THE GREAT BEAUTY / LA GRANDE BELLEZZA by Paolo Sorrentino (Official Competition) might prove the ultimate plunge into the dismal aesthetic and moral decay Italy has been experiencing through the Berlusconi age.
—Paolo Bertolin is a consultant and a former member of the selection committee at Venice International Film Festival with his specialty being Asian cinema. As a film critic and journalist, he has written for Il Manifesto, Cineforum, Segnocinema, Cahiers du Cinéma, Positif, Senses of Cinema, and many others.
My Great Expectation for this year’s Cannes is Claire Denis’ BASTARDS / LES SALAUDS, in Un Certain Regard. Why? Because she astonishes me every time with her breadth and scope, with her ability to tackle the broadest range of stories and yet make them all unmistakably hers thanks to an unfailing openness to humanity, with all its foibles. Uncompromising and visionary, Denis remains one of the most interesting directors working today.
—Jay Weissberg, critic, Variety.
I am eager to see Hany Abu-Assad’s OMAR (Un Certain Regard) because of his previous film PARADISE NOW, a controversial feature about Palestine. Being an Arab of 48 who emigrated abroad at 19, enabled him to have mixed culture, so with his talent he can express the combination of a human divided between his origin and his ambition, defending his rights to live in peace. Still, I believe that in OMAR he applied everything he already knows so well about his native people and he will succeed in presenting them, especially with all the experience he has from working in different productions systems.
—Safaa El-laisy Haggag is an Egyptian film editor, critic, writer, and activist.
My second pick is AS I LAY DYING by James Franco (Un Certain Regard) because adapting Faulkner’s novels to the screen has never lead to much and because James Franco’s artistic sensitivity is so surprising and open to a diversity of influences that we can expect anything from such an encounter.
—Frédéric Viaux is founder and editor-in-chief of Quelques Films, as well as quality manager at Neoledge Cinéma.
One of my two Great Expectations is BORGMAN by Alex van Warmerdam (Official Competition), in hopes of finding the black humor and the poetic and absurd quirkiness of DE NOORDERLINGEN that fascinated in a way his following films did not.
—Frédéric Viaux is founder and editor-in-chief of Quelques Films, as well as quality manager at Neoledge Cinéma.
The lunchbox is something indispensable in my country. I love it! This is why, I am very intrigued by this Indian film, THE LUNCHBOX (Critics’ Week).
—Akiko Kobari is a Japanese journalist at Yukan Fuji who was part of the Nespresso Grand Prize jury at the Critics’ Week in 2012.
Ritesh Batra’s THE LUNCHBOX has been collecting a number of awards during its developing stage. And it is indeed very promising!
—Paolo Bertolin is a consultant and a former member of the selection committee at Venice International Film Festival with his specialty being Asian cinema. As a film critic and journalist, he has written for Il Manifesto, Cineforum, Segnocinema, Cahiers du Cinéma, Positif, Senses of Cinema, and many others.
One film I have high hopes on is JIMMY P. (PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN) / JIMMY P. (PSYCHOTHÉRAPIE D’UN INDIEN DES PLAINES) by Arnaud Desplechin. I am not necessarily expecting a masterpiece, but I am curious to see how Desplechin, with his personal and original approach, deals with such an interesting issue. I am also looking forward to seeing what happens when such a subtle observer of the French character crosses the Atlantic to talk about inter-cultural contact.
—Pamela Biénzobas is a Paris-based freelance critic and journalist from Chile. Frequent Festivalists contributor, co-founder of Revista de Cine Mabuse and vice-president of FIPRESCI from 2005 to 2010, right now in Cannes she serves as a FIPRESCI jury coordinator.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON / SOSHITE CHICHI NI NARU by Koreeda Hirokazu (Official Competition) is a film about which friends in Tokyo have been spreading a good word well in advance. I am very eager to see if Koreeda-san will manage to climb back to the heights of MABOROSHI and DISTANCE.
As for BENDS (Un Certain Regard), Flora Lau directed some excellent short films. Her debut feature is the one I really do not want to miss in Cannes.
—Paolo Bertolin is a consultant and a former member of the selection committee at Venice International Film Festival with his specialty being Asian cinema. As a film critic and journalist, he has written for Il Manifesto, Cineforum, Segnocinema, Cahiers du Cinéma, Positif, Senses of Cinema, and many others.
Since the release of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s THE RAINBOW THIEF in 1990, the prospect of a new Jodorowksy film has been on the cards but has never actually happened. Like his unrealized adaptation of DUNE in the 1970’s, his metaphysical gangster film KING SHOT fell by the wayside and ABEL CAINE (also know as THE SONS OF EL TOPO) was stalled.
However, THE DANCE OF REALITY / LA DANZA DE LA REALIDAD has been shot, cut and will screen in Cannes. It is a personal story for Jodorowsky, exploring his unhappy childhood growing up in Chile. The premise of the film sounds straightforward, limited even for a Jodorowsky film, but the director’s boundless imagination, spirituality and wild surreal humor promise more. The fact that he has had full control on the picture, like he did on EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, also bodes well.
Perhaps even more significant is that THE DANCE OF REALITY may position Jodorowsky to make ABEL CAINE. Jodorowsky is a visionary filmmaker with too many unrealized projects to his name. While the Jodorowsky’s DUNE documentary is bound to be an intriguing experience, it is time to see the great director’s imagination untapped and rendered fully once again!
—Tom Cottey is a critic and short film maker. Berlinale Talent Press alumnus from 2013, now he covers Cannes for the Nisimazine.
None has been able to capture the contradictions of contemporary China as well as Jia Zhangke has done it in masterworks like UKNOWN PLEASURES, THE WORLD or STILL LIFE. After the disappointing 24 CITIES, I really hope he delivers another great film with A TOUCH OF SIN / TIAN ZHU DING (Official Competition). As for UGLY (Directors’ Fortnight), I am always excited by every new production of the New Bollywood Prince and enfant terrible Anurag Kashyap.
—Paolo Bertolin is a consultant and a former member of the selection committee at Venice International Film Festival with his specialty being Asian cinema. As a film critic and journalist, he has written for Il Manifesto, Cineforum, Segnocinema, Cahiers du Cinéma, Positif, Senses of Cinema, and many others.
I am no specialist in Franco-Canadian cinema, but I love the films of Denys Arcand, Xavier Dolan, and Denis Côté. And I am a fan of Sébastien Pilote’s THE SALESMAN / LE VENDEUR which won several critics’ prizes at festivals like San Francisco and Mannheim-Heidelberg (I was part of the FIPRESCI jury at the latter). When I read the synopsis of his second feature film on the Semaine’s website, it reminded me directly of his fascinating debut (my critique in German).
Both films focus on a father-daughter relationship that is threatened by a personal economic crisis. Maybe it is because of this similarity in the main story line why I expect to find some of the other characteristics of THE SALESMAN in THE DISMANTLEMENT / LE DÉMANTELÈMENT – a slow-paced, yet affecting rhythm in narration with excellent acting and the strong feeling that the story could take place anywhere, but it could only happen right now. Pilote’s THE SALESMAN was a film about the fragility of family ties in our post-industrial, crisis-shaken time, and that is exactly what I expect from his new film, too.
Thus, I would not be disappointed to find out that Pilote’s second film is a variation of his first one. Because I see and feel the need that modern cinema has to care about these personal “small” debacles. They are a part of our lives and we have to deal with them, even if it hurts…
—Joachim Kurz is editor-in-chief of Kino-Zeit
How do I say “Better not expect anything” without sounding bitter? Disillusioned, disappointed, cynical or, simply: grumpy? By saying nothing at all, maybe.
But then what? Giving great expectations a try? Or resorting to an everything-flows-anything-goes state of mind, quietly humming “Que será, será”? Right.
We cannot help expectations if we actively view a film – be they high or low or positive or fearful. It is what good films thrive at and use for their own purpose, in the best case without us noticing that they do. Expectations subverted, led astray, met, reversed, all in balance, the right dose, a perfect equilibrium of a viewer’s attempt of control (expectations) and a film’s power (playing with those).
Now, right now, I am really tempted to name some of those who are very good at that… game. But then, I simply cannot do that to Charles Dickens. I cannot “take everything on its looks.” Even more so, not after David Copperfield disenchanted entire TV nations by breaking up with his beautiful fiancée years ago.
In fact, I do not really pay much attention to looks in the first place. That is why every year I only pack jeans and T-shirts for going to Cannes. That is why I will probably be looking for something behind the glitz in Baz Luhrmann’s film. And, yes, that is also why I would not end up at the GREAT GATSBY party on Wednesday.
Anyway. I hope the films I am going to see expect at least something of me.
—Alexandra Zawia is a regular contributor to Festivalists, co-editor at the film department of Wiener Zeitung and writes also for The Hollywood Reporter, Furche, ray & ípsilon.
Only one week left until the opening of Cannes and three days to tell us about your Great Expectations! Hurry up, get this chill going!
via pickledelephant [Knife in the Water (1962) by Roman Polański]
What the future holds for us, cinema professionals? Apart from Cannes Film Festival which we all expect greatly, Malwina Grochowska looks through Tribeca’s programme and events, foreseeing some really interesting things…
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For its four months of existence, Festivalists has proved to be playful and serious at the same time! After our highly successful collaboration with Filmkrant’s Slow Criticism Project during Berlinale, it is time for another game, and now we want to include not only film journalists and critics, but all type of industry professionals!
“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence,” wrote Charles Dickens in Great Expectaions. Let’s turn this phrase upside down and apply it to the most hyped cinema event of the year, Cannes Film Festival! Tell us briefly which is for you the most anticipated film, feature or short, from this year’s line-up and why (you can choose from the Official Competition + Un Certain Regard, Directors’ Fortnight or Critics’ Week). What are your Great Expectations based on? Is it a gut feeling, reputation, buzz, affinity for certain style or theme? Is it about surprise or deliverance?
Please email your response to contact |АТ| festivalists.com before midnight GMT of May 10th. We would appreciate if you include also your field of work, company name, company website (if available), and position. If you will visit Cannes to present your work, please kindly leave the corresponding title(s) out of the poll and look for your inner cinephile. In case you will be covering the festival as a journalist, we would love to follow you (and so would probably our audience), so please do not hesitate to provide us with more details!
Put a bow-tie, spread the word & may the hype begin!
P.S. After watching your greatly expected film in Cannes, feel free to send us a follow-up!
