Cannes 2013

[Chris Knipp]

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Official Festival de Cannes website (http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/article/59652.html).

The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/cannes-2013) Cannes coverage is usually good.

Cannes Competition Jury (http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/archives/juryLongFilm+.html)(headed by Spielberg).

Their Classics section this year is a celebration of the great films of the 20th Century.

Here's the whole slate for all the main sections:

IN COMPETITION
Opening Film
Baz LUHRMANN THE GREAT GATSBY (H.C.) 2h22
***
Valeria BRUNI TEDESCHI UN CHÂTEAU EN ITALIE (A CASTLE IN ITALY) 1h44
Ethan COEN, Joel COEN INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS 1h45
Arnaud des PALLIÈRES MICHAEL KOHLHAAS 2h09
Arnaud DESPLECHIN JIMMY P. (PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN) 1h54
Amat ESCALANTE HELI 1h45
Asghar FARHADI LE PASSÉ (THE PAST) 2h10
James GRAY THE IMMIGRANT 1h59
Mahamat-Saleh HAROUN GRIGRIS 1h41
Jim JARMUSCH ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE 2h02
JIA Zhangke TIAN ZHU DING (A TOUCH OF SIN) 2h13
KORE-EDA Hirokazu SOSHITE CHICHI NI NARU
(LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON) 2h
Abdellatif KECHICHE LA VIE D’ADELE - CHAPITRE 1 & 2 (BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR) 2h59
Takashi MIIKE WARA NO TATE0 (SHIELD OF STRAW) 2h05
François OZON JEUNE & JOLIE (YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL) 1h35
Alexander PAYNE NEBRASKA 1h50
Roman POLANSKI LA VÉNUS À LA FOURRURE (VENUS IN FUR) 1h36
Steven SODERBERGH BEHIND THE CANDELABRA 1h58
Paolo SORRENTINO LA GRANDE BELLEZZA (THE GREAT BEAUTY) 2h22
Alex VAN WARMERDAM BORGMAN 1h53
Nicolas WINDING REFN ONLY GOD FORGIVES 1h30
***
Closing Film
Jérôme SALLE ZULU (H.C.) 1h50

UN CERTAIN REGARD
Opening Film
Sofia COPPOLA THE BLING RING 1h30
***
Hany ABU-ASSAD OMAR 1h37
Adolfo ALIX JR. DEATH MARCH 1h45
Ryan COOGLER FRUITVALE STATION 1st film 1h30
Claire DENIS LES SALAUDS 2h
Lav DIAZ NORTE, HANGGANAN NG KASAYSAYAN (NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY) 4h
James FRANCO AS I LAY DYING 2h
Katrin GEBBE TORE TANZT (RISING) 1st film 1h50
Valeria GOLINO MIELE 1stf ilm 1h36
Alain GUIRAUDIE L'INCONNU DU LAC 1h32
Flora LAU BENDS 1st film 1h32
Rithy PANH L'IMAGE MANQUANTE 1h30
Lucia PUENZO WAKOLDA 1h30
Diego QUEMADA-DIEZ LA JAULA DE ORO 1st film 1h42 ANONYMOUS 2h14
Chloé ROBICHAUD SARAH PRÉFÈRE LA COURSE (SARAH WOULD RATHER RUN) 1st film1h34
Hiner SALEEM MY SWEET PEPPER LAND 1h40
Rebecca ZLOTOWSKI GRAND CENTRAL 1h35

OUT OF COMPETITION
J.C CHANDOR ALL IS LOST 1h45
Guillaume CANET BLOOD TIES 2h24
Claude LANZMANN LE DERNIER DES INJUSTES (THE LAST OF THE UNJUST) 3h40

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Amit KUMAR MONSOON SHOOTOUT 1st film 1h28
Johnnie TO BLIND DETECTIVE 2h09

JERRY LEWIS TRIBUTE
Daniel NOAH MAX ROSE 1h26

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Stephen FREARS MUHAMMAD ALI'S GREATEST FIGHT 1h37
Roberto MINERVINI STOP THE POUNDING HEART 1h41
Frank SIMON WEEK END OF A CHAMPION 1h33
James TOBACK SEDUCED AND ABANDONED 1h40

Cinéfondation :
Taisia IGUMENTSEVA OTDAT KONCI 1st film
(BITE THE DUST) 1h41

GALA SCREENING, TRIBUTE TO INDIA
Anurag KASHYAP, Dibakar BANERJEE,
Zoya AKHTAR, Karan JOHAR BOMBAY TALKIES 2h10

DIRECTORS FORTNIGHT
A Strange Course of Events dir Raphaël Nadjari
Les Apaches dir Thierry de Peretti
Ate Ver a Luz dir Basil Da Cunha
Blue Ruin dir Jeremy Saulnier
The Congress dir Ari Folman (opening film)
La Danza de la Realidad by Alejandro Jodorowsky
L'Escale dir Kaveh Bakhtiari
La Fille du 14 Juillet dir Antonin Peretjatko
Henri dir Yolande Moreau
Ilo Ilo dir Anthony Chen
Jodorowsky's Dune dir Frank Pavich
Last Days on Mars dir Ruairi Robinson
Les Garçons et Guillaume, à Table! dir Guillaume Gallienne
Magic Magic dir Sebastian Silva
On the Job dir Erik Matti
The Selfish Giant dir Clio Barnard
Tip Top dir Serge Bozon
Ugly dir Anurag Kashyap
Un Voyageur dir Marcel Ophuls
El Verano de los Peces Voladores dir Marcela Said
We Are What We Are dir Jim Mickle

CRITICS WEEK
The Dismantlement dir Sébastien Pilote
Los Dueños dir Agustín Toscano & Ezequiel Radusky
For Those in Peril dir Paul Wright
The Lunchbox dir Ritesh Batra
The Major dir Yury Bykov
Nos Héros Sont Morts ce Soir dir David Perrault
Salvo dir Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza
Suzanne dir Katell Quillévéré (opening film)
Ain't Them Bodies Saints dir David Lowery (special screening)
Les Rencontres d'Après Minuit dir Yann Gonzalez (special screening)

CANNES CLASSICS
Hal ASHBY THE LAST DETAIL 1h44
Jacques BARATIER GOHA 1h18
Bernardo BERTOLUCCI THE LAST EMPEROR 2h43
Lino BROCKA MAYNILA: SA MGA KUKO NG LIWANAG (MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF LIGHT) 2h04
Patrice CHEREAU LA REINE MARGOT (QUEEN MARGOT) 2h39
René CLÉMENT PLEIN SOLEIL (BLAZING SUN) 1h55
Jean COCTEAU LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) 1h34
Mark COUSINS A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM 1h41
Jacques DEMY LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG (THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG) 1h32
Arielle DOMBASLE OPIUM 1h17
Marco FERRERI LA GRANDE ABBUFFATA (THE BIG FEAST) 2h10
Diego GALAN CON LA PATA QUEBRADA (BAREFOOT IN THE KITCHEN) 1h23
Alfred HITCHCOCK VERTIGO 2h09
Ted KOTCHEFF THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ 2
Pierre LHOMME,
Chris MARKER LE JOLI MAI (THE LOVELY MONTH OF MAY) 2h25
Joseph L. MANKIEWICZ CLEOPATRA 4h03
Youri OZEROV, Milos FORMAN,
Mai ZETTERLING, Claude
LELOUCH, Arthur PENN,
Michael PFLEGHAR, John
SCHLESINGER, Kon ICHIKAWA VISIONS OF EIGHT 1h49
Yasujiro OZU SANMA NO AJI (AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON) 2h13
Satyajit RAY CHARULATA (THE LONELY WIFE) 1h57
Alain RESNAIS HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR
(HIROSHIMA MY LOVE) 1h32
Francesco ROSI LUCKY LUCIANO 1h55
Ousmane SEMBENE BOROM SARRET 20'
Billy WILDER FEDORA REMASTERED 1h50
Treva WURMFELD SHEPARD & DARK 1h29
Valerio ZURLINI IL DESERTO DEI TARTARI (THE DESERT OF THE TARTARS) 2h20

THE POSTER: A photograph of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman taken during the shoot of the aptly named A New Kind of Love, by Melville Shavelson in 1963 is the image used for the poster for this year's Festival de Cannes, which runs May 15 through 26, 2013.

[Johann]

Insane lineup. Wish I could be there.

Just a note on Ted Kotcheff's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz: it was recently restored and will screen soon here in Toronto.
It took Kotcheff himself to ask why the film is being allowed to deteriorate, why it wasn't being restored.
His cult classic (and long-thought lost) Wake In Fright was saved from destruction too.

What has happened to Canadian film restoration practices?
Duddy is a landmark of Canadian cinema and it wasn't even considered for restoration. Then they got on it, at Ted Kotcheff's urging.
See it restored on a big screen if you can guys.
It will screen later this year in Toronto and I'll be there to see it.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for the note. Insane lineup indeed. Is anybody wondering after seeing it why Cannes is the world's No. One film festival? This is really class. This is where it all begins, and to a certain extent this is also where it all ends, in festival world.

I am intrigued to see the name Arnaud de Pallières. Watching a new feature by him would be an exciting prospect. His ADIEU lingers in memory as one of the mind-blowers ever since I saw it at the MK2 Beaubourg in Paris some years ago. And James Gray, Jim Jarmusch, Jia Zhang-ke, Koreeda, Abdellatif Kechiche, Miike, Ozon, Alexander Payne, Sorrentino, Refn. Maybe Polanski's got something good up his sleeve. And Claire Denis.

[Chris Knipp]

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Remember: I'm not at Cannes! This is all just borrowed reporting.

16 mai 2013 (as they write it)--Thursday May 16th): CANNES began yesterday with THE GREAT GATSBY (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3497-THE-GREAT-GATSBY-%28Baz-Luhrmann-2013%29&p=30180#post30180); see my and tabuno's reviews on our Filmleaf thread for it My back getting better and allowing me to see GATSBY and review it yesterday turned out to be good timing. This is one that opened in Paris (as do all the Cannes opening night films and some others) the same evening, and I see the hip Paris weekly Les Inrockkuptibles like me had feared the movie would be overdone, but also, like me, found (http://www.lesinrocks.com/cinema/films-a-l-affiche/gatsby-le-magnifique-2/) Gatsby le Magnifique "une bonne surprise." Allociné rating: 3.7. A nice surprise. Not their top rating, but a sign the French reviews are very good, apparently way better than the American ones if the Metacritic 55 is accurate. NB: Wednesdays are the days when movies open in France. so it's logical to open Cannes on that day too. Note also Luhrmann has a history of being favorred at Cannes. When STRICKTLY BALLROOM debuted during the Crictis's Fortnight in 1992 it was a popular success. Then his MOULIN ROUGE opened Cannes in its year.

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A shaky, emotional Audrey Tautou opened the festival, along with Spielberg and DiCaprio.

I'll again be collating Mike D'Angelo's numerical ratings and tweet "reviews" of the Cannes films he sees as I did last year showing his rankings. So far he has already seen and rated six films, starting with the "Market" screenings as before. He has already seen the Jia Zhang-ke and François Ozon ones, as well as Sofia Coppola's, about which the buzz was already bad. D'Angelo's real reviews will appear on a day-to-day basis on AV Club again; they are financing at least in part his Cannes presence. You'll find some of the following more fully described in his AV Club Day One report. (http://www.avclub.com/articles/cannes-2013-day-one-sofia-coppola-offers-the-first,97832/) His AV Club letter grade ratings for Coppola, Ozon, and Escalante are C, B+, and C+, respectively.


D'ANGELO'S (MAY) 2013 CANNES TWITTER REVIEWS (so far, in descending order of rating):

Young & Beautiful (Ozon): 66. Character study of teen hooker inititally seems banal, but banality proves to be its secret weapon.

Go for Sisters (Sayles): 61. I've been saying for yrs he should do something trashy and this comes pretty close. Possibly too close.[Market]

A Touch of Sin (Jia): 59. Big change of pace, 4-parter w/loads of explicit violence. Individual stories compel; juxtaposition a bit tract-y.

Touchy Feely (Shelton): 51. Dismayingly inorganic, w/lots of writer's heavy hand. Great cast still finds moments of authenticity. [Market]

Heli (Escalante): 44. When bad things happen to made-up people. Like his previous films, as formally impressive as it is pointless.

The Bling Ring (Coppola): 32. Two words: Who cares?

______________________

From Barbara Scharres, Roger Ebert's Journal Cannes report (http://www.rogerebert.com/cannes/cannes-report-may-15-2013):

"Heli by Mexican director Amat Escalante (Los Bastardos, Sangre) is a sad and exceptionally brutal tale of violence that emanates from the drug trade." I had to look up this name because I didn't know it. Lynne Shelton is the director of HUMP DAY and YOUR SISTER'S SISTER; she acted in SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.

[Chris Knipp]

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I'm wondering of THE BLING RING is less or more superficial and silly than Sophie Letrouneur's frivolous (but vernacular) account of some young women man-hunting at the Venice Film Festival, LES COQUILLETTES (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3441-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2013&p=29818#post29818) (Rendez-Vous 2013). D'Angelo calls in "the firt big bummer" at Cannes for the American press since it was the de facto opener, GATSBY having already been seen by American critics.

But Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN liked it, saying "Sofia Coppola's intuitive and atmospheric tale of teen burglars who target Hollywood celebrities is an unexpected pleasure" and giving it a three out of five rating. The GUARDIAN ran another review giving FRUITVALE STATION a four-out-of-five star rating.

D'Angelo's evaluations can be seriously flawed but his Cannes tweets provide a fuller than usually detailed record of the competition films shown there in real time, compared to Manohla Dargis' say, who may write one or two articles reviewing only a handful of films.

Anyway the GUARDIAN Cannes 2013 blog (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/cannes-2013) is really generous with reviews, color, videos, and information.

[cinemabon]

Cannes and Coppola both made news today when a jewel heist was reported and compared with Sophia's entry - free publicity. Forgive me Chris for posting a new review over Cannes. This is far more important and hopefully my film will quickly die off as platitudes.

[Chris Knipp]

I had seen somewhere, though, that the leading member of the original "bling ring" Alexis Neiers (basis for the Emma Watson character) called (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/24/alexis-neiers-bling-ring_n_3146919.html)the movie "trashy and inaccurate." That was just on the basis of the trailer, though. I should think those are always trashy and inaccurate. She has also said all the news stories about the thefts were also inaccurate, and that since there has been no trial the real nature of the thefts has never come out.

So now Cannes is "over" STAR TREK again, but all new movies are worth reporting on. So far STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (which the New Yorker's Lane mocks this week) has done really well with the reviewers, Metacritic 73.

[Chris Knipp]

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Arnaud Desplechin's JIMMY P.: THE PSYCHOATHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN
With: Benicio del Toro and Matthieu Amalric

Some difference of views -- VARIETY (Scott Foundas (http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/scott-foundas-leaves-film-society-for-village-voice-film-criticism)) and SCREEN DAILY like it, but the Guardian calls it a bomb and Mike D'Angelo's tweet review is

Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Desplechin): 35. I was not expecting to leave this film thinking fondly of GOOD WILL HUNTING.

I'm continuing to collate D'Angelo's tweet reviews. The NY Times' Manohla Dargis' Cannes intro piece doesn't seem worth summarizing. Reviewing Cannes' friendly relations with Hollywood seems merely filler at this point and her GATSBY and BLING RING remarks add nothing notable. But since the NY Times may be the most seen US print coverage of the festival I'll keep following.

JIMMY P. sounds very dubious; Desplechin's first since his excellent A CHRISTMAS TALE. Since Foundas praises it and Kent Jones co-wrote it, it looks likely to get Lincoln Center favor and I may get to judge for myself at the fall NYFF. Is there something D'Angelo and the GUARDIAN review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/18/cannes-2013-jimmy-p-review) to make it brilliant and deep and not what it sounds like, the silliest thing ever?

Peter Bradshaw of THE GUARDIAN wrote an excellent short and admiring review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/17/cannes-2013-the-past-review)of Farhadi's THE PAST. He calls it "absorbing, rewarding, slightly contrived" and that is my feeling about A SEPARATION, the previous Farhadi film that won him international recognition; but I'm hoping I'll like him better in French. I watched an hour-long Q&A with Farhadi and the main cast members on the Cannes website. Impressive to see how the multi-lingual event is handled at Cannes, with simultaneous translations from English, French, and Farsi throughout. They do it with class. Even the two kid stars came up and listened through the headsets. Farhadi apparently did the entire interaction with the mostly French cast while rehearsing and shooting the film using an interpreter. Everything points to this being over-determined and over-choreographed but the cast said they loved it as a way of working. But that explains the "contrived" feel for Bradshaw, I imagine. A few too many plot twists, more than one reviewer has commented, and that again was true of A SEPARATION -- though it's the essence of how Farhadi works. In the Q&A he says he rejected Holywood invitations because scenario-writing is his first love, and he will not ever shoot other people's scripts.

[cinemabon]

Saw the mention of re-mastering Billy Wilder's "Fedora" with Bill Holden. I never saw it in the theater. It came and went so quickly. I had forgotten this next to last film by Wilder until just now. Had such mixed reviews. Love the reporting on Cannes. I feel like I have a front row seat.

[Chris Knipp]

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Rebecca Zlotowski's GRAND CENTRAL
In French
With:
Léa Seydoux, Tahar Rahim, Olivier Gourmet

D'Angelo walked out of Rebecca Zlotkowski's GRAND CENTRAL, which concerns workers in a French nuclear plant. Interestingly, this features Tahar Rahim (of Audiard's prizewinning A PROPHET), the second man in the triangle of Farhadi's THE PAST. He really glowed at the Cannes THE PAST Q&A and it's looking like he's clearly now a star, which was a bit iffy after Audiard made him one so young. With a cast like this (Olivier Gourmet, a Dardennes favorite, so great recently in THE MINISTER is one of the best and Seydoux's filmography is already impressive) it's hard to justify D'Angelo's W/O and there is a positive buzz about GRAND CENTRAL but we'll see. I can see how its class and nuclear issue focuses might seem too earnest and Screen Daily (http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/grand-central/5056361.article?blocktitle=Latest-Reviews&contentID=1479)describes it as a fine effort that in the end seems too thin. Plus to be honest others esp. women loved Zlotowski's debut BELLE EPINE (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3032-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2011&p=25917#post25917)(ND/NF 2011), also with Seydoux but I didn't. However, I'll watch anything with Seydoux in it.

Tom Lamong (GUARDIAN) Saturday (May 18) sprightly Cannes roundup (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/18/judgment-great-good-cannes-rain) like others, headlines the daily heavy rain so far on the Cote d'Azur so far this year.

Thanks for the FEDORA information, cenemabon and for the thumbs up on my (second-hand) Cannes reports.

[cinemabon]

Oh, Cannes... you just can't get enough publicity!

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/18/18337107-shots-fired-at-cannes-film-festival-actors-flee-for-cover?lite

[Chris Knipp]

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The Coen brothers' INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
With
Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham

D'Angnelo's tweet:

Inside Llewyn Davis (Coens): 57. A close cousin to O BROTHER, not just musically but in its picaresque semi-randomness (+ Goodman ogre).

He again seems grumpy and out of tune, since Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN in his "first look" review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/18/cannes-2013-inside-llewyn-davis-review)gives it five out of five stars and says it's the best of the fest so far and Hollywood Reporter and Variety reviews are also glowing. I value D'Angelo for his independent mindedness, so I can't have it both ways, but his linking LLEWYN DAVIS with O BROTHER sounds dubious, since it's about the folk singing scene in NYC in the Sixties, a far cry from country music in the Thirties deep south.

NOTE: Also shown Saturday or by Sat. were Alejandro Jodorovsky (who's in his 80's) La Danza de la Realidad/THE DANCE OF REALITY and David Lowery's AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, which I'll look for responses to further tomorrow. Bradsaw gives REALITY four out of five stars, and filmmaker Rian Johnson tweeted of AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS "Still reeling. Pretty incredible."

[Chris Knipp]

THE CANNES JURIES

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Oh, Cannes... you just can't get enough publicity!

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/18/18337107-shots-fired-at-cannes-film-festival-actors-flee-for-cover?lite

A man perhaps also carrying a grenade fired several shots from a pistol and interrupted a live interview about to begin with Chrstof Waltz and Daniel Auteul at Cannes on the Croisette, an outdoor stage overlooking the water where a lot of stuff happens. It turns out they were blanks, and we can't see it directly but they say he was pointing it at Waltz. In the video the woman declares at the end: "Il y a quequ'un qui tire!" - "There's somebody shooting!" See it on this Youtube video. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73URTXtkSxQ)

In case you're wondering what Daniel Auteuil and Christof Waltz were doing being interviewed together, both are on the Cannes Competition "Longs Métrages" (Feature Films) Jury.

Here's this "main" Cannes Jury:

LONGS METRAGES/FEATURES
Steveen Spielberg, President, USA, director
Ang Lee, Taiwan, director
Daniel Auteuil, France, actor, director
Christof Waltz, Austria, actor
Nicole Kidman, Australia, actress
Lynne Ramsey, UK, director

I might as well give here the other juries.

UN CERTAIN REGARD
Thomas Vinterberg, President, Denmark, director
Enrique Gonzalez Macho Spail, distributor, producer, promoter
Ludivine Sagnier France, actress
Ilda Santiago Brazil, Director of the Rio Festival
Zhang Ziyi China, actress

CAMÉRA D'OR
Agnès Varda President, France, director
Michel Abramowicz, France, cinmeatographer, represenative of AFC
Gwénolé Brunea France, Ficam sales representative
Isabel Coixet Spain, director
Éric Guirado, France, director
Chloé Rolland, France, critic
Régis Wargnier, France, director

CINÉFONDATION AND SHORT FILMS JURY
Jane Campion, President New Zealand, director and screenwriter
Maji-da Abdi, Ethiopia, actress, director, producer
Nicoletta Braschi, Italy, actress and producer
Nandita Das, India, actress and director
Semih Kaplanoğlu , Turkey, director and producer

Sélection Cinéfondation includes 18 films submitted by students at film schools in 13 countries.

The Sélection de la Quinzaine des réalisateurs/Directors Fortnight Films, is 19 films and is a bit like New Directors/New Films (much more globally visible though). There is also Critics Week (La Semaine de la critique), two prizes, seven feature films and ten shorts. These are all ones to watch for new emerging talent. There are three FIPRESCI awards given at Cannes. There is also a youth jury (age 18-25) which often gets overlooked. There are a number of youth awards given from the various categories.

[Chris Knipp]

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OTHER CANNES REPORTS

I find Keith Ulrich on TimeOut New York has good early Cannes reviews. You'll find his column on A TOUCH OF SIN, Farhadi's THE PAST, and Alain Giraudie's STRANGER BY THE LAKE here. (http://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/cannes-film-festival-2013-a-touch-of-sin-the-past-stranger-by-the-lake) Ulrich's reviews are more detailed than the Guardian's perhaps, certainly than D'Angelo's, less personal than his but more open minded.

Of course if you want to get an idea of a festival film's US distribution possibilities and mainstream potential, you generally are better off going to Variety or Hollywood Reporter first. They provide a lot of good detail on films too, only sometimes they jut write them off because they think they're not commercial, or alternatively write publicity for them rather than a real critique. More to come. As I write this Cannes day five hasn't even started yet.

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY FIVE: Sunday 19 May

UPDATING MIKE D'ANGELO TWITTER REVIEWS
These remain the most up-to-the-minute reports on Cannes screenings I'm aware of, in English... D'Angelo today, Sunday 19 May 2013, notes the general ratings of competition films thus far shown. (Note where it says "Market" below those are not competition.)

D'Angelo: "Screen ratings as of today (out of 4): Jia 3.0, Farhadi 2.8, Kore-eda 2.5, Ozon 2.4, Desplechin 2.0, Escalante 1.6. No Coens 'til tomorrow." He added about the French responses: "No time to compute Le Film Français avgs but they collectively love Farhadi, Jia, and (much more divisively) Guiraudie." And to that he adds: "Also the French haaaate FRUITVALE STATION. Good job the French." I think he may think the English-speakers positive response to FRUITVALE STATION is some kind of rote PC thing. We might need to be open to that possibility. However, he should not have walked out of GRAND CENTRAL or FRUITVALE in my view. (He watched 40 mins. if he's following his usual MO).

D'ANGELO'S LATEST TWEETS (as of 19 MAY):

Borgman (Van Warmerdam): 52. Basic anti-bourgeois surrealism, with little real-world resonance that I can detect. Forgettably intriguing.

Seduced and Abandoned (Toback): 52. Totally incoherent—is it about Cannes, financing, "the magic of the movies," death, what? But fun.

Bends (Lau): W/O. Never even really got a sense of what this is, to be honest. Totally enervating.

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TAHER RAHIM AND BÉRÉNICE BEJO AT CANNES
WITH THE KIDS IN THE PAST

D'ANGELO'S PREVIOUSLY POSTED CANNES 2013 TWITTER REVIEWS:

The Past (Farhadi): 82. Farhadi may be the best pure dramatist in the world right now. Theme's a bit blunt here (The Past!); still superb.

The Selfish Giant (Barnard): 68. Had you shown this to me blind I'd have bet the farm it was Shane Meadows. Like SOMERS TOWN as tragedy.

Young & Beautiful (Ozon): 66. Character study of teen hooker inititally seems banal, but banality proves to be its secret weapon.

Go for Sisters (Sayles): 61. I've been saying for yrs he should do something trashy and this comes pretty close. Possibly too close.[Market]

A Touch of Sin (Jia): 59. Big chance of pace, 4-parter w/loads of explicit violence. Individual stories compel; juxtaposition a bit tract-y.

Inside Llewyn Davis (Coens): 57. A close cousin to O BROTHER, not just musically but in its picaresque semi-randomness (+ Goodman ogre).

Touchy Feely (Shelton): 51. Dismayingly inorganic, w/lots of writer's heavy hand. Great cast still finds moments of authenticity. [Market]

Stranger by the Lake (Guiraudie): 50. Might be too straight for this, as it's pretty close to being gay porn w/an unusually hefty plot.

Heli (Escalante): 44. When bad things happen to made-up people. Like his previous films, as formally impressive as it is pointless.

Like Father, Like Son (Kore-eda): 42. Imagine a film abt parents who learn they were given the wrong baby 6 yrs earlier. This is that film.

Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Desplechin): 35. I was not expecting to leave this film thinking fondly of GOOD WILL HUNTING.

The Bling Ring (Coppola): 32. Two words: Who cares?

Grand Central (Zlotowski): W/O. I'm 0-for-2 on Ms. Z so far. Details of working in a nuclear power plant are fascinating; nothing else is.

Fruitvale Station (Coogler): W/O. Because I was totally fine w/cops killing civilians until I saw what a super-nice guy the victim can be. . . . LATER TWEET ON THIS: @b_wolo Bitch to my face, pal. And lol to @Power_Lloyd suggesting I have some moral obligation to endure crappy films about black people.
THE GUARDIAN gave FRUITVALE STATION two favorable reviews with three out of five and a four out of five ratings.

Update on FRUITVALE STATION: reviews are generally positive (Metacritic 72, Rotten Tomatoes 88), but VARIETY's isn't: [Wiipedia] 'Geoff Berkshire of Variety called it "a well-intentioned attempt to put a human face on the tragic headlines surrounding Oscar Grant."' Though he praised Michael B. Jordan's performance, he critiqued the "relentlessly positive portrayal" of the film's subject: "Best viewed as an ode to victim's rights, Fruitvale forgoes nuanced drama for heart-tugging, head-shaking and rabble-rousing." But various reviews clearly state this is a strong directorial debut with good performances; that was the reaction at Sundance, apparently.

P.S. on the CANNES WEBSITE: All the post-screening Competition Q&A's are in videos on the site and are usually lengthy, and available in French and English if you like that sort of thing, and it's usually fun to see and hear actors and filmmakers one admires even if very often not much is added to what you get, in information, otherwise, from the films themselves.

THE PAST opened in Paris 17 May and has gotten raves: Allociné press rating 4.4 out of 5 based on 19 reviews. If you watch its trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVPUkGQAVwo) you'll find a warm and intense piece of work, belying its described "overwritten" and control-freak-direction qualities. I think I'm going to like at better than A SEPARATION.

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[Chris Knipp]

More...

This was the one Rian Johnson rave-tweeted about. Lowery definitely is an indie director. But D'Angelo added later a compliment on Lowery's editing on UPSTREAM COLOR.

Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 40m
Ain't Them Bodies Saints (Lowery): W/O. I have apparently lost all touch with what most people consider first-rate indie filmmaking.

[Chris Knipp]

MID-POINT

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D'Angelo has a mid-point summary (Sunday, 19 May 2013). Considering all the many selections in the whole of Cannes, it''s a thin offering:

Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 2h [>Twitter]
Favorite Cannes films at roughly the halfway point: 1. The Past, Farhadi (by far); 2. The Selfish Giant, Barnard; 3. Young & Beautiful, Ozon

If you look at the Le Film Francais daily collation (http://www.lefilmfrancais.com/cannes2013/quotidien/q3/index.html#/34/zoomed)of French reviews, you'd add A TOUCH OF SIN (Jia) and the Un Certain Regard one he said he might be too heterosexual to appreciate, THE STRANGER BY THE LAKE (Alain Guiraudie), which also have good reviews.

D'Angelo has pleaded that his walking out of four movies doesn't mean he doesn't like movies, he takes an aisle seat, but Just every movie I see by fledgling filmmakers. I don't walk out of films by established auteurs[>Twitter]. The justification for so many W/O's is that this keeps him more sane and rested to see what he considers the good stuff, and just gives him time, if he has a badge allowing him to walk in to ones he didn't originally commit to, to attend more screenings. That's me saying this. It is wise to take an aisle seat and be able to escape, for an "iffy" screening.

Anyway, it may be midpoint at Cannes (though it isn't quite -- he said "roughly"), but a lot of that "insane lineup" Johann remarked on still remains to be seen, I believe:

James Gray
Jim Jarmusch
Adelletif Kechiche
Takaishi Miike
Alexander Payne
Roman Polanski
Steven Soderbergh
Nicolas Winding Refn
Arnaud de Pallières
Paolo Sorrentino
Valentina Bruni Tedeschi

That's from the Competition slate, not including Director's Fortnight and Un Certain Regard. Plus these titles Out of Competition:

ALL IS LOST (J.C. Chandor)
BLOOD TIES (Guillaume Canet)
THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (Claude Lanzmann)

[Chris Knipp]

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Those last three OUT OF COMPETITION FILMS may be pretty far-out.

ALL IS LOST is first an at-sea survival flick shot in a tank built for the making of James Cameron's TITANIC by a director (who dealt with the very different theme of the Wall Street meltdown in his successful debut) starring Robert Redford with no dialogue and no other actors.

BLOOD TIES (Guillaume Canet of TELL NO ONE) screened today (19 May): GUARDIAN first look review. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/19/cannes-blood-ties-review) "Guillaume Canet's English-language debut is a whopping cop-opera that cruises slowly round 1970s Brooklyn, Marion Cotillard and Clive Owen in the front seat, belting out the tunes at full blast." Hmmm. I don't know..... Xian Brooks gives it three out of five stars.

THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (Claude Lanzmann) just may be too solemn and disturbing to be in competition or there may be other reasons. It turns the focus onto Jewish responsibility for the Holocaust, aiming to "put a spotlight on Benjamin Murmelstein, an Austrian Jew who was appointed by Adolf Eichmann as head of the Jewish Council of Elders and rule over Theresienstadt." >A full comment (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2012/05/claude-lanzmannnew-movie.html) on the film from Richard Brody in The Front Row, his New Yorker film blog, and also a little essay on it by Daniel Kasman in MUBI. (http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/cannes-2013-the-past-present-tense-claude-lanzmanns-the-last-of-the-unjust#)

By the way maybe I should have explained that:

THE SELFISH GIANT, the second-best-rated Cannes film so far, is directed by Clio Bernard, whose THE ARBOR (http://flickfeast.co.uk/reviews/film-reviews/arbor-2010/) (SFIFF 2011) I reviewed, and was an exceptionally original documentary about down and out Brits. THE SELFISH GIANT seems hard to describe. It's a secular re-thinking of a Christian-themed Oscar Wilde children's tale that's very compelling without being as formally inventive as THE ARBOR, being "a more straightforwardly social realist drama in the super-evolved "Loach 3.0" style of Andrea Arnold or Lynne Ramsay" (GUARDIAN) concerning two boys trying to survive by their wits. Glowing GUADIAN review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/17/the-selfish-giant-cannes-2013-review) by Peter Bradshaw. Remember D'Angelo's tweet said "Had you shown this to me blind I'd have bet the farm it was Shane Meadows. Like SOMERS TOWN as tragedy." And Bradshaw ought to have mentioned Shane Meadows, a very gifted and underappreciated English filmmaker. I loved (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1313)SOMERS TOWN (2009).

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY SIX: Monday 20 May

Mike D'Angelo Tweet reviews:

Shield of Straw (Miike): 64. Sure, this is schlock, but for a good while it's pretty terrific schlock. Why it's 2 hours plus is a mystery.

Blind Detective (To): 49. Responses will vary widely based on one's tolerance for super-broad HK comedy. I came around a little by the end.

Stop-Over (Bakhtiari): W/O. Making a doc about Iranians stuck in Greece is like shooting 90 mins. of people waiting for a delayed flight.

That first rating looks over-indulgent, and Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN's review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/20/shield-of-straw-cannes-2013-review) gave SHIELD OF STRAW one star out of five, comment: "hamstrung by lack of plot logic." Keith Ulrich didn't like it either; his review (http://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/cannes-2013-shield-of-straw) says it "starts as a tense thriller, quickly becomes a tedious morality play," seeing it as a great falling off since Miike's "underappreciated" 3D HARI-KIRI.

The GUARDIAN'S Cannes blogger Xian Brooks's DAY SIX blog opens with a vivid account of the woozy confusion the festival causes, then provides a series of thumbnail reviews (but does not mention some of the top rated films) in his quick summary of what he's seen and reviewed so far:
And still the films keep coming. Blood Ties is brazen, cheesy and oddly enjoyable. Grand Central is stolid, earthy, yet a little undigested in its marriage of schematic romance with punchy social-realism. I love Alejandro Jodorowsky's La Danza de la Realidad – a woozy reimagining of the director's boyhood in Chile – and I try to love Hirokazu Kore-eda's baby-swap sitcom Like Father, Like Son, though it's too cute and skimpy to properly hit home. I can't see it as a Palme d'Or contender, though I have a sneaking suspicion that Steven Spielberg may like it. , , ,The Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis remains my favourite competition entry so far. He omits mention here of THE PAST, THE SELFISH GIANT, and YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL, not to mention STRANGER BY THE LAKE. Response to Jodorovsky's return to the screen seems positive.

SHIELD OF STRAW (Miike) VARIETY (Peter Debruge) review (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-shield-of-straw-1200484111/): "enticing concept," "lackluster treatment." Slick studio look and Nolan-esque sound but, "That said, even the hackiest of Hollywood writers would have known how to fix its considerable script problems." In her 22 May NY TIMES (http://wap.nytimes.com/blogs/artsbeat/2013/05/22/cannes-film-festival-miikes-honest-cop-winding-refns-wallpaper/?from=movies)piece Manohla Dargis describes it as entertaining and worthy of a Bruce Willis remake, just badly received because it shouldn't have been shown in competition. This from Dargis led to D'Angelo's tweet


Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 3h
Relieved to finally find somebody else (Manohla) who thinks SHIELD OF STRAW is good dumb fun. Wish it had premiered at TIFF instead.

BLIND DETECTIVE (To) VARIETY (Justin Chang) review (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-blind-detective-1200484096/): "a deranged and delirious smorgasbord of a movie," "unusually demented romp, a madcap mystery-romance that sustains a light, bouncy tone and a decent hit-to-miss laff ratio even in scenes involving strangulation, dismemberment and cannibalism". Sounds like he's gone Korean.

STOP-OVER (Bakhtiari) HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (Neil Young) review (as an evocation of stultifyingly frustrating stasis this Cannes Directors' Fortnight premiere succeeds perhaps a little too well, and may thus struggle to stand out from the pack in today's crowded non-fiction field.) outlines the importance and wide scope of the topic, but confirms D'Angelo's negative assessment: ". . .as an evocation of stultifyingly frustrating stasis this Cannes Directors' Fortnight premiere succeeds perhaps a little too well, and may thus struggle to stand out from the pack in today's crowded non-fiction field."

THE DANCE OF REALITY/LA DANZA DE LA REALIDAD (Jodorovsky) VARIETY (Scott Foundas) review (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-the-dance-of-reality-1200482888/)says it's "As purely personal a film as Jodorowsky has ever made, Dance features no shortage of the bizarro imagery and willful atonalities that have long been his stock-in-trade, but it all seems to stem from a more sincere, coherent place this time than in the flamboyant head movies (El Topo, The Holy Mountain)."

Apropos of two films from earlier, for A TOUCH OF SIN (Jia Zhang-ke) the director gave a lot of interviews (with an interpreter) including to Mahohla Dargis of the NY Times, whose Sunday column (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/movies/coen-brothers-inside-llewyn-davis-is-popular-at-cannes.html?ref=movies) raves about how "wonderful" INSIDE LELEWEN DAVID (Coens) is, may perhaps buy into Jia's overt disapproval of current everyday Chinese violence in the film that D'Angelo called "a bit tract-y" and calling it (Dargis does) "his finest since his 2006 feature, Still Life."

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY SEVEN: Tuesday 21st May

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TONI SERVILLO IN THE GREAT BEAUTY

Mike D'Angelo tweet reviews:

The Great Beauty (Sorrentino): 58. Folks who like Fellini more than I do will flip for this. Basically his DOLCE VITA. Lovely, rambling.

Behind the Candelabra (Soderbergh): 55. A familiar trajectory distinguished only by its once-forbidden (in mainstream culture) milieu.

A Castle in Italy (Bruni Tedeschi): 24. Imagine SUMMER HOURS stripped of beauty, tenderness, grace, intelligence, and coherence.

As I Lay Dying (Franco): W/O. Yeah, no.

Note the 58 puts Paolo Sorrentino's film in D'Angelo's top eight so far at Cannes. It also has the great Toni Servillo in it, who has done some of his best work for Sorrentino,, so that's another reason for seeing it. I thought from THIS WILL BE THE PLACE (with Sean Penn) "lovely" and "rambling" was a good description of Sorrentino's structure before too.

More Tuesday Cannes to come.

Spderbergh was interviewed (http://www.npr.org/2013/05/21/180640022/soderberghs-liberace-behind-the-candelabra) bu Terry Gross on PBS today about this Liberace film, which stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. Nothing insightful was provided, if there is anything. Liberace doesn't seem an interesting figure beyond the campness. Evidently a good effort by Douglas, especially after having throat cancer. D'Angelo addes another tweet:


Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemco
Douglas is pretty great, creating a real character beneath the caricature. Damon works hard to overcome being way, way too old.
(If I remember the interview correctly Scott Thorson was 40 years younger than Liberace. Check that: he was 47 years younger than Liberace.)

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DOUGLAS AND DAMON IN BEHIND THE CANDELABRA

VARIETY rates Sorrentino's THE GREAT BEAUTY/LA GRANDE BELLEZZA highly, with reservations. Jay Weissberg (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-the-great-beauty-1200484710/): "Rome in all its splendor and superficiality, artifice and significance, becomes an enormous banquet too rich to digest in one sitting in Paolo Sorrentino’s densely packed, often astonishing “The Great Beauty.”" Xian Brooks of the GUARDIAN (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/21/cannes-diary-behind-the-candelabra): "Did I say that Inside Llewyn Davis was my favourite film in Cannes competition? It now now has a serious rival in La Grande Bellezza, Paolo Sorrentino's inky-black satire on la dolce vita and the withering flesh. . .La Grande Bellazza is opulent, intoxicating; a film that is not so much projected as draped like velvet - or possibly hung like a mirror."

A CASTLE IN ITALY got 1 out of 5 stars from Peter Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/21/cannes-2013-castle-in-italy-review):
Actor-turned-director Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi has given us probably the worst film of the Cannes competition so far: a smug, twee confection about a family losing their house--Bradshaw.

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY EIGHT: Wednesday 22 May

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ROBERT REDFORD IN ALL IS LOST

Mike D'Angelo's Cannes tweet reviews for Wednesday:

All Is Lost (Chandor): 74. Just what I'd hoped for: A survival tale pared to its purely visual essence. Ambiguous ending's a tad cute

Bastards (Denis): 63. Like DEMONLOVER, weds magnificent form to vaguely disturbing, kinda inane content. Enthralling in the moment.

Grigris (Haroun): 48. Well, it's somewhat lively, at least. But combining "falls for a hooker" + "steals from thugs" = cliché cité.

Only God Forgives (Winding Refn): 17. Gratuitous sadism smothered in the same noxiously garish notion of "style" he used for FEAR X.

Apropos of the last he says at least people have something to hate now, "bold enough to be worth despising." D'Angelo's reactions gave him a wide spread today from his lowest non W/O rating yet (lower than any last year except his 9 for Lee Danaiels' PAPER BOY) all the way up to his second favorite of the fest so far after Farhadi's THE PAST in Chandor's ALL IS LOST. (He gave THE PAST an 82; though he gave HOLY MOTORS an outlandish 88 last year).

Other critics don't rate ALL IS LOST so high, and at least one, Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN, gave ONLY GOD FORGIVES a rave, 5 out of 5 stars. Bradshaw's may be a minority opinion. but it looks like ONLY GOD FORGIVES is destined to be good box office, maybe even provide Oscar nominations. All comment on Kristin Scott Thomas' strong performance as the mother bent on revenge.

ONLY GOD FORGIVES was loved by Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/22/cannes-only-good-forgives-ryan-gosling-review) -- 5 stars out of 5.
Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn re-team for an emotionally breathtaking, aesthetically brilliant and immensely violent thriller set amongst US expatriates in Bangkok--Bradshw. Guy Lodge in HITFLILX li (http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/cannes-review-only-god-forgives-a-sleek-virtually-non-narrative-blood-ballet) goes into detail about its stylishness and seems mesmerized by it, while recongnizing its serous flaws
"Only God Forgives" is dull, but it's also oddly transfixing, and not just in the sheer splendor of its craft.--Lodge
Peter Debruge of VARIETY (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-only-god-forgives-1200486200/) disliked the film but focused less on offensive violence and more on how uninvolving the film is and how lacking in affect Gosling's performance:
The wallpaper emotes more than Ryan Gosling does in “Only God Forgives,” an exercise in supreme style and minimal substance from “Drive” director Nicolas Winding Refn. In retrospect, the controlled catatonia of Gosling’s previous perfs is nothing compared to the balled fist he plays here, a cipher easily upstaged by Kristin Scott Thomas’ lip-smacking turn as a vindictive she-wolf who travels to Bangkok seeking atonement for the death of her favorite son. As hyper-aggressive revenge fantasies go, it’s curious to see one so devoid of feeling, a veniality even “Drive” fans likely won’t be inclined to forgive.--Debruge. Debruge calls Gosling's "turn" "near-catatonic." Gosling was reportedly booed -- in absentia, according to Peter Howell of the TORONTO STAR, (http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/05/22/cannes_2013_ryan_gosling_a_noshow_booed_at_festiva l_for_debut_of_only_god_forgives.html), having begged off appearing, perhaps to avoid "facing a firing squad of disappointed journos." Gosling was not present for the Cannes Q&A.
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LINDON AND MASTROIANNI IN THE BASTARDS/LES SALAUDS

ALL IS LOST got a rave from Justin Chang in VARIETY (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-all-is-lost-1200486217/), who said Chandor "avoids the sophomore slump" with "an impressively spare, nearly dialogue-free stranded-at-sea drama starring a superb Robert Redford." Andrew Pulver of the GUARDIAN also called Redford's performance "impressive" but gave the film only 3 out of 5 stars and said it's "a little too pared down for its own good."

THE BASTARDS/LES SALAUDS by Claire Denis got mixed reviews. Xian Brooks of the GUARDIAN (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/21/les-salauds-cannes-2013)gave it only 2 out of 5 stars and said it is "not Denis at her best." Brooks asserts that Denis was "snubbed" in effect by the film's inclusion in the Un Certain Regard section rather than the main competition but this is logical because it really "intrigues more than it actually delivers." D'Angelo in effect acknowledges this. But it can be satisfying spending time with Denis. This film for example has a typically appealing cast that includes the great Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni, Michel Subor of THE INTRUDER, Lola Créton of SOMETHING IN THE AIR, always cool Denis regular Grégoire Colin, and another superb regular, Alex Descas (also notable recently in Jarmusch's THE LIMITS OF CONTROL and Belvaux's RAPT). David Rooney in HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/cannes-review-claire-denis-bastards-526261) gave the film a detailed review I wouldn't want to summarize, again making it sound utterly fascinating even if ultimately unsatisfying. It too is a revenge flick, and has elements of THE INTRUDER (which D'Angelo doesn't like but was what made me a Denis convert).

GRIGRIS seems a film it's agreed is a creditable if minor effort by a significant African director, with great dance sequences. David Lodge has a nice review of it in VARIETY. (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-grigris-1200486147/) In the GUARDIAN (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/22/cannes-2013-grigris-review)Bradshaw gives it 3 out of 5 stars and says:
A minor work from the emerging master of African cinema, Mahamat Saleh-Haroun, this is elevated by a heightened female perspective and some rousing dance scenes

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FRENCH POSTER FOR ONLY GOD FORGIVES.
IT OPENED IN FRANCE TODAY, 22 MAY

French press for ONLY GOD FORGIVES good so far -- Allociné 3.6, only 6 reviews in.

[Johann]

Amazing thread here, Chris. Many thanks.

Peter Howell of the Toronto Star has been (brilliantly) covering Cannes once again, and I'll post later about his takes and my thoughts on the festival this year.

Go Polanski!

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks, Johann, I'm glad you're following it and look forward to info on Peter Howell of TORONTO STAR's Cannes reviews. I will start checking them out myself. In fact I've already added a link to his piece (http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/05/22/cannes_2013_ryan_gosling_a_noshow_booed_at_festiva l_for_debut_of_only_god_forgives.html)on ONLY GOD FORGIVES and Gosling's festival no-show, Scott Thomas' distancing herself from its genre and her character despite her star turn in the film.

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY EIGHT: Wednesday 22 May (cont'd)

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STILL FROM BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

On the right is Léa Seydoux, who keeps being one to watch.

D'Angelo had a busy day and has yet another tweet review:

Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Kechiche): 69. Like CANDELABRA, a very basic rise/fall relationship tale. But the extra hour makes a difference.

The run-time of BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR is 175 minutes; CANDELABRA's is literally an hour less, 118 minutes. This is now D'Angelo's third highest rated Cannes 2013 film. In his DAY SIX AV Club column (http://www.avclub.com/articles/cannes-2013-day-six-michael-douglas-plays-liberace,98018/) he gave CANDELABRA a B (tweet rating 55) , as he did Sorrentino's THE GREAT BEAUTY (which he gave a 58 to).

NB: Though some of the Engnlish-language reviews may not mention it, the French title is La vie d'Adèle - Chapitres 1 et 2 ("The Life of Adele - Chapters 1 and 2"), or just LA VIE D'ADELE, the way it's given on Allociné (9 October French release). It is based on a 2010 graphic novel by Julie Maroh, Le bleu est une couleur chaude ("Blue Is a Hot Color"). A review of BLUE the film by Jordan Mintzer in Hollywood Reporter supplies plenty of detail of context, source, and relation to Kechiche's oeuvre; this is seen as a return to his roots, and it even takes off from Marivaux, as does L'ESQUIVE/GAMES OF LOVER AND CHANCE, his breakout 2003 film that won all the Césars, as did his next, THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN. BLUE is the story of a teenager (part two ten years later) who grows up in the arms of an older woman (Seydoux). Like THE STRANGER BY THE LAKE, it has unsimulated same-sex sex, only female this time, or so some viewers think.

Manohla Dargis of the NY TIMES (http://wap.nytimes.com/blogs/artsbeat/2013/05/22/cannes-film-festival-miikes-honest-cop-winding-refns-wallpaper/?from=movies) has a 22 May Cannes columm that has little good to say about Winding Refn. We learn why VARIETY said the wallpaper was more expressive in this movie than Ryan Gosling: there's a lot about the wallpaper, more about that than about motivation. The question remains why D'Angelo and Peter Bradshaw like this so much. Dargis says Thierry Frémaux the Cannes main programmer "is credited with' injecting more mainstream and commercial titles including action and horror. But it has not worked well with the press, who generally rejected ONLY GOD FORGIVES. Dargis thinks SHIELD OF STRAW is a more fun version of crazy violence and would have been better received in another section of the fest. She thinks SHIELD OF STRAW could have been a much earlier Hollywood studio picture, only with shorter run-time. and that difference I think is key. I just watched the over-two-hour PAIN & GAIN, and can vouch for the fact that nutty violence palls well before that amount of time. Older films had a stronger sense of structure and with it a stronger sense of economy and of timing.

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (Kéchiche) as VARIETY (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-blue-is-the-warmest-color-1200486043/) notes, must be a surprise coming from this director, though his last big picture (BLACK VENUS (http://www.avclub.com/articles/cannes-2013-day-six-michael-douglas-plays-liberace,98018/), NYFF 2010, which I did not like) was also a big change of pace from his earlier work. Justin Chang summarizes BLUE thus:
A searingly intimate character study marked by the most explosively graphic lesbian sex scenes in recent memory.

All this unfolds in Kéchiche’s signature style of long, flowing conversations marked by overlapping dialogue, performed in a vein of seemingly artless naturalism, but sculpted with unerring precision and a strong sense of drive.

CANERA D'OR: The prize for the best first film. Robert Kohler of the FSLC has a column for FILM COMMENT (http://www.filmcomment.com/entry/cannes-2013-ilo-ilo-bends-the-lunchbox) describing the best candidates he's seen, in his view, ILO ILO, BENDS, AND THE LUNCHBOX.

[Chris Knipp]

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FRENCH PRESS RATINGS OF CANNES FILMS SHOWN SO FAR (als listed for Wed. in LE FILM FRANCAIS "DAILY (http://www.lefilmfrancais.com/cannes2013/quotidien/q7/index.html#/30/zoomed)")

In descending order:

COMPETITION

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA 3
LLEWYN DAVIS 2.9
THE PAST 2.9
TOUCH OF SIN 2.78
JIMMY P. 2.56
BORGMAN 1.9
CHATEAU IN TUSCANY 1.8
JEANNE & JOLIE 2.13
GATSBY 1.3
HELI .4

UN CERTAIN REGARD

GRAND CENTRAL 2.6
OMAR 2,66
STRANGER BY THE LAKE 2.25
MIELE 1.75
BLING RING 1,7
LACKING IMAGE 1
DEATH MARCH 1
FRUITVALE STATION .9
BENDS .5

NOTE: ONLY GOD FORGIVES on Allociné based on six reviews has a 3.7, but it's not listed on LE FILM FRANCAIS yet; they include up to 15 publications. THE SELFISH GIANT is not listed because it was in Directors Fortnight. Of course many other films have been reviewed but these are the main contenders as listed by that magazine.

P.S. All this changed later. See below.

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY NINE: Thursday 23 May

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BRUCE DERN & WILL FORTE IN NEBRASKA

New D'Angelo tweet review for Thursday 23 May:

Nebraska (Payne): 71. "Does he have Alzheimer's?" "He just believes things that people tell him." "Oh, that's too bad."

D'Angelo adds to a query that though in his system this normally means a B+ (not an A), it is still one of the best films he's seen at Cannes this year. In fact 71 ranks NEBRASKA third among the films D'Angelo has rated so far, after THE PAST (82), ALL IS LOST (74), and above BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (69), THE SELFISH GIANT (68) and YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL (66). Note that these are not all Competition.

VARIETY's (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-nebraska-1200486846/)Scott Foundas compares it to Kurosawa's IKIRU and David Lynch's STRAIGHT STORY, which sounds good, but how good is a bit hard to say, though he is admiring of the "career-crowning performance" of Bruce Dern (the lead), and impressive work by Will Forte and Stacy Keach. This may be another Cannes Best Actor contender, along with Michael Douglas for BEHIND THE CHANDELIER.

GUARDIAN's (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/23/cannes-2013-nebraska-first-look-review)Peter Bradshaw's 'first look' review of NEBRASKA gives it 4 out of 5 stars. Bradshaw says "Kate. Squibb [as Dern's wife], who played Jack Nicholson's wife in About Schmidt, could now be in line for a best actress award with this far juicier role, challenging Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos from Blue is the Warmest Colour." So, some great performances in this low-key, modest, black & white film. Bradshaw notes that "After the glossy and faintly implausible Oscar-bait picture, The Descendants," this is a return to "a more natural and personal movie language"; he sees links with the work of Bob Rafelson and Hal Ashby.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/nebraska-cannes-review-550167) review by Todd McCarthy (who let's remember used to be VARIETYs top critic) confirms that while this is less commercial than THE DESCENDANTS, it's clearly destined for critical accolades and solid art house box office. I'm mentally penciling it in to my Enlish/American 2013 Ten Best List already, sight unseen.

[cinemabon]

I cannot begin to express my appreciation for your complete reporting here, Chris. I'm looking forward to "Candelabra" premiering this weekend on HBO.

[Chris Knipp]

Let us know what you think. I don't have HBO myself.

[Chris Knipp]

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Updated ratings of competition films screened so far:


Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 3h
So INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS and A TOUCH OF SIN are the favorites, followed by THE PAST and THE GREAT BEAUTY. Coens the only runaway hit.

There is a Reuters article giving the competition films and the 1-4 rankings here (http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/05/22/film-cannes-competitors-idINDEE94L09Q20130522). I'll collate it later.


REUTERS SCORES
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS 3.3
A TOUCH OF SIN 3.0
THE PAST 2.8
THE GREAT BEAUTY 2.8
BDHIND THE CANDELABRA 2.5
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON 2.5
JEUNE & JOLIE 2,4
JIMMY P. 2.0
HELI 1,6
A CASTLE IN ITALY 1.6
SHIELD OF STRAW 1.3

[Chris Knipp]

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MORE DAY NINE

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STILL FROM QUEMADE-DIEZ'S THE GOLDEN CAGE

GUARDIAN's (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/23/golden-cage-jaula-de-oro-review)Peter Bradshaw has a review of the Un Certain Regard film THE GOLDEN CAGE/LA JAULA DE ORO by Spanish director Diego Quemada-Diez who worked as an assistant director with Ken Loach, has made a film about young Guatemalans suffering a grueling trip through Mexico on the way to "El Norte," which he says is closer to the gritty, simple style of the master than current British acolytes like Andrea Arnold and Clio Barnard. He found it moving and beautiful, as well as realistically free of any kind of feel-good finale.


Oh, Cannes... you just can't get enough publicity!
--cinemabon

Never enough publicity dep'd, cont'd: There was another big jewel theft in Cannes.


CANNES (Reuters (http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-cannes-jewellerybre94m111-20130523,0,6554631.story)) - The Cannes film festival was hit by a second suspected jewelry heist on Thursday after a diamond necklace worth 2 million euros ($2.6 million) disappeared during a star-studded party, according to upmarket jeweler De Grisogono and somebody passed himself as a Korean director and got entree into stuff, posed for snapshots with people etc.

Plus: (http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/23/fake-gangnam-style-star-psy-lives-it-up-in-cannes-with-stars-3806107/)


Bucking Gangnam Style star Psy was treated to the full works during his appearance in Cannes – the only problem for organisers is that it wasn’t actually him.

A man posing as the South Korean YouTube sensation partied with the stars, was lavished with bubbly and danced on French TV as fellow stars at the film festival scrambled to hang out with him.

Cannes 2013 films yet to be screened or get ratings:

THE IMMIGRANT by James Gray, USA
Stars: Jeremy Renner, Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard. Synopsis: An immigrant is forced into a life of burlesque until a magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister.

MICHAEL KOHLHASS by Arnaud des Pallières, France
Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Melusine Mayance, Delphine Chuillot. Ali Mosaffa. Synopsis: A period revenge drama which centres on a horse dealer in 16th century France.

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE by Jim Jarmusch, USA
Stars: Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton, Mia Wasikowska. Synopsis: An underground musician and his enigmatic lover are together for several centuries.

VENUS IN FURS/LA VÉNUS À LA FOURRURE by Roman Polanski, France
Stars: Emmanuelle Seigner, Mathieu Amalric. Synopsis: An actress tries to convince a director to give her a role.

[cinemabon]

Fascinated by Payne filming "Nebraska" in black and white. I loved "Sideways" and also "The Descendants" but was not so crazy "About Schmidt" although Nicholson was excellent. Did not see "Election" or "Citizen Ruth." Reuters didn't rate it?

[Chris Knipp]

Maybe the use of black and white reflects Paynes' feeling he'd gotten too glitzy with THE DESCENDANTS, but that's just my speculation, not anything he's said. The Reuters report of ratings was from yesterday, that's why NEBRASKA's rating isn't available yet. It takes a day or so, it's a collation of a set of reviews.

My experience is like yours with Payne. I've come to admire him more and more, didn't at first. I have only a vague memory of ELECTION, missed CITIZEN RUTH, didn't like ABOUT SCHMIDT. i didn't "get" SIDEWAYS at first and thought it overrated, but then came to see how fine it was, and I loved THE DESCENDANTS and that's why based on these reports I'm expecting to love NEBRASKA. I also like Bruce Dern. I liked the NEBRASKA press conference. It seemed very friendly and natural, good vibes all around,in contrast to several of the French ones that have seemed strangely uptight and self-conscious.

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY TEN: Friday 24 May

The ratings have adjusted since yesterday's screenings/reviews and now BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (Kéchiche) has moved to the favorite position displacing INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (Coens). The chart below from SCREEN DAILY (http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/cannes-new-leader-in-screen-jurys-scores/5056736.article?blocktitle=Latest-News&contentID=1846) is roughly in order of original screening and the remaining competition screenings are listed with blubs at the bottom.
These are mostly British critics; the ratings I cited earlier with my own collation were from LE FILM FRANCAIS, all from French critics.


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[Chris Knipp]

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MORE DAY TEN: TWO COMPETITION SCREENINGS

New top contender: BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (Kéchiche) Screen Daily (http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/cannes-new-leader-in-screen-jurys-scores/5056736.article?blocktitle=Latest-News&contentID=1846) provides a chart of the ratings of the competition films in order of screening.

Today's competition screenings:

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MARION COTILLARD IN THE IMMIGRANT

THE IMMIGRANT (James Gray):

Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 4h
The Immigrant (Gray): 56. Immediately rises to middle of Palme list. Possibly a James Gray film—think THE YARDS, WE OWN THE NIGHT..

GUARDIAN (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/24/the-immigrant-cannes-2013-review)'s Peter Bradshaw's 2 out of 5 stars response is grimmer: "James Gray's shapeless, stifling opera of sorrow is overlaid with a thick sepia of solemnity that can't obscure its lack of ideas."

VARIETY' (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-the-immigrant-1200487067/)s Peter Debruge is very admiring: "This rich, beautifully rendered film boasts an arrestingly soulful performance from Marion Cotillard as a Polish nurse-turned-prostitute for whom the symbolic promise of Ellis Island presents only hardship. Her travails unfold at a pace that will frustrate today’s attention-deficit audiences, limiting this Weinstein Co. acquisition’s popular prospects. Give it 20 years, however, and “The Immigrant” is sure to hold up far better than its modish competition, an ambitious yet imperfect cinematic classic with the heft and heart of great literature."

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/immigrant-cannes-review-558267) Todd McCarthy likewise again highlights Cotillard: "Enhanced by a splendidly atmospheric recreation of the Lower East Side, the intimately focused work is anchored by another superior performance by Marion Cotillard, which, one can be sure, The Weinstein Company will spotlight to build the often downbeat, slightly off-kilter film into a draw in specialized release."

INDIEWIRE: (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/cannes-review-james-grays-careful-poised-the-immigrant-builds-slowly-to-a-resonant-climax-20130524) Jessica Kiang notes Joaquin Phoenix's strong contribution: "Which brings us to Joaquin Phoenix. If Cotillard is the new news here, Phoenix is still, in his fourth collaboration with Gray, the ace up the film’s sleeve. He and Renner both may cede center stage to Cotillard, but when it comes time and when the story demands it, he is just so terrifically good that you find yourself reframing your entire experience of the film around him."

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MADS MIKKELSEN IN MICHAEL KOHLHAAS

MICHAEL KOHLHAAS (Arnaud de Pallières)

VARIETY: (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-michael-kohlhaas-1200487500/) Jay Weissberg is unenthusiastic, describing this adaptation of Heinreich von Kleist's "influential" novel about a 16-century horse trader whose mistreatment "leads to an unholy uprising" as "narratively challenged" and "stolid." "Though the Cannes competition berth will generate a certain interest, there’s unlikely to be much horse trading on this title, even among fest programmers." The film features Mads Mikkelsen in a French-speaking role which Weissberg calls "one of his least impressive characterizations."

GUARDIAN: (Mikkelsen cuts quite a dash in the role of a wronged man filled to the brim with noble suffering; his razor-sharp cheekbones are almost as lethal a weapon as the giant sword he slings on his back. And des Pallières has a fine eye for the rough-hewn physicality of the period; the clanking metal of the weaponry, the squeaking wooden axles of the carts, the ragged homespun fabric of the clothing. He also comes up with some rather brilliantly staged sequences: a raid on a baronial fortress by Kolhaas and his crossbowmen; a curious visit by youthful princess Marguerite that catches hunky Mads in the bath; an intriguing scene where Kolhaas is criticised by a charismatic clergyman played by Denis Lavant.) Andrew Pulver is less harsh: "Mads Mikkelsen makes a principled avenging warrior in this handsome 16th-century-set tale of a man wronged – which could certainly use picking up the pace a little"-- 2 out of 5 stars.
Mikkelsen cuts quite a dash in the role of a wronged man filled to the brim with noble suffering; his razor-sharp cheekbones are almost as lethal a weapon as the giant sword he slings on his back. And des Pallières has a fine eye for the rough-hewn physicality of the period; the clanking metal of the weaponry, the squeaking wooden axles of the carts, the ragged homespun fabric of the clothing. He also comes up with some rather brilliantly staged sequences: a raid on a baronial fortress by Kolhaas and his crossbowmen; a curious visit by youthful princess Marguerite that catches hunky Mads in the bath; an intriguing scene where Kolhaas is criticised by a charismatic clergyman played by Denis Lavant.-

But for a story that seeks to remind us of the harshness of pre-modern life, the whole is very emotionally soft-focus.-Pulver.

No tweet from D'Angelo on MICHAEL KOHLHAAS. He missed the initial screening due to watching something else (3X3D) but caught up with it later and tweeted:

Michael Kohlhaas (Des Pallières): 54. Better than I'd heard. Certainly very...sedate, but with bursts of intensity, & Mikkelsen is superb.

[Chris Knipp]

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MORE DAY TEN (BIG DAY)

VENUS IN FOR (Polanski) is the only competition film to screen Saturday.

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TIP TOP STILL, HUPPERT ON THE RIGHT

TIP TOP (Serge Bozon, France) -- Directors Fortnight

Cannes press is also commenting on the Directors Fortnight film TIP TOP, by Serge Bozon of LA FRANCE ( (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2265-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2008&postid=20050#post20050)SFIFF 2008), a very peculiar and original war movie with quaint musical interludes. This one is nothing like that but it has in common that it is odd. It costars the ever-game Isabelle Huppert.

GUARDIAN (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/19/cannes-2013-tip-top-review): Henry Barnes writes: "Tip Top – based on a crime thriller by British novelist Bill James – is a topsy-turvy sex comedy tarted up as cop drama. It's silly and wacky and rude and glib. A Punch and Judy show playing out on the set of Silent Witness." He gives it 2 out of 5 stars.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/tip-top-cannes-review-525552) Stephen Dalton note's the film's originality and lack of commercial prospects. He says Huppert "works hard" for "deadpan laughs," in this "aftfully deconstructed crime comedy," which "eookes both vintage Jean-Luc Godard and the Coen brothers, but "more Burn After Reading than Fargo, an overwrought experiment in cerebral slapstick that misses more targets than it hits."

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WAKOLDA (Lucía Puenz)--Un Certain Regard

NY TIMES: Manohla Dargis provides more of a roundup this time in her latest Cannes column. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/movies/many-films-still-in-running-at-cannes-for-palme-dor.html?nl=movies&emc=edit_fm_20130524&_r=0) She notes that the "Market" series has had 7% more US sales, good for US outside-the-cineplex filmgoers. She is displeased with BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, thinking it's more about Kéchiche's sensibility than its young lesbian protagonists', despite the extreme handheld closeups. She feels the director "registers as oblivious to real women," clearly would prefer another of the films in the lead. She likes Sorrentino's THE GREAT BEAUTY a lot. Her piece is datelined the 23rd, so NEBRASKA gets her lengthier review, though it isn't a clear rave. Dargis also provides a brief notice of Lucia (of XXY) Puenzo's WAKOLDA, screened in Un Certain Regard, which she describes as "a creepy, commercial thriller from Argentina about Nazis hiding in Patagonia in 1960, which will play as well in regional film festivals as in theaters. Working from her own novel, also titled Wakolda, Ms. Puenzo. . .creates an eerie world of family secrets and state lies that grows increasingly scary when it emerges that a friendly stranger may be Josef Mengele."

SCREEN DAILY (http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/wakolda/5056626.article?blocktitle=Latest-Reviews&contentID=1479): Mark Adams is enthusiastic about WAKOLDA. "A gently striking and achingly tense drama, Lucia Puenzo’s impressively made Wakolda is set against the beautifully bleak backdrop of Patagonia of 1960 where an intense Nazi physician seeks to get close to a model Argentinean family who reawaken his dark obsession for genetic purity and perfection."

VARIETY (http://variety.com/2013/film/news/cannes-puenzos-wakolda-clicks-with-buyers-exclusive-1200487526/) notes that WAKOLDA has done well in international sales.

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ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (Jim Jarmusch) -- Competition

Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemk
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jarmusch): 77. For close to an hour this was shaping up to be one of my favorite films ever. A bit heartbreaking.

This puts ONLY LOVES LEFT ALIVE second only after THE PAST in D'Angelo's tweet rankings.

GUARDIAN: (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/24/cannes-2013-only-lovers-left-alive-review) Peter Bradshaw gave it 3 out of 5 stars but summarized it with some reserve, "Jim Jarmusch's vampire film puts an original spin on a well-worn genre, but there's something unavoidably studenty about its fascination with muso philosophising and retro cool." Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton play Adam and Eve, or so it seems till Swinton's sister arrives, Mia Wasikowska as a reclusive rock star with a huge following living in Detroit. Jeffrey Wright is relaxed as a nervous hospital doctor who provides Adam with all the blood he wants. Eve biffs off to Tangier and gets her blood from Christopher Marlowe, played by John Hurt. "Why doesn't Christopher Marlowe get to look super-cool and young, incidentally?" (Maybe it aged him to write the complete works of Shakespeare, as here depicted.) Detroit is exploited as ideal for vampires, as a desolate ghost town. Anton Yelchin is also featured. "Jarmusch's movies are a taste which it is possible to de-acquire and re-acquire. His last film The Limits of Control was dire, reeking with supercilious smugness. Only Lovers Left Alive is definitely a step back up, made with droll suavity — though sometimes quirkiness is still occasionally an alibi for lack of ideas, comic or otherwise." [NOte: I was one of the few on the planet who loved LIMITS OF CONTROL (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2557-THE-LIMITS-OF-CONTROL-%28Jim-Jarmusch-2009%29&highlight=LIMITS+CONTROL).]

VARIETY: (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/only-lovers-left-alive-review-1200487848/) Leslie Felperin calls it "sweet but slight," a love letter of one aging hipster to another (there's an implied dedication to Jarmusch's gf Sara Driver), "a smidge more commercial" than its predecessor CONTROL, "But it still feels like an in-joke intended only for select acolytes, who will probably love it with an undying passion."

TELEGRAPH (LONDON): (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/cannes-film-festival/10080087/Cannes-2013-Only-Lovers-Left-Alive-review.html) Robbie Collin writes, "Jarmusch's picture was the second-last to screen in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and the weary audience were right in step with its drowsy, meditative tone." Swinton and Hiddleston play their roles "to draculine perfection," and their "delivery of the gags is as cold and crisp as footsteps in fresh snow." But "Perhaps the film reuses some of its best gags a few times too many."

Sony Classics has snapped up the film at Cannes.
__________________

[Chris Knipp]

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FOOTNOTES TO DAYS NINE AND TEN

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GODARD, GREENAWAY, PERA:
TRIPLE FILM BUT D'ANGELO WAS SEEING DOUBLE

LA VIE D'ADELE has same top score on both charts.
LE FILM FRANCAIS (http://www.lefilmfrancais.com/cannes2013/quotidien/q9/index.html#/46/zoomed): Latest collation of French critics ratings of main competition and Un Certain Regard films vary from the SCREEN DAILY group. NEBRASKA's score is much lower, 2.2, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVID somewhat lower, 3 instead of 3.3, and so on. But both groups give BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR/LE VIE D'ADELE CHAPITRES 1 ET 2 the top score of 3.6.
__________________

Weinstein has bought FRUITVALE STATION for $2.5 million. The Scandinavian distributor Non-Stop bought that as well as STONE ROSES, SELFISH GIANT, and TRIP TO ITALY.

As his AV CLUB (http://www.avclub.com/articles/cannes-2013-day-nine-james-gray-and-joaquin-phoeni,98179/) Cannes 2013, Day Nine piece reveals, D'Angelo skipped MICHAEL KOOLHAAS yesterday to see 3X3D, an omnibus film with parts by Peter Greenaway, Jean-Luc Godard, and Portuguese director Edgar Pêra, only to find he was wedged into the middle of the aisle with bad 3D glasses it was too embarrassing and awkward to go in and out of "Espace Miramar’s cramped theater" to change. This time, no aisle seat to stage a W/O. He still has to see Polanski's VENUS IN FUR and MICHAEL KOOLHAAS to catch up tomorrow. I like what he says,
The possibility of individual equipment failure just gives me another reason to dislike 3-D, which I hope will soon be re-consigned to cinema’s history of failed experiments. I'll second that. His main review in the column, of James Gray's THE IMMIGRANT, is more favorable than his noncommittal tweet review sounded; he calls it "a compelling period drama" and gives it a B (but in his system a 56 is a B). He briefly comments on the African dance (?) film GRISGRIS, Grade: C (tweet grade 48). Referring to his 3X3D contretemps, he opens his IMMIGRANT review:
With that fiasco still fresh in memory, it was a relief to be enveloped in the old-school classicism of The Immigrant, James Gray’s fourth consecutive collaboration with Joaquin Phoenix (and his fourth consecutive film to première at Cannes—the French adore him).


If you like D'Angelo's tweet reviews you should read his AV Club Cannes Day One to Day Ten pieces, to see the warmth, clarity, and honesty of his writing that make me like him as a film critic even though, of course, I don't share his prejudices. For example (AV Club Cannes Day Eight (http://www.avclub.com/articles/cannes-2013-day-eight-from-infatuation-to-disillus,98137/)) Louis Garrel doesn't "annoy the shit out of me." I love Louis Garrel. It's not rational, on either part.

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY ELEVEN: SATURDAY 25 May

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EMMANUELLE SEIGNIER AND MATTHIEU AMALRIC IN VENUS IN FUR

VENUS IN FUR (Roman Polanski) -- last Competition film

Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 6h
Venus in Fur (Polanski): 61. As elegantly directed as CARNAGE, but with a decent text this time (albeit on a subject I find uninteresting).

In a subsequent tweet D'Angelo pays Seignier a rather dubious compliment: "Seigner nails a difficult role, was also quite strong in Ozon's IN THE HOUSE. When did she learn to act?"

This is a French adaptation of a hit 2010 Broadway play by David Ives (which I saw) about a verbal duel between a director of a play based on the Sacher-Mashoch novel and the actress who arrives late for an audition and wins the lead after a grueling and fruitless day of auditions. She in a sense "turns the tables" on him. The Broadway production had Hugh Dancy and the newcomer Nina Arianda. Arianda is so remarkable that though scarcely seen before John Lahr wrote a profile of her in THE NEW YORKER. I don't know if I'd call the play's theme "uninteresting," but I remember how good Arianda was, rather than the subject matter. The role is a tour de force, the character transforming herself from a gum-chewing harridan into the seductress of the role when she auditions. It begins to seem the ditsy, scatterbrained offstage mess of the actress is itself a performance. This is about as fun as a stagey two-hander play can be, and it would be enjoyable to see Polanski's elegant filming of it, I imagine; a kind of thing he did with DEATH AND THE MAIDEN as well as the somewhat hokey but lively CARNAGE.

Obviously this ends Cannes Competition screenings with a tasteful flourish.

GUARDIAN: (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/25/cannes-2013-venus-in-fur-review) Peter Bradshaw's "first look" review gives it 3 out of 5 stars and opens: "Roman Polanski never takes us out of the theatre with his adaptation of David Ives' play about sexual role-play, but he adds an elegance and wit." He says later, "there is something a little bit dated and even genteel in this theatregoers' adventure in sex." But this is a criticism of the original play.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/venus-fur-cannes-review-558549): David Rooney notes that Amalric bears a "striking resemblance to the younger Polanski" and the play touches on themes resonant with him, besides which, Emmanuelle Seignier is Polanski's own wife.

MICHAEL KOOHLAAS cont'd: D'Angelo catches up on the Arnaud des Pallières film as promised, the one he missed as a result of his somewhat disastrous effort to watch 3X#D when KOOLHAAS debuted. His tweet review:
Michael Kohlhaas (Des Pallières): 54. Better than I'd heard. Certainly very...sedate, but with bursts of intensity, & Mikkelsen is superb.

Coming: the complete SCREEN and FILM FRANÇAIS ratings, a collation of all D'Angelo's Cannes 2013 Twitter reviews, and the jury prizes.

[Johann]

Alejandro Jodorowsky is making an impression too, from what I hear.
Can you believe he accepted my Facebook friend request?

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, the press for Jodorovsky's new film has been very good. Lucky you to be his Facebook friend.

[Chris Knipp]

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MORE DAY ELEVEN: FIPRESCI PRIZES AND ECUMENICAL JURY PRIZE

Cannes 2013 Fibresci Prizes: BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (Kéchiche), MANUSCRIPTS DON'T BURN (Rasoulouf) and BLUE RUIN (Saulnier)


International critics association Fipresci has given its Cannes Competition honor for 2013 to Abdellatif Kechiche’s teenage lesbian drama Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie D’Adele - Chapitre 1 & 2). The film is now seen as the frontrunner heading into the Palme d’Or ceremony. Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux star. Wild Bunch handles sales and deals already signed include to Sundance Selects for the US.

In Un Certain Regard, the Fipresci prize went to Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof’s Manuscripts Don’t Burn. Elle Driver handles sales.

Jeremy Saulnier’s US thriller Blue Ruin won the Fipresci prize for the parallel sections in Cannes.

Separately, the Ecumenical jury prize in Cannes went to Asghar Farhadi’s The Past (Le Passé).--SCREEN DAILY. (http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/fipresci-prizes-awarded-in-cannes/5056778.article?blocktitle=Latest-news&contentID=276)

[Chris Knipp]

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COLLATION OF D'ANGELO'S CANNES 2013 TWEET REVIEWS

Alll these are from Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko on Twitter, ranked in order of his numerical rating from highest to lowest with W/O's at the bottom. 20 are Competition films, the others are from other categories.

The Past (Farhadi): 82. Farhadi may be the best pure dramatist in the world right now. Theme's a bit blunt here (The Past!); still superb.

Only Lovers Left Alive (Jarmusch): 77. For close to an hour this was shaping up to be one of my favorite films ever. A bit heartbreaking.

All Is Lost (Chandor): 74. Just what I'd hoped for: A survival tale pared to its purely visual essence. Ambiguous ending's a tad cute. [Out of Competition]

Nebraska (Payne): 71. "Does he have Alzheimer's?" "He just believes things that people tell him." "Oh, that's too bad."

Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Kechiche): 69. Like CANDELABRA, a very basic rise/fall relationship tale. But the extra hour makes a difference.

The Selfish Giant (Barnard): 68. Had you shown this to me blind I'd have bet the farm it was Shane Meadows. Like SOMERS TOWN as tragedy. [Un Certain Regard]

Young & Beautiful (Ozon): 66. Character study of teen hooker inititally seems banal, but banality proves to be its secret weapon.

Shield of Straw (Miike): 64. Sure, this is schlock, but for a good while it's pretty terrific schlock. Why it's 2 hours plus is a mystery.

Bastards (Denis): 63. Like DEMONLOVER, weds magnificent form to vaguely disturbing, kinda inane content. Enthralling in the moment. [Un Certain Regard]

Venus in Fur (Polanski): 61. As elegantly directed as CARNAGE, but with a decent text this time (albeit on a subject I find uninteresting).

Go for Sisters (Sayles): 61. I've been saying for yrs he should do something trashy and this comes pretty close. Possibly too close.[Market]

A Touch of Sin (Jia): 59. Big chance of pace, 4-parter w/loads of explicit violence. Individual stories compel; juxtaposition a bit tract-y.

The Great Beauty (Sorrentino): 58. Folks who like Fellini more than I do will flip for this. Basically his DOLCE VITA. Lovely, rambling.

Inside Llewyn Davis (Coens): 57. A close cousin to O BROTHER, not just musically but in its picaresque semi-randomness (+ Goodman ogre).

The Immigrant (Gray): 56. Immediately rises to middle of Palme list. Possibly a James Gray film—think THE YARDS, WE OWN THE NIGHT.

Behind the Candelabra (Soderbergh): 55. A familiar trajectory distinguished only by its once-forbidden (in mainstream culture) milieu.

Michael Kohlhaas (Des Pallières): 54. Better than I'd heard. Certainly very...sedate, but with bursts of intensity, & Mikkelsen is superb.

Seduced and Abandoned (Toback): 52. Totally incoherent—is it about Cannes, financing, "the magic of the movies," death, what? But fun. [Special Screenings]

Borgman (Van Warmerdam): 52. Basic anti-bourgeois surrealism, with little real-world resonance that I can detect. Forgettably intriguing.

Touchy Feely (Shelton): 51. Dismayingly inorganic, w/lots of writer's heavy hand. Great cast still finds moments of authenticity. [Market]

Stranger by the Lake (Guiraudie): 50. Might be too straight for this, as it's pretty close to being gay porn w/an unusually hefty plot. [Un Certain Regard]

Blind Detective (To): 49. Responses will vary widely based on one's tolerance for super-broad HK comedy. I came around a little by the end.[Midnight Screenings]

Grigris (Haroun): 48. Well, it's somewhat lively, at least. But combining "falls for a hooker" + "steals from thugs" = cliché cité.

Heli (Escalante): 44. When bad things happen to made-up people. Like his previous films, as formally impressive as it is pointless.

Like Father, Like Son (Kore-eda): 42. Imagine a film abt parents who learn they were given the wrong baby 6 yrs earlier. This is that film.

Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Desplechin): 35. I was not expecting to leave this film thinking fondly of GOOD WILL HUNTING.

The Bling Ring (Coppola): 32. Two words: Who cares? [Un Certain Regard]

Only God Forgives (Winding Refn): 17. Gratuitous sadism smothered in the same noxiously garish notion of "style" he used for FEAR X.

Stop-Over (Bakhtiari): W/O. Making a doc about Iranians stuck in Greece is like shooting 90 mins. of people waiting for a delayed flight. [Directors' Fortnight]

Grand Central (Zlotowski): W/O. I'm 0-for-2 on Ms. Z so far. Details of working in a nuclear power plant are fascinating; nothing else is. [Un Certain Regard]

As I Lay Dying (Franco): W/O. Yeah, no. [Un Certain Regard]

Ain't Them Bodies Saints (Lowery): W/O. I have apparently lost all touch with what most people consider first-rate indie filmmaking. [Critics' Week]

Bends (Lau): W/O. Never even really got a sense of what this is, to be honest. Totally enervating. [Un Certain Regard]

Fruitvale Station (Coogler): W/O. Because I was totally fine w/cops killing civilians until I saw what a super-nice guy the victim can be. [Un Certain Regard]

Forgot to note that I W/O'd of ZULU [Salle], which is unbelievably awful even by closing-film standards. That wraps it for me. Final post coming.
___________________________

These tweets from D'Angelo mean a lot more of course if you also read some of his more detailed discussions so see his AV Club Cannes day-by-day columns here. (http://www.avclub.com/features/cannes-film-festival/) Note that in D'Angelo's rigorous numeral rating system, a number in the 50's can be a B in AV Club's A to F range, in his articles. D'Angelo's rule for his W/O ratings (walkouts) is that he watches two reels or 40 minutes before leaving.

It seems the top French critic rankings go to BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, NEBRASKA, AND THE PAST, in that order. Again I refer you to the SCREEN DAILY chart, (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3490-Cannes-2013&p=30280#post30280) though the only one I have is missing the last four Competition films. But this doesn't tell you exactly where the prizes will go. In D'Angelo's AV Club Cannes Day Ten (http://www.avclub.com/articles/cannes-2013-day-ten,98209/)article he the big prizes and what "should win" and what "will win."

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY TWELVE (FINAL DAY): SUNDAY 26 May: AWARDS

In Competition

Still to come: the top prizes from the 20 In Competion Selectioin films -- the Palme d'Or, Grand Prix, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Jury Prize -- and some other less publicized awards.

Un Certain Regard

Prize of Un Certain Regard – The Missing Picture by Rithy Panh
Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize - Omar by Hany Abu-Assad
Un Certain Regard Best First Film - Fruitvale Station by Ryan Coogler
Un Certain Regard Best Director - Alain Guiraudie for Stranger by the Lake


Parallel sections

Directors' Fortnight

Art Cinema Award - Me, Myself and Mum by Guillaume Gallienne
Prix SACD - Me, Myself and Mum by Guillaume Gallienne
Europa Cinemas - The Selfish Giant by Clio Barnard
Premier Prix Illy for Short Filmmaking - A Wild Goose Chase by Joao Nicolau
Special Mention - About a Month by Andre Novais Oliveira

Independent awards

FIPRESCI Prize

In Competition - Blue Is the Warmest Colour by Abdellatif Kechiche
Un Certain Regard - Manuscripts Don't Burn by Mohammad Rasoulof
Directors' Fortnight - Blue Ruin by Jeremy Saulnier

Ecumenical Jury

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - The Past by Asghar Farhadi
Commendations:
Miele by Valeria Golino
Like Father, Like Son by Hirokazu Koreeda

Queer Palm Jury

Queer Palm Award - Stranger by the Lake by Alain Guiraudie

Palm Dog Jury

Palm Dog Award - Baby Boy in Behind the Candelabra

[Chris Knipp]

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DAY TWELVE CONT'D: TOP AWARDS

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THE FEATURE FILM JURY - TALLEST, NICOLE KIDMAN

For a complete list of all this year's juries, selections, and prizes go to French Wikipedia's article Festival de Cannes 2013. (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_de_Cannes_2013#Palmar.C3.A8s_officiel)

7 p.m., Cannes time: the results are not quite in yet. Here are Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN'S predictions:


Palme d'Or: Blue is the Warmest Colour dir: Abdellatif Kechiche
Grand Prix: Inside Llewyn Davis dirs: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Best director: Paolo Sorrentino for La Grande Bellezza
Jury prize: A Touch of Sin, dir: Jia Zhang-ke
Best screenplay: The Past dir: Asghar Farhadi
Best actor: Michael Douglas for Behind the Candelabra dir: Steven Soderbergh
Best actress: Léa Seydoux and Aèele Exharchopoulos jointly for Blue is the Warmest Colour
Camera d'Or (best first film): The Golden Cage dir: Diego Quemada-Diez --GUARDIAN Cannes blog.

But then: "I'm hearing Palme for The Past now, and something for Alexander Payne..." (GUARDIAN blog) I was thinking BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR's winning the FIPRESCI prize might mean another film gets the Palme d'Or - they like to spread the wealth. But FIPRESCI is a different jury though so I guess I'm wrong. Handicapping Cannes ain't easy, it seems: Bradshaw was right only on the top two, most obvious, prizes.

Actual awards:

Palme d'Or: Blue Is the Warmest Color, dir. Abdeletif Kéchiche, France
Grand Prix: Inside Llewyn Davis, dir. Coen brothers, USA
Best director: Amat Escalante, dir. of Hili, Mexico
Jury prize: Like Father, Like Son, Hirakazu Koreeda, Japan
Best screenplay: A Touch of Sin dir: Jia Zhang-ke, China
Best actor: Bruce Dern, for Nebraska (Payne)
Best actress: Bérénice Bejo, for The Past (Farhadi)
Camera d'Or (best first film): Ilo Ilo, Anthony Chen, Singapore

______________
Though she didn't co-win Best Actress, this is another huge feather in her cap for Léa Seydoux (in BLUE), the granddaughter of Jérôme Seydoux, Chairman of Pathé, and grandniece of Nicolas Seydoux, Chairman and CEO of Gaumont and thus French movie royalty to begin with, who is also in the Un Certain Regard film GRAND CENTRAL this year, and was in such interesting and varied titles as LA BELLE PERSONNE, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, LOURDES, BELLE EPINE, FAREWELL, MY QUEEN, AND SISTER. This obviously also boosts Bérénice Bejo (already known internationally for THE ARTIST) to French cinema's equivalent of the A-List. Otherwise, I should think the choice of Escalante for the Best Director prize must be a surprise and not such a happy one, given that many actively disliked his ultri-violent film. THE PAST didn't win the critical accolade some expected earlier in the festival, but any mention in the jury awards list indicates a jury favorite - which is why Escalante's prize is cause for comment.




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Photograph: CHRISTIAN HARTMANN/REUTERS

[oscar jubis]

The 3 things global cinephilia is talking about right now:
The explicit sex in Blue is the Warmest Color
The explicit and cruel violence in Heli
The antics of 87 year-old Jerry Lewis

[Chris Knipp]

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Jerry Lewis at the premiere of Max Rose in Cannes.
Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Image

Thanks, Oscar, for the reminder of Jerry Lewis, so much admired by the French as we all know, who was at Cannes for a film he's in shown in a category of its own, as "Jerry Lewis Tribute."The French have kept me alive for 50 years!" he shouted. The new film was MAX ROSE, written and directed by Daniel Noah, and casts Lewis as a newly widowed jazz pianist (also 87, like Lewis himself) who is concerned that his entire apparently happy marriage may have been illusory, and that his recently deceased wife may have been in love with another man. He made people laugh at his press conference, and cracked some pointed jokes, as reported in the GUARDIAN (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/23/jerry-lewis-cannes-max-rose). By "antics" maybe you mean his lively responses to the press, as when asked about his comedy partnership with Dean Martin, he opened with the deadpan punch line, "He's dead, you know." And when asked what he thinks about women in broad comedy today he said "it bothers me." Asked his favorite comediennes, he said Cary Grant and Burt Reynolds, before saying he didn't have any. In HUFFINGTON POST (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/25/jerry-lewis-cannes_n_3336708.html) a piece by Jake Coyle quotes Lewis saying provocative things about Cannes ("for snobs") and implying he prefers to listen to English. Those things appear to be from an interview rather than the press conference. Roman Polanski expressed disapproval of women's equality in the VENUS IN FUR Q&A. I think Kechiche said something in that line at the BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR Q&A, but I don't remember exactly now. That BLUE press conference would be hard to re-watch because Kechiche's delivery is so agonizingly slow! And Léa Seydoux giggles in a way that is a bit embarassing. However I want to see BLUE and imagine it will be amazing and good. Also looking forward to Farhadi's THE PAST. You were a big fan of A SEPARATION I believe. I didn't like it as much, but I can see his originality as a scenarist, as well as director.

Indeed the explicit sex in BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR might be worthy of note, and seems from the Press Q&A (which I watched) to have scandalized Anglophone viewers most, though I suspect this is a film that overall is more touching that sexy. As I mentioned HELI (Escalante) is very violent, going by summaries I've read, distastefully so; D'Angelo (and others) also strongly disliked the violence and putatively empty style of Winding Refn's ONLY GOD FORGIVES. And there is also explicit gay sex in Giraudie's Un Certain Regard film, STRANGER BY THE LAKE. It was said (as I recall) at the Q&A that BLUE might need cutting for US theatrical release and Kechiche did not seem opposed.

Also looking forward to NEBRASKA, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, A TOUCH OF SIN, LA GRANDE BELLEZZA -- all the big winners really. Also FRUITVALE STATION and GRAND CENTRAL; THE IMMIGRANT, MICHAEL KOOLHAAS, the new Denis, Jarmush, Miike, Ozon, Soderbergh -- so many. Which ones are you most curious about?

[Chris Knipp]

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CANNES 2013 CLOSING FILM

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WHITTIKER AND BLOOM IN ZULU

ZULU (Jérome Salle). It was largely overlooked because it was screened at the same time as an important press conference, I think the one for THE LAST LOVERS ON EARTH (Jarmusch). ZULU is the first English-language film by a French director (like Desplechin's JIMMY P.), and stars Forest Whittiker and Orlando Bloom. "Whitaker and Bloom play two policemen investigating a crime in a film described as part noir, part social study. Adapted from Caryl Férey's novel (also titled Zulu) by Julien Rappeneau, the film is shot entirely on location in South Africa" (GUARDIAN (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/15/cannes-film-festival-2013-zulu), Ben Child).

VARIETY: (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-zulu-1200488037/) Justin Chang's lead summarizes it thus: "The unhealed wounds of post-apartheid South Africa get a brutal but superficial once-over in Jerome Salle's savagely violent cop thriller."

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/zulu-cannes-review-558569): Deborah Young writes (opening a quite detailed review): "The steady invasion of auteur genre films into the Cannes film festival steps over the line with Zulu, a French policier distinguished only by Forest Whitaker’s deeply resonant performance as a detective and its South African setting. Were it not for the star power of Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, one might seriously doubt whether this well-built vehicle would have received the honor of closing le festival."

[Johann]

We have a Winner.
BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

[oscar jubis]

Which ones are you most curious about?
Most interested, roughly in the following order:

Jimmy P.
A Touch of Sin
Wakolda
The Past
The Last of the Unjust
Bastards
Blue is the Warmest Color
The Golden Cage
The Dance of Reality
Norte, the End of History

[Chris Knipp]

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Oscar,
I hope you get to see your wish list soon. You call my attention to one film I had scanned a summary of but not seen any comments on, NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY. I did see a description of Lanzmann's THE LAST OF THE UNJUST but didn't look up reviews; I will now I thought of you when I read about WAKOLDA, which also sounds interesting to me. I'll think of my own list, but to begin with I am quite eager to see some of the more mainstream selections, such as NEBRASKA, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS. Or course I look forward to seeing BASTERDS, because I like Claire Denis, and I hope it is not a disappointment as some have hinted. JIMMY P. is either really fascinating or a disaster, from the sound of it. It's commercial prospects may be not so good. For sure A TOUCH OF SIN and BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR. I can't wait to see so many of these, especially now that I have heard more about them and seen some of the press conferences. I'm curious about MICHAEL KOOLHAAS because I was so fascinated by Arnaud des Pallières' ADIEU.

NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY (Lav Diaz): SCREEN DAILY: (http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/norte-the-end-of-history/5056716.article) Jonathan Romney writes: "Raskolnikov goes to the Philippines in Norte, The End Of History (Norte, Hangganan Ng Kasaysayan), which takes Dostoevsky’s Crime And Punishment as a springboard for Lav Diaz’s musings on guilt, will and modern Filipino history. Among adepts of so-called ‘Slow Cinema’, writer-director Diaz is reputed as a marathon champ, his films sometimes exceeding the eight-hour mark. By comparison, the four-hour Norte is a miniature, but it’s also an accessible film, a superb piece of focused narrative that’s more immediately coherent than such digressive pieces as 2009’s Melancholia." [He means Laz Diaz's MELANCHOLIA, of course, not Lars von Triers, and IMDb lists it as 2008.

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LANZMANN (IN HIS EIGHTIES) IN THE LAST OF THE UNJUST

THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (Claude Lanzmann, of SHOAH). MUBI, (http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/cannes-2013-the-past-present-tense-claude-lanzmanns-the-last-of-the-unjust) Daniel Kasman, writes: "Claude Lanzmann has brought to Cannes a new film whose heart is the interview footage shot for the Shoah project of Austrian Benjamin Murmelstein, the so-called last (and as of the 1975, the only surviving) of the Jewish Elders, those nominally in charge of the Nazis' Jewish ghettos. Filming Murmelstein in exile in Rome in 1975, Lanzmann pulls from the man some consider a Nazi collaborator and some consider a hero long and anecdotal recollections of his experiences working with Eichmann, the various logistical organizational concerns of his pre-war emigration efforts for Jews in Vienna, and his wartime years first as an administrator in the Czechoslovakian “model ghetto” of Theresienstadt and later as its Jewish leader, or "Elder of the Jews.""

I personally just saw SHOAH for the first time a year and a half ago at IFC Center in NYC, so I am primed to see this additional chapter, which takes us to one of the most disturbing aspects of the Holocaust.

Johann,
You know all the winners are on the previous page of this thread, right? The top awards are here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3490-Cannes-2013&p=30304#post30304)

Palme d'Or: Blue Is the Warmest Color, dir. Abdeletif Kéchiche, France
Grand Prix: Inside Llewyn Davis, dir. Coen brothers, USA
Best director: Amat Escalante, dir. of Hili, Mexico
Jury prize: Like Father, Like Son, Hirakazu Koreeda, Japan
Best screenplay: A Touch of Sin, dir: Jia Zhang-ke, China
Best actor: Bruce Dern, for Nebraska (Payne)
Best actress: Bérénice Bejo, for The Past (Farhadi)
Camera d'Or (best first film): Ilo Ilo, Anthony Chen, Singapore

The Un Certain Regard, Directors Fortnight, and other awards are here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3490-Cannes-2013&p=30303#post30303)

The top two, Palme d'Or and Grand Prix. were no surprise, all the polls showed them. There was no certainty about exactly how the others Selection jury awards would go.

[Chris Knipp]

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BÉRÉNICE BÉJO, ALI MOSAFFA IN THE PAST

THE PAST/LE PASSÉ (Asghar Farhadi), as I should have mentioned earlier, was released May 17 in France, one of those films honored with a simultaneous Paris and Cannes debut. So there are plenty of French reviews. The Allociné (http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-204198/critiques/presse/#pressreview40001182) press reating is a collective rave, 4.4 out of 5 based on 21 reviews. Some of them commented on the film's neutral, multifaceted portrayal of characters, intense emotion, thriller-worthy suspense, "prodigious" acting by Ali Mosaffa, superb direction of actors. They acknowledge the tight control, this screenplay being in a "direct line" with the last one, and one calls it "overwritten," but the praise is almost universal, including notes on Farhadi's making what is everything a French film should be and avoiding the pitfalls of a foreigner's film about Paris.

By the way as I also might have mentioned Ali Mosaffa's own recent directorial effort (in Farsi), THE LAST STEP (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3470-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2013&p=30028#post30028), was recently reviewed by me as part of the just-ended San Francisco International Film Festival. Mosaffa wrote, directed, and stars in this film.

GUARDIAN: (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/17/cannes-2013-the-past-review) Peter Bradshaw's "first look" review gives THE PAST 4 out of 5 stars. "Asghar Farhadi's follow-up to the Oscar-winning A Separation is a finely-crafted, sinewy drama that anatomises clotted and complex relationships."

VARIETY (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-the-past-1200482880/): Justin Chang wrote: "Asghar Farhadi may have left his native Iran to shoot a picture in Paris starring Berenice Bejo, but in all the ways that count, “The Past” couldn’t feel closer to home. Like 2011′s Oscar-winning “A Separation,” this is an exquisitely sculpted family melodrama in which the end of a marriage is merely the beginning of something else, an indelible tapestry of carefully engineered revelations and deeper human truths. If Farhadi’s sense of narrative construction is almost too incisive at times, costing the drama some focus and credibility in the final reels, he nonetheless maintains a microscopic attention to character, performance and theme that will make this powerfully acted picture a very classy specialty-division prospect."

[oscar jubis]

Thanks. A lot of good info and review about the films I most want to watch. I need to watch the movie Farhadi directed before A Separation. I'll look for it.

[Chris Knipp]

Thank you. A pleasure to follow Cannes.

Let us know about Farhadi's earlier film if you do see it. It's also interesting that Ali Mosaffa, the male lead of THE PAST (there's also Tahar Rahim, of A PROPHET and FREE MEN -- which I've reviewed here and who was in two Cannes films) directed in his own film, THE LAST STEP (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3470-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2013&p=30028#post30028), which is inventive and ambitious and which I reviewed as part of the SFIFF this year. You may want to see it some time.

[oscar jubis]

I recently watched Heli, the film that won a Best Director prize for Amat Escalante at this festival. I think it's an improvement over Escalante's Sangre and Los Bastardos, and even better than any film directed by other contemporaneous Mexican directors that have exhibited at Cannes such as Gerardo Naranjo (Miss Bala, Voy a Explotar, Drama/Mex) and Fernando Eimbcke (Duck Season, Lake Tahoe). For me, Carlos Reygadas is the most impressive Mexican director working today but Heli, which he co-produced, is really good. It partakes in the same "drug war" milieu as many current Mexican films (including many cheap films made for national consumption) without relying in tired cliches. I think it helps that the protagonist is a young man who works in a factory and who becomes embroiled with drug dealers through no fault of his own. I have lots of time lately to watch movies, more so than anytime during the past five years when I was working toward my degree. It will change as soon as I start teaching again.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks but after Mike D'Angelo's fairly detailed AV Club Cannes review (http://www.avclub.com/article/cannes-2013-day-one-sofia-coppola-offers-the-first-97832) of HELI last May I am not keen on seeing it. Have had enough trouble watching David Gordon Green's gratuitously violent JOE. Personallly I love Eimbcke and am impressed by Naranjo's leaps forward. Yes Reygadas can be impressive indeed but he appears very uneven, perhaps out of control. Look forward to your reports of your more frequent viewings during this free period though.

[oscar jubis]

The issue of gratuitous violence is always relevant for me, and almost always something that is open to interpretation and debate. I found the use of violence in Miss Bala, for instance, quite objectionable whereas I don't feel that way about the equally explicit (or even more so) depiction of violence in Escalante's films. There are two scenes in Heli which are particularly difficult to watch and I understand the criticism of them and your not being keen on watching it. Among the aspects of Heli I find commendable is how eloquently it conveys the ways the drug trade affects people outside of it, such as the factory worker, student, and army cadet who are the three principals in the film. Pleasant watch it ain't. Talking about pleasant films: how can anyone resist being charmed by the documentary Dancing in Jaffa, which I watched over the weekend. Have you seen it?

[Chris Knipp]

No I have not seen HELI so finally I can't really say, but I seem to have liked Naranjo all along more than you, so I'm not surprised you find MISS BALA'S violence offensive and Escalante's beatings, tortures, and setting fire to genitals somehow less objectionable though "equally explicit." From the descriptions it would be hard to say which is more explicit but Escalante sounds like he'd get the prize. However, I don't really approve of second-hand evaluations and I was going too much by what Mike D'Angelo said. Nonetheless I see that Scott Foundas called HELI "[accomplished but] singularly unpleasant" and Stephen Dalton of HOLLYWOOD REPORTER called it part of an "austere glumfest of stomach-churning sadism and lowlife misery porn" that followed the initial fun of GATSBY at last year's Cannes Festival.

I saw and wrote a review of DANCING IN JAFFA, in which no genitals were doused with gasoline and torched and instead little sweet girls and boys from Jewish and Palestinian families were taught to be civil and dance gracefully together. A thoroughly positive moment. If you ever want to know, just Google "chris kniipp" plus name of film. That will take you to the review on my website www.chrisknipp.com. Just about anything on Filmleaf can also be found via Google too but it may take a couple of steps, wheras my site is one step, who knows why (it was not my doing, but maybe publishing 2,343 reviews there has had an effect). This little documentary was in the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival last summer. And that is in the Festival Coverage section of Filmleaf We were supposed to "hold review" so I didn't publish the full version till recently; the theatrical release took so long I thought there wasn't going to be any, but apparently there was, here and there.

The SFJFF I never covered before but it contained a lot of good material that you might not find otherwise, some of it with only a vague connection to Jewishness. For example, films about Muhammad Ali and Johnny Cash were included.

http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3543-San-Francisco-Jewish-Film-Festival-2013&p=30642#post30642

When I think of MISS BALA I remember how impressed Edward Lachman, the cinmeatographer, was with the elaborately planned long takes. He came to a another screening of the film to take a second look at it and thought it was, cinematographically speaking, a landmark and worthy of admiration. I think that another sign of how Naranjo has made leaps forward with each film. DRAMA MEX was alive and interesting, but technically and narratively simple. Lachman often sits in the back row right in front of me at Lincoln Center screenings so I get to talk to him sometimes. Since ha has been the dp for some fine films whose variety might surprise you (VIRGIN SUICIDES, I'M NOT THERE, ERIN BROCKOVITCH, FAR FROM HEAVEN, KEN PARK, LIFE DURING WARTIME, parts of PARADISE: HOPE), I figure he may know a thing or two about shooting a movie.

I expect my coverage of Cannes always to be secondhand. The closest I will ever come is to be in Paris while the festival is going on. There is some echo, and Paris newsstands as I've shown in snapshots are full of magazines and papers with stories about Cannes in May.