how did a film that did so poorly with the critics at the Cannes festival get such raves from them three months later when it opened in theaters in Paris? And how did a performance as lackluster as Cheung's get her the best actress prize at the festival? I find both questions unanswerable.

    One thing that is great about Assayas is his close connecton with Asian cinema, which comes through in demonlover, and no doubt in his study of Hou Hsiao Hsien.

    _________
    *He doesn't know how lucky he is to have such sophisticated critics in the Paris dailies. Wouldn't we be lucky to have movie writing of the quality of Le Monde's in one of our papers! But of course this kid is sick of hearing about the Nouvelle Vague, which Le Monde was still celebrating this week with a detailed multiple-article discussion of Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Doulos. Another French writer online (Judith Lindberg) talking about Les Destinées sentimentales claims Assayas reconciles the "auteur" film with the "grand public" film, bridges the gap between the popular and the elites. http://www.fluctuat.net/cinema/chroniques/destinees.htm I think he does try to do this.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 11-19-2004 at 01:51 AM.

  5. #35
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    You are sadly mistaken if you believe that Clean was dismissed by critics at Cannes, as your allocine "critic" wrote. I'm repeating myself but from Le Monde to Filmcomment, from Cahiers to Die Presse, there was nothing but praise for the film. Dargis stated "Cheung's performance can blow the lid off cinema just as hard," I think I'd give that a preference over wayward comments you've posted. It's one thing to not like the film, but it's another to ignore the facts. I wish we were lucky to have someone like Assayas here.

  6. #36
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    Hi,

    For those who are interested in Olivier Assayas
    ------------------------------------------------
    He has decided to attend the Golden Horse Award on 4th December in Taiwan. He will be accompanied by his famous collaborator, the photographer Eric Gauthier.

    His latest film "Clean" will lower the curtain of this year's Golden Horse Film Festival.


    And since some of you have mentioned about Maggie Cheung
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    5 wins in Golden Horse Award (Taiwan).
    -- 1989 Best Actress for "Full Moon in New York"
    -- 1990 Best Supporting Actress for "Red Dust"
    -- 1991 Best Actress for "Center Stage"
    -- 1996 Best Actress for "Comrades, Almost a Love Story"
    -- 2000 Best Actress for "In the Mood for Love"

    6 wins in Hongkong Film Award (HongKong).
    -- 1989 Best Actress for "A Fishy Story"
    -- 1991 Best Actress for "Farewell China"
    -- 1993 Best Actress for "Center Stage"
    -- 1997 Best Actress for "Comrades: Almost A Love Story"
    -- 1998 Best Actress for "The Soong Sisters"
    -- 2001 Best Actress for "In the Mood for Love"

    1 win in Golden Bauhinia Award (China).
    -- 1997 , Best Actress for "Comrades: Almost A Love Story"


    Others
    --------
    -- 1992 Berlin Film Festival, Best Actress for "Center Stage"
    -- 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Best Actress for "Clean"

    -- 1991 Turin Film Festival, Special Jury Award, Best Actress for "Farewell China"
    -- 1992 Chicago International Film Festival, Best Actress for "The Actress"
    Last edited by hengcs; 11-19-2004 at 08:49 PM.

  7. #37
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    Originally posted by arsaib4


    Oh, believe me, I meant no disrespect to such films, we all have a tendency to focus on more auteur driven features but I've seen a few of those and they contain pleasures I don't feel guilty about at all.

    You made a great post a little while back on such films. Tarantino would've been proud.
    If you're referring to the Lone Wolf and Cub post, I was going to expand on that. But, being the short-attention-spanned 16-year-old that I am, I got lazy and never did it. Maybe one of these days...
    "So I'm a heel, so what of it?"
    --Renaldo the Heel, from Crimewave

  8. #38
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    a modern artist

    Cant wait to see Clean. Unfortunately, it didn't make an appearance at the NYFF. Indeed, Arsaib, Assayas is an amazing force. So slick and insightful. I still get goosebmps during the final scenes of Irma Vep and Demonlover is certainly my favorite film from the last few years. This is a modern artist.

  9. #39
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    From my dear colleague arsaib4:

    You are sadly mistaken if you believe that Clean was dismissed by critics at Cannes, as your allocine "critic" wrote. I'm repeating myself but from Le Monde to Filmcomment, from Cahiers to Die Presse, there was nothing but praise for the film. Dargis stated "Cheung's performance can blow the lid off cinema just as hard," I think I'd give that a preference over wayward comments you've posted. It's one thing to not like the film, but it's another to ignore the facts. I wish we were lucky to have someone like Assayas here

    I and the allocine' commenter both acknowledge that the praise in print after the September Paris opening was almost universal. You have not shown that it was so at Cannes, when there were indeed negative responses and reviews. How am I ignoring "thefacts"? Here are some examples to show it's not true there was "nothing but praise" at Cannes, the time I am talking about:
    Hollywood reporter's Ray Bennett from Cannes, May 21, 2004:
    Assayas' film is complex and absorbing, but he keeps everything at arm's length. And with Cheung giving an interesting but chilly performance, only committed audiences will warm to it.
    IndieWire Peter Brunett, from Cannes (no date):
    Sad to say, the talented French filmmaker Olivier Assayas has disappointed us once again…a rambling, unfocused tale with patches of very bad acting from actors who are otherwise very good….Though it starts well enough, the entire middle third of the film is completely slack..
    Variety, David Rooney, from Cannes, May 20, 2004:
    While Olivier Assayas' "Clean" has the alluring visual texture of his best work and is far more accessible than 2002's "Demonlover," this story of a rock widow struggling to kick drugs and win back the affection of her son is pallid and unconvincing. Despite being written for her, the director's "Irma Vep" muse Maggie Cheung seems oddly miscast....
    LoveFilm.com, Tom Charity, from Cannes:
    For me, Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 was head and shoulders above the rest of the competition…Conversely, I was bitterly disappointed by Olivier Assayas' Clean, which seemed to me badly written and essentially banal…
    The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw, right after Cannes:
    But the jury dropped a brick by giving the best actress award to Maggie Cheung for her role as the recovering junkie in Olivier Assayas's Clean. Set in Canada, France and Britain, this was a truly awful film. The script by Assayas sounded leaden in English - presumably Assayas had written it all in French, had the relevant sections translated, and was unable to sense how bad it sounded. Cheung looked and sounded deeply uncomfortable and unconvincing throughout, unsure of the material and her relationship with the sketchily drawn incidental characters..
    Some of the major Italian critics were unfavorable at Cannes:
    Il corriere della Sera, Milan:
    Directed by Oliver [sic] Assayas like a deluxe version of a Matarazzo melodrama, all seen before and mannered…
    La Repubblica:
    Emily-Maggie Cheung could join the group of female performers being considered by the jury, but the film offers no emotion and isn't moving either.
    Il Foglio:
    Restless camera, brilliant photography, first yawn of boredom after a quarter of an hour.
    All this in May from or about Cannes. Then Paris in September and the raves came.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 11-20-2004 at 08:30 PM.

  10. #40
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    Thank you everybody

    I'm learning a lot here- thanks for all of the great posts re: Cannes.

    Clean is on my long to-buy DVD list.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  11. #41
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    To balance things out.

    Clean is a visually beautiful, exotic, interesting film. I'm not trying to demolish it. I tend to be severe in my criticism. As a teacher I was known statistically to grade low. I would not say Clean is "truly awful" as Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian did. The most astute and judicious assessment is the Variety writer Rooney's, in my opinion. All I was doing in the above entry is defend myself against the charge that I was ignoring "the facts" in saying that a number of the critiques of Clean that came out of Cannes were negative.

  12. #42
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    Re: a modern artist

    Originally posted by pmw
    Cant wait to see Clean. Unfortunately, it didn't make an appearance at the NYFF. Indeed, Arsaib, Assayas is an amazing force. So slick and insightful. I still get goosebmps during the final scenes of Irma Vep and Demonlover is certainly my favorite film from the last few years. This is a modern artist.
    I'm disappointed that I missed his appearance here last week. Many of the French filmmakers are in town presenting one of their previous films and then discussing them. Claire denis was also here.

    http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/programs...04/onset04.htm

  13. #43
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    Re: To balance things out.

    Originally posted by Chris Knipp
    All I was doing in the above entry is defend myself against the charge that I was ignoring "the facts" in saying that a number of the critiques of Clean that came out of Cannes were negative.
    I can also post about 50 reviews in 10 different languages from Cannes but that'd be a little....silly....although thanks for taking you time finding reviews that are agreeable to you. I'll review the film after seeing it, can't wait!

  14. #44
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    Your insinuation that in this recent anthology of samples I left out a vast number of May Clean reviews that were favorable is unfair, and untrue. Sure, I selected for negative ones, because I had to prove I was not "sadly mistaken" and distorting "the facts." Now that I've done that you're calling me "silly." I challenge you to prove that a majority of the May reviews of Clean resulting from the Cannes screenings -- not ones written in September -- were raves.

  15. #45
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    I prefer not to waste any more time on this than what I already have.

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