Cannes Check: "The Artist" Charms and Endears

Alex here (Nathaniel's back tomorrow).

Cannes has its first darling. My eye has been on The Artist ever since it was announced to join the competition at Cannes this year (I love when they add latecomers. It feels like it'll be a ringer for sure).  From filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius of the amazingly hilarious OSS:117 films (best spy spoofs ever!), this movie has garnered a lot of buzz since its screening last night.  With a cast that includes Jean Dujardin (star of the OSS:117 series), James Cromwell, and John Goodman among others, no wonder this film was snatched up by The Wienstein Company before its premiere.  Harvey even called the film, " a delicate flower."  Sensitive guy, eh?

Todd Macarthy, Guy Lodge, Indiewire and pretty much every review gush about its homage to the silent and golden eras of filmmaking, but emphasize how it's so much more.  Sasha Stone of Awards Daily had this particularly sweet closing comment in her review.

But as the credits rolled for The Artist I already knew I didn’t want it to end. I knew that I didn’t want the lights to come up and I certainly didn’t want to face the world outside. I had no idea it still existed: The magic of the movies.

Dave Karger of Entertainment Weekly is the first to start speculating on its Ocscar chances.  Cannes isn't even over yet! I guess with the Wiensteins backing it, it is a fair question.   Can't wait to see it. Us regular folk will just have to settle for the trailer for now. 

 People have also pegged the canine costar as a shoe for the Palm D'og. Yes, its real, people.

May Flowers: 'The Hours'

Kurt here from Your Movie Buddy. In an intro to cinema studies course, my peers and I were tasked to select and present a three- to five- minute segment from a film for a collegiate show and tell. The terms: choose something that features effective editing and/or noteworthy use of music. With the field so finely narrowed (sarcasm), my mind went...everywhere. Rather than drive myself nuts, I opted for the opening credits sequence of a movie I always feel like I've seen recently: The Hours.

This remains one of my very favorite movies of the aughts, and it's a fine specimen for Nat's "May Flowers" series. The brisk and beautiful introduction culminates with a trio of bouquets, but more on those in a bit. Guided by Phillip Glass's score (by turns elegant, chipper and paranoid), we wake up with three women, all of them linked by Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. We have Virginia (Nicole Kidman), the writer; Laura (Julianne Moore), the reader; and Clarissa (Meryl Streep), the character (in a matter of speaking). The sequence sets the stage for the three ladies' storylines, which seem to run parallel, but are decades – and miles – apart.

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Mix Tape: "Gondola no Uta" in Ikiru

Andreas from Pussy Goes Grrr here, with an especially sobering song selection.

Midway through Akira Kurosawa's life-affirming masterpiece Ikiru (1952), the terminally ill protagonist Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) gives those around him a painful reminder of life's transience. An aging bureaucrat, Watanabe has been trying to indulge in a little of the good life as he dies of stomach cancer. But nothing, not even a fancy new hat, has been able to lift his depression.

At his nadir, Watanabe sits in a bar surrounded by young revelers, with an attractive woman is at his side. The piano man calls out for requests, and in a low rasp, Watanabe suggests "Gondola no Uta." The piano man obliges him and, although the bar's denizens initially try to dance, they soon fall still and silent as Watanabe's anguished singing takes over the soundtrack.

Read more about Takashi Shimura's incredible performance (including Ikiru spoilers) after the jump.

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Rose is Sad; Rose is Comedy

Robert (author of Distant Relatives) here, pondering why Rose Byrne is always so sad. Have you noticed this? Which is why I was shocked to see her show up in the ensemble comedic cast of Bridesmaids. Now from what I hear Ms. Byrne is something of the straight man of the group. Most of the buzz for this film is falling in the laps of Maya Rudolph and especially Kristen Wiig, the lead, as it should be.

But still, as long as we're talking about whether this film can put to rest the notion that women can't be raunchy funny, can we also put to rest the typcasting rut that too many particularly good actresses fall into. If anything it would make Rose Byrne less sad.

Rose Byrne in Insidious, "Damages", Knowing, 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine, The Dead Girl

Cannes Summary: Woody Allen through Gus Van Sant

Hi All. Robert (author of Distant Relatives) here. As Nathaniel has mentioned, MUBI.com is really the place to go for lots and lots of Cannes reviews. But in case you don't want to sift through lots of reviews or fear leaving the warming embrace of The Film Experience, I thought I'd sum up some of what people are saying about the first few Cannes Films, right here.

Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris opened the festival and while a few viewers are suggesting it's an unnoteworthy truffle, most of the reaction has been positive though not exhuberant. Still, with expectations growing lower and lower for Mr. Allen's releases, it's nice to see that he can still enchant an audience. Seriously, you've never seen the words "charming" and "pleasant" and "whimsical" so much in one place. Here's the MUBI summary.

Sleeping Beauty, the first film by author Julia Leigh is one of a handful of films this year that feels like Cannes attempt to recapture that uncomfortalbe sexual Antichrist buzz. Here, Emily Browning plays a newbie prostitute whose specialty is being drugged and taken advantage of in her sleep. Detractors here seem to be in the slight majority calling the film "cold" and "psychosexual twaddle." But there are still some reviewers who find the film "enthralling" and have high praise for Browning's performance and desire to break free from studio stuff. MUBI summary.

Nathaniel has already touched on We Need to Talk About Kevin and the great notices coming Tilda Swinton's way (Roger Ebert referrs to her in his tweeting as Saint Tilda and I must admit that name is sticking in my brain). It's also nice to see excitement greet a Lynn Ramsay film (whose Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar I assume must have been some of the better DVD discoveries of the past 10 years). Alas the film itself is getting a bit of a mixed reaction. MUBI summary.

Gus Van Sant's teenage romance Restless opened Un Certain Regard and it's hard to ignore the bad reviews piling up. While there are a few nice sentiments, like Mike Goodridge's declaration that it's a "gentle moving hymn to life" most of the agreement seems to be that the film is a "dud" not to mention "intert" or "emo goo." MUBI summary here.