Goodbye to Language
was one of the films I haven’t mentioned yesterday which unlike Michel
Hazanavicius’ underwhelming reception, is being well received. But is there another
way to receive Jean Luc Godard? I don’t think there’s another way but the way
of exploration and personal meaning, there’s no good or too bad in his films,
there shouldn’t be a sort classification. I mean what am I talking about; the
classification in general is already a pretty weird thing. So that’s probably
one of the ways to go. It’s about exploring and finding meaningful lines in the
mix of a personal, intellectual and artistic experimental process that Jean Luc
Godard is known for. His Goodbye to Language is only 69 minutes long but I’m
sure there are plenty of details to contemplate. Sometimes underneath it all,
things can be quite direct and on the open…but what do I know?
The Salt of
the Earth is another film I haven’t mentioned yet
but I’m so very interested in. There’s only so much going on with this
festival. It’s the new documentary by Wim Wenders about one of the most famous
and accomplished traveling photographers in the world, Sebastião Salgado. When
one thinks of Wim Wenders and documentaries one can only be anxious for
something purely sophisticated, beautiful and thoughtful. The film is co-directed
with Sebastião Salgado’s son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.
The Salt of the Earth is in Un Certain Regard.
Misunderstood, Un Certain Regard.
Asia Argento is back at Cannes! But this time she has
a film actually competing. And I need to take a look at her new film, sounds
both weird and fun. Misunderstood also sounds personal. Just by the title.
Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in Misunderstood. Asia
Argento has been a huge admirer of Charlotte. She had previously worked in a
film with her but didn’t had any scenes together, Asia even said she stole
Charlotte’s Polaroids that were in the trailer; and she later was member of the
jury when they gave Charlotte the award for Best Actress. Of course everyone
would like to work with a talented artist as Charlotte Gainsbourg.
“The quest for
innovation has to take place in short films and in a director’s first films.”
Abbas Kiarostami.
The Cinéfondation Selection winners were
announced today. It consisted of 16 student films, chosen out of 1,631 entries
coming from 457 film schools around the world. The head of the jury was Abbas Kiarostami, and the rest of the members
were Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Noémie Lvovsky, Daniela Thomas and Joachim Trier.
Here are the
prizes:
First Prize:
"Skunk,"directed
by Annie Silverstein from the University of Texas at Austin, USA.
Second Prize:
"Oh Lucy!" directed by Atsuko
Hirayanagi from NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia, Singapore.
Joint Third Prize:
"Lievito Madre," directed by Fulvio Risuleo from Centro
Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Italy.
Joint Third Prize:
"The Bigger PIcture," directed by Daisy Jacobs National
Film and Television School, United Kingdom.
These winners will receive €15,000 for the First Prize, €11,250 for the Second
and €7,500 for the Third. The First Prize winner is also
guaranteed that his first feature film will be presented at the Festival de
Cannes.
Semaine de la Critique
The winner:
The film is called The Tribe. It’s a first feature from a Ukrainian director called
Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy.
Here’s a resume of the film – it is a
story about young students, in their boarding school for deaf, where a new
student is just starting to fit in this place. There’s desire and conflicts
between the youngsters. They’re all deaf. The curious aspect of this film is
that it has no subtitles, no voice over no dialogue. But besides this superb
and pretty rare challenge, it seems The
Tribe, as a whole, is a brilliant film.
There must be so much to contemplate. I’m
here and I’m thinking about a lot of details about this film. There’s only so
much to be look for. The challenge of following this story, these young people when
you can’t understand what they’re saying; just here there’s such a great space
for exploration and a unique way to look at a story, the different way we need
to position ourselves, for example. What an interesting idea. I can’t wait to
look at it.
Mommy
I think Xavier Dolan's new film just became everyone's dearest film at this year's selection, I mean, along with the opener Mr. Turner. Even Jessica Chastain tweeted about it.
Completely blown away by
@XDolan. His film, MOMMY was so impressive
Xavier Dolan and his women:
Suzanne Clement and Anne Dorval.
There are only two days to go. Tomorrow, the last two films competiting for the Palme will be shown. Have you already seen the trailer of Clouds of Sils Maria? It looks steamy. But yes, coming in on the last day, is the film called Leviathan with the word of mouth that it is the favorite to win the Palme D'Or. Is the last film showing from the Oficial Selection. Let's wait and see what the jury has to say about it on Saturday. To me, it seems pretty open so maybe this is the film that will absolutely blow them away. Let's wait.
Jury of the Un Certain Regard.
Tomorrow these men and women will be awarding the Un Certain Regard winners.
