Cannes 2010 Diary – Day 4

You Know it’s a big day on La Croisette when you get a sharp elbow to the ribs as you queue to get into the cinema (for the record the Picturehouse team NEVER push in……..well, only when we really need to!). Two of the hottest tickets today were Mike Leigh’s ANOTHER YEAR and Woody Allen’s YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER.

ANOTHER YEAR is our first real contender to top the fest favourites list, finding Mike Leigh in close to his best form. Focussing on a couple nearing retirement, the film is broken into four chapters corresponding to the seasons of the year. There are some truly touching moments, as Leigh perfectly captures the inexorable marching of time.

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER whilst not totally dissimilar in theme, has split the Picturehouse team, coming out 3/2 against with 1 vote still to count. Arguments in the ‘for’ camp: “no masterpiece but it kept me entertained”; arguments against: “pompous, on a par with WIMBLEDON”.

Of course Cannes is not all about the films you risk a few bruised ribs to get into. Critics Week and Directors Fortnight are renowned for throwing up curve-balls by fresh young directors, and today we had two fine examples. First up was RUBBER (USA/FRA, dir. Quentin Dupiex) in which a tyre abandoned in the desert comes to life, falls in love, and goes on a killing spree. Why? No reason. After a mad dash along the Croisette, next up was WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (dir. Jorge Michel Grau), Mexico’s answer to Ken Loach but with cannibals! Social realism never looked so errrr……..unreal.

Other films caught by the team today across competitions and the market were:

SPHINX (France, dir. Nicolas Boukhrief): an unexceptional thriller in which two policemen cover for the son of a leading politician who shoots one of their colleagues. Nothing to write home about (though we are!), but acquits itself as a box-ticking genre movie.

A WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP (China, dir. Zhang Yimou): Great title, great director, great visuals and a great inspiration (Blood Simple) but at what point in the script development did somebody suggest the actors should be dressed as Chinese operatic comedy characters? Tragic and not in a good way.

PUZZLE (Argentina/France, dir. Natalia Smirnoff): Nominated for a Golden Bear in Berlin, after answering an advertisement a middle-aged housewife (Maria Onetto) practises puzzles each day with a wealthy bachelor in the hope that they can reach the world championships. Proved surprisingly pleasing after stumbling into after the cancellation of another screening.

DRAQUILA: L’ITALA CHE TREMA (Italy, dir. Sabina Guzzanti): Searing documentary exposing the corruption of Silvio Berlusconi in the wake of the L’Aquila earthquake. Eroding civil liberties and rewriting the constitution to shore up organised crime and building contractor profits this is one to make you genuinely angry.

BENDA BILILI!: documentary following paraplegic musicians on the streets of Congolese capital Kinshassa, recording an album against the odds of grinding poverty, which leads to a European tour complete with Guns’n’Roses style solos on little more than a tin can and a piece of wire! Comparisons to BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB are not totally out of place. If you’re a Spotify freak, you can get a taste of Benda Bilili’s music here: Staff Benda Bilili – Je t’aime

After 3 full days of screenings, we can finally come up with a provisional top 5:

1. Another Year
2. Chongqing Blues
3. The Housemaid
4. Benda Bilili!
5. Tuesday, After Christmas

With screenings tomorrow of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s A SCREAMING MAN and Jia Zhang-Ke’s I WISH I KNEW, it can only be a matter of time before that list changes. It’s just a shame we missed NUDE NUNS WITH BIG GUNS! (have they got the right festival?).