Last day at Cannes Film Festival 2016: Fri 20 May

Friday 20 May was our last day at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The Marché was pretty much like ghost town by then - almost all of the stands for the multitude of organisations had been packed up. Screenings continue but fewer - a much smaller selection of market films - but opportunities to catch up on some of the films from the official selections, as well as selection films premiering in the last couple of days. This was my chance to see the Competition films Aquarius and The Last Face, La larga noche de Francisco Sanchis (in Un Certain Regard) and the Cannes Classic Memorias del subdesarrollo/Memories of Underdevelopment.

Aquarius line-up make their statement on
Brazil's political situation (on the red carpet)

Aquarius ***** (Kleber Mendonça, France/Brazil, 2015). Great film about a woman's struggle to retain her home in the face of efforts by a powerful developer to oust her from her apartment after all her neighbours have been bought out. The film is in 3 acts, the first of which is set in the 1980s at a family gathering for an aunt's 70th birthday, just after Clara (Sonia Braga) has recovered from cancer; the second focuses on Clara's resistance to the developers in which she is presented as a determined and forthright woman. In a medium which is not renowned for a wealth of strong mature female roles, Aquarius offers a very positive model, in the strength of the character and the way in which sensitive (and rarely tackled) issues such as maturity and sexuality, feelings around the female body and the impact of surgery on (self-)perception and self-confidence are addressed. Sonia Braga's impressive performance - and the film - offer a very strong role model as well as a compelling narrative about an individual standing up for her rights in the face of the unscrupulous determination of a powerful organisation. Clip on YouTube here. Reviews from Indiewire, Variety, Screen Daily.

Memorias del subdesarrollo/Memories of Underdevelopment ***** (Tomás Gutierrez Alea, Cuba 1968) - in the Cannes Classics section. Great to have the opportunity to see this newly digitally restored classic from this great Cuban filmmaker. Sergio (  ) is a middle-class intellectual in his 40s who opts to stay in Cuba after the Revolution when his wife and parents leave for the US. An outsider, living off the compensation he received for property that has been expropriated by the government, he drifts through life and his relationship with a 16-year-old girl, taking a supercilious, pseudo-intellectual view of what he sees as Cuba's endemic underdevelopment and lack of culture, rejecting the past but also disengaged and cynical about the ambitions of the Revolution. The film follows his reflections as he tries to make sense of the past and present and his own life. Set between the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis, the film includes fascinating archive footage of those events and of the Havana of the period (fascinating to see these having recently been to Cuba). Cannes Classic. NY Times - review from 1973 here.

La larga noche de Francisco Sanctis/The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis *** (Andrea Testa, Francisco Márquez, Argentina 2016. Quite a short film (80m) set in Buenos Aires 1977 where Francisco, an ordinary family guy, is contacted by an old friend from his student days some 20 years before when he belonged to a radical group. She asks him to help warn a couple of people that they are in danger of being picked up that night (by the secret police). The request is in disturbing contrast to his uneventful and pedestrian home and work life but he feels he must do something to help. The film focuses on his quest, initially to find someone else who can deliver the message, following him through the dark and deserted streets and creating a chilling sense of the drab and fear-ridden atmosphere of the 1970s under the dictatorship, all the more disturbing for the lack of clarity about the nature of the threat which is in no way diminished by frustratingly enigmatic end of the film.
Reviews Slant and Variety. Trailer on YouTube here.

Sean Penn leaving the premiere
(on Croisette big screen)

The Last Face *** (Sean Penn, USA 2014). In Competition. The film ended up being a probably well-meaning but ill-judged attempt to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis of war and the critical role of international aid.  Javier Bardem is a doctor with a humanitarian aid organisation in war-torn Africa, working desperately to save lives. When the director of major fundraising organisation (Charlize Theron), who is also a trained doctor, rolls up her sleeves to help out, their romance takes front stage. As they wrestle with angst of their relationship, the realities of the humanitarian crisis are relegated to an - albeit harrowing - backdrop. The film was seriously panned as soon as comments from the press screening filled social media - see selection of comments gathered by Variety here. Trailer here. Cannes press conference here.

So that;s it for the Cannes Festival this year. Lots of interesting films! I guess my overall highlights of the festival were as follows but lots of other interesting films I've mentioned in the blog are really worth seeing when you get the chance.

From Latin America: Neruda; Aquarius; Transit Havana; La ciénaga/Between sea and land

From Spain: Julieta

From other European countries: Les vies de Therese; Mal de piers; La pazza gioia/Like Crazy

From USA and Canada: Café Society; Two lovers and a bear

We celebrated our last night in Cannes this year
with our friend Charles Rubinstein
at a great restaurant he recommended -
we'll definitely be going there again....
Thanks, Charles!

Wed 18 - Thurs 19 May at Cannes Film Festival 2016

Interesting how the atmosphere changes from about midweek onwards as the Festival starts to run down - fewer Marché films and the Marché stands in the Palais start closing down. Still plenty of people on the Croisette though - and on the beach, of course. I really must try and find time to do that ...

I spent the last three days at the Festival mostly focusing on the Selection films. Unfortunately there were a few on my wish list that I didn't manage to get into: Toni Erdmann which became a really hot ticket by the beginning of the week - joined the queue for this on Thursday but sadly I was just behind the last few people to get in...  (See review here and trailer here). To add to the frustration, after queueing for an hour at the Soixantieme for La mort de Louis XIV Spanish (Hors Competition), I also failed to get into that (trailer here; review here)! All a bit infuriating but I did get to see some other great films.

So here come the highlights of Wednesday and Thursday:

La fille inconnue/ The Unknown Girl ***** (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France 2016). This Competition film was one of the ones that you had to apply for tickets to see in the Debussy cinema and fortunately that came good (both John and I got tickets for this) though you still have to queue to get a good seat! A really strong film - well worth the early rise (it started at 8.30am; in the queue at about 8!). This is a slow-burning thriller in vérité mode. Young doctor, Jenny (Adèle Haenel) works in a surgery in a deprived area on the outskirts of Liege. After a round black woman is murdered on the riverbank near her surgery, Jenny is driven by a sense of guilt to discover the identity victim, a young black woman whom, it seems, no-one recognises or cares about. A review of the close circuit TV in response to police enquiries reveals that the woman had rung the surgery bell in a state of panic just before she was killed. Although Jenny had heard the bell and Julien, her young intern (Oliver Bonnaud), wanted to respond, Jenny refused to go to the door because it was after hours and because (as she later recognises) she wanted to establish her authority over him. The fact that her criticism of Julien's work contributes to his decision to give up medicine increases her sense of self-approbation.  Jenny's quest to find the woman's identity and pay for a grave leads her to a closer engagement with the social realities of this community and a series of violent encounters. The heightened by naturalistic performances and pared down style throw the aggression of these encounters into striking relief and heighten the gradually building tension of the film.  Hollywood Reporter Cannes review here. Trailer here.

Voir du Pays/The Stopover **** (Delphine Cousin and Muriel Coulin, France/Greece 2016) In the Un certain regard selection. Voir du pays focuses on three women soldiers on leave from a tour in Afghanistan. The whole company is taken to a Greek holiday resort  complex (how likely is that??) for  three days of 'decompression' during which they review their experiences under the guidance of an army team including psychologists. Their reflections focus particularly on an exercise in which one of the women was wounded and several of their colleagues were killed in an ambush. The film explores stress and trauma and the different ways in which individuals within the company have responded to an extreme experience. The drama focuses around the shifting dynamics and building tension between members of the group as uncomfortable facts and perspectives on the exercise emerge, coming to the boil when some of them go 'awol' to a village fiesta with some locals.  The film grapples powerfully with gender relations and ingrained sexism within the male-dominated context of active service and poses searching questions about the institutionalised 'decompression' process. A very powerful and unusual film. Trailer here. Variety Cannes review here. Review and trailer in French here.

Two lovers and a bear**** (Kim Nguyen, Canada 2015) - in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. Although it sounded quirkily interesting, I actually went to see this when I failed to get in to another film that was over-subscribed - and I loved it. In a tiny, isolated community in the North Pole Lucy Tatiana Maslany) and Roman (Dane Dehaan) are lovers. Both have a troubled past in which they experienced childhood abuse by their fathers, the effects of which live on in Lucy's nightmares and Roman's alcoholic binges. When Lucy eventually decides to leave and go south to escape her demons, she and Roman embark on a journey across the frozen wastes which will become life-threatening. The tense drama which pervades this intriguing film is relieved by moments of great tenderness between the lovers, and unexpected humour as we discover that Roman can talk to bears...! Shame about the other film but this was a real bonus! Trailer here; review here.

Juste la fin du monde/It's only the end of the world **(Xavier Dolan, Canada/France 2016). In Competition. Gay writer, Antoine (Vincent Cassel), goes home to see his family after 12 years' absence. As they gather, the spirit of reunion is undermined by a range of emerging tensions which the film deftly builds between the various family members.  Their various feelings of awkwardness, apprehension, fear and resentment create an atmosphere in which it comes increasingly difficult for Antoine to fulfil his reason for returning: to 'announce his death' to his family.
Reviews here from Hollywood Reporter, trailer here.

Ma'Rosa *** (Brillante Mendoza, Phillippines 2016) In Competition.

A really interesting - though depressing - film in which Ma'Rosa (Jaclyn Jose) scratches out a living from her little convenience store with a little drug-dealing on the side. When she and her husband , Néstor (Julio Díaz),  are arrested, the whole family is drawn into the race to scrape together the funds to pay off the local drug squad. Police corruption, prostitution and betrayals paint a sordid portrayal of hand-to-mouth existence and survival amid the chaos and noise of this down-at-heel quarter of Manila. At the end of the film we are left with the impression of a cycle of corruption and survival that will just keep repeating itself. Very strong acting.  Screen Daily Cannes review here. Trailer here.

Resurección/Resurrection *** (Eugenio Polgovsky, Mexico 2016) - is Marché film. A fascinating - documentary about albeit not very tightly structured - about El Salto, the Juanacatlán Falls in Jalisco, near Guadalajara, Mexico. The film brings together images of El Salto from 1950s when it was a healthy and fertile farming area, rich in plants and wildlife, and a well-known beauty spot for tourists: 'the Niagara Falls of Mexico.' Images from fifties'  tourist films and brochures  are combined with interviews with locals, footage showing the decline in the quality of the water and farming from the 1970s onwards with the unregulated growth of industrialisation and powerful local companies. The film demonstrates how the waste from these has polluted the river and falls, resulting in huge loss of flora and fauna, the shrinking of the Falls and a huge increase in cases of cancer and skin diseases among the local population. A government campaign initiated in 1980s is shown to have failed to address these issues and local community groups have now taken matters into their own handset push for action, including mounting an environmental 'horror tour' of the area.   Website here.

A couple of other films from Wednesday and Thursday:

Fado ** (Jonas Rothlander, Germany/Portugal 2016) in the Marché. A relationship drama in which Fabián (Golo Euler), a German doctor follows his former girlfriend, Dora (Louise Heyer) to Lisbon after losing a patient who looks like her. Not long after they resume their relationship the reason for their previous split resurfaces: Fabián's jealousy. Only managed to see the first half of this due to screening times and clashes with one of my 'must see' films but it's one I'll probably try to catch again if/when it gets a UK release.

The Student/Uchenik (Krill Serebrennikov, Russia 2016)  In Un Certain Regard  Clearly others have seen qualities that escaped me - for me it was the most disappointing film I saw at the Festival. Veniamin (Peter Skvortsov), the student of the title, goes through a mounting moral, spiritual, and psychological crisis in which his bible-quoting religious mania reaches a level of fanaticism which leave his exhausted single mother desperate and cause chaos in his school - and take the film into the realms of farce. The teachers become overwhelmed by the situation, with the exception of his Sociology tutor who becomes almost equally obsessed with finding the biblical evidence to refute Veniamin's increasingly ranting declarations and his relationship with the hapless fellow student 'disciple' he acquires take the film full tilt into its soberingly dark conclusion. See Screen daily review here; and Variety here.  See trailer here.

Cannes bus station

More to come on our last day at the Festival in my next post....

Week of 16 May at Cannes Film Festival (Monday & Tuesday)

Strolling after supper

Sadly we weren't invited...

Saw 19 films between Monday 16 May and our last day at the Festival, Friday 20 May. A pretty full-on week,  so I'll cover just the films seen on the first couple of days in this blog.

There was still some time to appreciate Cannes between screenings, though!




First of all the highlights of the first two days of the week for me:

Les vies de Thérèse ***** directed by Sébastien Lifshitz, France 2016 (Quinzaine des Ralisateurs). A biopic of militant feminist Thérèse Clerc as she faces the end of her life. It opens with her reasons for making the documentary and the importance of creating a space to explore the subjects of old age and death which are rarely broached on screen.  Sensitively directed, the film intersperses the documentation of her advancing illness, archive footage and her own reflections on her life  and perspectives from her children.  In the late sixties her conventional life - childhood in a conservative, bourgeois catholic family, early marriage and motherhood -  changed dramatically as she discovered feminism, took the decision to end her unhappy marriage and became an activist. The film provides an intimate and moving tribute as she and her family face the end of her life. See Cineuropa review here. Trailer here.

Couldn't resist a 'selfie' 
(yes, I know - same dress!)

Julieta ***** Pedro Almodóvar, Spain 2015 (in Competition). Very exciting to manage to get a ticket for the evening première of Pedro Almodóvar's latest (yes - another red carpet comb for me!). It elicits excellent performances by Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte as the older and younger Julieta, and brings back the inimitable Rossy de Palma as the quirkily sinister housekeeper for Xoan (Daniel Grao), a Galician fisherman with whom Julieta has a daughter, Antía.  Years after Xoan's tragic death, Antía, now a young adult, goes away on a retreat and disappears, severing all contact with her mother. Julieta never abandons the hope of finding Antía.

Pedro signing autographs outside the Palais
just before heading for the red carpet

After a chance encounter with a childhood friend who has seen Antía in Italy, Julieta abandons plans to move away from Madrid with her new partner, remains in the place where Antía can find her and renews efforts to contact her. A letter to her estranged daughter introduces a flashback to the past and their life together as a young family until Xoan's untimely death.  Pedro back on form with this sombre drama about motherhood and a poignant study of the grief, despair and incomprehension of loss.


La ciénaga: entre el mar y la tierra/Between sea and land **** (Carlos del Castillo, Colombia 2016). Market screening.
Brilliant performance by Manolo Cruz (who also wrote the script) as a severely disabled young man, Alberto. Living bed bound in a tiny shack with his mother, and dependent on an artificial respirator, Alberto paints and dreams. The films drama revolves around his mother's attempt to make his dream of being able to go to the sea come true. Extremely moving, the film deservedly won the Special Jury prize at the Sundance Festival. Trailer in Spanish  here and subtitled here. Variety Review from Sundance here.

Cinema novo **** (Eryk Rocha, Brazil, 2016) Shown in the Cannes Classics section of the Festival, this is a fascinating collage of images and sound from classic cinema novo filmmakers of this critical and influential movement of the 60s and 70s in Brazil by the son of one if its luminaries. Rocha's film shows how these filmmakers sought to find a new film language and aesthetics to bring art, poetry and politics together, and 'take film out onto the streets of Brazil'. Information from Festival here.Variety review - less enthusiastic - here.

Mimosas ** (Oliver Laxe, Spain/Morocco/France/Qatar, 2016). I have to say this film by Galician filmmaker, Laxe, is something of a Marmite experience... I found it disappointingly un-engaging although the cinematography is wonderful and worth seeing just for that. Others have waxed lyrical about it and it did win the Semaine de la Critique  Grand Prize. The project is interesting, set in the Moroccan Atlas as a caravan accompanies a dying sheik across the mountains and desert. When he dies and the caravaners want to dump the body, a couple of fellow travellers decide to take on the challenge of returning the sheik to his ancestral burial ground. Screen review here.


Santa y Andrés ***(Carlos Lechuga, Cuba/France/Colombia 2016) Market screening.  was very interested to see this film following our recent Cuba trip. The film is set in the eastern part of Cuba in 1983. When an international literary event is about to take place, a member of the local Party is assigned to keep watch over a non-conformist, gay writer (Eduardo Martínez) to ensure that he refrains from participating or making 'undesirable' comments. The job is given to the inexperienced Santa who takes the role extremely seriously and, in contrast to Andrés's relaxed style, keeps all conversation and interaction with him to a minimum.  When a downpour forces her to accept his offer of shelter, they begin to develop a deep friendship and understanding and, when Andrés is accused of more subversive writing, she risks her own safety and reputation to protect him. Interview with director here.

El charro de Toluquilla/The charro of Toluquilla *(José Villalobos Romero, Mexico 2016)  Market screening. A fairly conventional documentary about the mariachi singer, Jaime García Dominguez, speaking frankly about his colourful lifestyle, contracting HIV and reflecting on lifestyle options. Tribeca festival review here.

Sharing Stella (Kiki Alvarez, Cuba/Colombia 2016) Set in Havana in 2014. A director is planning to stage A Streetcar Named Desire and is looking for an actor to play Stella. In the lead up to the casting  process, a group of actors reflect in filmed interviews and 'fly-on-the wall' observations on acting, sex and relationships and the changes which are taking place in Cuba. Interesting on the latter, but rather self-indulgent and less interesting otherwise. Teaser here.

Also attended the Doc Day conference on Global Awareness for Social Justice: Impact Making Documentaries which included an interesting interview with Gianfranco Rosi (El sicario; Fire at sea; - 2016 Golden Bear at Berlin FF). Unfortunately Laura Poitras  was unable to attend as still putting last finishing touches to her film, Risk (about Julian Assange), which premiered on Thursday at Cannes). Also opportunity to hear from Russian documentary filmmaker, Askov Kurov, who is currently making a film about a Ukranian film director arrested for suspected terrorism, and spoke about the difficulty of filmmaking in Russia at the moment. Also Gabo Arora who is based at the UN - awareness raising - and was talking about the use of virtual reality to make a new kind of film.  Unfortunately not enough time and opportunity was given to hearing from these filmmakers... See Screen Daily Report here.

More on the rest of the week in my next blog post...