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hearthesilence wrote: Wed Jun 10, 2026 5:17 am [url=https://www.screendaily.com/news/french ... 27.article]

Lapid has been living in France since 2021. His most recent film Yes, which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2025, received funding from the state-supported Israel Film Fund but was a scathing critique of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu.

Never Cursed wrote: Wed Jun 10, 2026 6:04 am Haven’t seen it, but from the descriptions I’ve heard Yes is more propaganda against Israel than in its favor. Worth noting that most of the directors mentioned above in the petition are hardly Zionists themselves

beamish14 wrote: Wed Jun 10, 2026 6:26 am

Never Cursed wrote: Wed Jun 10, 2026 6:04 am Haven’t seen it, but from the descriptions I’ve heard Yes is more propaganda against Israel than in its favor. Worth noting that most of the directors mentioned above in the petition are hardly Zionists themselves

Denis, having made many films about France’s colonial history, really should know better…

beamish14 wrote: Wed Jun 10, 2026 6:26 am

Never Cursed wrote: Wed Jun 10, 2026 6:04 am Haven’t seen it, but from the descriptions I’ve heard Yes is more propaganda against Israel than in its favor. Worth noting that most of the directors mentioned above in the petition are hardly Zionists themselves

Denis, having made many films about France’s colonial history, really should know better…

Omensetter wrote: Sat May 23, 2026 9:58 pm Fjord will definitely have Discourse whenever it reemerges around the NYFF.

spectre wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 12:09 am

Omensetter wrote: Sat May 23, 2026 9:58 pm Fjord will definitely have Discourse whenever it reemerges around the NYFF.

I expect so too! Here's my own 2-cent contribution to that Discourse in the meantime: I caught Mungiu's film at Melbourne's Nordic Film Festival on the weekend and I found it both effective and frustrating. This is unimpeachable filmmaking in terms of cinematography, editing and performance, but also highly typical of a kind of film that tends to get feted at Cannes and other big European film festivals lately: studious, somewhat removed, narratively ambiguous, methodically engaged with fraught real-life issues (think Anatomy of a Fall, The Teachers' Lounge, A Hero, etc., etc.). Once you've seen one of these films, you've kind of seen them all. I don't think Mungiu is bringing much new to the table here apart from the subject matter, which is at least interesting.

Spoiler

The biggest faultline in this film's reception will likely occur around whether a) you take the film's representation of the Norwegian child protection system at face value, in which case one is clearly led to sympathise with the family and view the Norwegian system as officious and dehumanising, even while ostensibly being encouraged to "see both sides" of the issue to an extent; or b) you're more sceptically inclined, in which case you may well find its representation of that system unfair or even preposterous. (People working in child protection don't seem overly enthusiastic about the film; see this thoughtful but damning Letterboxd review, which contains more detailed spoilers, for instance.) Even for someone like me who doesn't know much about how things are done over there, elements of the film seem a bit dubious and overegged, particularly the child protection hearings (in a proceeding like this, are you really going to get a barrister on the other side acting like he's some prosecutor in a high-profile criminal trial performing for a packed courtroom, for instance?). But I think my bigger problem with the film is that it's all a bit airless; Mungiu tugs at the heartstrings with the relationship between the teenage neighbours and also Reinsve's character's bond with the elderly grandfather next door, but these are subordinated to the main plot and feel overly functional as a result.

All in all, it's a good film for provoking discussion and debate about real-world issues, but there's a fair bit of deck-stacking going on too, and it's hard not to read that a little cynically.

Captain Paranoia wrote: Fri Jun 12, 2026 5:15 am
On an incidental note (which more ties to the Berlinale controversy a few months back), the head of Berlinale got into trouble with the Ministry of State for posing alongside a Palestine flag which led to various signatories coming to her defense (interestingly, among the signatories was Sean Baker, given the shit he's gotten on socmed for allegedly having pro-Israel views) so I sense my theory that the jury's handling of the situation was at least partially out of concerns of angering the government was vindicated.

rrenault wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:18 am I caught Fjord at a 'reprise cannoise' screening in Paris at the end of May, and I'm very much in the "I'm not yet sure what to think of it" camp. It's not a bad film by any stretch, but one does wonder if its 'both sides' take on the subject matter ultimately comes off as reactionary.

I still think 4M3W2D remains enduring though.

Post-Amour, Palme d'or winners have felt rather anodyne on the whole I feel. 2009-2012 was an inspired run with The White Ribbon, 'Uncle Boonmee', Tree of Life, and Amour. Winter Sleep wasn't bad, but Uzak and Once Upon A Time in Anatolia are both far better. Maybe 'anodyne' isn't the right adjective for Titane, but I can't see it lasting. I actually liked Alpha more.

For what it's worth, I actually did like I, Daniel Blake more than I thought I would.

I see what you mean about the lack of sui-generis Palme d'or winners though. There was of course Portrait of a Lady on Fire (not a Palme winner technically but still a bonafide "arthouse sensation"). I do think Kelly Reichardt (hasn't actually won a Palme, granted) feels fresh, even if only because that sort of "hard arthouse" mode of filmmaking, associated with the mid to late 20th century European cinema, is something rare in American cinema. That by itself makes her stronger films feel somewhat fresh. First Cow almost feels like something Lucrecia Martel or Lisandro Alonso could have made.

Reichardt's films often feel quite different from bog standard "American Indies".

dda1996a wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 7:38 pm

rrenault wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:18 am I caught Fjord at a 'reprise cannoise' screening in Paris at the end of May, and I'm very much in the "I'm not yet sure what to think of it" camp. It's not a bad film by any stretch, but one does wonder if its 'both sides' take on the subject matter ultimately comes off as reactionary.

I still think 4M3W2D remains enduring though.

Post-Amour, Palme d'or winners have felt rather anodyne on the whole I feel. 2009-2012 was an inspired run with The White Ribbon, 'Uncle Boonmee', Tree of Life, and Amour. Winter Sleep wasn't bad, but Uzak and Once Upon A Time in Anatolia are both far better. Maybe 'anodyne' isn't the right adjective for Titane, but I can't see it lasting. I actually liked Alpha more.

For what it's worth, I actually did like I, Daniel Blake more than I thought I would.

I see what you mean about the lack of sui-generis Palme d'or winners though. There was of course Portrait of a Lady on Fire (not a Palme winner technically but still a bonafide "arthouse sensation"). I do think Kelly Reichardt (hasn't actually won a Palme, granted) feels fresh, even if only because that sort of "hard arthouse" mode of filmmaking, associated with the mid to late 20th century European cinema, is something rare in American cinema. That by itself makes her stronger films feel somewhat fresh. First Cow almost feels like something Lucrecia Martel or Lisandro Alonso could have made.

Reichardt's films often feel quite different from bog standard "American Indies".

I was very much talking about winners, not films in competition in general (even though there's also been a decline in the selection overall).
I haven't seen it in ages, but Blue is the Warmest Color in 2014 (or Winter Sleep, which was an overdue if a lesser Ceylan; haven't seen that since so I'll refrain from giving an opinion on it even if I was a bit dissapointed with it) was the last before a series of underwhelming winners -
Dheepan, I, Daniel Blake, The Square, Titane, Triangle of Sadness, Fjord are all rather lackluster in my opinion.

If I am being charitable, Shoplifters, Anatomy of a Fall & It Was Just an Accident are solid films, Parasite is a good film (but not an all timer for me; I prefer his earlier films more) and I do like Anora (but even then, I prefer Florida Project & Red Rocket).

It's not that the early 00's didn't have lesser films, but while I don't care for Fahrenheit 9/11 I can still see it's cultural relevancy.
In the 90s, the only I don't especially care for is Farewell My Concubine (haven't seen The Best Intentions), everything else that decade is either brilliant or at least memorable and unique (like The Piano or Rosetta).

Oh well, enough for being a nostalgic old curmudgeon

rrenault wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:05 pm The aughts did have some winners that nobody seems to talk about anymore, like Entre Les Murs.

Never Cursed wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:17 pm

rrenault wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:05 pm The aughts did have some winners that nobody seems to talk about anymore, like Entre Les Murs.

For a reason

rrenault wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:55 pm Under the Sun of Satan feels like another Winter Sleep situation where a major director wins but for the ‘wrong film’.

rrenault wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:55 pm

Never Cursed wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:17 pm

rrenault wrote: Tue Jul 28, 2026 9:05 pm The aughts did have some winners that nobody seems to talk about anymore, like Entre Les Murs.

For a reason

P.S. I just learned a few minutes ago there were no French Palme d’Or winners between Pialat’s Under the Sun of Satan and Entre Les Murs. That’s actually kind of surprising.