FESTIVAL DE CANNES to May 24. festival-cannes.com.
CANNES, FRANCE The Cannes Film Festival has reached its midpoint, and the scene inside and outside the theatres remains entertaining.
Its impossible to avoid all the people seeking tickets to gala screenings. They crowd the nearby streets, holding their chosen film titles aloft, usually in vain. But on Monday night, May 18, it took just 10 minutes for a man in a tux wearing a horses head to secure his prize to be in the same audience as French actor Vincent Lindon, whos famous for his expressive, stoic gaze.
Meanwhile, momentum is building for several films in competition.
Yorgos Lanthimoss allegory about relationships, The Lobster, has wide support for its surprising humour, surreal conception and unwavering execution. City dwellers who are suddenly single must move to a hotel where they have 45 days to find a mate or be turned into the animal of their choice. Another group of singles roam the forest, where theyre forbidden any contact with the opposite sex.
Colin Farrell, unusually effective as a repressed schlub dumped by his girlfriend, takes us into both worlds, eventually falling in love with Rachel Weisz, one of the forests loners. Rigorous to a fault, Lanthimoss cinematic world is unforgettable as satire and social commentary.
Todd Hayness Carol is an exquisite, unconventional love story, a rich portrait of female desire in the shadow of Eisenhowers election in the fall of 1952. Wait for the telling smile on Cate Blanchetts face at the end (in the Oak Room no less).
Blanchett plays a stylish, married Park Avenue mother attracted to a young department store clerk (Rooney Mara). Appropriately, the film, based on Patricia Highsmiths early novel The Price Of Salt, has all the subtlety and tension of her thrillers. Its in muted contrast to the Sirkian glossiness of Hayness Far From Heaven, set later in the decade.
The growing critical mass behind the movie augurs well for Blanchetts Oscar prospects.
Laszlo Nemess astounding debut, Son Of Saul, is that rare film that catches your attention from the first few seconds and never lets go. Shooting almost entirely from the protagonists POV in a continuous series of hand-held takes, Nemes packs the frame with shallow-focus shots, taking us into the heart of Auschwitz in the person of a Jew forced to aid the Nazis in their extermination mission.
Its not impossible for a first film to win the Palme dOr 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days did it. On Sunday (May 24) the nine-member jury headed by Joel and Ethan Coen will render its verdict.
Norwegian director Joachim Triers first English-language movie, Louder Than Bombs, is a carefully made family drama, richer and more engaging than any by Alexander Payne. Gliding effortlessly back and forth in time, Trier never misses a beat chronicling the perceptions and misconceptions of a family coming to grips with the sudden death of their famous photojournalist mother in a car accident.
A mothers mortality also figures in Nanni Morettis most entertaining film, Mia Madre, which moves from a busy film set (featuring a scenery-chewing, hilarious John Turturro) to serious family scenes with the director, her brother and their mother, a Latin scholar with a damaged heart. Morettis directorial skill makes these mood changes feel natural and unforced.
Denis Villeneuve is the sole Canadian director in the contest for the Palme, with Sicario, an expertly made crime drama that questions the morality of the U.S.-Mexican drug war. Pleased with the glowing critical response, Villeneuve told the press he was proud to be here and had made the film without any compromise.
Dreams have come true for the other Canadian in Cannes. Andrew Cividinos well-crafted Critics Week first feature, Sleeping Giant he describes it as Lord Of The Flies meets Stand By Me has been praised by all three film industry magazines as well as online powerhouses like Indiewire.
Whether he wins the Critics Week prize or not, hes made a mark in the international film world that will carry over to his next film.
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