Cannes 2008 - Jour Trois
Mathieu Amalric and Catherine Deneuve in
Arnaud Desplechin’s Un Conte de Noel (A Christmas Tale)
Cannes seems to have begun rolling in earnest and reviews are pouring in. Time is short at the moment so here is a look at some of the biggies. Stay tuned for an addendum later tonight or tomorrow.
Screening in Un Certain Regard is Tyson, James Toback’s documentary about the controversial boxer. First, Variety’s Anne Thompson talks to the filmmaker who has been friends with Tyson since 1987. Then, Todd McCarthy reviews the film itself, calling it “revelatory.” Covering all the territory you’d expect (the early career, the highs, the lows, the rape and the ear biting), McCarthy says it never pretends to be objective, but “by getting Tyson to open up as he has, Toback has succeeded in illuminating one of the most polarizing, complex and — the film almost forces one to admit — misunderstood figures of our time.”
In competion, several reviewers caught Un Conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale) from Frenchman Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queen), starring Catherine Deneuve, her daughter Chiarra Mastroianni (Persepolis), Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and LiC favorite Emmanuelle Devos (Read My Lips, Kings and Queen). From his new blog, recently liberated Glenn Kenny enthuses “The bourgeois-dysfunctional-family-comes-together-for-a-holiday setup is one of the hoariest in any medium, but if anybody can conjure something fresh out of it, it’s Desplechin, and boy does he ever.”
Meanwhile, Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir agrees saying “If this is not the obvious masterpiece on first viewing that Kings and Queen was, I found A Christmas Tale a marvelously rich visual, intellectual and emotional experience, one that I expect will grow deeper with repeat viewings.”
Cannes first-timer Kim Voynar from Cinematical joins the chorus and worries what would happen to the film in more commercial hands: “The gods of cinema preserve us from anyone getting the idea to do an American remake of this deeply layered, intelligent film, because I have no doubt that it would be ruined beyond all recognition.”
Finally (for now), screening out of competition is Woody Allen’s latest film Vicky Cristina Barcelona starring Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson. Jeff Wells loved the Spanish-language scenes between Bardem and Cruz, saying they “feel truly alive and crackling.” Unfortunately, plenty of the rest of the film is in English and these scenes fall flat. Says Wells, “I never thought I’d see the day when one of the great comedy writers of the 20th Century would write unintentional howlers, but this happens every so often in VCB, and I was not happy to witness this.” He adds that there were boos from 5 or 6 unidentified sources as the end credits rolled.
Filed under: Film Festivals, Movies
It’s worth noting that Wells’ thoughts on VCB seem to be in the minority. It has received positive reviews from Todd McCarthy, Cinematical, Richard Corliss, Time Out Chicago, and Emanuel Levy.
What’s that? No I’m not obsessed, and I’ll fucking kill anyone who says otherwise!
Hmm, good. Makes me that much more excited to see Tyson.
Seriously, boos? I guess that actually happens a lot at Cannes, huh?
In contrast to Wells, Cinematical’s Kim Voynar said ‘Allen has succeeded in making an excellent film; Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a lovely gift from a filmmaker who, when he’s on his game, truly hits the mark.’
So nice to see Mathieu. I just finished watching “The Diving Bell and The Butterfly” for the third time.
Beware of Kim’s review though, I read too much of it and she goes in pretty explicit detail about the plot, or at least the beginning of it.
i’m i the only person *not* bothered if reviews mention plot stuff ???
I was just digging through Green Cine Daily’s Cannes recaps from last week and these (with the GCD link pages for each) are the ones that so far, sound the most interesting to me. Looks to be another strong year for foreign films.
Yella
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/005991.html#more
Waltz with Bashir
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/005993.html#more
Four Nights with Anna
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/005995.html#more
Three Monkeys
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006003.html#more
A Christmas Tale (Un Conte De Noël)
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006005.html#more
Discuss!
I’m coming across a crapload of stuff I’ll have my eye out for. to your list I’d add Tyson, Tokyo!, Hunger, Rumba, Blindness and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Another good source of Cannes reviews and industry news is Screen Daily ->
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=38829
Not to use Cannes as another excuse to kick Wells in the ass but this is exactly why I was so befuddled by his insistence that, if the two Che movies didn’t debut there, it would be a ho-hum affair. Just the many titles by many of the finest foreign filmmakers of today, sight unseen, being shown there this year indicated that this would be an even greater than average Cannes.
Yeah, Alexander, I agree. I thought this year would be dominated by US studio releases but it appears I was completely wrong. Of course, the big studio stuff hits this weekend, no? So I guess maybe we’ll see how that shakes out.
Desplechin is one of my favorite directors currently working, so this is great, great news. UN CONTE DE NOEL was my most anticipated film of Cannes this year (followed by THE SILENCE OF LORNA, THREE MONKEYS, and SYNECHDOCHE NEW YORK), so if nothing else this promises to be an awesome TIFF for me this year.
“the film almost forces one to admit — misunderstood figures of our time.”
Whatever. The guy raped an 18 year old girl and bit a guy’s ear off. I’m so over Toback and his infantile deification of thugs and woman-haters. I don’t misunderstand him at all.
Tyson is a freak. I would love to catch the doc though sometime.