Everyone is boarding Ruben Östlund's madcap flight

by Cláudio Alves

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022) Ruben Östlund
Though the movie's but a premise in its director's imagination, The Entertainment System Is Down is shaping up to be a starry affair. Ruben Östlund's follow-up to Triangle of Sadness, his second Palme d'Or winner, has been on the news. The Swedish provocateur even did a press conference at the Croisette, joined by Keanu Reeves and Kirsten Dunst, both set to take part in the satire cum disaster movie. Other cast members include Samantha Morton, Daniel Brühl, Nicolas Braun, and Vincent Lindon.

In case you've forgotten, the French thespian presided over the Cannes Jury that decided on that Triangle of Sadness victory…

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Cannes at Home: Day 7 – Long Live the New Flesh!

by Cláudio Alves

I can't wait to plunge into the enigmas of THE SHROUDS.

Another day, another lackluster reception to a highly anticipated Cannes title. Ali Abbasi's Donald Trump film, The Apprentice, seems neither thrilling nor especially deep, with various comparisons to Wikipedia entries throughout naysayer's reviews. At least, its cast got general praise, with highest honors to Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn. Then again, it did receive one of the festival's longest standing ovations yet, so make of that what you will. On a more somber note, David Cronenberg's The Shrouds is being described as the director's most transparent movie, laying bare the grief of an artist dealing with his wife's passing. In a recent interview, the Canadian master described cinema as a cemetery, and it seems his latest work follows that idea to literal ends.

For the Cannes at Home odyssey, let's examine two horrors from the directors' past - Abbasi's Shelley and Cronenberg's Videodrome, where a very different vision of death awaits…

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Cannes at Home: Days 5 & 6 – Histories of Violence

by Cláudio Alves

Coralie Fargeat's THE SUBSTANCE is a body horror shocker.

Half of the Cannes Main Competition has screened, and it seems we're in a year of big swings and even bigger faceplants. Divisive titles aplenty, the most acclaimed films of the festival appear to be located in parallel sections rather than Thierry Frémaux's selection. Even so, Jia Zhangke's Caught by the Tides has confirmed itself as the critics' favorite, though that only extends to writers already fond of the director's oeuvre. The documentary-fiction hybrid made no new converts. Jacques Audiard dazzled audiences with the trans-themed Mexican musical Emilia Perez, and while some critics are ecstatic, others loathe the thing. Reactions are more pointedly adverse to Kirill Serebrennikov's Limonov biopic, while Coralie Fargeat's The Substance has elicited equal pans and praise. Some folks online are trying to characterize the body horror's critical divide as a battle of the sexes, but that ignores the work of various women who've applauded the picture. Still, it's a controversial one.

Since all these cineastes have filled their filmographies with shocking violence, that felt like a good unifying theme for this Cannes at Home program. So, let's delve into Jia's Ash is Purest White, Audiard's Dheepan, Serebrennikov's Petrov's Flu, and Fargeat's bloody Revenge…

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Cannes Diary: Uncanny women

by Elisa Giudici

WILD DIAMOND © Silex Films

On the second day of the competition, following that hour-long panel with Meryl Streep—whose charm, humor, and down-to-earth demeanor exceeded expectations—I delved into two films featuring tough, abrasive women capable of evoking genuine unease...

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Cannes Diary: Meryl, Streeped - 10 Anecdotes

Elisa Giudici reporting from Cannes

Meryl Streep, photographed by Elisa Giudici

I was fortunate enough to secure a ticket to the much-coveted rendezvous with screen goddess Meryl Streep. She was in town to receive the Honorary Palme d'Or. Herewith 10 of the most memorable moments from her interview panel. 

What did you do after winning the Palme d'Or? 

"I stayed up until three in the morning at Quentin Dupieux's film party, so I'm a bit disoriented. I really enjoyed the opening film and talked a lot about it with Quentin."

How seriously do you take your role as a member of the Academy? 

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