The Cannes Film Festival came to a close yesterday, with Michael Haneke taking home his second Palme d’Or for his new film Amour. I feel good about this. I like Haneke, and from my distant
but watchful perspective from Lake Wobegone, this is probably a solid, yet somewhat safe,
choice. (Although, Haneke? Safe? Whatever.) Some other people won some awards too, but, honestly, if you want a
rundown on that you should be reading a post from one of the hard working wordsmiths
who spent the last week and a half plying the caverns of the Croisette with “no
guts, no glory” tattooed to their foreheads. (That may sound like romance, but
it’s mostly admiration for the chaos that critics dive into at Cannes.)
Thoughtful analysis of the Cannes Film Festival is not what you will find
below, but instead knee jerk reactions of anticipation and apathy as filtered
through my pounding juvenile film libido.
Here are my most anticipated films among the 22 in competition at
the 65th Festival de Cannes:
Post Tenebras Lux directed by Carlos Reygadas (Teaser trailer)
As soon as the critical love/hate line was drawn in the sand, this
film jumped into my top spot of interest. Visual, non-narrative feature length films
with crazy beautiful stuff, which may or may not accurately describe Post
Tenebras Lux, are my kind of thing. It might be also worth saying that Carlos
Reygadas films are my kind of thing as well. Battle in Heaven had its flaws,
and although people sometimes feel the need to goad for my love of Silent
Light, hopefully we can all agree that Reygadas’ debut, Japón, is something
special if not a masterpiece. Reygadas won Best Director for Post Tenebras
Lux—which translates to “after dark, light”—and there was no shortage of
sneers, jeers and bravos, or at least that is what I have garnered from Twitter
and various coverage. This only intrigues me more. Because what kind of film is
it that can take a litmus test from a respectable swath of the film community
and come of with half red and half blue? This fascinates me. Post Tenebras Lux
is wagging around without US distribution as of yet, but someone will hopefully
step up to the plate.
Holy Motors directed by Leos Carax (Trailer)
Listening to the Cannes natter one is led to believe that Holy
Motors director Carax and star Denis Lavant were unjustly shut out of the
awards at Cannes. Never you mind that, Holy Motors caused enough of a stir to
match or better any award it could have muscled. From what I can surmise, this
film is off the crazy chart and it
stars Kylie Minogue. I'll take it. Holy Motors was picked up for US
distribution by Indomina, a genre label that can hopefully make good on getting
this film out to us yonder folk.
In the Fog directed by Sergei Loznitsa (Clip)
Loznitsa’s got my attention. My Joy was a shock to the narrative
system, and really really really dark. Until he belly flops, I will always look
forward to this guy’s films.
Reality directed by Matteo Garrone (Clip)
The skill in which Garrone adapted Roberto Saviano’s surreal and
troubling book Gomorrah has earned him lifetime achievement for my admiration.
Garrone’s Reality has a reality television subtext, something Italy probably
knows about even more than the US. Reviews were generally not good for this
film, but, again, it will take some time to convince me that Gomorrah was a
fluke. Reality won the Grand Prix at Cannes and has been picked up for
distribution by Oscilloscope.
Like Someone in Love directed by Abbas Kiarostami (Trailer)
Kiarostami continues to reinvent, this time in Japan. Like Someone
in Love was picked up by Sundance Selects/IFC.
I’m also looking forward to Cristian Mungiu’s latest Beyond the
Hills, Resnais’ big finale You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, Hong Sang-soo’s tandem
bike ride with Isabelle Huppert In Another Country, and of course Haneke’s Amour.
A big thanks for those in the trenches delivering the good the the sad sacks at home. You know who you are and you know who we are.
