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Showing posts with label Cannes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cannes. Show all posts

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Cannes 2010

Almost all the Cannes 2010 films were announced today. And right on cue, the complaining has started. Already I have read the words "disappointing", "predictable" and "boring" describing the lineup.

I will tackle "predictable" first. Here's a look at some of the predictable Un Certain Regard films.

  • Udaan (India, Vikramaditya Motwane) -- yeah this is so predictable. The first Indian film in competition in 199 years and that too from Vikramaditya Motwane, clearly a household name making his directorial debut. Motwane was a writer on DevD which must have been the highest grossing film in the world because every western critic appears to be familiar with that movie and Anurag Kashyap. Yawn. So predictable.

  • Les amours imaginaires (Canada, Xavier Dolan) -- clearly everyone saw Dolan's brilliant 2009 film I Killed my Mother which is why that movie is on every best of 2009 list. His film was so popular that the Canadian Genies decided not to nominate it because they didn't want to give an award to a popular film.

  • Qu’est-il arrive a Simon Werner? (France, Fabrice Gobert) -- oh come on, everyone knew that Gobert's debut feature was always going to play at Cannes.

  • Octubre (Peru, Daniel Vega) -- when a Peruvian film won an award at Berlin in 2009 and was nominated for this year's Oscars, then everyone knew a Peruvian film would be selected at Cannes. And it is getting so tiring to see North American multiplexes playing one Peruvian film every week.



  • Then there is the new Godard, Hong sang-soo and Cristi Pulu. Expected.

    In the Competition category:

  • Loong Boonmee Raleuk Chaat (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) -- just because Joe has never made a bad film does not mean his new film should be automatically selected!!! So predictable!



  • And then there are new films by Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Lee Chang-dong and Mike Leigh. Oh no.

    Then there's "boring".

    Normally I need to see a movie to decide if it is boring but I guess some all knowing critics know that a movie is boring just by the title. Nice gift to be able to judge a film by a title.

    And then there's "disappointing".

    Why is the new [insert director of choice]'s film not there? Oh my gawd. That is terrible.

    hmmm, what if the director's film is not completed? Should an unfinished film be in the lineup? Apparently so because it is by a big name director. How dare the festival programmers leave out a film by a big name director!!! Shame.

    And finally:

    In Cannes 2009, there were plenty of auteur's films in competition. Was that not predictable? And look at how many knives were thrown at the films last year. So is the rule that Cannes should only select films from certain directors? Is the rest of the world not allowed to make films worthy of selection?

    Once the festival starts, it won't be long before tweets will appear on how this year's Cannes is "average" or "terrible". And then before the year is over, someone will complain about how there are no good films being made and that since 1990 every film has been bad.

    Uh-huh. Sure.

    Personally, I can't wait for the disappointing, predictable and boring films to make their way to my part of the world. I need boring to balance out the pulsating cinematic excellence that is normally provided in my city's multiplexes courtesy of 3D green ogres and 2D autobots.

    :)

    Wednesday, May 13, 2009

    And so it begins...



    The Cannes Film Festival officially kicked off today and another year of debates and mud slinging can start. The festival started with an uplifting film but a few recent articles have talked about the gore that is doing to be dished out in the coming days. Robert Koehler and David Hudson talk about this aspect and it seems even the NY Times jumped on this. Although I have some other issues with the NY times piece.

    The opening paragraph contains words that appear lazy and thrown around just for the sake of it:

    Every year Cannes appears, alluring and forbidding, a haunted palace that knows better than to open wide its doors, become democratic or user-friendly — leave that to the North Americans.


    So breaking things down...

    alluring

    Yes, beautiful things are often seductive and charming.

    forbidding

    well often beauty is forbidden or kept away from the masses. And likewise, the festival is only open for a select few. Nothing wrong with that.

    a haunted palace that knows better than to open wide its doors

    Huh? In terms of cinema, Cannes has had its door open wide for ages. So not sure what the complaint is about. And if it about the general public, yes the festival is restrictive, but that's how it is.

    become democratic or user-friendly

    No film festival is truly democratic! Every film festival consists of decisions executed by a few, often usually against the grain. The back room situations that exists in Toronto, Berlin, Rotterdam, Montreal and Sundance aren't very lovey-dovey either. In fact, no film festival would ever exist if each film was democratically selected.

    And user-friendly? No film festival can ever be 100% user friendly. In fact, each user or audience member has to accommodate themselves to the festival's rhythm and only then can one have a true festival experience.

    leave that to the North Americans

    Honestly, what does North America have to do with Cannes? Moreover, this infers that North Americans and their festivals are open and democratic. Ha! In fact, at times one would be hard pressed to find international films playing in most locations across North America. If North Americans were so open, then wouldn't the powers that be pack their multiplexes with great cinema from around the world as opposed to shutting out the world's cinematic works? If America's Hollywood was so open, then why would it want to remake successful foreign films?

    After a poorly prejudiced opening paragraph, I take further issue with these words:

    Hired to rejuvenate Cannes, Mr. Frémaux does not have an easy time of it: with few American entries, and many old-timers with films ready to compete, the selection this year smacks of yet another family reunion — with a few surprises sprinkled in.

    Let's see now..

    with few American entries

    Since when did Cannes have plenty of American entries? Indie American cinema targets the Sundance film festival while serious Hollywood films target TIFF and the fall line-up. Summer is saved for loud explosive Hollywood flicks. Unfortunately, in the last few years some of these loud movies made it to Cannes but thankfully that is not the case this time around.

    and many old-timers with films ready to compete, the selection this year smacks of yet another family reunion — with a few surprises sprinkled in.

    So, what's wrong with that? It is a fascinating prospect that this year some of the best names in the global film industry are going head to head against each other. On the other hand, did it occur to anyone that these director's works were worthy to be put there? Which films have been shut out from the competition so far? The only name that keeps coming up is Francis Ford Coppola. As per the NY Times piece,

    This year, Francis Ford Coppola’s "Tetro" was rejected for competition at Cannes; rather than be relegated to Un Certain Regard, Mr. Coppola preferred to open the Fortnight.

    Most people think that if something is not in the Competition, then it is an inferior film. But the truth is that some of the best artistic cinema can be found in Un Certain Regard. This difference between the artistic levels of films exists in other parts of the world as well. For example, excellent American films such Wendy and Lucy will never be nominated for the Academy Awards which appears to be reserved mostly for the big Hollywood films. So in a similar manner, the Un Certain Regard can be considered as an alternative category which may contain better quality works than the Competition. Ofcourse, the big difference is that the Competition gives out prizes which will certainly help boost a film's distribution chances.

    I am sure more complaints will start filtering in as the festival goes on and I can already anticipate most film magazines and newspapers talk about how "substandard" Cannes was this year. Still, I look forward to seeing these films for myself to decide.

    Thursday, April 23, 2009

    Cannes 2009: Dancing in the snow

    Gasp.

    Breathe in, breathe out. Pause. Excitement building. No..must breathe again.

    Who am I kidding....

    YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    The Cannes 2009 line-up is announced and that means, once again, the film festival year has officially kicked off!!!!!

    Joy. Joy.

    And the line-up is absolutely mouth-watering. Of course it is, it always is. And I am willing to bet all the critics lucky enough to see these films will once again complain about how substandard Cannes is this year, about how Cannes used to be better decades ago. Blah. Don't care. The point is these are the movies I rather see any day given the pathetic choices hogging multiplexes across my snowy city -- yes that is not a typo, there is snow on the ground despite it being end of April.

    So...the line-up:

    Opening film: Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)
    Closing film: Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (Jan Kounen)

    In competition:

    Bright Star (Jane Campion)

    Spring Fever (Lou Ye)

    Antichrist (Lars von Trier)

    Enter the Void (Gaspar Noé)

    Face (Tsai Ming-liang)

    Les Herbes folles (Alain Resnais)

    In the Beginning (Xavier Giannoli)

    A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)

    The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)

    Vengeance (Johnnie To)

    The Time That Remains (Elia Suleiman)

    Vincere (Marco Bellocchio)

    Kinatay (Brillante Mendoza)

    Thirst (Park Chan-wook)

    Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodóvar)

    Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (Isabel Coixet)

    Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)

    Looking for Eric (Ken Loach)

    Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

    Taking Woodstock (Ang Lee)

    Out of competition

    The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam)

    The Army of Crime (Robert Guédiguian)

    Agora (Alejandro Amenábar)

    Comments:

    Absolutely delighted to see that Mendoza has gotten his film into this year's competition as well, following last year’s Serbis. He remains the only director I have chatted with from the above list. Ok, it was not really chatting but me mostly gushing over how great his films Slingshot and Foster Child were :)

    Even more thrilled to see that Alejandro Amenábar has a new film out. I am a big fan of his work and have seen all his previous 4 features -- his Open Your Eyes is a personal favourite (remade into Vanilla Sky) plus admired his first feature Thesis.

    I will have more to say in upcoming days. But for now, just delighted :)

    Monday, May 26, 2008

    Cannes 2008: Winners & Wrap-up

  • Palme d’Or -- Entre les Murs (The Class), France, Director Laurent Cantet

  • Best Director -- Nuri Bilge Ceylan for Three Monkeys

  • Best Actor -- Benicio Del Toro for Che

  • Best Actress -- Sandra Corveloni for Linha de Passe

  • Best Screenplay -- Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for Le Silence de Lorna

  • Grand Prix -- Gomorrah, Italy, Director Matteo Garrone

  • Jury Prize -- Il Divo, Italy, Paolo Sorrentino

  • Caméra d’Or -- Hunger, UK, Director Steve McQueen


  • Sean Penn, the Jury president, talks about the awards.

  • Some Images via the Guardian.

  • Wrap-up comments: NY Times, Peter Bradshaw