CANNES 2023 - remote notes

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes...on with the show


THE OLD OAK


THE OLD OAK (Ken Loach)
His final film in Competition (he is 86); he has won two Palmes d'Or and two Jury Prizes at Cannes before. THE OLD OAK deals with prejudices against Syrian refugees surrounding the titular pub in a struggling working-class town adjacent to Durham, England. It's compassionate toward racist reactions because poor Brittons lives post-Thatcher have "gone to shit" (this is 2016, pre-Brexit). Damon Wise of DEADLINE says this movie "as as much fire and fury as his debut Poor Cow did in 1967." Bradshaw calls it "fierce' and give it four stars. Jordan Mintzer's HOLLYWOOD REPORTER review suggests this is a very moving, if sometimes schematic, film.

LA CHIMERA (Alice Rohrwacher)
Is "enchanting" (VARIETY) and "uproarious" and "captivating" and "teems with life," receiving one of only two five-star ratings from Bradshaw. It's a rollicking fantasy that features Josh O'Connor as a disheveled English archeologist now teamed up with a Felliniesque gang of grave-robbers who falls in love with the gone daughter of Isabella Rossellini. Watch the TRAILER see if it's your kind of thing.


[SIZE=1]JOSH O'CONNOR IN LA CHIMERA