And now that Cannes starts, Internet fails me...so where to start?
In 67 years of Cannes, only three women won the prestigious
Palme D’Or. Jane Campion, in the 90s, and these two young women last year.
Curiously, Jane Campion shared her Palme with another
filmmaker, because of a tie. And last year, the jury did something unprecedented by giving the award not only to the filmmaker but also to the
actors, the protagonists of the film.
Blue is the warmest color, Jane. Blue is the warmest color...
Way to go Adèle! Not everyone, probably no one ever did this and possibly never will, where you first get the Palme D'Or, then you get the Chopard Trophy. That's amazing. And, delivered by no one other than her big 'opponent' from last year's Oscar Season, Cate Blanchett.
But the way women love women is different to the way men love women: women love women who feel real, who are complicated, and not just sex objects. The woman characters in The Piano are created by a woman; Ada was my heroine. That's the reason it had the impact it did.
Three Southern women - two sisters and one African American slave - left without men in the dying days of the Civil War, are forced to defend their home from the onslaught of a band of soldiers who have broken off from the fast approaching Union Army.
A young man arrives at what seems to be a dead place.
An abandoned place. Only much later in the day he is received by a grieving and
lonely mother and, uncovered by his dead lover, her other son.
There’s a sense something’s not clicking. At night,
in bed, Tom is bullied by Francis, the younger brother, who threatens him and
forces Tom to forge a story about his brother’s love life, utterly unknown to
her mother. Things are just odd. Suspicious. Who are these people?
With Dolan’s script and efficient direction, the level
of mystery and oddity increases constantly as Tom decides to stay in this
place, in this farm. It becomes the way Tom dives in his grief. He seeks for
the lost intimacy through the younger brother. He’s lost in this strange and
uncovered world. He milks the cows, he delivers them. He tangos with the
brother, and he keeps being bullied by him. Now even if Tom wants to leave, he
can’t because Francis took his car’s wheels.
It seems as this woman and her son are in this dark
bubble, now emphasized by the death of the son and brother. We start to
understand their behavior. This mother has nothing and no one for years but the
cows and the son. Her humor is absolutely unbalanced. All you know is that
there’s something about them, but what? Something must have happened.
Without realizing, we are as trapped in this farm as
Tom is. Until Sarah, the fake girlfriend comes along. This is another glorious
moment from the film. This young woman, played by Evelyne Brochu, brings us
back to our common reality. It’s like a slap in the face, the outsider who
brings the proper rationality. She confirms us this foreigner world, this
family’s social unbalanced manners and she’s the one who originates the story’s
big revelations. Turns out, Tom’s boyfriend wasn’t quite the faithful and
invested boyfriend, as everyone knew he had sex with everyone, including Sarah.
And then finally, the reason why this family is an outcast.
Xavier Dolan does what he usually does best, which is
to bring a unique tone and consistency to his films. The story is about a young
man’s grief, a passage in a man’s life which I’m sure quite the remarkable one.
It’s suspenseful. It’s about the mystery and we can only be fully invested. I’m
sure Dolan’s film enters the LGBT queue, but once you’re in the middle of it
you forget about it completely. I love this about the film. It’s ideal to me.
You’re just as trapped in the farm as Tom is.
Great film.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Cecily Strong dropping the mic on us, like a boss.
