Weekend of 13 May at Cannes Film Festival

Saw some 15 films over the first few days in Cannes - so here's an update on some of the highlights from the weekend of 13-15 May:

 Director and cast

Caught an early screening of Pablo Larraín's latest film about the Chilean poet and senator, Neruda *****(Quinzaine du Réalisateur section of the Festival), followed by a Q&A with the director and cast members. In a quite different aesthetic mode from his earlier movies, Neruda adopts a noirish style to focus on the period in which Neruda (Luis Gnecco) is impeached and pursued for his outspoken communist views and criticism of the González Videla regime. Unable to leave the country, in 1948 he goes into hiding, moving from one safe house to another prior to his eventual exile to Paris. The film is playfully positioned from the viewpoint of the fancifully arrogant Police Prefect, Oscar Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal). Neruda delights in taunting Peluchonneau, leaving him copies of his poetry as

Pablo Larraín

he narrowly evades his clutches, revelling in the heightening of his iconic status that the situation affords. The dreamlike quality of the images is underlined by the use of Peluchonneau's voiceover. Whilst the poet is a larger than life character, Larraín's representation pulls no punches in revealing the seamier aspects of his colourful life and sexual exploits and the fragility of the idealism of the moment. This is poignantly highlighted when Neruda is asked by a activist what kind of equality they will bring - equality with her lifestyle (she has been cleaning for the privileged for years) - or with Neruda's.  An excellent film and one of my tops from the Festival as a whole.


Other highlights over the weekend were the Italian film, Like Crazy, Mal de Pierres/From the Land of the Moon and La danseuse (in Certain Regard).

La pizza gioia/Like Crazy **** (in the Quinzaine) by director, Paolo Virzi - a very funny, sensitive and moving film, in which Beatrice (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), a long-term mental patient at the Casa Bondi clinic escapes with a new arrival, Donatella (Micaela Ramazzotti),  and the two women embark on a wacky adventure, reminiscent in some respects of Thelma and Louise. Beatrice's delusions of grandeur, oscillations between hyperactive excitement, outpourings of emotion and occasional explosions of outrageous bigotry contrast with Donatello's withdrawn and anxious who gradually emerges from her shell.

Virzi, Bruni-Tedeschi & Ramazzotti (on the right)

Their wacky journey takes in a visit to Beatrice's former husband and an attempt to track down Donatello's son who has been taken into adoption following traumatic incident in her past. As spectators we are drawn in to empathise and become complicit with the highs and lows of their escapades - Foucault would have appreciated this one! A hilariously engaging, but sensitive and moving picture which draws attention to contrasting mental health care institutions. In the interview with the director and cast at the Quinzaine screening, Virzi drew attention to the impact of recent closures of mental health centres in Italy and the importance
of maintaining places which can provide the kind of caring and responsive environment that we see in Casa Bondi (in contrast to more institutionalised hospital models which we also glimpse in the film).

Marion Cotillard & Nicole García arriving at the Lumiere

Mal de Pierres/From the Land of the Moon **** (in Competition) is a haunting story set in 1950s. Gabrielle (Marion Cotillard - brilliant again) is a imaginative, 'free-spirited' and libidinal young woman whose unrequited obsession with, and public pursuit of, her (married) teacher causes something of a scandal, leaving her distraught and her exasperated and despairing family determined to marry her off. Spanish Civil War veteran José is up for the challenge, despite her determination not to consummate the marriage. When 

she is diagnosed with kidney stones ('mal de pierres') Gabrielle is sent to 'take the waters' in a sanatorium where she meets and falls for a sick soldier, André (Louis Garrel) - their passionate affair filmed in a hauntingly dreamlike register. Great performances by the two leads. See Hollywood Reporter Cannes review here and trailer here.

John and I were lucky enough to attend the evening première of Mal de Pierres/From the Land of the Moon on Sunday in the main Lumière theatre there all the films in Competition are shown. Here we are caught by the paparazzi in our tenue de soirée finery just after seeing the film!

Another impressive film from this weekend's crop (so many!) was La danseuse/The dancer *** (in the Certain Regard category). Directed by Stéphanie de Giusto, it is a stunning bio of the Belle Époque dancer Loie Fuller (Soko) who leaves her mid-west US home  with her drunken father to join her temperance-committed mother in Paris where she starts trying to develop a career in acting. After she seedy assignments, she joins a cabaret and creates her own unique butterfly dance. Review and trailer here.

Other films caught over the weekend were:  

Jodorowsky being interviewed at the Quinzaine screening
(Jodorowsky on the right)

Poesía sin fin/Endless Poetry ** (Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chile/France 2016) (Quinzaine section) -  very much a carnivalesque arthouse movie, the second of his autobiographical films in which his relationship with his father whose machismo and arch-conservativism are at odds with his development as a a cinematographic poet/artist. Jodorowsky's two sons play the roles of himself and his father. The film creates some interesting and powerful imagery, e.g. his early childhood home in Buenos Aires is reconstructed through the superimposition of billboard photos; cardboard cutouts of key figures; circus motifs.  See Screen review here. 

After Love/L'économie du couple *** (Joaquin Lafosse, France 2015)  (Quinzaine des réalisateurs category) dealing with the tensions and contradictions of separation.  Marie and Boris have been together for 10 years and have 2 young daughters but their relationship has hit the rocks and they are in the process of separating though Boris is still living in the house prior to Marie buying him out. The film is a low-key but compellingly tense study of their broken relationship: recriminations about money (Boris's work as an architect is erratic whilst Marie 's family and job have kept them afloat economically whilst Boris is aggrieved at the lack of recognition of the improvements he has made to the house); both seeking (though often failing) to protect the girls from their arguments; moments of regret, family togetherness and even passionate lapses and a moment of crisis - all of these draw in the spectator to root for a reconciliation against which the odds are stacked.  Review and trailer here.

El rey del once ** (Daniel Burman, Argentina 2016) plunges the spectator into the Jewish quarter of Buenos Aires when Ari (Alan Sabbath) returns from his current New York life to visit his family (initially with the plan of introducing them to his girlfriend). Back in Buenos Aires he is plunged immediately back into the family's tireless and chaotic work funning a Jewish Aide Foundation ('El once') which supplies local families with recycled clothes, medicines, kosher food and general moral support. Unable to touch base with his elusive father, Usher, who runs the Foundation, Ari begins to explore the cultural and religious rituals he finds initially finds quite mystifying from his secular viewpoint.  See Hollywood Reporter review from Berlin FF here.

La madre/The Mother ** (Alberto Morais, Spain/Romania/France 2016) Morais's 14-year-old protagonist (Javier Mendo) is about to be sent to a Centre for Minors as his mother is incapable of providing a stable home and looking after him. The structure and pace of the film position us to experience the boy's frustration, alienation and disillusionment as he moves from pillar to post, initially inclined to trust his mother's reassurances that she will resolve the pending issue of the court order and seek a job, but gradually recognising that his mother's lack of response to his calls and eventual disappearance leave him alone to resolve his situation. Unsentimentally moving.  El olivo films website info here. Cineuropa info

Kóblic (Sebastián Borensztein, Argentina/Spain 2016)  ** An uneven thriller with Ricardo Darín in the title role of a military pilot in 1970s. Unable to stomach the regime's adoption of the 'vuelos de la muerte' (the practice of dropping political detainees out of planes and into the sea) he refuses a direct order and goes into hiding in a backwater job flying pesticide planes, grappling with the nightmare flashbacks which plague his conscience.  The suspicions of the local police combine with jealousies aroused by his affair with a local woman combine to close in on him. Some really strong moments (Darín) but rather narratively uneven - some strands insufficiently developed to convince.  Hollywood Reporter review. Trailer here.

Transit Havana (Daniel Abma, Netherlands/Germany 2016) Very competent documentary about transsexuals in Cuba and the impact of a programme championed by Mariela Castro (daughter of President Raúl Castro) to support trans-gender care, raise awareness and combat homophobia.  The programme presents equality in gender and sexuality as the next step in Cuba's socialist programme, under the slogan 'Homophobia no; socialism sí'. The documentary focuses on three transgender people - Juani, Manú and Odette - who are hoping to be selected for sex change operations this year as part of a rolling programme which brings over two specialist plastic surgeons from Holland and Belgium to work with a Cuban team in Havana to operate on 5 cases each year. Through interviews and 'fly-on-the-wall' footage as they discuss their situation, feelings and aspirations, the film explores the community and family reactions, issues around religious belief, the economic situation, etc. Filming was in train when the news of a rapprochement between Cuba and US was announced by Raúl Castro and Obama and captures reactions to this. Trailer here. IMDb link here. 

Along the Croisette outside the Palais du Festival