Cannes Review: Palme d'Or winner "Anatomy of a Fall"

Elisa Giuidici reporting from Cannes...

I can name a very short list of actresses who can portray a silver screen character with the level of charisma and ego as Cate Blanchett in the already iconic role of Lydia Tár. That short list has now grown by one. The amazingly talented Sandra Hüller, best known for Toni Erdmann, does not lack for “big dick energy”. After seeing her from a strange distance in The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer, we can fully grasp her icy, domineering attitude in the wonderful Anatomy of a Fall. It's a legal thriller by French director Justine Triet (who also co-wrote the screenplay with her partner Arthur Harari).

The movie is another take on the classic procedural dilemma: did a person die by accident or were they killed by their partner?

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Cannes Winners for the 76th Edition

by Nathaniel R

Jane Fonda handed the Palme to Justine Triet "Anatomy of a Fall". Photo © Andreas Rentz / Getty Images

The 76th edition of Cannes has wrapped. The closing ceremony brought an end to a week plus of speculation about prizes. French auteur Justine Triet, of Sybiil fame, took the coveted Palme d'Or for her fourth narrative feature,  Anatomy of a Fall. She's only the third female director to win the prize (after Jane Campion for The Piano and Julia Ducornau for Titane) though the fifth woman (Actresses Léa Seydoux and Adele Exarchopolous shared the Palme with their director in a non-traditional jury decision the year of Blue is the Warmest Colour).

A whole slew of awards (and, thus, titles to look out for at future festivals) are after the jump...

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Doc Corner: 'Victim/Suspect' on Netflix

By Glenn Charlie Dunks

Nancy Schwartzman’s latest documentary wades forcefully into sensitive territory. As she had done with (the superior) Roll Red Roll in 2018, she charts stories of sexual assault and rape in places where police, the justice system, and society at large too often find ambiguity and uncertainty. An audience watching Victim/Suspect is probably not among those who do, although I suppose launching on such a platform as Netflix may help capture some viewers whose attitudes towards people like those in Schwartzman’s doc are ingrained enough to need rewiring and allow them the empathy required to understand their circumstance.

As the title implies, Victim/Suspect is about women who have reported the crime of rape and have instead become the one arrested. Whether it be due to apathy or investigative sloppiness on behalf of the police or just plain old misogyny and bias, they end up handcuffed and sent to prison. Charged with the crime of falsely reporting a rape—which, to some of the police featured within the film via videotape, appears to be more offensive than the sexual crime itself. As one officer observes, they need to be taught a lesson for the police time that they suggest has been wasted. All because they can’t find (or don’t care to find) the sufficient evidence needed to believe them.

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Cannes at Home: Day 11 – A Tale of Two Realisms

by Cláudio Alves

Well, it's over. Another festival ends, and so does another edition of the Cannes at Home series. I've watched many a great film this past week and hope you have enjoyed the ride. To finish things off, it's time to consider the last two filmmakers to present their latest works at the Croisette. Alice Rohrwacher dazzled away with her La Chimera, starring a scruffy-looking Italian-speaking Josh O'Connor, and Ken Loach's The Old Oak proved as divisive as all his late-career films have been. 

This last Cannes at Home dispatch looks at these auteurs' greatest pictures, titles that crystalize the two distinct forms of realism each work within. There's Rohrwacher's magical spin on Italian neorealism with Happy as Lazzaro and Ken Loach's perpetuation of the kitchen-sink tradition of British social realism in Kes…

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Cannes Finale Pt 1 (Personal Choices / Predictions)

Elisa Giudici reporting from Cannes

Benoit Magimet & Juliette Binoche star in "La Passion de Dodin Bouffant"

Another edition of the Cannes Film Festival is close to the finish line. It's time for some 'for your considerations', some praise for my favourites, and the impossible task of predicting the Palme d'Or winner. Predictions which will quickly be outdated by the actual winners at the closing ceremony. 

How was this Cannes Film Festival overall? I managed to see all of the Competition titles (a couple more reviews coming), a large chunk of Out of Competition titles and a couple each from Quinzaine and Un Certain Regard. The general impression is that this Cannes edition lacks a masterpiece that everyone agrees upon. This absence is perceived only in these final hours, when we're all trying to guess the big winner. But the competition did feature a large group of excellent movies. There was only one terrible movie (sorry Sean Penn, but Black Flies in competition was a bad joke)...

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