Cannes 2010 Diary – Day 5
Sunday in Cannes was celebrated by team PH with a lie-in up to the positively lazy time of 7.30am, followed by lashings of nutella on baguettes (except for our health conscious leader who couldn’t be separated from her bowl of organic muesli).
Rather unexpectedly today’s hammering away at the coal face revealed a rich seam of documentaries, with no less than four fantastic films. In a running along the seafront so as not to miss them order they were:
ARMADILLO (Denmark, dir. Janus Metz): follows young Danish soldiers in Afghanistan struggling to win over the locals and engaging in ferocious gun fights with the Taliban. Utterly captivating and edge of the seat terrifying, few films have managed to really capture the futility and desperation for all involved in this conflict.
L’AMOUR FOU (France, dir. Pierre Thoretton): a personal memoire about the life and career of Yves Saint Laurent from partner Pierre Berge, delving into his immense talent and a lifelong battle with depression. As much about the history of the times as Haute Couture fashion, an eminently watchable film whether you look in the mirror before you leave the house in the morning or not.
I WISH I KNEW (China, dir. Jia Zhangke) :a history of Shanghai that speaks as much about China as a whole from the late 1940s to the present day, covering civil war, the Sino-Japanese war and Cultural Revolution. Touching interviews with former and present day residents combined with typically mesmerising cinematography paint a fascinating portrait.
OVER CITIES GRASS WILL GROW (Netherlands/UK/France, dir. Sophie Fiennes): following the work of artist Anselm Kiefer, who takes over a former silk factory in the south of France, colonising it with installation pieces on a grand scale that reflect the fragile relationship between nature and man-made constructions. Not an easy subject to pull off in watchable way, but Fiennes’ film is completely absorbing.
Hopefully some of these will feature as part of Picturehouse DOCS in the coming months, providing they’re picked up for UK distribution.
Another film to raise excitement within the PH team was THE ILLUSIONIST (France, dir. Sylvain Chomet), as much for the fact that it featured a cameo for our very own Cameo cinema in Edinburgh! A script from the great Jacques Tati is given a wonderful lease of life by the team behind Belleville Rendezvous. Crisp hand drawn animation and witty details bring the tale of a magician at the end of the music hall era to life.
Likewise ANIMAL KINGDOM (Australia, dir. David Michod) proved a winner. We’ve been racking our brains to think of the last decent Aussie film, so this was a welcome treat. Distinctively antipodean and full of familiar faces (most notably Guy Pearce with a bad ‘tash) it is an old fashioned western updated to contemporary Melbourne. Gritty, atmospheric and highly enjoyable.
At the opposite end of the quality spectrum was SHIT YEAR (USA, dir. Cam Archer), in which Ellen Barkin gives a fragile yet warm and sometimes funny performance, but is hampered by a director who is trying too hard to be avant garde.
Last tonight was a horror flick from Uruguay, SILENT HOUSE. Inventively shot in one 88 minute take, with great sound design and a decent twist, here at last is a horror movie that can stand up to the hype of being described as the next Blair-Witch (not that we want to be the kiss of death!)
Two of today’s films break into the top 5 with the revised line-up as follows, though Mike Leigh’s ANOTHER YEAR still reigns supreme.
1. Another Year
2. Armadillo
3. Chongqing Blues
4. Silent House
5. Benda Bilili!
Tomorrow is supposed to be changeover day for the team with new recruits arriving, and those of us with red eyes from watching so many films heading home. Most of us are on trains, but the ash cloud might have other ideas for those that are flying. It’s true that there are worse places in the world to be stuck than Cannes, but those cinema programmes don’t get put together all by themselves, so we hope there’s not too much disruption.
A Big Boat In Cannes
