by Elisa Guidici
by Elisa Guidici
Blame the pandemic, blame the sensuous summer in Riviera, this Festival is rated R for sure. A lot of nakedness, numerous explicit sex scenes (with a preference for cunnilingus) and in general the inability to spend a day at screenings without a full frontal or two. Sometimes journalists try to sell Cannes coverage insisting on the hotness of various movies. Well, no one needs to exaggerate this year: Benedetta gave us all the scandalous content we wanted...
Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven)
COMPETITION FILM
This historical queer drama about the forbidden love between two nuns was my most anticipated film and what an experience it was...
I am not sure I have the words to describe you the level of rage with which Verhoeven destroys boundaries. Bigotry is his main target: religion was always one of his chief cinematic obsessions and this ambiguous story about a young Italian nun who seems to have visions and performs miracles while having a carnal relationship with another girl appears to have been tailored for him. And yet it is a true story! The movie is based upon the written reports of the trial Benedetta and Bartolomea had to face for heresy and blasphemy, in a place and time where love between women was not only forbidden but simply unconceivable for clergymen.
Sounds great, right? I love the message for sure, but the form? The way Verhoeven conveys how women use religion to reclaim power over their lives and bodies is not subtle at all. AT ALL. The Dutch provocateur has the energy of a young director on his first movie, eager to destroy everything on his path -- even his own movie if needs be. The level of ridicule he embraces, the joyous blasphemy, is something. Efira and an amazing Charlotte Rampling fight each other on religious grounds with an astonishing series of brilliant one liners (like several Verhoeven pictures, it's a comedy in a way, isn't it?).
Honestly, I would have appreciate a more elegant movie like Elle, but in a way. Verhoeven has made the right choice. The visions Benedetta has of Jesus (wait for them) are ridiculous and yet, how could a young woman unaware of the world imagine Jesus if not in this fanfiction, romanticized way? If you don't have a high tolerance for violence, nudity and sex or are extremely sensitivie about religion, stay as far from Benedetta as possible. I can't say I loved it, but I see what it's doing. Beyond cult, beyond cult... it's simply beyond.
Mothering Sunday (Eva Husson)
CANNES PREMIERE
Smart choice Eva Husson made here: this movie will be sell internationally in a blink of an eye. People loved Downton Abbey and The Crown: Mothering Sunday puts Josh O'Connor with a lot of Crown faces for this drama so British I was craving a cuppa for the whole movie. This story of an orphan maid in a major English house right after World War II reminded me a lot of other movies: Atonement above all, but The Wife too. It is not that original, but it is just right if "English people repressing their feelings until a tragic end because it is so unBritish to break social conventions" is on your moodboard (it is on mine for sure). It deserves your eyes if only for Odessa Young's stunning performance: she is magnetic ...and very, very naked, too. I spent a good couple of minutes wondering how many days she spent completely naked on set. If you think I'm a too obsessed about this detail, believe me, I have grounds to be.
The Divide / La Fracture (Catherine Corsini)
COMPETITION FILM
How good are French directors at movies like La Fracture? The ensemble cast is lead by a terrific Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Best Actress possibility?) who tries to survive a night in a crowded and understuffed French emergency room. Think Cantet's The Class but replace the world of public schools with the national health care system. The surprise here is not how Corsini's sensibility makes this both politially potent and humane, but in how funny it is. Tedeschi has specialized in lighthearted, silly, and a bit mad female characters but seeing her as a bourgeois lesbian artist having confrontations with a dustman turned protester within the yellow gilet movement is really hilarious. The movie doesn't lack for drama, either. Several people I've talked to agree that it's a strong contender for prizes at the end of the festival.
Previously
Diary Entry #1 Annette
Diary Entry #2 Everything Went Fine, Onada, Yasha-ga-ike
Diary Entry #3 Worst Person in the World, Velvet Underground, Lingui, etc