Saturday May 2015

Looking back on the Festival:

Travelled back from Cannes yesterday and arrived home exhausted (from the journey and 10 days of non-stop film viewing) after midnight. The whole experience was tremendous - I saw 28 films over the 10 days, including 16 from Spain/Latin America - especially the latter.

Some really great Latin American films and fantastic to see yesterday's announcement that Embrace of the Serpent / El abrazo de la serpiente (Ciro Guerra, Colombia)  has won the top Art Cinema Award at this year's Quainzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes - an absolutely beautiful film and thoroughly deserved.

Also Paulina / La patota (Santiago Mitre, Argentina) won the top Critic's Week Nespresso Grand Prize and Land and Shade / Tierra y sombra (César Acevedo, Colombia) won both the France 4 Visionary Award and Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize.
See reports: Hollywood Reporter;Variety


Other Latin American highlights for me were:

The Chosen Ones / Las elegidas (David Pablos, Mexico)
Ixcanul Volcano (Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala/France)
Allende, my grandfather, Allende / Allende mi abuelo Allende (Marcia Tambutti, Chile)

but some great films all round.

As far as the competition films are concerned, my top 2 (from those I got to see) are:
Carol (Todd Haynes, UK) and Son of Saul (Lazlo Nemes, Hungary)
- two completely different films, of course.
Peter Bradshaw has given his predictions here.

And of course my other favourite (not in competition) is Asif Kapadia's amazing Amy Winehouse Documentary - a brilliant film - and of course, he's a Westminster alumnus!

Here are a few images from an incredible week:

 A. Fresco mural by the bus terminal, Cannes centre

 Embrace of the Serpent / El abrazo de la serpiente crew at premiere

  Palais du Festival, Cannes

Red carpet arrivals at the Lumiere cinema, Cannes Film Festival

 Screen on the beach, Cannes Film Festival

International Village, Cannes Film Festival

 

In the European Pavillion, Cannes Film Festival

 In the Marché du Film

Looking across Cannes bay from the Salle du Soixantième cinema terrace

Thursday 21 May 2015

Latest update - Thursday and Friday of week 2 are the days that the Festival runs reprises of the films in the Official Selection so on Thursday (our last full day here) I managed to catch the following ones that I hadn’t seen earlier in the week:

*****Carol (in competition) Dir. Todd Haynes, UK 2013. Very strong contender for the Palme d’Or - and a huge buzz around it at the Festival. A visually stunning evocation of the 1950s about forbidden passion between two women (Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara - a dead ringer for Audrey Hepburn), based on a Patricia Highsmith novel.  . Highly praised in reviews, the only criticism seems to be of the ‘coldness’ of the film, yet its icy surface is a powerful embodiment of the repressions and social strictures of the1950s. Cate Blanchett’s performance sublimely conveys the gamut of passion and emotion barely contained below the steely veneer she maintains. Extremely strong performances all round and beautiful cinematography.  See Peter Bradshaw's Guardian review here. And the trailer here.

****Mia Madre (in competition) Dir. Nanni Moretti, Italy/France/Geremany 2015. Funny and touching by turns, Moretti’s film sees film-maker Margherita (Margherita Buy) juggling the stresses and strains of shooting her latest film, hampered by a string of challenges (including a big US star who cannot remember his lines – played by John Turturro), alongside supporting her adolescent daughter and (together with her brother – played by Moretti himself) spending as much time as she can with her dying mother. She confronts the multiple challenges and emotional roller-coaster of her personal and professional lives with strength and determination despite a very human frustration, exasperation and despair and an endearingly balanced capacity for recognising her own flaws and absurdities. In an amusing wink at Moretti’s own cameo perhaps, Marguerita advises her actors to just imagine that they are standing next to the character they are playing whilst admitting that, although she always gives this same advice – something she learnt from another director, the instruction doesn’t make a lot of sense. Hollywood Reporter review here. Trailer here.

****Louder than bombs (in competition) Dir. Joachim trier, Norway/USA/France, 2014.
War photographer laura Freed (Isabelle Huppert)’s family are still coming to terms with her death in a car crash when a family friend publishes an article which sheds a distressing light on her death and prompts her widower (Gabriel Byrne) and her sons to re-examine their relationship with her and with each other. Both sons are also grappling with other significant changes in their lives: the elder (Jesse Eisenberg) becoming a father for the first time and the younger (David Strathairn) negotiating the bumpy passage through adolescence. Review from Indiewire at Cannes and trailer here.

***Youth (in competition) Dir Paolo Sorrentino, Italy 2014.
Amazingly rich and layered film set in a Swiss hotel where two elderly friends are spending some time together – Michael Caine (great performance) is a retired composer, accompanied by his daughter and assistant (Rachel Weisz) and Harvey Keitel, a film director still in the throes of putting together his next film script. Visually and imaginatively sumptuous (if a bit pretentious) with multiple vignettes – including Jane Fonda and Paloma Faith. See Peter Bradshaw's Guardian review and trailer here.

Also - just few words on a couple of other French films seen last week:

**Une mère / A Mother (seen Sun17 May) Dir.Chrisine Carriere, France 2015.
Marie's relationship with her troubled adolescent son whose behaviour sometimes becomes violent.

***Standing Tall / La tête haute (seen Thurs 14 May) Dir. Emanuelle Bercot, France 2015. Children's magistrate (Catherine Deneuve) and social worker (Rod Parodot) work with persistent delinquent Benoît to try to help him, despite numerous setbacks, to  find a way forward in life. See Variety review at Cannes here and trailer.

*** Chile Factory -  The results of a funded project to encourage new film-makers which opens the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs each year at Cannes. This year's project focused on 4 young Chilean film-makers from Chile being teamed up with 4 others from other parts of the world. They worked on the films in international pairings. Chile Factory presents the resulting collection of 4 shorts.

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Latest update on films seen:

****Alias María (in the Un certain regard selection). Dir. Jose Luis Rugeles Gracia, Colombia/Argentina/France, 2015. See trailer here and Screen Daily review here.

Set in a guerrilla commando group in the Colombian jungle, 13-year-old María is a child guerrillera who has recently discovered she is pregnant. Women who get pregnant ‘in the field’ are normally expected to abort (the camp doctor performs terminations). The comandante’s partner, however has just given birth to a child which María is charged with carrying to safety (and to remove the danger of the baby’s cries betraying their location or posing a kidnap/ransom risk). The journey (with a small armed escort) is fraught with danger and mishap, including running into army forces and a village massacred and occupied by the military.  The experience leads María to reflect on her own pregnancy. Thematically the film raises questions about the brutality and dehumanisation of the war context, power relations and abuse of power. 

Peace to us in our dreams (in Quinzaine des Réalisateurs selection). Dir. Sharunas Bartas, Lithuania/France/Russia, 2015.
Quite a few people walked out of this. Pretty disappointing! 

Also - just few words on some of the other films seen on Saturday 16 May which I haven’t mentioned in earlier blogs:

*****A Perfect Day (in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs selection) Dir. Fernando León de Aranoa, Spain 2015. (Benicio del Toro, Tim Robbins, Olga Kurylenko, Melanie Thierry, Fedya Stukan) (seen Fri 16/05) See Hollywood reporter review from Cannes here and Guardian review here. Trailer here.
International aid workers with  ‘Aid across Borders’ in the Balkans 1995 arrive to remove a dead body deliberately thrown into a village well to contaminate the villagers’ water. The operation hinges on locating a suitably strong length of rope which the group set off the source, bringing them into contact with absurdities and horrors of war which war-worn aid veterans Mambrú (del Toro) and (Robbins) deal with a crude but distancing humour as they ‘indict’ newby Sophie (Thierry).  Engaging film – Aranoa’s first English language movie.

Q&A with the director and crew of A Perfect Day was an added bonus to the premiere of the film here at Cannes

*Happy 140 / Felices 140 Dir. Gracia Querejeta, Spain 2015. Drama comedy in which Elia (Maribel Verdú – who seems to be popping up all over the place) gathers he friends together for the joint celebratin of her 4^th birthday and her 140 million euro jackpot win. Once the news of the win is shared with her friends, it unleashes a string of plotting, jealousies and score-settling. 
See Hollywood Reporter review here.

and on Monday (not previously commented on):

***Tierra y sombre / Land and Shadow (in the Semaine de la Critique selection) Dir. César Augusto Acevedo, Colombia/France, 2015.
Contemplative drama of Alfonso's return to the family he abandoned 17 years previously inthe midst of a sugar cane plantation. He now comes to help care for his seriously ill son, Gonzalo, who is living with his wife and Alfonso's estranged wife. The film is dominated by Gonzalo's increasingly rasping and laboured breathing and the sounds of the slashing of cane and the roar and crackle of flames as the remains of the plants are burnt, creating a perpetual cloud of ash which contaminates the air they breathe. The slow pace and restrained dialogue reflect the charged claustrophobia of the house 
- its permanently closed windows creating an oppressive penumbra throughout in a futile attempt to protect Gonzalo from the ash-laden air.He refuses to move away in search of a better life (despite the exhortations of his wife and father) because his mother refuses to leave the house and he will not leave her. His health steadily weakens - he has no right to medical care as he is no longer regarded as an employee since his illness (a result of the working conditions themselves) stopped him being able to work. His wife and mother are sacked because their productivity levels do not reach the tough targets set and workers' attempts to resist the unreasonable conditions and demands are powerless to undermine the the brutal exploitation. See Hollywood Reporter review from Cannes here. Trailer here.


*****Las elegidas / The Chosen Ones (in the Un certain regard selection) Dir. David Pablos, Mexico 2015. Excellent drama about 14-year-old Sofia who is lured by the adolescent Ulises into a prostitution ring run by his father and involving the whole family. His seduction of Sofia is part of Ulises’s initiation into the family ‘business’ but, when his attachment to her leads him to regret getting her involved, he tries to secure her release. His father agrees on condition that Ulises brings a replacement and in the meantime Sofia is put to work in the brothel. The film presents a sickening picture of how these operations operate on an economy of violence, fear and coercion. The horror of the experience of providing child sexual fodder for a string of men is excruciatingly conveyed through a series of powerful images of Sofia’s numbed gaze shot in medium close-up against the stark wall of brothel, interspersed with a string of shots of older men, accompanied by a disturbing soundtrack of pumping flesh and bodily fluids punctuated by the groans of the men’s orgasms. The detached and formulaic process of ‘seducing’ and luring girls into a false sense of trust is chillingly presented as Ulises is coerced and ‘inducted’ into his role as an abductor by his father and older brother. 

More to come...

Tuesday 19 May 2015

22 films seen so far and two full days to go so making the most of the Festival. Yesterday we had invites to Sicario in the main Lumiere theatre and the Lionsgate party to celebrate its premiere (attended by Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin) afterwards at the Baoli Beach. Here we are:

 
John and Rikki at Sicario party, Baoli Beach, Cannes

Sicario (in competition) - Dir. Denis Villeneuve, USA 2004 - is a very absorbing thriller/action movie with Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro in a ruthless pursuit of Mexican drug cartel leaders in which standard rules of engagement are set aside - set mainly in Arizona and Mexico. Emily Blunt starts out as a tough FBI special ops agent in a promisingly strong female role which is unfortunately undermined as the film progresses. An unusual kind of film to be in the Festival Sélection Officielle but an exciting watch.  See Trailer at link.

John & Rikki about to see Sicario in Lumiere at Cannes Film Festival

The other films I caught on Tuesday were quite different:

Son of Saul (in competition) Dir. Lazlo Nemes, Hungary 2014 See Peter Bradshaw Guardian review and trailer here

Saul is a Hungarian Jewish prisoner at Auschwicz death camp forced to work in the chaotic horror of the gas chambers, plundering the possessions of their victims and disposing of the corpses in furnaces or lime pits. Incredibly, as the 'shower' is emptied of its latest batch of corpses, laboured breathing reveals the body of a young boy miraculously still alive. Saul helps retrieve the boy only for a camp doctor to extinguish his remaining thread of life. providing the boy with a religious burial becomes an impossible but obsessive mission for Saul, a desperate means of introducing an act of morality into this hell on earth, alongside interventions in other subversive activity across the underground networks within the camp. The formal qualities of the film and the persistent close-up focus on Saul against the hellish backdrop of the screams of the gas chambers, the heaps of corpses, the roar of the furnaces, beatings and executions convey the massive scale and the sickening dehumanisation and 'normalisation' of the genocide.


The Measure of a Man (Dir. Stephane Brise, France 2015 – in competition) - see The Atlantic review and traier here.
Deals with an experienced machine operator who loses his job in factory lay-offs in a fly-on-the-wall style drama reminiscent (sort of think Ken Loach might make). Having been active in trade union resistance of the lay-offs, he has tired of the fight and sets about trying to find new employment.  After months of job-seeking, he is eventually taken on as a security officer in a large supermarket, a job requiring some compromise of his principles as he trains in surveillance - of both shoppers and fellow employees. His family life with his wife and disabled son continues (DIY in the house, jive lessons with his wife, discussions at school about his son’s progress, etc.). As spectators we uncomfortably witness, fly-on-the-wall style, the apprehension and questioning of a series of shoplifters (mainly vulnerable individuals whose limited means prevent them taking up the company’s standard offer to let them go if they agree to pay for the pocketed goods. We also witness the confrontation of a long-standing employee for pocketing unclaimed bonus points for herself and the devastating consequences of her dismissal. When a second colleague is similarly confronted with evidence of her repeatedly keeping unclaimed coupons, the moral compromise becomes too great for Thierry (Vincent Lindon, the only professional actor in the film).


Ingrid Bergman - in her own words Dir. Stig Bjorkman, Sweden 2015. A documentary initiated by Bergman’s daughter, Isabella Rossellini (as she recounted at the presentation of the film in the Salle de 60ieme premiere) in conversation with the director at an earlier Cannes film festival. Slightly too long, but nevertheless fascinating, insight into Bergman’s family with footage from an amazingly rich collection of home video material filmed throughout her life, starting from her childhood with films recorded by her father and interviews with her 3 daughters and son (revealing a range of perspectives on their relationship with their mother and changes associated with the break up of her marriages to and Rossellini and filming commitments) as well as public and press reactions to Bergman as a result of her private life. See Hollywood Reporter review from Cannes here.

Isabella Rossellini at presentation of Ingrid... in Salle du 60ieme, Cannes Film Festival

Presenting Ingrid... in Salle du 60ieme, Cannes Film Festival (Thierry Fremaux, Roberto Rossellini, Stig Bjorkman and Isabella Rossellini


Also - just few words on some of the other films seen on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 May which I haven’t mentioned in earlier blogs:


****Paulina / La patota (seen Fri 15/05) Dir. Santiago Mitre, Argentina/France, 2015. See Hollywood reporter review from Cannes here and trailer here.

A tough and compelling drama about Paulina’s decision to leave her promising careeras  lawyer, her barely commenced PhD and her comfortable city life to make a practical contribution to the democratisation project she has been promoting as a social activist. She goes to work as a teacher in a school in a deprived and marginalised are close to the borders between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay where developing an understanding of human rights and social justice are priorities for the project. When Paulina is raped by initially unknown attackers, rather than going back to the city, she determines to stay in the community and continue the project, adhering to her guiding values and principles as she seeks to come to terms with her emotional response, and find her own way of confronting the experience – and her attackers - and the consequences of the attack. The film’s formal approach, involving reprises of key moments in the film from different points of view, captures something of the protagonist’s attempt to find and maintain a balanced perspective and response to the situation, notwithstanding the conflicting emotions and dilemmas she experiences and the reactions of those around her. A powerful film with a very strong central character and performance.


*NoKids / Sin hijos Dir. Ariel Winograd, Argentina/Spain 2015 (seen Fri 15/05). Review and trailer here.

Light romantic comedy (Maribel Verdú, Diego Peretti). Gabriel has been totally absorbed in his young daughter Sofia for the last few years since his marriage broke down but decides to keep her existence a secret – through a series of outlandish strategies - when he falls for Vicky who is a committed member of the ‘No Kids’ movement and Sofia, who has a candour and inventiveness beyond her age (think Outnumbered’s xx), adds new dimensions to the subterfuge and is the key factor in a slightly predictable ending. See Altapeli review and trailer (Spanish) here.


**Aurora Dir. Rodrigo Sepúlveda, Chile, 2014 (seen Fri 15/05). Trailer here.

Sofia and her husband have been trying to adopt for several years without success. When Sofia sees a news story of a dead baby discovered on a landfill rubbish dump, she determines to find out about the baby whom she names ‘Aurora’. Impervious to the incomprehension of the authorities, Sofia becomes determined to provide the baby with an identity and a recognition that she existed and engages in a seemingly impossible legal battle to gain the right to bury her. Based on the true story – the closing credits of the film indicate that since Aurora, the couple have gone on to provide burials for several other abandoned dead babies. Interesting positioning of her quest at the borderline between determination, dedication and obsession.

More anon....

PM Monday 18 May 2015o

More on Latin American films I have had the chance to see - several really interesting for their focus on themes to do with the tension between modernity and tradition (especially in indigenous settings), and inscribing political And/or environmental concern and critique. In addition to the incredible El abrazo de la serpiente (see Last Friday's blog):

****Ixcanul volcano Dir. Jairo Bustamante, Guatemala/France 2015. See trailer.
A powerful and intimate drama of 17-year-old Maria who lives with her family in a tiny indigenous community on the side of a live volcano, betrothed by arrangement (to her father's boss and owner of their house). which explores the tension between the claustrophobia of tradition and modernity and themes of socio-economic and gender power relations and exploitation. Maria's pregnancy (by her hapless boyfriend) poses a catastrophic risk to the family's stability (rejection by her fiance and the threat of eviction). The vulnerability of poor, rural inigenous communities to exploitation and a potentially fatal snakebite endangering her life precipitates a series of ev, when Maria is encouraged to use the mystical powers associated with pregnancy to solve the problem of snake The intimacy of their relationship and conversations provides a focal point for exploring the  and the- beautiful tightly focused sequences of her mother dressing her for the betrothal meeting, etc.

**Guaraní - Dir. Luis Zorracaín. Drama. Argentina Paraguay 2015. See teaser. See Variety review.
Quirky river-cum-road-cum-bus/train movie as steadfastly mono-lingual guarani grandfather travels with his 14-year-old granddaughter, Lara, to Buenos Aires to bring her pregnant mother back to their riverside home so that his only grandson be born a  Paraguayan and to ensure he learns the native language and traditional fishing methods as expected of male members of the community. The greater importance he gives to passing this on to a male heir adds further cultural and generational tension to his relationship with Lara who, until that point has been his close companion and already acquired these traditional skills. The journey to B A is also the process,of their developing an even closer bond based on greater understanding of their respective perspectives.

****El botón de nácar o/ The Pearl See trailer and review.
Documentary which explores the relationship between water and the cosmos and its significance in Chile's culture and history from pre-Columbian cultures to the Spanish conquest through to political repression under the Pinochet odictatorship.  The discovery of a pearl button resting on an iron railway track on the seabed reveals horrorific truths of its regime of terror and repression.
 
***Tierra y sombras

AM Monday 18 May 2015

Still catching up on last few days' screenings before launching into today's.
Alongside Allende, yesterday's other big highlight was Asif Kapadia's very powerful Amy Winehouse Documentary which I queued for c.1.5 hours to ensure seeing! Asif is a University of Westminster alumnus and has been a great supporter of the Regent Street Cinema which we have been renovating (now open to the public - see Shira MacLeod's fab programme for May/June via the RSC link).
Amy  tells the story of the singer- songwriter's extraordinary talent and rapid rise to a vertiginous level of fame.  It deftly assembles a plethora of images, interviews, home video, news and other archive footage, underscored by a tracks adroitly selected from her very personal songs to explore her erratic oscillation between resilience and vulnerability and her battle with drugs and alcohol. The film casts a bitingly critical light on the voracious agents of life in the public eye, influential figures close to her and the multiple interests at play in relentlessly keeping the show on the road which contributed to the ultimate tragedy of her untimely death? Absolutely compelling and moving film - with moments that are at times excruciating to watch.

More anon...

Sunday 17 May 2015

A frantic few days bouncing from screening to screening a real mix of films. Have managed to clock up 15 films - 18 if you count the shorts! Some real highlights among the quite substantial Latin American offering on show here. Really impressive films include the following (n.b. my new star ratings! 0-5 where five is tops):

*****El abrazo de la serpiente / Embrace of the serpent (Dir. Ciro Guerra, Colombia 2015) - part of the Festival's Quinzaine des Realisateurs and with the bonus of a q&a with the director and actors after the screening. A beautifully shot drama in black and white, the film presents the intersecting stories of two western scientists travelling in the north-western Amazon in search of knowledge and understanding of the plants, healing and spiritual powers nurtured and preserved by its indigenous people. Their respective journeys (4 decades apart) and their profound learning experience in the company of the enigmatic Keramakate deliver a challenging engagement with the consequences of religious, political and economic colonisation and compel reflection on their moral, ecological and cultural impact. As the director pointed out, the black and white palette constitutes a metaphor for the limited experience of the essence of life to be gained through human senses alone. In the ancestral indigenous cultures of Keramakate's people potent plants and their hallucinatory powers are a fundamental part of the ritual and spiritual life, a catalyst for achieving heightened insight and spiritual communion with the essence of life. See Hollywood Reporter Cannes review. See trailer.

*****Allende, mil abuelo Allende / Beyond my grandfather Allende (Dir. Marcia Tambutti, Chile, Mexico 2015) See trailer - also part of the Festival's Quinzaine des Realisateurs and with the bonus of a q&a with the director after the screening. Marcia Tambutti's documentary focuses on her quest to understand the grandfather she never knew and his curiously silent presence in the family's memories and emotions. Images form the backbone of this journey of discovery as she pieces together glimpses and teases out fond, uncomfortable and painful recollections and reflections from family members - her own generation of siblings and cousins, her mother and aunt and Allende's widow Hortensia (La Tencha) who died during the making of the film at the age of 95. Assembling this intimate collage of Allende within the family inevitably simultaneously examines their experience of the drama and tragedy of the 11 September 1973 coup - Allende's death and the subsequent experiences of repression, exile and loss.  The power of the image not only to capture moments in time but to act as a catalyst for questioning and reflecting on the past is central to the film. Tambutti does not shy away from representing the dilemma such a project presents - the need to recuperate silenced memories but also the sense of intrusion and pain that their retrieval represents (anxieties about this are frankly exposed in the filmed interviews with family members, especially in relation to interviewing La Tencha), but the film compellingly demonstrates the cathartic effect of the project on the family. A fascinating and moving film.

More in the next post.......

Thursday 14 May 2015

Plunged in straight away yesterday and caught a couple of Spanish films:

El club de los incomprendidos (The Misfits) Dir. Carlos Sede, Spain 2014
- a romantic drama about teenager Maria who reluctantly moves to Madrid with her mother after her parents' break up. She expects the worst of Madrid, especially when sent to therapy sessions at school. However, she the other students in the group quickly become best of friends building each others' confidence and supporting one another through a series of individual traumas including bullying, developing and breaking relationships, sexuality and coming out, deceit and jealousy, exploitation of power positions, etc. - pretty universal themes. The film ends with a crisis which brings them all together and a life affirming ending. Nothin earth-shattering but a sweet feelgood teen movie with appeal beyond that group.

Cómo sobrevivir una despedida (Girls' Night Out) Dir. Manuela Morena, Spain 2014
Billed as redolent of Sex in the City and something of a Hangover meets Women on the Verge.. but with more than a passing resemblance to the plot of the former. Nora (Natalia de Molina) and he group of friends now in their 20s (5 women and Mateo who declares himself 'un poquito gay' in his teens) have known each other since childhood when they specialised in performing Spice Girls numbers together. They 'kidnap' the most staid member of the group to take her on hen week of partying, drinking and sunbathing just before her wedding and get into various scrapes involving copious amounts of alcohol, male strippers and (as per Hangover) waking up amid chaos without remembering a thing - and spend the rest of the film piecing together piecing together the missing 24h. Though not really my kind of thing I did laugh out loud quite a bit!

Entre-films started checking out the overwhelmingly numerous information sources and stands, cruising the Croisette and enjoying the sunshine and sea.

Managed to get to 4 screenings today, Thursday - will blog on those tomorrow - including some really interesting Latin American films. More tomorrow!

Wednesday 13 May 2015

Hi and welcome to my Cannes 2015 blog!

First day here at Cannes and the weather , atmosphere and overwhelming array of films to see suggest that it is really going to live up to expectations! My aim is to see as many Spanish and Latin America  films as possible, together with mix of other movies - and a bit of cruising along the Croisette, of course!