SCREEN: Garrone 1.9/4, Seidl 1.5/4 (but with a high standard deviation)
FILM FRANCAIS: Garrone 1.9/4, Seidl 1.8/4 (high standard deviation), Lou revised down to 1.2/4

My Day 4:

1. Hillcoat, Lawless (USA, Competition). Embarrassing. F

2. Larrain, No (Chile, Directors' Fortnight). Shot on 1" U-matic tape, replete with RYB halo effects, to emulate the look of 1980s broadcast TV. Fascinating topic: the ad wars over the 1986 referendum on Pinochet's rule. Equally absorbing (nice performances and brisk plotting) and revolting (the film seems to accept, uncritically, the inevitability if not the genius of the anti-intellectual ad campaign). B [There was no "whooping" or "wild ovation" at the conclusion of today's screening. Maybe those in the premiere yesterday were planted by the film's PR team.]

3. Cronenberg (Brandon), Antiviral (Canada, Un certain regard). Re a future in which celebrity worship has got so out of control people pay to vicariously experience the lives of the famous by injecting their diseases. Like an early Cronenberg (David) 25-minute short dragged out to two hours. Most of the folks near me were sleeping through it. B/D [Ideas/Execution]

4. Lifshitz, Les invisibles (France, Special Screening). Septuagenarian gays and lesbians reminisce re growing up in a time when such things were not spoken of. By anyone. Well-made doc, but toooo long. [This complaint is become a leitmotif here, huh?] C+

5. Vinterberg, The Hunt (Denmark, Competition). The first engaging film in the Competition. Tight script of a cliched plot -- a man falsely accused of molesting the kindergarteners in his care. Fine performances, and it looks beautiful, but there are too many points at which you say things like "why doesn't he just say this?" or "why doesn't he just call the police?" B

Haneke on tap in the morning. Good night!

Care to elaborate on the Hillcoat? I'm curious as to what you found so awful about it.

The buzz behind Larrain has definitely intrigued me. I haven't seen Tony Manero but I saw Post Mortem a few years ago and thought it was fine. Maybe he steps up his game on this picture?

Like a 1960s Hollywood Western, utterly styleless - nothing that would suggest it was made by the director of The Proposition. Awful performances, especially from leads Hardy and LaBoeuf. Paint-by-numbers characterization. Feels like Harvey Weinstein himself may have written the script.

New SCREEN jury: Hillcoat 1.7/4 average, Mungiu 3.2/4 average
FILM FRANCAIS: Hillcoat 1.7/4 average, Mungiu 2.3/4 average

Day 5:

1. Haneke, Amour (Competition). First five shots – a Schubert recital and its aftermath – are brilliant. Then the narrative (a pretty dry exercise re the stages of dying; not particularly affecting) and performances (Trintignant and Riva are too calculatingly classical to make me care here, though they're working with a weak script, iyam) kick in. Some lazy camerawork from Khondji. Loved the trailer. The film has none of its wit or energy. For Haneke, pretty disappointing. B-

2. Tobal, Villegas (Special Screening, first film). Cousins on the road to somewhere in Argentina. Insufferably chatty (with painfully dull dialogue). The Salle Bazin was two-thirds abandoned when I finally left too.

3. Hong, In Another Country (Competition). Huppert is amazingly brave to have done this one. [She stood out in the Haneke, too, btw.] She plays three women – a film director, a socialite who’s having an affair with a director, and a woman who’s husband just left her for a Korean woman – who visits a small Korean town and has a flirtation with a hunky, doorknob dumb, Hong-staple “brutishly Korean” lifeguard. Minor Hong. Minimal laughs. Silly fantasy bits. Bagatelles at best. Hong’s got a new camera/lighting crew for this one. And the results are several steps back, technically. B=

4. Kiarostami, Like Someone in Love (Competition). Stood in line 70 minutes in the pouring rain tonight. Feel bad for the 300-400 critics who did likewise but didn’t get in. ... This one’s likely to divide folks. Some boos and hissing mixed in with the applause at the press screening. Anyway … A call girl on the outs with her hot-headed fiancé is sent to the apartment of a translator/professor whose intentions seem surprisingly platonic. As per Kiarostami, lots of talking, listening to phone messages, and driving around town. Technically, a cut above (i.e. he’s got a top-notch Japanese crew). I was engaged. Sags in the middle when the “action” dominates the “observations” and the dialogue becomes a bit predictable and cutesy. Great ending, though – hit everyone like a brick in the face. B+

Tomorrow: Resnais, three from Un certain regard, maybe the Loach, maybe Ascher's Room 237.

The reviews for Like Someone in Love are all over the place. Seems to be getting a reaction similar to Mungiu's Beyond the Hills. From high praise to outright pans. The mixed reactions to both films only makes me more intrigued to see them.

According to the press kit, it's the same team that shot Oki's Movie (and most of the team that shot Hahaha). Maybe they're breaking in a new camera or something.

Kim Kyung-ku - who shot Tale of Cinema, Woman on the Beach, and the Hong films of that period (as well as The Host and Memories of Murder) - also shot The Day He Arrives, the last Hong film before this one. I guess I hadn't noticed that he didn't do Hahaha (which looks pretty decent) and Oki's Movie (which didn't). The look of In Another Country was so dire though, I had an eye out for the culprits during the credits. Thanks for the correction, TFN.

SCREEN jury updates: Haneke 3.3/4, Vinterberg 2.8/4
FILM FRANCAIS: Haneke 3.1/4, Vinterberg 2/4, Dolan 1.8/4, BCronenberg 1/4

Of the English language major media critics, Dennis Lim seems to have had reactions most similar to mine. Never read his stuff. Here’s his ballot so far: Good (Seidl, Anderson), Mediocre (Vinterberg, Haneke, Mungiu, Garrone), Weak (Nasrallah, Audiard, Hillcoat). I’d trade Audiard for Garrone, otherwise …

Day 6:

Only three films today, as I was called to sub for a colleague at a conference and then decided to skip the Loach (for which I have very low expectations) and the Ascher (which is coming to the US courtesy of IFC) and give my tired eyes some rest.

1. Resnais, You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (Competition). Resnais’ adaptation of Anouilh’s adaptation of Eurydice, performed by three sets of actors, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes in sequence. The performances are all theatrical à la française and all top-notch, and the triplication allows us to compare interpretations (of lines, of characterization) and nuances of acting. But the framing story – the established actors (Azema, Wilson, Piccoli, etc) have been summoned to the estate of the presumably recently deceased playwright to execute his will, including the vetting of a new version of his play by an experimental theatre troupe – is La vie est un roman-like silliness; and the whole thing seems … wait for it … too long. B-

2. Verheyde, Confession of a Child of the Century (Un certain regard). Same themes as Resnais’ Eurydice: love, deception, reckless abandon, betrayal. Polar opposite in style, setting. Lush period piece, operatic, but erratic. Charlotte Gainsbourg seems a bit lost here (Verheyde's fault, no doubt). The rest of the cast is even more spotty (apparently, the male lead is some kind of rock star; interesting to look at, but not much of an actor). C+

3. Begic, Djeca (Un certain regard). Tedious film about a lower-middle class young Sarajevan woman who’s juggling dealing with her brother’s delinquency and her relationship with her Mafioso boss. The director is a Muslim woman of maybe 35. D

Tomorrow: Dominik, Miike, Bertolucci, Carax. I'll try to see Brillante Mendoza's Captive (a Berlinale film that's playing in the market here) too.

I heard they cancelled a screening due to inclement weather - is it stormy out there? Someone told me it's been raining a lot, but I would never have guessed it from the handful of photos I've seen.

It rained pretty much all day yesterday (Sunday; see Day 5, Kiarostami blurb, above) and today (Monday). Worst was last night around 7 PM, but I haven't heard of any cancellations. It wasn't THAT bad. Details?

The Guardian: 'The torrential rain has brought the wildlife out in force: here, a snail has managed to get on the red carpet'

Symbolic of how many of these films are paced according to "yoshimori"

That makes sense. The "60th" is an big tent on the roof of the Rivera complex (right behind the Palais) and, though it's large and sturdy, it's exposed to the elements. "Day after" screenings and some special screenings take place there. Haven't visited this year, preferring the more traditional venues of the Lumiere, Debussy, and Bazin, where press and regular screenings take place.

I can only imagine, though, that sheets of rain blown into viewers' faces would only improve the experience of watching Villegas.

The Guardian's Xan Brooks covers the Marché du Film again. It almost plays like a spoof documentary.

Indiewire posted an article about buyers and critic reactions to a market screening of The Paperboy. It's supposedly awful and they have a quote from one buyer who even calls the film a trainwreck. Can't say I'm surprised.

jury updates:
SCREEN: Resnais 2.6/4, Kiarostami 2.4/4, Hong 2/4
FILM FRANCAIS: Resnais 2.6/4, Kiarostami 1.3/4, Hong 1.3/4

Day 7:

1. Dominik, Killing Them Softly (Competition). Breezy and beautifully crafted tale of a quadruple hit on the low level thugs who’ve spoiled one of the mafia’s lucrative card games. The setting – the 2008 economic meltdown and subsequent presidential election – allows for ample political commentary and playful irony. The cast (except for Pitt) is excellent. A trifle, perhaps … but a sleek and stylish one. B

2. Miike, Ai to Makoto (Out of Competition). Great start – a gritty 1970s delinquency drama is interrupted by irony heavy love songs – but after 30 minutes, and with 104 minutes still to go [!!!], it quickly becomes a tedious Crows retread. A- → C

3. Bertolucci, Io e te (Out of Competition). As expected, puerile symbolism, psychology, prurience, pretension. F

4. Delepine and Kervern, Le grand soir (Un certain regard). Silly French comedy. Dogs barking at giant posters of cats. Furniture salesmen hopping from mattress to mattress. A baby passed through the drive-through pick-up window of a burger joint. A guy with spiked hair, his name (“NOT”) tattooed on his forehead. That kind of thing. Not for me. Grade resistant.

5. Carax, Holy Motors (Competition). I can’t begin to say how disappointing this was. Murky ruminations on the MEANING of cinema, of acting. Denis Lavant is limo’d around Paris on 9 assignments, 9 roles he must play – each one (except maybe the reprise of Mr Merde from the Tokyo anthology and the “motion capture” sequence) is tedious. Lots of violence. The press notes talk about “a journey to the limits of man’s potential”, but the whole thing is, benefit of the doubt, beyond me. C

Tomorrow: Salles, Reygadas, the Havana anthology.

Post Lux Tenebras isn't getting very good reviews. Man, this seems like a really lackluster year at Cannes. I'm surprised at how many auteur directors are getting middling to poor reviews.

jury updates:
SCREEN: Dominik 2.9/4, Loach 2.8/4
FILM FRANCAIS: Dominik 2/4, Loach 2/4

Day 8:

Only three movies today. Other business to attend to.

1. Salles, On the Road (Competition). Utterly conservative filmmaking. Absolutely safe. Nothing remotely original here. Rambling (not surprising, given the source materials) and that’s OK by me, but none of the places it went were of interest. C-

2. Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux (Competition). Lots of boos at the press screening. No surprise, I guess, since this is for me clearly the best (and second most challenging) movie of the festival so far. Certainly the only one, of the 35+ I've seen so far, I'd recommend. Rambling, yes, but every moment is filled with the kind of beauty Malick only dreams about. A glowing red devil, a sex club, a self-decapitation. All integrated into the mundane course of daily life. A

3. 7 Days in Havana (Un certain regard). Noé (lesbianism, Santeria) and Suleiman (centered compositions and a decent deadpan) are passable. The rest, meh to horrible.

Screen international critics poll, so far, from highest rated to worst.



3.3 - Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu)
3.3 - Amour (Michael Haneke)
2.9 - Rust and Bone (Jacques Audiard)
2.9 - The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg)
2.9 - Killing Them Softly (Andrew Dominik)
2.8 - The Angels' Share (Ken Loach)
2.7 - On the Road (Walter Salles)
2.6 - Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
2.6 - You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet! (Alain Resnais)
2.4 - Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)
2.1 - In Another Country (Hong Sang-soo)
2.0 - Holy Motors (Leos Carax)
1.9 - Reality (Matteo Garrone)
1.7 - Lawless (John Hillcoat)
1.5 - After the Battle (Yousry Nasrallah)
1.5 - Paradise: Love (Ulrich Seidl)

Each critic rates the films out of 4 - Critics polled were:
Nick James (Sight and Sound, UK)
David Stratton (The Australian, Australia)
Derek Malcolm (London evening Standard, UK)
Jan Schulz-Ojalla (Der Tagesspiegel, Germany)
José Carlos Avellar (Brazil)
Dennis Lim (New York Times, USA)
Michel Ciment (Positif, France)
Kate Muir (The Times, UK)
Bo Green Jenssen (Weekendavisen, Denmark)
Screen International

Still to come:
Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas)
Mud (Jeff Nichols)
In the Fog (Sergei Loznitsa)
The Taste of Money (Im Sang-soo)
The Paperboy (Lee Daniels)
Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)

The Paperboy is by all accounts outrageously goofy, campy trash. A couple of folks reveled (to an extent) in the "so bad it's good" silliness, but no one is taking it seriously.

Wow, the Screen International poll really didn't turn out well for Carax. Surprising after all the praise, but those polled are a somewhat conservative bunch.

Really? Most of the reviews I've read said its a load of pretentious nonsense.

It's ranked #4 on the Film Français poll.
The Hollywood Reporter raved. Peter Bradshaw gave it a 5 stars. Xan Brooks loved it too.
It's one of the best received films of the festival so far. I'll be very surprised if it doesn't take one of the major prizes.