Writers, directors, actors, wannabe actors, fat producers, tuxedo-wearing arseholes, PR companies, heavily tanned loitering women… We’ve seem them all here at Cannes 2008. Mainly while queuing, as you must, for aaages to get into the films.
But films we have seen…
THREE MONKEYS (Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
All journalists receive a book when they arrive in Cannes telling them a little about each film showing In Competition (of which this is one). The English translation is inexplicably bad, often bordering on hilarious. Here’s a choice cut from the description of Three Monkeys: “A family dislocated when small failings blow up into extravagant lies battles against the odds to stay together by covering up the truth…” Useful.
Three Monkeys opens with a beautiful shot of a car driving through a desolate landscape. The driver, a wealthy and influential man, accidentally kills a pedestrian, and decides to pay his chauffeur to pretend it was he what dunnit, in exchange for a lump sum upon his release. The chauffeur is promptly tossed into prison for nine months while aforementioned wealthy, influential man seduces his wife. That’s gratitude for you.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan is undoubtedly a huge talent and Three Monkeys, while measured and technically excellent, does definitely lose its way towards the end.
SOI COWBOY (Dir. Thomas Clay)
Anyone who saw The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael probably won’t be all that surprised to hear that Soi Cowboy really isn’t very good. Introducing the film, Clay tells us that the screenplay was written in two days, which on reflect is entirely unsurprising. What little dialogue there is, is barely audible.
What little plot there is, is barely watchable. Soi Cowboy is set in Bangkok, where a European writer lives together with a young Thai woman who he met in the local red-light district. He is, well, huge. And she is tiny. At one (utterly inexplicable) point in the film, the writer meanders out into a local market to but some knock-off DVDs. “Do you have Inland Empire” he asks. They do not. “Do you have, um, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael” he asks.
Unsurprisingly, they don’t. To tell you what happened next would be tricky, because very little does really happen next. The less said about this film, the better.
CLOUD 9 (Dir. Andreas Dresen)
An elderly woman, Inge (Ursula Werner), who after 30 years of marriage falls quickly and passionately in love with another man. It’s tempting to dismiss such a scenario as simply tender or touching. But thanks to Werner’s wonderful central turn, Inge is, though elderly, a free spirited and youthful woman. As such, Cloud 9’s (frequent and graphic) sex scenes are played out by two lovers entirely in touch with their youth, both in their embracement of the affair and inevitable descent into the pain of its consequences. Cast and crew were in attendance and received a deserved standing ovation. Excellent.
More reviews and general observations from Cannes to follow tomorrow, where the Indiana Jones queue will probably stretch halfway down Le Croisette…
I completely agree with the Soi Cowboy review, I can’t even round up what that film was about- then again I did fall asleep a total of four times during….
Written by Laura feasey on May 20th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Of the thirty or so films I saw at the festival this year, Soi Cowboy was certainly one of the best, along with A Christmas Tale and the eventual Palme d’Or winner from Cantet. I like that you’re so quick to condemn/dismiss this remarkable and distrinctive work of art for no other reason than you completely failed to comprehend it. The idiots are winning, indeed.
Written by Richard Marks on June 5th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Well I do like the fact that you are quick to judge me and all the other people who didn’t like the film as idiots- isn’t film about having varied tastes and opinions after all?
Having been in the screening with the crew from a film in the certain regard competition also who all thought the same and taking into account the fact it was the only film I saw that didn’t get a inkling of an applause afterwards I believe I wasn’t the only one with the opinion.
I think the film was trying to be too clever for it’s own good with no real substance that delivered. To call it a work of art is certainly a misguided judgement, which so many agreed with.
Of course, you are entitled to your opinion, but it shouldn’t be at the detriment of other people who don’t agree with you.
Written by Laura feasey on June 6th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Assuming you’re British, I can only assume you’re talking about (the crew of) Hunger. Which isn’t a bad film exactly, but certainly a shallow and conceited one. The simplistic, idealised portrayal of the IRA played well with the audience, for sure, but lacked any kind of rigour. Worst of all, I felt no genuine personal commitment for McQueen. This was just someone else’s soapbox on which to hang his imagery - some of which I enjoyed, I’ll be honest, and it was formally interesting also, but these things aren’t enough to justify the film on their own. I haven’t even mentioned the gobsmacking cliches of the Bobby Sands death scene…
By contrast, Soi Cowboy was undoubtably the most deeply personal film I saw at the festival. The hermetic environment it depicted, the complex contours of these characters, none of whom are obviously likable, the almost unintelligible personal language that they speak, the complete refusal to open things up and make it easy for the casual audience - all of this felt absolutely fresh and real to me. I found it more visually/formally striking than Hunger too, and ultimately far more rewarding.
Of course we all have our opinions. If it had been up to me, I would have given the Camera d’Or to a small US film called Afterschool - Bruno Dumont felt otherwise… But it generally pays to actually watch a film and then think about it before such opining takes place.
Written by Richard Marks on June 18th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Well we agree on something- it was actually some of the crew of Afterschool I was sat with, not Hunger, a friend of mine worked on the film in America- maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to presume I was sat with people only from my country!
Written by Laura feasey on June 24th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Righto. Well it was a good film, tell them congrats.
Perhaps what I should have said is that it would be ludicrous to take the opinions of any competing film crew seriously, given the back-stabbing nature of such an event. That only a Cannes virgin would draw any kind of inference from the instant reaction of a Cannes audience, given the long history of booing, shrugging or walking out of the best of films, from L’Avventura to L’Humanite to Brown Bunny to Colossal Youth.
I also could’ve said that Soi Cowboy has a ’sit down and think’ as opposed to a ’stand up and cheer’ ending, that very few people walked of the morning screening I attended and that I spoke to many people afterwards who were very taken with the film (Mark Cousins, Peter Bradshaw and Jan Schulz-Ojala amongst others) - but then I’d rather not just hide behind the opinions of others.
Written by Richard Marks on June 30th, 2008 at 7:45 pm