Festival Circuit 2021

[Omensetter]

Here's a schedule of Competition and the Cannes Premiere section because Desplechin and Hong are as much competition fodder as any:
—————
Tuesday, 07/06
Annette [Carax] — Competition

Wednesday, 07/07
Ahed's Knee [Lapid] — Competition
Everything Went Fine [Ozon] — Competition
The Velvet Underground [Haynes] — OOC
Jane par Charlotte [Gainsbourg] — Premieres
Val [Poo/Scott] — Premieres

Thursday, 07/08
Lingui [Haroun] — Competition
The Worst Person in the World [Trier] — Competition
Cow [Arnold] — Premieres

Friday, 07/09
Benedetta [Verhoeven] — Competition
La Fracture [Corsini] — Competition
Mothering Sunday [Husson] — Premieres

Saturday, 07/10
Compartment No. 6 [Kuosmanen] — Competition
Flag Day [Penn] — Competition
Love Songs for Tough Guys [Benchetrit] — Premieres

Sunday, 07/11
Drive My Car [Hamaguchi] — Competition
Three Floors [Moretti] — Competition
Bergman Island [Hansen-Løve] — Competition
Evolution [Mundruczó] — Premieres

Monday, 07/12
Petrov's Flu [Serebrennikov] — Competition
The French Dispatch [W. Anderson] — Competition
JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass [Stone] — Premieres

Tuesday, 07/13
A Hero [Farhadi] — Competition
Titane [Ducournau] — Competition
Deception [Desplechin] — Premieres

Wednesday, 07/14
Red Rocket [S. Baker] — Competition
The Story of My Wife [Enyedi] — Competition
Paris 13th District [Audiard] — Competition
Hold Me Tight [Amalric] — Premieres

Thursday, 07/15
Memoria [Weerasethakul] — Competition
France [Dumont] — Competition
Casablanca Beats [Ayouch] — Competition
In Front of Your Face [Hong] — Premieres

Friday, 07/16
Nitram [Kurzel] — Competition
The Restless [Lafosse] — Competition
Marx Can Wait [Bellochio] — Premieres
Vortex [Noé] — Premieres
—————
As a lot of critics submit their first entry to their outlets going into the weekend, here are some helpful grids:
http://cannes-ratings.herokuapp.com/Cannes2021?t=11#11
https://kinoart.ru/cannes2021/
https://jury.critic.de/cannes/
https://www.ioncinema.com/news/film-fes ... t-the-jury

Carax's film seems to have sufficient enthusiasm, particularly Driver who seems a decent chance at Best Actor. The early second-week, as everyone's settled in, stretch of Hamaguchi to Wes Anderson to Farhadi to Ducournau to (maybe) Baker & Enyedi to Weerasethakul looks particularly rousing.

[Pavel]

I'm easily most excited for the Baker and hope he walks away with something (my stupid longshot idea is Simon Rex for Best Actor, though I have no idea if he'll stand out enough; if anybody could make a choice like that, it's probably Spike Lee). I think Annette is most likely to win Best Director. The majority-female jury might choose to give a major award to one of the four women in comp, especially since their films look quite strong (especially Titane, though I imagine it might be divisive).

[therewillbeblus]

I just want Annette to win everything all awards season so Leos Carax gets invested ears for funding and makes another movie sooner than a decade from now

[knives]

Cannes has a pseudo-official one award per film rule so that can’t happen here.

[therewillbeblus]

Right, I'm really just taking my desire for it to take something big home here and extrapolating it for the next nine months. Though as of now, if I had to guess, it'll take Best Actor. Adam Driver is getting nearly-universal effusive praise for his perf as a career highlight.

[Pavel]

I don't think Annette will be particularly Oscar-friendly. It might help get Adam a nom for House of Gucci, since 2021 is shaping up to be a good year for him and Gucci is prob a bigger contender. Farhadi might manage to sneak up Vinterberg-/Pawlikowski-style and get a Director Oscar nom, since he's popular enough with the Academy and it might seem like his time, especially if A Hero wins something major at Cannes. Or maybe Mohsen Tanabandeh (supposedly the lead) could win Actor here and get an Oscar nom

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah Carax is probably too esoteric to assemble a big Oscar favorite across the board, but that's not really what I'm expecting. Rather, I'm hoping for it to make waves along the festival circuit all year round and revitalize his career. The Oscars are the specific endpoint for us, but not the only indicator of a resurgence that might help greenlight more projects quicker.

[Ribs]

Um, the movie is already out in France and is being released in the US and Canada in four weeks. It’s not making any kind of circuit at all.

[Pavel]

Yeah, and the fact that it's going to Amazon Prime next month likely won't help it

[therewillbeblus]

[Omensetter]

This very much feels like cinema peaking its head back up, so I truthfully am pulling for not necessarily my two favorite filmmakers of this baggy pack. I'd love for the Palme to be slapped all over the marketing materials for Bergman Island. I truthfully don't know when the last time something (seemingly) slight won the Palme, but after this year, a comedy (that probably contains truths!) winning sounds delightful instead of whatever schematic self-seriousness Farhadi has waiting. That said, my touchstone for Bergman Island is its trailer, and it could just as easily be a semi-autobiographical excavation of Hansen-Løve's and Assayas's detachment. It looks fun though, and there will be probably be plenty of good-to-great art films. Otherwise, I'm pulling for Wes Anderson because his artifice sounds really swell right now.

[Omensetter]

Over in Fortnight, I've yet to encounter a review of Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir, Part II that wasn't just positive but effusive.

Meanwhile, Joachim Trier is picking up solid notices for The Worst Person in the World in what appears to be something of a more mainstream crowdpleaser, moreso than Reprise perhaps. It probably has landed U.S. distribution as I type this, probably from SPC/Neon/IFC or maybe A24 if they feel like acknowledging non-U.S. countries.

Competition films with U.S. distribution:

Annette — Amazon
Benedetta — IFC
Bergman Island — IFC
Flag Day — MGM
The French Dispatch — Disney
A Hero — Amazon
Memoria — NEON
Paris, 13th District — IFC
Red Rocket — A24
Titane — NEON
Everything Went Fine — Cohen

[Pavel]

Bradshaw and Ehrlich don't like Benedetta, though a lot of Twitter reactions seem fairly positive.
Bradshaw also likes Lingui, but the polls suggest most of the reactions are somewhat lukewarm. I'll still watch it, but can't say I'm too excited, since Haroun's A Screaming Man and Grigris failed to resonate with me.

[Pavel]

As expected, Ahed's Knee is getting mixed reviews (see Slant, Guardian and Deadline), though the IndieWire review is very positive (as expected from Ehrlich). I liked Synonyms a lot, so I'm def looking forward to it

[knives]

A new Haroun! That’s great.

[Glowingwabbit]

Bradshaw and Ehrlich don't like Benedetta, though a lot of Twitter reactions seem fairly positive.

Ehrlich not liking Benedetta just confirms that it will be great.

[Omensetter]

David Ehrlich on The Velvet Underground documentary I'm looking forward to this

Yeah, this in my top five for the festival. Generally, I find it more interesting when Haynes is away from music-related projects, but then it's the Velvet Underground...it seems like something to watch in August before nearly every release is in some way angling for an Oscar. Hopefully, it receives a robust theatrical run in October; there's enough preawareness on the VU to sell tickets.

The Verhoeven reactions seem respectable if nowhere the positives notices for Elle. Frankly, the idea of a Verhoeven film in 2021 with its attendant reactions bores me like none other, but a lot of smart people seem to be giving it an honest go.

The Trier film seems more commercial than I anticipated; hopefully, he doesn't go to Hollywood and still makes Norwegian films.

Seydoux tested postive for COVID. I forget which film she's filming right now, the Cronenberg or the Hansen-Løve. Hopefully not the Hansen-Løve and she can attend her first Cannes competition screening, long overdue.

Today seems like a rest day before Sunday's schedule leads off with three competition films and then doesn't relent with regard to anticipated titles. Sean Penn's film will not likely receive the same vitriol as The Last Face (still the most hated Competition film in recent memory, alongside the same year's Dolan), but I've heard respectable things about it. It seems like it'd be better off at Toronto and giving the jury a break from these twenty-four films they must watch, but Penn and Fremaux seem to be friends. Juho Kuosmanen in Competition is exciting enough, but it looks relatively minor—a welcome upgrade all the same.

[Pavel]

Sean Penn's film will not likely receive the same vitriol as The Last Face (still the most hated Competition film in recent memory, alongside the same year's Dolan)

I just checked and The Last Face has the lowest Letterboxd rating out of any film to ever play in Comp or Un Certain Regard. Dolan got off way easier — people didn't enjoy dunking on the film nearly as much, it has its defenders and a much higher LB rating. Plus it won the Grand Prix, but in 2016, so...

And I have no idea how commercial Trier's film is, but it's getting very good reactions, so I'm a bit more excited for it than I was pre-fest (as one of the few people that feel lukewarm toward Oslo, August 31st)

[The Narrator Returns]

Flag Day screening seems to have cleared the bar of "less vicious than the Last Face screening" but not much else. Reviews from major-publication critics who saw it ahead of time are generally positive but nobody who saw it at the Cannes screening seems to like it much, Variety reports quite a few people sleeping through it.

[therewillbeblus]

Lea Seydoux tested positive for Covid and may still attend Cannes, where she has four films premiering

[swo17]

Apparently she was fully vaccinated and is asymptomatic, so wouldn't even know if not for rigorous on-set testing

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, though they’re obviously just worried about a mass spread at the festival. Hopefully she gets negative tests today and tomorrow and can go.

[Persona]

Very muted Cannes so far. Not even Annette could drum up much noise. But it's early.

[Omensetter]

I just checked and The Last Face has the lowest Letterboxd rating out of any film to ever play in Comp or Un Certain Regard. Dolan got off way easier — people didn't enjoy dunking on the film nearly as much, it has its defenders and a much higher LB rating. Plus it won the Grand Prix, but in 2016, so...

I was rifling through some old Screen Daily grids, and I was surprised at how low The Last Face was—no film will score lower; this is Penn's record. I tend to associate the Dolan with the Penn from that year because they screened back-to-back. All the same, barring some catastrophe, it looks like Flag Day is on track to be the runt of this year's edition despite it not being The Last Face. Penn, the egomaniac, could likely care less. Going in on Sean Penn the director seems a bit easy at the moment, but I was slightly surprised when I read that apparently the film treats Flag Day as an actual holiday that Americans pay mind. A tone deaf touch—all the moreso given it's the title—but Sean Penn exists on his own moneyed plane. It was shrewd programming to put it next to Kuosmanen's supposedly slight Competition debut, anyhow.

If this edition seems muted, it's likely in part to a fairly regimented ticketing system, a deliberately backloaded schedule, significantly less journalists, and less opportunities for critics to congregate. The Carax film did manage a 3 on the Screen Daily grid which is significant if you account for the reality that generally only two-four films land in the area. I suspect the best stretch of the festival begins now; the Hamaguchi is receiving praise, and I saw some good notices for Hansen-Løve.

[Pavel]

It was shrewd programming to put it next to Kuosmanen's supposedly slight Competition debut, anyhow.

That generally seems to be the reaction to it, but Scott Feinberg is convinced it has a good shot at the Palme, partially because Jessica Hausner and Maggie Gyllenhaal applauded enthusiastically.