Our man in Cannes, Jason Wood, reports back from this year’s glitziest of film festivals…
Ma Loute
Directed by Bruno Dumont
Having demonstrated a hitherto unknown gift for comedy in P’it Quinquin, Bruno Dumont makes it a notch funnier and broader in Ma Loute. Set amidst a small fishing community in Slack Bay (Dumont’s beloved Northern France) where tourists are going missing, the film follows two inept detectives as they try to piece together the clues. At the heart of the community is the Bufort family, a bunch of impoverished former sailors (including the eponymous Ma Loute) and fishermen now reduced to menial work for wealthy day trippers. The outsiders include a horrendous bourgeois family, headed by the patriarchal Van Petegem (Fabrice Luchini). This film really has it all. Too much perhaps. It’s beautifully shot in a painterly fashion and it has some jaw dropping and hilarious set pieces. One of the detectives is obese and prone to having to roll down hills. I laughed every time it happened. There is a more serious undertow however and the film takes in cannibalism, incest and gender identity. The main thrust is class and wealth. And I admired the way Dumont made petty much everyone repellent. Reuniting with Juliette Binoche struck a false note. She is certainly game but lacks a natural gift for comedy. I winced the entire time she was on screen. Dumont continues to grow and excel as a director. I like his new direction and the mixing of grit and grain. It would have been unimaginable years ago. Almost as if John Cage joined Take That.
I, Daniel Blake
Directed by Ken Loach
Set in the North East, Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake is a terrific and sadly much necessary critique of the Tory State. The tale of a former carpenter who is seeking benefits following an inability to work for health reasons, it also looks at a young mother of two who to make ends meet is forced to resort to prostitution. The performances are characteristically terrific and the film, scripted by Paul Laverty, combines wit and wisdom in equal measure. The main emotion is anger. Anger at a system with a complete disregard for human rights and anger at a system that dehumanises the working classes and makes them out as scroungers and parasites. The scene where a young women is so overcome with desperation at a food bank that she starts eating beans from a tin is one of the most powerful things I can remember in recent cinema. Her shame and sense of humiliation are numbing.
Personal Affairs
Directed by Maha Haj
Screened in Un Certain Regard, Personal Affairs is an intelligent, wry and gently political look at the interconnecting lives of a family headed by an elderly married couple living in Nazareth. Beautifully shot, it’s full of smart and pithy observations and also makes terrific use of exterior and interior landscapes. The Israeli Maha Haj directs.
Close Encounters with Vilmos Zsigmond
Directed by Pierre Filmmon
Screened in Cannes Classics, this is a loving and beautifully illustrated documentary tribute to Hungarian cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. Featuring on-camera interviews with Zsigmond himself – which the DOP tells director Pierre Filmon how to shoot – there is also an impressive roster of actors, directors and fellow cinematographers on hand to pay testimony to Zsigmond’s unique eye. Thankfully, the film resists hagiography and the sense emerges that Zsigmond is a man who very much knows his own mind. The clips from McCabe and Mrs Miller, Sugarland Express, The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate amongst others, are thoughtfully chosen. My favourite sequences were Peter Fonda reminiscing about the closing shot of The Hired Hand and John Boorman talking about the collaboration on Deliverance. The film also reminded me of just how good De Palma’s Blow Out is and I intend to watch it the moment I get home. The film also has something interesting to say about the immigrant experience and adds valuable material to the theory, largely my own, that American movies are always best when shot from an outsider’s perspective.
The Handmaiden
Directed by Park Chan-wook
Not, as I thought, a portrait of the former mullet-haired-garish-costume-wearing-tennis-champ but a rather delicious revenge film from notorious director Park Chan Wook. The Handmaiden largely lowers the violence (OK, there is a torture scene not for the faint hearted including a giant corkscrew) but ups the eroticism and lesbianism in a tale of deception and double bluff. The plot is serviceable at best (there are echoes of Les Diaboliques and Oliver Twist) but it’s the visuals that set the film apart. Every shot is superbly composed and the use of colour and texture is exquisite. A giant octopus appears in a tank. I’d like to see Oldboy try and eat that.
The Winter
Directed by Emiliano Torres
Hidden away in the murky depths of the market is The Winter, a quietly riveting film from Argentinean director Emiliano Torres. Set on a remote farm in Patagonia, it observes the changing of the guard between the old foreman and the younger man hired to replace him. The film has thriller elements (nicely downplayed) but is less concerned with thrills and plot than with a slow voyage around melancholy and sadness. It’s a film about poverty, hardship, fractured families and the demise of farming for tourism. I liked it very much. I was also the only one in the screening. Lisandro Alonso is a point of reference.
Toni Eardmann
Directed by Maren Ade
Lauded as one of the festival discoveries, Maren Ade’s Toni Eardmann is one of the weirdest and most wonderful viewing experiences I have had in 20 years of coming to Cannes. An in-depth, 162 minute character study of the relationship between a lonely German teacher with a penchant for fart jokes and false teeth, and his uptight, work obsessed daughter living in Bucharest (think a perma-stressed, sweat stained Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton), the film offers a biting analysis of white collar culture. Incredibly funny, it’s also an observation of the debilitating effects of mental illness and a kind of paralysis caused by loneliness. The economic exploitation of impoverished European countries is also subtly mined. The lead performances are astonishing, especially Sandra Hüller (Requiem) as the very vulnerable daughter. The film features an incredible karaoke performance of Whitney Houston’s The Greatest Love of All, which manages to be both hilarious and melancholic. Imagine Being There meets The Piano Teacher and you’re getting close.
From the Far Side of the Moon
Directed by Nicole Garcia
Nicole Garcia’s adaptation of Milena Agus’ novel about a woman trapped in a loveless marriage looks the part, as does Marion Cotillard in the central role. It’s a work high on emotion but which has at its centre a narrative conceit that I wasn’t able to go for and which crucially weakens the film. The male lead also looks like Sunderland-era managing Roy Keane, which is very distracting. A handsome misfire, but not without its moments. Lous Garrel in a supporting role is characteristically charmless. Has there ever been a more charmless actor?
After Love
Directed by Joachim LaFosse
The new film from Joachim LaFosse looks at a couple (Berenice Bejo and Cedric Kahn) as they go through a separation and its impending reparations, both financial and otherwise and the immediate effect on their two children. LaFosse has an eye for detail and offers an excellent analysis of the finer details of a long and once happy relationship that has run its course. The film fatally repeats a number of its key points and seems to suggest a positive outcome when all evidence suggests otherwise. That said, the performances are excellent and go a long way to forgiving the film for a mis-step or two. Cedric Kahn is one of my favourite actors (though I urge him to get back to directing) and he excels here as a gruff working class man who has benefited from his partner’s greater wealth. Bejo is good too, and as a couple they are potent and believable.
American Honey
Directed by Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold’s first foray into working outside of England is undoubtedly long and meandering but it is also bold and frequently brilliant. An American road movie that mixes a cast of unknowns with Shia LaBeouf (surprisingly good); it’s a heady cocktail of realism and poetry. There are moments of repetition (Arnold seems fascinated by nature) but the ambition is admirable, as is the execution. The use of music (Hip Hop, Mazzy Star, Will Oldham) also hits all the right notes.
French Cinema
Directed by Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier’s 198-minute documentary about French cinema is one of the best experiences I have had in 20 years of coming to Cannes. It should be mandatory viewing for all cinephiles. Tavernier is a masterful interpreter and a font of knowledge. His ability to deconstruct scenes, films, oeuvres and personalities is astonishing. The film focuses on writers, actors, composers and cinematographers and is unafraid to be contentious. My favourite sequences were on Renoir and Melville, my favourite director of all time. There is also a great sequence dedicated to the great Henri Langlois, the cinematheque programmer whose sacking caused a riot.
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