criterionforum.org

Empty Places, which was part of last year's program, has been nominated for the best animated short film Cesar. I see I never wrote it up, but it's definitely worth seeking out if you can find it

And from this year's festival, Medecin de nuit has been nominated for Best Actor

domino harvey wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 6:28 pm Empty Places, which was part of last year's program, has been nominated for the best animated short film Cesar. I see I never wrote it up, but it's definitely worth seeking out if you can find it

You can find it here

This year's lineup is now up on their website, and the jury will include Albert Serra and Sergei Loznitza. At first glance, I'm intrigued by the sound of The Crossing and The World After Us.

Watched a couple of shorts. Anxious Body is cheap ASMR with a fetish for paper cuts, so no thanks. Cataracte attempts to mix gallows humor with the tragic fatalism of systemic benefits severed from humanism, and it's neither funny nor sad, and not investing in theme, character, or tone... so, what's the point? At least Please Don't Touch! gets credit for exhaustively attempting to squeeze a surplus of ideas into its brief eight minutes, but there are a slew of problems: I'm not sure it's even aware of what it's critiquing half the time, its batting average for gags landing is very low, and the animation (though intentionally shoddy) doesn't really gel in any compelling way. The film's greatest strength is its use of sound nodding -practically bowing- to Tati

Ronde de nuit (The Night Watch) is terrific though - a drunken night of conflict, vulnerability, and trauma morphs into an obfuscated Eyes Wide Shut odyssey of hallucinogenic horror. It's at once bleak and exhilarating; acutely vivid with hypervigilance to detail and yet snared in an inebriated state of confusion. There's a lot of insecurities externalized in the phantasmagoric animation, but above all this is a great depiction of a drunken nightmare -whether one is living or dreaming it

Underway yet again, with Noemie Merlant and Viggo Mortensen among the jury members. Salvadori’s Les Apprentis, which I don’t think has an English friendly release apart from back channels, is among the selections of older films

That’s good fun. Does anyone have a list of the free to watch films?

According to Letterboxd, I was recommended La fille de son père at one point, but I can’t remember how strongly (and I didn’t like Le Duc’s last film Perdrix that appeared in this festival a few years back). Also, Making Of is Cédric Kahn’s comic follow-up to his not-comic hit from last year, Le procès Goldman, & while Le temps d’aimer seems like a pretty typical Cannes-bait snooze, I might give it a shot given the actors involved.

Red Screamer wrote: Fri Jan 17, 2025 4:34 pm According to Letterboxd, I was recommended La fille de son père at one point, but I can’t remember how strongly (and I didn’t like Le Duc’s last film Perdrix that appeared in this festival a few years back)d.

I liked it, but I also loved Perdrix, and this is very much apiece with that film's tonal energy. La fille de son père is more dramatic, but infuses its seriousness with a madcap formal propulsion right from the get-go that can be hypnotic and works for the destabilizing thematic tone of the film, whether that be to fall in love or cope with unexpected losses and re-emergences. Though while there's a charm to Le Duc's loose hold leading to unpredictable narrative quirks, he risks and falls into patterns of inconsistency and confounding choices that don't gel with the rest. There simply isn't enough of a structure around relationship dynamics for them to all work under the umbrella of his internal logic. The father-daughter relationship effectively drifts between accelerated eccentricity and pulsing stillness, but Maud Wyler doesn't fit in at all. She once again embodies a superfluous love interest, yet this time Le Duc isn't interested in subverting the role into rich characterization. Le Duc seems to want to draw Wes Anderson characters in his own style, and though I admire his wit and audacity on certain occasions (enough to give the film an edge towards recommendation), he's not entirely successful at crafting a cohesive whole, and unfortunately avoids engaging with a sense of emptiness in a lucid and deliberate way a la Anderson.

domino harvey wrote: Mon Jul 06, 2020 6:39 pm

domino harvey wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:21 am

therewillbeblus wrote: Sat Jan 18, 2020 5:49 am I went through a good portion of the live-action shorts, and while very few really wowed me (some were downright awful: I turned off Le Discours d'acceptation glorieux de Nicolas Chauvin pretty quickly despite its amusing concept. Perhaps I'll return to it if others here who give it a chance recommend it)

I really enjoyed Le Discours d'acceptation glorieux de Nicolas Chauvin, and I'm assuming you turned it off before the film crystallizes why we're seeing a frat bro reenact a French historical figure (whose very name is the first clue as to the point of all this). I thought it had some good film-making instincts and played fast and loose with its concept in a way that felt more puckish than un-tethered. It is also very, very offensive by design, so even if you can meet the film on its level, you may not care to! But I laughed a lot, especially at dumb throwaway lines like "According to a Wikipedia article I wrote" or Chauvin randomly thanking "Les intouchables, le film" in an acceptance speech. I give it a hearty recommendation! Also, huge LOLs @ Amazon giving this an "All Ages" rating: sure, all ages if you were getting dragged along to a VFW circa 1965, maybe-- I think every racial or sexist French slur I know makes an appearance in this thing!

Alexis Manenti is having a great year. After this and winning the Cesar for Les Miserables, he's been invited to join the AMPAS (though from the screenwriters' branch, along with the other two credited writers for LM-- the only French actor invited by the acting branch this year was Adele Haenel)

This short has been brought back through August on YouTube via Unifrance worldwide