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.