CANNES Film Festival 2017

[Chris Knipp]

It's the 70th year of the Cannes Film Festival. The lineup has been announced.

Previews:
Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-film-festival-unveils-lineup-70th-edition-992695?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%20Breaking%20News_now_2017-04-13%2002:55:13_gszalai&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_breakingnews)
Variety (http://variety.com/2017/film/festivals/cannes-lineup-announced-coppola-haynes-and-safdie-brothers-in-competition-1202029701/)

Pedro Almodóvar will preside over the competition jury
Cristian Mungiu will head the student & short films jury
Sandrine Kimberlain will head the Caméra d'Or jury.

Last year's lineup (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4141-CANNES-Film-Festival-2016)

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Festival de Cannes 70: 17-28 May 2017

In Competition
In the Fade (Aus dem Nichts), Fatih Akin
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Noah Baumbach
Okja 옥자, Bong Joon-ho
120 battements par minute (120 Beats per Minute), Robin Campillo
The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola
Rodin, Jacques Doillon
Happy End, Michael Haneke
Wonderstruck, Todd Haynes
Redoubtable (Le Redoutable), Michel Hazanavicius
The Day After 그 후 Geu-hu, Hong Sang-soo
Radiance 光 Hikari, Naomi Kawase
The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos
A Gentle Creature, Sergei Loznitsa
Jupiter's Moon (Jupiter holdja), Kornél Mundruczó
The Square, Ruben Östlund
L'amant double (Amant Double), François Ozon
You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay
Good Time, Joshua and Ben Safdie
Loveless (Нелюбовь), Andrey Zvyagintsev

Out-of-Competition
Les Fantômes d'Ismaël (Ismaël's Ghosts), Arnaud Desplechin (Opening Night)
How to Talk to Girls at Parties, John Cameron Mitchell
Visages, Villages, Agnes Varda & JR
Mugen Non Junin (Blade of the Immortal), Takashi Miike

Un Certain Regard
Barbara, Mathieu Amalric
La Novia Del Desierto (The Desert Bride) by Cecilia Atan &Valeria Pivato
Tesnota (Closeness) by Kantemir Balagov
Aala Kaf Ifrit (Beauty and The Dogs), Kaouther Ben Hania
L’Atelier (The Workshop), Laurent Cantet
Fortunata (Lucky), Sergio Castellito
Las Hijas de Abril (April's Daughters), Michel Franco
Western, Valeska Grisebach
Posoki (Directions), Stephan Komandarev
Out, Gyorgy Kristof
Sanpo Suru Shinryakusha (Before We Vanish), Kiyoshi Kurosawa
En Attendant Les Hirondelles (The Nature of Time), Karim Moussaoui
Lerd (Dregs), Mohammad Rasoulof
Jeune Femme (Montparnasse Bienvenue), Leonor Serrraille
Wind River, Taylor Sheridan
Après La Guerre (After the War), Annarita Zambrano

Special Screenings
Claire’s Camera, Hong Sang-soo
12 Jours, Raymond Depardon
They, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh
Promised Land, Eugene Jarecki
Napalm, Claude Lanzmann
Demons in Paradise, Jude Ratman
Sea Sorrow, Vanessa Redgrave
An Inconvenient Sequel, Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk

Midnight Screenings
The Villainess, Jung Byung-Gil
The Merciless, Byun Sung-Hyun
Prayer Before Dawn, Jean-Stephane Sauvaire

Virtual Reality Film
Carne y Arena, Alejandro G. Iñárritu

70th Anniversary Events
Top of the Lake: China Girl, Jane Campion & Ariel Kleiman
24 Frames, Abbas Kiarostami
Twin Peaks, David Lynch
Come Swim, Kristen Stewart

Directors Fortnight / La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

Feature Films
Ciambra, Jonas Carpignano
A Fabrica de nada;, Pedro Pinho
Alive in France, Abel Ferrara
L'Amant d'un jour (Lover for a Day), Philippe Garrel
Bushwick, Cary Murnion, Jonathan Milott
Cuori puri (Pure Hearts), Roberto De Paolis
The Florida Project, Sean Baker
Frost, Sharunas Bartas
I Am Not a Witch, Rungano Nyoni
Jeannette l'enfance de Jeanne d'Arc, Bruno Dumont
L'Intrusa, Leonardo Di Costanzo
La defensa del dragón, Natalia Santa
Marlina si pembunuh dalam dempat babak, Mouly Surya
Mobile Homes, Vladimir de Fontenay
Nothingwood, Sonia Kronlund
Ôtez-moi d'un doute,Carine Tardieu
Patti Cake$, Geremy Jasper
The Rider, Chloé Zhao
Un beau soleil intérieur (Let the Sunshine In), Claire Denis
West of the Jordan River (Field Day Revisited), Amos Gitai

Short Films
Água mole, Laura Goncalves, Alexandra Ramires (xà)
La bouche, Camilo Restrepo
Copa loca, Christos Massalas
Crème de menthe, Philippe David Gagné, Jean-Marc E. Roy
Falpões, Baldios, Marta Mateus
Min börda, Niki Lindroth von Bahr
Nada, Gabriel Martins
Retour à Genoa City, Benoit Grimalt
Tijuana Tales, Jean-Charles Hue
Trešnje, Dubravka Turić

________________

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes 2017 poster features Claudia Cardinale.
There have been complaints that it's too much airbrushed to thin her down (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/30/cannes-film-festival-2017-airbrushing-claudia-cardinale).

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Le Monde offers a slide tool (http://www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2017/03/29/festival-de-cannes-une-photo-tres-retouchee-de-claudia-cardinale-a-l-affiche_5102870_4832693.html#meter_toaster) to view the before and after versions of this photo of Claudia swirling her skirt on a Rome roof

[Johann]

Cannes is always important. Thanks for posting about it every year.

[Chris Knipp]

Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-film-festival-unveils-lineup-70th-edition-992695?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%20Breaking%20News_now_2017-04-13%2002:55:13_gszalai&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_breakingnews)intro piece on Cannes 2017 (year 70)

Cannes Competition Lineup Includes Sofia Coppola's 'The Beguiled,' Todd Haynes' 'Wonderstruck'

No Hollywood studio films are scheduled so far for the world's most prestigious film festival, which organizers say will feature 12 female directors this year, up from nine last year.
Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux and president Pierre Lescure on Thursday unveiled the lineup for the iconic Côte d'Azur event's 70th anniversary edition, to be held May 17-28.

Bringing some Hollywood presence to the Croisette this year will be Todd Haynes' period drama Wonderstruck, starring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams, and Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled, with Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. Cannes veterans Michael Haneke, who won the Palme d'Or twice before, and Michel Hazanavicius also are returning with Happy End and Le Redoutable, respectively.

Fremaux and Lescure took to the stage just after 11 a.m. local time, kicking off the traditional lineup press conference at Paris' UGC Cinema on the French capital's Champs Elysees.

Lescure opened the press event by mentioning the upcoming French election and U.S. President Donald Trump. "We are in a suspenseful moment for the world," he said, adding, "Since we have a new surprise every day from Donald Trump, I hope North Korea, Syria will not cast a shadow" over Cannes.

'Okja'

Cannes Competition Lineup: The 19 Films Battling for the Palme d'Or
The festival will include 19 competition titles, four out-of-competition titles, three midnight screenings, one special screening and nine first films from 1,930 submitted movies. Fremaux said 12 female directors will be featured in the official selection, up from nine last year.

Benny and Josh Safdie's Good Time, a crime drama starring Robert Pattinson, and Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here, toplined by Joaquin Phoenix, will be among the titles bringing extra star power to the Cannes red carpet.

And speaking of star power, Nicole Kidman will feature in four competition and other section entries, having the biggest presence of all the bold names at the fest next month.

The first competition title unveiled was Andrei Zvyagintsev's new film Loveless. After his success with Leviathan, the Russian culture ministry had said Zvyagintsev would get no more state money for his productions, so the film was made without official Russian support and instead put together as a co-production with Germany, France and Belgium, with Eurimages support. Fremaux spoke about a revival of Russian filmmaking in discussing the lineup.

Also in the Cannes lineup is Al Gore's An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, which follows Gore as he travels the world raising awareness of climate change and trying to push people and governments to embrace renewable energy. Additional political edge comes from a Vanessa Redgrave documentary about refugees called Sea Sorrow.

Adding high-profile TV projects for the first time, Cannes will also screen two episodes of David Lynch's Twin Peaks revival for Showtime and show Jane Campion's Top of the Lake 2 as special events.

As previously announced, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar will oversee the main competition jury that will award the Palme d'Or and other top prizes.

Palme d'Or winner Cristian Mungiu will head up the student and short films jury, and Cesar-winning French actress Sandrine Kiberlain will head the Camera d'Or jury, which selects the best first film from across all sections and sidebars.

Isabelle Huppert in the Women in Motion poster

Cannes: Isabelle Huppert to Serve as Face of Women in Motion
Among Thursday's first announcements was that a short virtual reality project from Alejandro G. Inarritu will be part of the festival, as will Kristen Stewart's short film Come Swim.

Inarritu's VR short was produced and financed by Legendary Entertainment and Fondazione Prada, while ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s recently established immersive entertainment division, built the virtual world and characters. It explores the experience of a group of immigrants as they cross over the border between Mexico and the U.S. Inarritu, who spent four years developing the project, partnered with his frequent collaborator and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki on it.

The poster for this year's festival, which shows an exuberant Claudia Cardinale dancing, has been a source of controversy, with fans expressing outrage that the actress appeared to be slimmed down and retouched.

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[Johann]

Great stuff. Love the poster.

[Chris Knipp]

The "film d'ouverture" - opening night film - has been announced: Arnaud Deplechin's Ismaël's Ghosts/Les fantômes d'Ismaël.

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Mathieu Amalric plays Ismaël Vuillard, a filmmaker whose wife, Carlotta (Marion Cotillard), who disappeared 21 years ago, reappears to his new girlfriend, Sylvia (Charlotte Gainsbourg), as he is embarking on a new movie, disrupting his world and his work plans. No English subtitles for the trailer yet but with that info even if your French is rusty you can probably get the gist (if teasers appeal to you). The cast includes Mathieu Amalric, Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Louis Garrel, Alba Rohrwacher, Hippolyte Girardot, and Samir Guesmi. 17 May at Cannes, simultaneously opening in Paris theaters.

Here's the trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex1s9Yv9BQo).

More detail and a longer trailer here (https://thefilmstage.com/trailer/arnaud-desplechin-digs-up-ismaels-ghosts-in-trailer-for-drama-with-marion-cotillard-mathieu-amalric-and-charlotte-gainsbourg/).

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[Chris Knipp]

Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN UK is back at Cannes. He introduces (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/15/nicole-kidman-cannes-2017-queen-of-croisette) this as Nicole Kidman's best of times.
She’s been a blond vamp, an American princess and a thorn in Lars Von Trier’s side. But 2017 looks set to be Nicole Kidman’s greatest Cannes yet.
The official social media hashtags for this year’s Cannes film festival are #Cannes2017 and #Cannes70. But maybe it should be #Nicolefest and #Nicolepalooza. Because Nicole Kidman is set to dominate, with no fewer than four entries in the official selection. In all her sculpted blond tallness, looming over most of the grinning menfolk on the red carpet, she is going to be a Cannes fixture.

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Photograph: Eric Gaillard/Reuters [From the GUARDIAN]

Also: Netflix has gotten some flack at Cannes from French cinema distributors for two of their entries not having theatrical releases at all.
Peter Bradshaw explains (https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/may/11/netflix-cannes-film-festival-is-not-so-chill). Netflix and Amazon's non-cooperation is because of a French regulation requiring a 3-year delay from theatrical to other-format release.

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[Chris Knipp]

Wed., May 17, 2017: Cannes Festival begins.

[Chris Knipp]

May 17. Cannes 2017 day one.

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COTILLARD AND GAINSBOURG IN ISMAËL'S GHOSTS

The big opening film is Arnaud Desplechin's Ismaël's Ghosts ( French trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex1s9Yv9BQo) ) starring Matthieu Amalric, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Marion Cotillard, with Louis Garrel appearing as the main charactrer in the director (Amalric's) film-within-a-film. A full description with summaries of major reviews will be found in the Criterion Collection special coverage (https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4548-the-daily-cannes-2017-arnaud-desplechin-s-ismael-s-ghosts). The Criterion's online publication, the Current, is the new home of the Daily, David Hudson's acclaimed news and review round-ups.

Sounds a little as if Desplechin disappears up his own you-know-what - but without ever ceasing to be entertaining, and true to his themes and obsessions.

At the Playlist, Jessica Kiang suggests that “Desplechin is a prolific but uneven filmmaker: his last Cannes title, My Golden Days, was a delight; his previous feature, Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, was a meandering indulgence. Ismael’s Ghosts is a curiously, in-the-moment watchable amalgam of all his best and worst tendencies: a film of so many different personalities it feels like several different films inexplicably spliced together.”
The Criterion summary notes there are two versions, one 20 mins. longer, and Magnolia hasn't decided which it'll distribute for anglophone audiences.

Another trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64KgnDmnuIo).

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[Chris Knipp]

Day 2.

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Uma Thurman heads the Un Certain Regard jury and she's got long legs.

Andrei Zvagintzev's Loveless.

Here's the Criterion compendium of critiques (https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4552-the-daily-cannes-2017-andrei-zvyagintsev-s-loveless) for this film. Sounds like one long miserable, but Peter Bradshaw liked it: "Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Loveless is a stark, mysterious and terrifying story of spiritual catastrophe: a drama with the ostensible form of a procedural crime thriller. It has a hypnotic intensity and unbearable ambiguity which is maintained until the very end. This is a story of modern Russia whose people are at the mercy of implacable forces." 5 out of 5 stars!
Todd Haynes' Wondderstruck
"Gooey and indulgent YA fantasy fails to inspire awe" - Peter Bradshaw, GUARDIAN (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/18/wonderstruck-review-cannes-2017-todd-haynes-julianne-moore). It's from a YA novel by the author of the book Scrosese turned into Hugo. A nice long clip from Wonderstruck here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ero0Yp6tu1k) (the girl reminds me of Françoise Sagan). It's got exquisite stuff in it, this film.

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Emily Ratajkowski on the red carpet before Loveless.Photogs have to dressup.
Photograph: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

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[Chris Knipp]

Xavier Dolan
Back to last year for a moment.

I hated Xavier Dolan's Juste la fin du monde - maybe prematurely, but many hated it, despite the Grand Prize. But the big interview/discussion show in France "On n'est pas couché" ("We're Not Asleep") emceed by Laurent Ruquier presented Dolan in a most magnificent outdoor Cannes setting. Take a look. HERE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu__MFkf4V8). Gotta admit Xavier is handsome. Wish there were English subtitles!

Dolan talks about his film on a Quégecois show in French Canadian twang - and with less flattering lighting HERE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udpl-l2IJ9Y). This comparison shows you how glamorous Cannes is. The ultimate movie festival.

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[Chris Knipp]

Mike D'Angelo is not at Cannes this year.

This is the first time in five years I can't collate his succinct and meticulous Tweet ratings. It's a loss. To me anyway.


Mike D'Angelo‏ @gemko May 16
Bummed not to be at Cannes, but if I had to pick one year to miss, this might be the one. Not because of the lineup. Because of the news.
6 replies 1 retweet 18 likes
Reply 6 Retweet 1
Like 18


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[Chris Knipp]

OKJA (Bong Joon-ho)
His sequel to Snowpiercer, is a 'creature feature' with human interest and sweetness, according to reports, which are positive despite the releaser Netflix being booed at the screening. And it's got Tilda Swinton again. Peter Bradshaw of GUARDIAN (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/okja-review-netflix-tilda-swinton-giant-korean-pig-cannes-2017) (5 out of 5 stars) thinks it's a shame its great CGI won't be shown on big screens.

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Visages, Villages
Agnès Varda and French performance artist JR made a movie together Visages, villages of them "en goguette" (going around, messing around?). Jordon Hoffman of GUARDIAN (review (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/visages-villages-review-agnes-varda-jr-documentary-cannes-2017)) gave it a 5 out of 5.

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THE SQUARE (Ruben Östlund)
He became known through his Force Majeure (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3839-FORCE-MAJEURE-(Ruben-%D6stlund-2014)&p=32859#post32859) (which won the Un Certain Regard 2014 Jury Prize), a movie about a sudden lapse of moral courage. Gleiberman of VARIETY (review (http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/the-square-review-cannes-1202436834/))thinks this isn't as "majeure" as Force Majeure, but it sounds damned ingenious to me. It focuses on a weak, oblivious Stockholm museum director. There is a focus on a fading sense of shared responsibility and lots of sociological and cultural commentary.

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[Chris Knipp]

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120 battiments par minute/120 beats a minute
A Competition film by Robin Campillo of 2014's R-V Eastern Boys (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3681-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2014&p=31853#post31853)), this is a feature recreating ACT-UP fighting AIDS in France in the Eighties. Bradshaw of GUARDIAN awards another 5 out of 5 and says it "compellingly combines elegy, tragedy, urgency and a defiant euphoria." I didn't even remember Campillo scripted Laurent Cantet's 2008 Cannes Golden Palm winner The Class. Bradshaw relates this, as one does, with David France’sHow To Survive A Plague, (ND/NF 2012 reviewed here (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3246-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2012&p=27539#post27539)), an important and galvanizing NYC/US/AIDS/ACT UP documentary. And Guy Lodge of Variety (review (http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/bpm-beats-per-minute-review-1202438204/)) points out it's an "unabashedly untidy film" that "stands as a hot-blooded counter to the more polite strain of political engagement present in such prestige AIDS dramas as Philadelphia and Dallas Buyers Club." I'd welcome something better than them. A.A. Dowd of AV Club (http://www.avclub.com/live/cannes-opens-once-latest-master-director-255483/entry/833) says many consider this already a Cannes winner; his own fave so far is The Square, though.

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[Chris Knipp]

Three more Competition films as commented on by Peter Debruge of Variety
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Happy End

Happy End
A competition film by Michael Haneke. Cast: Jean-Louis Tringignant, Isabelle Huppert, Matthieu Kassovitz, Laura Verlinden, Franz Rogowski, Fantine Hardouin, plus Toby Jones, representing members of the well-off bourgeois Laurent family. Partly this is a sequel to elements of his previous Amour, but without the warmth. Peter Debruge of Variety: (http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/happy-end-review-michael-haneke-1202439122/) "Haneke’s new film . . . amounts to a complex, minutely detailed mystery in which every member of the Laurent household contributes to the movie’s almost suffocating sense of malaise." Nothing new for the director, Bradshaw says, but as good as ever, 5 out of 5.

The Meyorowitz Stories
A Competition film by Noah Baumbach is a first week film not mentioned here yet. Debruge (http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/the-meyerowitz-stories-review-1202437960/): "Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller play half-brothers working out family issues in the best Netflix Original film to date." There is a conflict over considering any Netflix (not-theatrical-release) film. Almodóvar, the jury president, opposes; Will Smith thinks it's just fine.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer
A Yorgos Lanthimos Competition film with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell. Debruge (http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-review-1202439468/): " the film presents itself as a darkly comic horror-thriller, but takes us to a place far more insidious than we could’ve bargained for. This is an art film, after all, and though Lanthimos is within his rights to challenge and provoke, his seemingly cold-hearted approach to an impossible conundrum makes for an undeniably tough sit." Peter Bradshaw says "this is a movie which has a clearer, straighter sense of shape and purpose – and seems to me to be therefore more successful – than his widely admired previous picture, The Lobster, which ran out of ideas well before the end."

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[Chris Knipp]

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Poster for Les années folles/The Crazy Years

Tributes at Cannes. Scorsese, Delon, Téchiné.

As part of the tribute to Téchiné his new film Nos années folles/Our Crazy Years will be shown. The film, produced by Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt, casts Pierre Deladonchamps (Stranger by the Lake) and Céline Sallette (Les Revenants, Rust and Bone). The cast also includes Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet (Love Songs) and Michel Fau (Marguerite). The World War I story focuses on a man horrified by combat who poses as a women with his wife's help through the rest of the war to desert, the after being a celebrity as such finds it hard to go back to being a man at war's end.


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[Chris Knipp]

CANNES DAY 7


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Day After press conference (Hong in shirtsleeves)

The Day After (Geu-hu)
Competition film by Hong Sang-soo is one of two by him at the festival this year. Boyd van Hoeg (Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/day-geu-hu-review-1006050)) says it is " another finely grained portrait of a miserable male character, who here complains to his new employee about the other two women in his life: his wife and the mistress/co-worker who is now gone and the new arrival is replacing." I usually like Hong. AA Dowd of AV Club says he never does, but says he likes this better because it's funny and freely acknowledges what a loser its hero is.

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[Chris Knipp]

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Louis Garrel as Godard in Redoutable

Roudoutable
A film by Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) about the love life of Jean-Luc Godard. Owen Gleiberman of Variety (http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/redoubtable-review-cannes-jean-luc-godard-1202438582/) says it's just crazy enough to make sense, but its real topic is Godard's breakup with movies. It is loosely structured around his relationship with his second wife, Anne Wiazemsky, and based on her roman-à-clef. It also depicts how his views on movies were turned on their head during the revolutionary period of 1967-68, the moment when Godard "slipped through the looking glass, never to return." But Bradshaw of GUARDIAN (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/20/redoubtable-review-michel-hazanvicuss-jean-luc-godard-biopic-cannes-2017)(who gives it 3/5 stars) calls this "a pastiche without passion" though Godard is "amusingly" played by Louis Garrel. And Hazanavincius being a master of pasthiche, "there is a kind of fidelity to how purely insufferable Godard must have been, as well as how stylish and charismatic he was."

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[Chris Knipp]

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A hit of Cannes
Raffey Cassidy - a 15-year-old girl from Manchester -
made an impression as the daughter of Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell in Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Dear. The Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/22/manchester-schoolgirl-soaks-glory-cannes-film-festival-heading/) tells what a pro she is. Meanwhile the terrorist attack in Manchester caused cancellation of fireworks at Cannes and a moment of silence.

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[Chris Knipp]

Some other Cannes films highlighted in the GUARDIAN (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/22/latelier-review-laurent-cantet-writing-workshop-cannes-2017):
The Florida Project: poverty and joy in the shadow of the Magic Kingdom
Alive in France: Abel Ferrara's shambolic blues jam of a music documentary
The Rider: impressive, stylish bronco rider drama bucks the trend
Un Beau Soleil Interieur (Let the Sunshine In): Juliette Binoche excels in grownup film
Blade of the Immortal: Takashi Miike's samurai bloodbath shows signs of life.

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[Chris Knipp]

From Un Certain Regard (Uma Thurman presiding)

Screen Daily has a complete guide to the Un Certain Regard films (http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/cannes-2017-complete-guide-to-the-un-certain-regard-films/5117739.article)

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The Studio/L’Atelier, Laurent Cantet
"A fascination with abandoned youth." Coauthored by Cantet with his acolyte Robin Campillo (120 Beats a Minute. After the Palm d'Or for The Class.Entre les Murs (2008), Cantet continues to examine the minds of the next generation. With The Studio he looks at saving people, in a mixed fiction and documentary work set in the working-class Mediterranean city of La Ciotat on an exchange where wounds can be healed. Questions naturally to radicalization and racism in the country. The scenario turns to today's news like the Nice and Batacalan attacks. Particularly attention to an humanistic and multicultural approach, with each person able to speak without being judged. With Marina Foïs playing a Parisian writer leading a writing workshop. More and more the action narrows in Olivia (Foïs) and one student who is outspoken and comes to seem dangerous.

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Accortsi, Trinca in Fortunata

Fortunata (Lucky), Sergio Castellito
A drama about a young mother recently broken up with her husband who wants to start a hair salon in a Roman suburb starring Jasmine Trinca, 16 years after she debuted as the daughter in Nanni Moretti's The Son's Room. Stefano Accorsi (The Last Kiss) costars. It's a "fervent melodrama" in which, according to the Screen Daily (http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/fortunata-cannes-review/5118297.article) reviewer, the emotional extremes are distracting.

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[Chris Knipp]

Cannes day 7: Kiarostami, Kawase

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Kiarostami image

The final film of Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami is 24 Frames, a wordless series of sketches elaborating on his nature photography. Xian Brooks of the GUARDIAN (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/23/24-frames-review-abbas-kiarostami) loved it: "The Iranian director has produced a posthumous marvel with this bizarre, experimental ghost-film that even puts his hated cinema seats to decent use."

Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s latest film, starring a post-'Paterson' Masatoshi Nagase, is her fifth entry in Cannes’ official competition: Hikari (Radiance). Peter Bradshaw says in the GUARDIAN (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/14/an-review-naomi-kawase-cannes-film-festival-2015): "A preposterous and overly sentimental opener to this year’s Un Certain Regard serves up major disappointment" (2/5). Clarence Tsui says tin Hollywood Reporter his is "only slightly" an improvement over Nawase's last two Cannes entries.

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Kiarostami opens his 24 Frames series with this Bruegel painting.

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[Chris Knipp]

CANNES DAY 8

Sofia Coppola, Jacques Doillon

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Colin Farrell in The Beguiled

Coppola
The GUARDIAN (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/24/the-beguiled-review-sofia-coppola-colin-farrell-feminist-psychodrama) likes Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled (4/5), which Peter Bradshaw calls "a very enjoyable southern melodrama" and whose basic premise he describes thus: "Colin Farrell plays a wounded soldier who throws himself on the mercy of a ladies’ seminary during the American civil war – and sets them all of a decorous flutter." But Variety's Owen Gleiberman says "Sofia Coppola's remake of the lurid 1971 Don Siegel/Clint Eastwood Civil War drama is pulp made tasteful and flavorless." Hollywood Reporter calls it "a respectable but pallid redo."

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Doillon
Bradshaw sounds downright angry at Jacques Doillon for his biopic Rodin (1/5) in a review (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/23/rodin-review-jacques-doillon-vincent-lindon-cannes-2017) that calls it "a mindblowingly dull biopic" and "a quite excruciatingly bad film." It stars the so often excellent Vincent Lindon in the title. Variety's role Jay Weissberg calls it "ploddingly dull," and Hollywood Reporter's (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/rodin-review-1006989) Jordan Minzer calls says it " often feels as stiff and lifeless as an old slab of marble."

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[Chris Knipp]

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Loveless

Screen Daily (https://issuu.com/mb-insight/docs/ofc_screen_day7_85b9d55de6a6ae)
Ratings of Competition films so far on the jury grid are:


3.2 Loveless
2.7 Womansruck
2.7 The Square
2.5 120 Beats per Minute
2.4 The Meyorowitz Sisters
2.3 Okja
2.2 Happy End
1.9 The Killing of a Sacred Deer
1.5 Le RedoutableSo at the top are Zviagintsev (Loveless), Todd Haynes (Womanstruck) and Ostlund (The Square), with Robin Campillo (120 Beats a Minute) also a possible popular favorite. At the bottom, Michel Hazanavicius' somewhat dubious collection of Jean-Luc Godard pastiches, Le Redoutable. This is an international daily poll of critics at the festival.

You can flip through recent Screen Dailies digitally online, as I did to gather this information, by clicking on its title above (though I don't think this access lasts).

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[Chris Knipp]

CANNES DAY 9

Sean Baker, Josh & Benny Safdie, Kiyoshi Kurosawa

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Robert Pattinson in the Safdie brothers' Good Time with Jennifer Jason Leigh

NYTimes' (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/movies/cannes-film-festival-the-florida-project-hit.html) Manohla Dargis is back not shedding much light, more darkness this time and an evident lack of enthusiasm, rather quickly sliding over the most critically acclaimed of the Competition films. Commenting on a shadow cast by the Manchester terror bombing and heavy security she describes this year's whole fest as downbeat, "lackluster" and "moribund" citing Doillon's disastrous Rodin. She likes Agnès Varga collaboration Visages Villages/Faces Places, and singles out Sean Baker's "glorious, gorgeous" Florida Disney World followup to Tangerine (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?4009-TANGERINE-(Sean-Baker-2015)&p=33734), his colorful movie shot on iPhone5's, with new anamorphic lens attachments, about trans prostitutes and their pimp. The new one, The Florida Project, focuses on kids living with parents in "seedy motels off the highway," the kind where " sex-by-the hour transactions" are commonplace. She speaks to Baker, who is pleased the kinds got to come to Cannes.

(Time to miss Mike D'Angelo again, for his more detailed coverage. But Dargis' claim that this isn't one of the best Cannes fests may have merit.)

The GUARDIAN'S Peter Bradshaw (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/25/good-time-review-robert-pattinson-safdie-brothers-cannes-2017) saw the Safdie brothers'Good Time (3/5 stars), "Pattinson turns in a strong performance as a career crim in the Safdie brothers’ exciting, if sometimes bewildering take on Elmore Leonard-style crime dramas." The screenplay was written by Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein. It costars Jennifer Jason Leigh. Sounds like fun to me. Another A24 release.

AA Dowd of AV Club (http://www.avclub.com/live/cannes-opens-once-latest-master-director-255483/entry/861), taking D'Angelo's place this year, actually liked Sofia Coppola's Clint Eastwood remake The Beguiled. But he found Doillon's roundly condemned Rodin as boring as everybody else, just had a more vulgar way of describing the protagonist as suffering from "a familiar case of wandering dick syndrome." Dowd says Bruno Dumont has a new "heavy metal musical" (as if Slack Bay wasn't weird enough!) but he couldn't get in to the Dumont screening. He did see and liked Kiyoshi Kurosawa's sci-fi film Before We Vanish though longing for something as creepy or scary as his Cure or Pulse from the days when he was hot.

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Still from Sean Baker's Florida Project

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[Chris Knipp]

CANNES DAY 9

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Hospital shown in doc 12 Jours

Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/25/12-jours-review-raymond-depardon-documentary-psychiatric-hospital-judge) reviewer Wendy Ide gives 4/5 stars to 12 Jours, a documentary about a French mental hospital where decisions are made whether to release patients or not. IT's by Raymond Dupardon, veteran filmmaker whose Journal de France (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3443-Rendez-Vous-with-French-Cinema-at-Lincoln-Center-2013&p=29685#post29685) Filmleaf covered in the 2013 Rendez-Vous.

Jordan Hoffman reviews (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/25/the-merciless-review-so-unpredictable-it-forgets-to-be-interesting#img-1) Byun Sung-hun's The Merciless, a South Korean crime drama "so unpredictable it forgets to be interesting" (2/5) but notes the "charismatic young actor Yim Si-wan shows promise." He's a pop singer who goes by "Siwan." The film draws "elements from Donnie Brasco, A Prophet, Heat and Infernal Affairs, has flashbacks and forward and tricky editing.

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Yim Si-wan in The Merciless

The "Twin Peaks" screening was a big photo op. Here's the man behind it all.

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David Lynch (center), Emily Stofle (left), producer Desiree Gruber (right).

Peter Bradshaw reviews François Ozon's L'Amant double/The Double Lover (opening tomorrow in French cinemas) François Ozon’s "horribly middleweight psycho-suspense thriller whose "softcore silliness and lite-erotic styling"s may gain it "camp classic" status (only 2 out of 5 stars though). In it Ozon pairs Marine Vacth, who he introduced in Young and Beautiful, with Jérémie Renier, who's never been suited up to look so much like a conventional rom-com star before.

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Jérémie Renier and Marine Vacth in L'Amant double

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[Chris Knipp]

CANNES DAY 11

(I seem to have missed a day. But I am not there.)

Comment by Tweet from Mike D'Angelo:
Mike D'Angelo‏ @gemko 23h23 hours ago
More
Huh. How’d they manage to screen the entire Competition by Friday? Always a Saturday morning film every year I went (incl 19-film years).

Two last big ones: Roman Polanski's Based on a True Story (with Eva Green and Emanuelle Seigner) and Lynne Ramsey's You Were Never Really There (with Joaquin Phoenix)

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You Were Never Really Here

Lynne Ramsey'sYou Were Never Really Here. Guy Lodge in Variety (http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/you-were-never-really-here-review-joaquin-phoenix-1202445756/) has high praise: "Lynne Ramsay makes a stunning return with this stark, psychologically raddled hitman thriller, led by a quietly furious Joaquin Phoenix."
a stark, sinewy, slashed-to-the-bone hitman thriller far more concerned with the man than the hit. Working from a pulp-fiction source that another director might have fashioned into a “Taken” knockoff, Ramsay instead strips the classically botched job at the story’s core down to its barest, bloodiest necessities, lingering far more lavishly on the unspoken emotions rippling across leading man Joaquin Phoenix’s face, and the internal lacerations of trauma and abuse they cumulatively reveal.
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Based on a True Story

Not so good news of Polanski's Based on a True Story, which Peter Bradshaw of the GUARDIAN (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/27/based-on-a-true-story-review-roman-polanski-eva-green-cannes-2017) says "falls flat." (2/5) It is a fan-obsession suspense thriller, co-scripted with Olivier Assayas from the award-winning French novel by Delphine de Vigan and features Eva Green with Emanuelle Seigner, contains elements "of Single White Female and Stephen King’s Misery – and indeed Robert Harris’s The Ghost Writer, which Polanski filmed in 2010."

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Polanski at Cannes photocall

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[Johann]

Thanks for all the great updates.

Glad Roman Polanski is still out there making movies, even if they don't match up with his past work.
I'm not one of these people who want Roman castrated.

[Chris Knipp]

I agree. He made the greatest neo-noir ever made, Chinatown, a deathless classic. We should know every shot and line by heart. In recent decades he's made plenty of good movies, Death and the Maiden, The Pianist, Oliver Twist, The Ghost Writer, Carnage, Venus in Fur.

Some are thinking Lynne Ramsey's movie with Joaquin Phoenix might win the Palme d'Or, I don't know if I mentioned that. It's looking like this isn't one of Cannes' best years.

For now I recommend reading AA Dowd of AV Club's (http://www.avclub.com/live/cannes-opens-once-latest-master-director-255483/entry/921) summary of what he thinks will and should win the big prizes. I miss Mike D'Angelo's more engaging writing but that will do for now. I'll check other sources roundups tomorrow.

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes winners. Predictions.

For now I recommend reading AA Dowd of AV Club's (http://www.avclub.com/live/cannes-opens-once-latest-master-director-255483/entry/921) summary of what he thinks will and should win the big prizes.
Here are just Dowd's choices, but you should go to his piece to see his explanations, qualifications, and second thoughts.

Palme D’Or
Will win: 120 Beats Per Minute (Robin Campillo)
Should win: You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsey)

Grand Prix
Will win: Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Should win: The Square (Ruben Östlundd)

Jury Prize
Will win: Wonderstruck (Todd Haynes)
If it doesn’t lose win the Jury Prize, don’t be shocked if it takes Best Director instead.
Should win: The Meyerowitz Stories (Noah Baumbach)
(Starring Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller)

Best Director
Will win: The Beguiled (Sofia Coppola)
Should win: Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled

Best Actress
Will win: Nicole Kidman, The Beguiled or The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Should win: Izïa Higelin, Rodin

Best Actor
Will win: Robert Pattinson, Good Time (directed by Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie)
Should win: Robert Pattinson, Good Time

Best Screenplay
Will win: The Square
Should win: A Gentle Creature (Sergei Loznitsa)

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[Chris Knipp]

CANNES DAY 12

Twin Peaks reboot.

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Kyle MacLachlan in "Twin Peaks: The Return"

It was six days ago but it slipped by me. The opening two episodes of the 26-years-later return to David Lynch's extraordinary TV series were shown without breaks, and all the old cast members were on hand for the red carpet. They are showing on Showtime on the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK. A Variety review said it "indulges but still communicates astonishing vision." Kyle MacLachlan’s Agent Cooper is up to some nefarious doings, and the sexual politics "don't brear an instant's scrutiny," says Stuart Jeffries of the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/may/22/twin-peaks-recap-episodes-one-and-two-crazy-town-just-got-much-much-weirder).

Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote: "In its first two hours, 'Twin Peaks: The Return' pushes miles past the WTF quality of the original series’ final episodes. At the time, it seemed to many of us that the show had jumped the shark, yet Lynch now seems to have broken through to an entirely new realm, drawing on the sinister trippy surrealist extravagance he played with in 'Eraserhead' as a way of deconstructing the very seeds of the suspense of serial television. All of which made 'Twin Peaks,' or at least two hours of it, a hypnotically disorienting screen spectacle that pulses with the daring of — yes — a movie." See Gleiberman's "9 Thoughts on Cannes 2017 (http://variety.com/2017/film/columns/9-thoughts-on-cannes-1202446695/)" - it's good. As is clear from the great new film David Lynch: The Art Life, Lynch has not at all lost touch with his uniqueness and creative energy.

Note: Gleiberman's "9 Thoughts" includes "4. The Trump era is a movie." Trump's outrages he said are a movie everybody is watching in their spare minutes on their device.

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Kyle MacLachlan in "Twin Peaks: The Return"

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[Chris Knipp]

More awards predictions.

From Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/may/27/cannes-2017-roundup-and-awards-predictions-a-festival-of-sorrow-strength-and-middle-class-woes).

Again - go to the link for his full summary piece all about the festival, which also discusses in details films about the refugee crisis and the ever present current topic of terrorism; specific responses to the films he names below.





Palme d’Or
Loveless (dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev)

Grand Prix
120 Beats per Minute (dir. Robin Campillo)

Jury prize
Okja (dir. Bong Joon-ho)

Best director
Michael Haneke for Happy End

Best actor
Split between Ben Stiller for The Meyerowitz Stories and Robert Pattinson for Good Time

Best actress
Maryana Spivak for Loveless

Best screenplay
Sergei Loznitsa for A Gentle Creature

Awards that the Cannes jury don’t give, but should

Best supporting actor
Terry Notary for The Square

Best supporting actress
Kim Min-hee for The Day After

Best cinematography
Thimios Bakatakis for The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Best production design
Christian Marti for Redoubtable

Best music
Jonny Greenwood for You Were Never Really Here

(Again go to the link for his piece (https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/may/27/cannes-2017-roundup-and-awards-predictions-a-festival-of-sorrow-strength-and-middle-class-woes) all about the festival, which also discusses in detail films about the refugee crisis and the ever present current topic of terrorism; specific responses to the films he names below.

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[Chris Knipp]

En attendant le Palme d'Or / Waiting for the Golden Palm: the awards are announced

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[Le Monde, Paris]

From a Guardian live feed (so the results are in reverse chronologically):

First published on Sunday 28 May 2017 12.32 EDT

Key events Show

Grand Prix
120 Beats Per Minute! Widely tipped to win the Palme, but has to be satisfied with second prize.

Best Director
Best Director: Sofia Coppola for the Beguiled! Some surprising groans at that news in the press room.

2m ago Best Actor
Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix wins for You Were Never Really Here. (The other chief contender, to whom it would arguably have meant more, was Robert Pattinson.)

5m ago Best Actress
Best Actress: Irene Jacob and Paolo Sorrentino hand out the best actress gong, which goes to... Diane Kruger for her performance in Fatih Akin’s In the Fade! Not a particularly well-received film amongst the critics, but she was the best thing about it. (The Guardian's review gave In the Fade a meager 2/5 stars.)

8m ago Jury Prize
Jury Prize: Andrey Zvyagintsev wins the Jury Prize for Loveless. It’s not the one he wanted, or that many were expecting for the film.

12m ago Best Screenplay
Best Screenplay: "We have our first surprise of the night", announces Pedro. Best screenplay is a joint award for A Killing of a Sacred Deer and Lynne Ramsay’sˆ

Best Short Film
(award hosted by Uma Thurman and Cristian Mungiu.
Qiu Yang’s A Gentle Night wins the gong, which causes the Chinese members of the Cannes press room to whoop heartily. 'Fucking amazing,' is Qiu’s own response.

31m ago Camera d'Or
The Camera d’Or award for best debut film goes to Léonor Sérraille’s Jeune Femme (Montparnasse Bienvenue).

34m ago We're underway!

1h ago Bonsoir!
Receive updates on this story - turn on

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[Chris Knipp]

More awards

10m ago 14:06 Another Pedro surprise!
A 70th Anniversary Jury Prize has been invented on the fly. It’s won by... Nicole Kidman.
(Nicole was in four films this year and we had acting award predictions.)

The Palme d'Or goes to...
The Square (Ruben Östlund)

The Force Majeure director returns with a thrillingly weird study of an art gallery director whose life goes into meltdown after his mobile phone is stolen.
Peter Bradshaw's Guardian review (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/the-square-review-ruben-ostlund-elisabeth-moss-cannes-2017).

I see something in common between this and last year's Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade, which everybody thought should have won but didn't get anything.

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[Chris Knipp]

I didn't say anything about the Competition Jury.

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The president of the jury was Pedro Almodóvar. Members: Maren Ade, Jessica Chastain, Fan Bingbing, Agnès Jaoui, Park Chan-wook, Will Smith, Paolo Sorrentino, Gabriel Yared.

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[Chris Knipp]

Un Certain Regard

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(Reza Akhlaghirad in A Man of Integrity

Un Certain Regard Winners (2017)

Prize of Un Certain Regard ·
A Man of Integrity (Lerd)
The film by Mohammad Rasoulof is about a man working on a goldfish farm in northern Iran who becomes snagged in corrupt ties between the local leaders and businessmen.

Taylor Sheridan
Directing Prize · Wind River

April's Daughter
Jury Prize · Michel Franco

Jasmine Trinca
Best Actress · Lucky

Mathieu Amalric
Prize for the Best Poetic Narrative - Un Certain Regard · Barbara


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[Chris Knipp]

Palme d'Or winner Ruben Östlund

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Ruben Östlund

The Square. "Östlund may have been inspired by Roy Andersson or maybe Lars Von Trier. There is a drop of Buñuel there too – but Östlund’s own signature is plain. This is high wire cinema." -Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian. (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/the-square-review-ruben-ostlund-elisabeth-moss-cannes-2017)

Best Actor winner Joaquin Phoenix
Best Screenplay winner Lynne Ramsey

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Actress Ekaterina Samsonov, Lynne Ramsay, Joaquin Phoenix,
the film You Were Never Really Here] Best Actor, Best Screenplay (shared)

You Were Never Really Here was the last Competition film shown at Cannes this year, and it won two prizes.

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[Chris Knipp]

Short Films and Directors Fortnight

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Brady Jandreau in Directors Fortnight winner The Rider

Directors Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalizateurs)

Chinese-American director Chloe Zhao’s second feature The Rider took the top prize, the Art Cinema Award, of the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes.

Hollywood Reporter’s (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/rider-review-1006204) Todd McCarthy called Zhao’s cowboy drama "a rare gem." Guardian's (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/20/rider-review-bronco-rider-chloe-zhao-south-dakota-drama-documentary) Peter Bradshaw who gives it 4/5 stars, says it "feels like an expanded, loosened and more impressionistic version of something very much more overtly crafted by, say, Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry or Annie Proulx and concludes "The Rider is a very impressive, very accomplished film."

Zhao’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me played in Director's Fortnight in 2015.

The SACD prize from the French Writers and Directors Guild split the prize with both Philippe Garrel’s Lover for a Day (L’Amant d’Un Jour) and Claire Denis Bright Sunshine In (Un Beau Soleil Interieur) being recognized.

Garrel’s Lover is the last in a trilogy exploring love, lust and fidelity, while Denis’ Sunshine stars Juliette Binoche as a emotionally confused 50-something divorcee.
Earlier, from a jury headed by Cristian Mungiu, the Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury announced their 2017 Cannes winners. They are listed below:
Short Films

First Prize
Paul Est La (Paul Is Here)
Dir. Valentina Maurel Insas
Belgium

Second Prize
Heyvan (AniMal)
Dir. Bahram & Bahman ARK
Iranian National School of Cinema, Iran

Third Prize
Deux Égarés Sont Morts (Two Youths Died)
Dir. Tommaso Usberti
La Femis, France

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[Chris Knipp]

Previously overlooked: Jupiter's Moon (Kornél Mundruczó)

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Jupiter's Moon

During the post-awards press conference (Jury headed by Pedro Almodóvar) this Competition film, Jupiter's Moon/Jupiter holdja was brought up by a Hungarian journalist, and Will Smith said he loved it because he grew up in a religious family. It concerns a refugee who's shot down from a balloon. It is by Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó who made White God. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3920-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2015&p=33387#post33387)(ND/NF 2015) Bradshaw (Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/18/jupiters-moon-review-kornel-mundruczo-flying-refugee-cannes-2017)) gave it 3/5. Indiewire (http://www.indiewire.com/2017/05/jupiters-moon-review-kornel-mundruczo-cannes-2017-1201828363/)calls the new one "vapid but visually astonishing." Boyd van Hoeij in Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/jupiters-moon-jupiter-holdja-review-1005004) calls it "incredibly ambitious but uneven." I overlooked it earlier. White God I was not a fan of, but with its invasion of the dogs it has a very distinctive concept of film staging, and a similar sensibility seems at work here. (This wasn't in my original Competition lineup - I've added it.)

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[Johann]

Thanks for another fantastic Cannes thread Chris!

Sweden got some love this year....Cool.
I will binge-watch Twin Peaks: The Return in good time. It sounds great.
Interesting that they created a new award. (And the first recipient was Nicole Kidman)

[Chris Knipp]

This year's Palm d'Or film

Hey you know Johann I get a lot of fun out of doing these vicarious coverages and nothing can quite match the glamor and excitement of Cannes. Even with terrorism and refugees the not glamorous themes in everybody's face this year and grouches saying it wasn't up to par this time. Tell that to the filmmakers whose careers were launched. Yeah I'm looking fowrwad to catching the new "Twin Peaks." David Lynch is as alive and relevant as ever.

Let's recall last year's Cannes Palme d'Or was 2-time winner Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake and Grand Prix was Xavier Dolan's repugnant but star-studded Juste la fin du monde[/I. Seen in that light this year's [I]The Square] Palme and Campillo 120 Bests per Minute [/I Grand Prix (a popular favorite) makes a lot more sense. Swedish director Ruben ÖStlund's previous film [I]Force Majeure (see Filmleaf review (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3839-FORCE-MAJEURE-(Ruben-%D6stlund-2014))) met with critical acclaim when it debuted in Un Certain Regard in 2014. It did get US theatrical release and great reviews (Metacritic 87%). Still, the topic and director are somewhat out of left field or just a highly sophisticated choice compared to the more accessible one of the Grand Prix, the ACTUP 80's French AIDS film 120 Beats per Minute. But as an artist and frequent art gallery visitor this new one by Östlund looks interesting, though its theme seems a bit hard to pin down. Somehow I also link it with the topic or style of Maren Ade's jokey philosophical Toni Erdmann from last year, which all the critics loved at Cannes but didn't win - and Maren Ade was on the Competition Jury this year, so.....

I have revised the starting out Competition films list in this thread to make it more accurate and also put it in alphabetical order by director's name. I don't have a list of Directors Fortnight/ La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs so I'm going to add that. It includes besides the top prizewinner The Rider Patti Cake$ (already reviewed here in ND/NF) and Sean Baker's followup to Tangerine, The Florida Project - which got a lot of love and is going to make Baker more famous.

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[Chris Knipp]

Director's Fortnight / La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs - the list of films

Chloe Zhao’s The Rider, Sony Pictures Classics’ second pick-up at this year’s Cannes Festival, won the Art Cinema Award, the top prize at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Jonas Carpignano’s neo-realist migrant drama A Ciambra, executive-produced by Martin Scorsese, won the Europa Cinemas Label Award, open to all European titles in Directors’ Fortnight. Granted by France’s Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers, the SACD Award for best French film in Directors’ Fortnight was shared by two titles from leading Gallic auteurs: Philippe Garrel’s Lover for a Day and Claire Denis’ Let the Sunshine In. See VARIETY's roundup (http://variety.com/2017/film/news/chloe-zhao-the-rider-cannes-directors-fortnight-1202445981/) on the series for more details.


Feature Films
CIAMBRA by Jonas Carpignano
A FABRICA DE NADA by Pedro Pinho
ALIVE IN FRANCE by Abel Ferrara
L’AMANT D’UN JOUR by Philippe Garrel
BUSHWICK by Cary Murnion & Jonathan Milott
CUORI PURI by Roberto De Paolis
THE FLORIDA PROJECT by Sean Baker
FROST by Sharunas Bartas
I AM NOT A WITCH by Rungano Nyoni
JEANNETTE L’ENFANCE DE JEANNE D’ARC by Bruno Dumont
L’INTRUSA by Leonardo Di Costanzo
LA DEFENSA DEL DRAGÓN by Natalia Santa
MARLINA SI PEMBUNUH DALAM EMPAT BABAK by Mouly Surya
MOBILE HOMES by Vladimir de Fontenay
NOTHINGWOOD by Sonia Kronlund
ÔTEZ-MOI D’UN DOUTE by Carine Tardieu
PATTI CAKE$ by Geremy Jasper
THE RIDER by Chloé Zhao
UN BEAU SOLEIL INTÉRIEUR (Let the Sunshine In) by Claire Denis
WEST OF THE JORDAN RIVER (FIELD DIARY REVISITED) by Amos Gitai

Short Films
ÁGUA MOLE by Laura Goncalves & Alexandra Ramires (xà)
LA BOUCHE by Camilo Restrepo
COPA-LOCA by Christos Massalas
CRÈME DE MENTHE by Philippe David Gagné & Jean-Marc E. Roy
FARPÕES, BALDIOS by Marta Mateus
MIN BÖRDA by Niki Lindroth von Bahr
NADA by Gabriel Martins
RETOUR À GENOA CITY by Benoit Grimalt
TIJUANA TALES by Jean-Charles Hue
TREŠNJE by Dubravka Turić

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[Chris Knipp]

More on Ruben Östlund's Palme d'Or winner The Square:
The Cast:
Dominic West (300, "The Wire," and Chicago)
Rôle : Julian Gijoni (the artist)
Elisabeth Moss (HBO's "Mad Men", currently Hulu's "Handmaid's Tale")
Rôle : Anne
Terry Notary (champion gymnast known for his motion-capture work on Kong, Planet of the Apes, Avatar and The Hobbit)
Rôle : Oleg
Claes Bang (Danish-born; in the lead role of-)
Rôle : Christian (curator of the museum in the former Stockholm Palace)

The Plot: there is an art installation Christian publicizes that's a space (called "the Square") allowing free improvisation within it. His life has become unhinged following a scam in which his cell phone was stolen. The film has been called a satire of the decadence in the contemporary art world, but Pedro Almodóvar said it's about the tyranny of political correctness.

Some Trailers: to the movie begin HERE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaBTxBmc7vY).

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[Johann]

Cannes is the one film festival where cinema is taken seriously.
I know movies are "just movies", but they're also art and windows into society.
The unpredictability of Cannes is what appeals to me. The Jury is not just any Jury- they are really special choices, and they all decide the winner. No other festival does it quite like that. I'll always remember Tim Burton heading a jury and "Uncle Boonmee" was the Palm D'Or winner that year...and Tarantino the year Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 won...

Force Majeure sounds good...haven't seen anything by Ruben Ostlund, but will have to now. He won the big prize...

[Chris Knipp]

Watching the press conference of the Competition Jury headed by Almodóvar after the awards ceremony impressed me with a sense of how they rise to the occasion and take their role seriously. It is also good to watch the individual Competition films' press conferences, Roman Polanski's, for instance. I found it really cool to see Will Smith rubbing elbows with Agnès Jaoui and a beautiful Chinese lady named Bing Bing something with a joint sense of a serious shared enterprise. I wished Paolo Sorrentino had said something, but no doubt the all had input. Anyway the choices are a lot less off-the-wall than last year, in my opinion. But, more will be revealed.

Incidentally the (big) Cannes press conferences - are all different of course but - are the best film festival press conferences I've ever seen, and they are the best shot I've ever seen as well.

Recalling how D'Angelo pointed out the European critics as shown in the Screen Daily Jury Grid vs. US or Anglophone critics vs. the Jury I have looked up the Jury Grid again and gotten a more complete one from Day 8:
Screen Daily (https://issuu.com/mb-insight/docs/ofc_screen_day7_85b9d55de6a6ae)
Ratings of Competition films on the Screen Daily Day 8 jury grid:


3.2 Loveless (Renowned Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev)
2.7 Womansruck (Todd Haynes)
2.7 The Square (Ruben ÖStund)
2.5 120 Beats per Minute (Robin Campillo)
2.5 The Day After (Hong Sang-soo)
2.4 The Meyerowitz Diaries (Noah Baumbach)
2.3 Okja (Boon Joon-ho)
2.2 Happy End (Michael Haneke)
1.9 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
1.8 Radiance (Nawase)
1.6 Jupiter's Moon (sp?)
1.5 Le Redoutable ( Michel Hazanavicius)
So at the top are Zviagintsev (Loveless), Todd Haynes (Womanstruck) and Ostlund (The Square), with Robin Campillo (120 Beats a Minute) also a possible popular favorite. At the bottom, Michel Hazanavicius' somewhat dubious collection of Jean-Luc Godard pastiches, Le Redoutable. This is an international daily poll of critics at the festival.
Remember that Zviagintsev's Loveless won the Jury Prize. Some think him ponderous but I have huge admiration for Zviagintseve ever since his The Return (2003) and his 2014 Leviathan which I saw an early screening of was a big, memorable experience.
I'm going to want to see Todd Haynes' Womanstruck and the Baumbach movie, said to be a unique good serious performance buy Adam Sandler. I do not have much ope for Lanthimos; I hated his last one, and the reports make this sound like more of the same. I always like Hong Sang-soo but chances of seeing it are slim except in the NYFF. I will have to see Happy End however unfun and ungreat it may be, it's still Haneke and he is a master.

There are 7-8 Competition films missing from this Grid, it's just the latest one I can find online. Lynne Ramsey's was the last to show and won two prizes.

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[Chris Knipp]

Triumph by Ramsey and Phoenix

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The final version of the Jury Grid (find it online HERE (http://www.screendaily.com/news/could-lynne-ramsay-top-loveless-on-screens-cannes-jury-grid/5118569.article)). This includes Lynne Ramsay's late-arriving You Were Never Really Here, but it hasn't quite beaten Loveless' 3.2, it's a 3.1, just below it. If the remaining score was a 4.0, it would tie Loveless. I don't think it did. But anyway even arriving last You Were Never Really Here still won two awards, Best Screenplay and Best Actor, which is quite impressive.

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