Cannes film festival . A team dominates the match and is ahead on the scoreboard at half- time, but throws their lead away after play resumes. Arrival 2016 Cinema Watch32Or the reverse: after meekly surrendering in the opening 4. Fronting up to the ravenous press after the final whistle, the team. Or, alternatively, they start with an exultant bang before trailing away in lamentable ignominy. In the first half of the festival, the competition seemed to move from one triumph to the next, as press and industry figures alike hailed the cinematic masterpieces on show. Then, as the midway point of the festival was passed, the critical fortunes of the films on offer nosedived. From one day to the next, it seemed, the works on display became markedly worse, and the mood among festival attendees correspondingly soured, attitudes shifting precipitously from approbation to opprobrium. It was, the armchair football managers among us might say, a festival of two halves. If a festival is like a football match, you might ask, then what are the two teams in question? Who, exactly, is playing against whom? The natural answer would be the filmmakers vs the audience. But Cannes is a little more complex than that. Yes, those present at screenings form one of the antagonistic parties. But given that attendees are for the most part critics and industry figures, there is no audience in the ordinary sense of the word at Cannes. And the opposing side is not so much the filmmakers as it is the festival organisers . Movies to watch this week at the cinema: Miles Ahead, Arabian Nights, more. Watch Sheep & Wolves (2016) Full Movie Online Free HD/Blu-ray/RIP Format Videos & Streaming Sheep & Wolves (2016) Free Without Downloading. 5851 Ridgeway Center Parkway: Memphis, TN 38120: 901.761.3480: Contact Info. Explore the world of Mac. Check out the MacBook, iMac, Mac Pro, and more. Visit the Apple site to learn, buy, and get support. MegaShare Watch The Angry Birds Movie (2016) online free streaming On all tablets and mobile devices iPad, iPhone, Android and other popular devices. Movies to watch this week at the cinema: X-Men: Apocalypse, A Hologram for the King, more. Subscribe to Senses of Cinema to receive news of our latest cinema journal. Enter your email address below. Variety’s 10 Cinematographers to Watch display high aesthetic standards without sacrificing practical solutions. One Big Difference Between DC And Marvel Movies, According To Joss Whedon. This is why it is the competition that, above all, raises the passions of festival- goers. The other sections of the festival . Some entries may be enthusiastically f. The rules of engagement for the competition, however, are starkly different. Here, it is demanded of films that they be outstanding contributions to the art of cinema, and if any of the competition entries should fall short of this benchmark, the knives come out, as the press pack mercilessly attacks the source of their ire. Indeed, the very term . Their fury, however, seems primarily directed at the film. Concomitantly, the stakes surrounding a film. This happens every year on the Croisette. But it is rare for the festival to so strictly sifter the wheat from the chaff in such an unambiguously chronological order. In this vein, the first half of the competition registered a pleasingly upwards trajectory. It is true that the festival. As with much of his recent work, the dominant mood is one of amber- hued wistful nostalgia, this time for Hollywood in the 1. Jesse Eisenberg reprises his function as an Allen stand- in, here taking on the role of Bobby Dorfman, a naive, slightly dopey Jewish kid from New York who heads off to the West Coast to make his way in the industry, principally via a nepotistic hire from his Uncle Phil, a powerful Tinseltown agent played by Steve Carrell. Bobby falls in love with Vonnie (Kristen Stewart), who unfortunately happens to be . If emotional fireworks are promised by this shopworn love- triangle premise, Allen opts for a subdued, if not downright deflating path: Vonnie stays with Phil, while Bobby returns to New York to run a nightclub for his gangster brother. Although the end sees Stewart and Eisenberg cross paths again, the film. But whereas the earlier films tend to denounce the opportunism of settling for the pragmatic option in life, and the moral transgressions it can lead to, Caf. A cipher perhaps, for Allen. His latest release lies between the two extremes; by no means catastrophic, it is merely unremarkable, and thus is perfectly slotted as an opening night film, which as a rule is more about celebrity pulling power than cinematic prowess. If it detains Allen loyalists . Indeed, the one truly new thing about the film was its backer: as was the case with an inordinately large number of the festival. With its turn to feature film production, the online retailing giant seems to have grown another tentacle in its squidlike grip over the planet. Some were hailing the quality of the films Jeff Bezos. Rester vertical (Staying Upright) by Alain Guiraudie and Ma Loute (Slack Bay) by Bruno Dumont formed a pair of early entries, premiering at successive 8: 3. Un certain regard and the Quinzaine, while simultaneously stamping the festival with France. More than this, however, the two films sought to blend surrealist humour with a social- realist preoccupation for those marginalised outcasts who are the inevitable by- product of highly stratified class societies such as our own. Their relevance for a country consumed by disquiet about what the future holds for it was only too palpable: even the title of Guiraudie. As is to be expected, however, Guiraudie steers clear of the capital and instead situates his film in a remote part of the country: here, Brest and its surrounds. The film follows its sexually confused protagonist L. When she abruptly leaves him, the lethargic L. All the while, wolves are a lurking, menacing presence in the film, but Rester vertical. The disappearances attract a pair of pratfall- prone, bowler- hat wearing detectives, Machin and Malfoy (the duo coming across as a combination of Laurel & Hardy, on the one hand, and Thomson & Thompson of Tintin fame on the other), but a brood of bumbling aristocrats holidaying in a nearby villa . Meanwhile, Ma Loute, the Bruforts. A follow- up to the unexpectedly popular 2. Quinzaine enry P. After establishing himself as a po- faced minimalist with works such as Hadewijch (2. Hors Satan (2. 01. Dumont. If the Romanian New Wave as a whole is formally associated with the plan- s. As with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2. 00. Aurora (2. 01. 0), the three hours of Sieranevada (the film. The main character of the film is the father. We must wait two- and- a- half hours for the film. For the most part, the profusion of dialogue in the film hues closely to quotidian affairs, but the recurring moments when family members veer into politics- with- a- big- P are the highlights of Sieranevada. Neither of these films, however, impressed to the same degree as Sieranevada. Mungiu, of course, is the most high- profile representative of that wave, but his latest work is distinctly less powerful than 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, the benchmark 2. Here, the diligent doctor Romeo is one of the few honest people left in Romania, it seems, but his ethical probity is sorely tested when an attempted rape of his daughter Eliza harms her prospects of acing her final exams and guaranteeing her acceptance into Cambridge, which had been Romeo. Although Eliza is having second thoughts about leaving Bucharest . The moral transgression has its inevitable repercussions, but the end result feels a bit too tidy, and it can not but suffer from comparisons to Sieranevada; whereas Puiu pushes the boundaries of form and plot- structure, Mungiu prefers, both stylistically and narratively, to remain within a certain comfort zone. Toni Erdmann. The real triumph of the festival, however, was neither French nor Romanian, but a German film. More unexpectedly still, it was a German comedy, Maren Ade. For a previous example of a German comedy that was actually funny we probably have to go back to Lubitsch (and even he decamped for Hollywood at the first opportunity), but Ade. In doing so she comprehensively won over the festival. Taking inspiration, I would hazard, from Andy Kauffman. To the mortification of Ines, Toni is able to infiltrate and subversively lampoon the soulless corporate environment in which she is immersed, despite . The scenes that garnered most commentary from the press included Ines. More broadly, Toni Erdmann broaches trenchant political issues connected with the corporate culture that prevails in contemporary capitalist societies, whether . The role of German firms in these countries is tackled head- on . If there is a recipe for success at Cannes, it may well come in the blend of politics and humour that characterised the best films of the competition this year . If I have a misgiving about Toni Erdmann, however, it is that the languid tempo Ade adopts is often in tension with the comic pacing that the film demands, and it may well have benefited from some tightening here and there. American Honey. Andrea Arnold. A rambling film set in the socially anomic American South, the British director. Several directions for the film are suggested, but, disappointingly, none are decisively taken by Arnold, and American Honey. Moreover, certain aspects of the film come off as derivative . Finding poetry in the world of the downtrodden is clearly Andrea Arnold. It is only in rare moments of American Honey . With I, Daniel Blake Loach has established a new world record: this is his 1. Cannes. After the relatively frivolous features Jimmy. In charting the tribulations faced by a middle- aged blue- collar worker after losing his job, Loach. If anything, the resemblance between the two films suggests the parallel social issues faced on both sides of the Channel. The 5. 9 year- old titular character is a Geordie widower who slides into a pit of bureaucratic maltreatment: a heart attack renders him incapable, in his doctor. As he slides into crushing destitution, a ray of light enters Daniel. Their relationship remains strictly platonic, with the two joining forces to confront the reality of poverty and the cold indifference of the welfare state. A visit to the local food bank . Subtlety, of course, has never been Loach. Jeremy Corbyn supporters, of course, will love I, Daniel Blake . Given its universal critical plaudits, Toni Erdmann seemed to be an unbackable favourite for the palm . Was this a sexist snub in line with Cannes? Before you all fire up your twitter accounts, I should say that I doubt it: it is more likely that the arbitrary nature of festival juries is at the root of this year. Driver is the eponymous protagonist, living in the eponymous town. Yes: in a droll touch, both are called Paterson.
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