Cannes Diary: 3 Men Against The System – Leviathan, Lost River & The Rover

Diana Drumm reporting from Cannes... or rather flying home from Cannes as you read this...

As people, we are defined by how we cope with the world’s cruelty, injustice and unfairness. In a leap of metaphysics, the same can be said about films, being judged by how they handle the subject and in turn how their protagonists handle their conflicts and struggles. At this year’s Cannes, there were more than a few films in the thick of existential waters and questions of morality, with protagonists leading the way against a larger society. In Timbuktu, a farmer and his family grapple with a newly inserted regime to dire results. In Amour Fou, a young poet stakes the life of himself and his “lover” on an escapist higher philosophical notion he’s concocted. In Foxcatcher, an “ornithologist, philatelist, philanthropist” attempts to fabricate a more successful legacy for himself and melts down after reality and other people’s free will gets in the way. Here are three more that tackle the issues of male insecurities when faced with a larger, opposing system (from the great to the already infamously bad to the steady).  

Andrey Zyvagintsev’s Leviathan, Ryan Gosling's Lost River, and David Michôd's The Rover after the jump...

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Cannes Closing Ceremony - Live Blog

Cannes closes tomorrow and Diana still has a couple more pieces to share with you I believe, but now the prizes are handed out - here are quick notes from the ceremony.

12:45 PM EST the Jury has arrived which means the show is about to begin. Jane Campion is too busy to stand with her jury (at least at this second in the screencap)... and how have I never noticed how toweringly tall Nicolas Winding Refn is (far right)? I love his "who, me?" pose here as if he's aware of the disparity. This image alarmed me so much that I looked up photos of him with Ryan Gosling his 6'2" muse and Refn is yet taller.

12:49 Uma Thurman arrives with Quentin Tarantino and is wearing something like a white winged dove across her bosom... ooh, baby, ooh, said "ooh" ♫. Gorgeous as ever and I've always admired how bold her color choices are. Bright yellow at the Pulp Fiction 20th anniversary screening at Cannes and pure white today.

12:59 Timothy Spall, Mr Turner himself, has arrived which means we know where Best Actor is going (there didn't seem to be much competition for that this year (unlike Best Actress). Best Actor, Oscar Division, will have much more competition.

1:04 Xavier Dolan arrived looking very pleased with himself #whatelseisnew (I kid. Mostly. I enjoy his work. Intermittently he looks nervous but Mommy is definitely winning something)

1:05 Sophia Loren just had some sort of near wardrobe malfunction and is now holding tightly to her gown (perchance she tripped on the train on the steps). MORE...

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Cannes Diary: "Foxcatcher" and Best Actor, "Clouds of Sils Maria" and Actresses

Diana Drumm reporting from Cannes for The Film Experience

With the Palme d’Or announcement looming over the Croisette, critics and casual filmgoers are scattering to catch the festival favorites screening throughout the Palais and/or selecting their bets for the Awards ceremony. Yours truly is in a bizarre, hazy limbo between the two, writing up what’s left of my coverage and running to more screenings. Without further rambling, here are two more competition films (an Oscar favorite and an indie to look out for) along with my personal pick for Best Actor. Will Jane Campion and jury agree? 

Foxcatcher
Bennett Miller’s true story drama looks at the relationship between Olympic wrestlers Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) and American old money heir John E. du Pont (Steve Carell), that would lead to a point-blank murder. Opening with black-and-white footage of a foxhunt (horses, hounds, riding gear) on the du Pont Foxcatcher estate, the film then cuts to Mark Schultz in not quite as posh straits, getting paid $20 to give a speech to an elementary school and chowing down on lukewarm ramen. So when he gets the call that John E. du Pont (apparently an avid wrestling enthusiast despite his status and it being a sweaty arm sport) wants to fly him out to meet, Mark leaps at the chance before getting any specifics on du Pont...  

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Cannes Tidbits: The Tribe, White God, and Sils Maria

A few more notes from the festival. The big prizes are revealed tomorrow and the festival closes Sunday.

Juliette, Chloe, and Kristen
Sils Maria sometimes referred to as Clouds of Sils Maria  focuses on an actress and her personal assistant and the actresses decision to play a part in a remake of a property deeply connected to her life (which weirdly also exactly describes, at least in part, Maps to the Stars with Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska!!!). Early word is that it's a Kristen Stewart showcase.  This turn of events by no  means surprise me. It's long been a thing which amuses and annoys in equal measure that people ALWAYS lose their shit when a non-prestigious actor suddenly holds their own in a substantive role or movie. (Hell, it's so common that this is even the second time this week following Channing Tatum's raves in Foxcatcher) Of course this "surprise" factor would be significantly reduced if more people paid attention to the actual quality of the acting in any actors career and not just that thing they did one time in a movie or franchise that made them famous. Foxcatcher is hardly the first time Channing has been good and if more people had actually watched and tried to absorb Stewart as Joan Jett in The Runaways, rather than treating it as a indie curio inbetween Twilight movies, they'd know that Stewart had some talent, too. That said I object to the subhheadline in Jordan Hoffman's review in Vanity Fair that says "sticks it to anyone who ever slammed her for Twilight"

....no, no, no. You don't get to erase your bad work as soon as you choose to do good work. Yes, those movies are terrible but she needn't have been terrible in them. Good committed actors rise above bad material all the time, so her dead-eyed numbingly dull performance in that franchise? That's on her. 

Critics Week Winner
The Ukranian film The Tribe has no subtitles, but then it's not in Ukranian either. The ambitious movie is completely in sign language and populated by deaf actors. The audience has to decipher the intricacy by watching the gestures of and emotion of the actors. Just to make sure you're paying attention it also contains graphic sex. Here's a review from Indiewire... and consider our interest highly piqued. 

The Winners of Critics Week
This is a sidebar featuring emerging talent so the features are also eligible for the Camera d'Or

Grand Prize - The Tribe (Ukraine)
Gan Foundation Support for Distribution Prize - The Tribe (Ukraine)
Visionary Award - The Tribe (Ukraine)
Screenplay - Hope (France)
Canal Plus (Short Film) - Crocodile (UK)
Sony CineAlta Discovery Prize (Short Film) - A Ciambra (Italy)

Palme D'og & Un Certain Regard
A Cannes tradition that got very popular when the The Artist broke out big in 2011, this year's winner was a Hungarian feature directed by Kornél Mundruczó called White God and we all know what "God" spells backwards. The movie is about a pack of wild dogs on a rampage and keeps being compared to Hitchcock's The Birds -- I wonder if that's just a snap judgement comparison or a qualitative comparison? Here's a feature at Artsbeat on the well-received film. Apparently Jean Luc Godard's Farewell to Language stars his dog Mieville had to settle for runner up.

White God also took top honors for the Un Certain Regard jury and, like Critics Week, most of the films are from emerging talent and some (though not the winner) are eligible for the Camera D'Or which honors first time filmmakers

The Winners of Un Certain Regard
Best Film - White God (Hungary)
Jury Prize - Force Majeure (Sweden
<-- For what it's worth Ruben Östlund has previously been submitted for Oscar consideration by Sweden 
Special Jury Prize - The Salt of the Earth (USA)
Ensemble - Party Girl (France)
Best Actor -David Gulpilil, Charlie's Country (Australia)
Gulpilil previously collaborated with the same director Rolf de Heer on the Australian Oscar submission Ten Canoes (2006) 

P.S. I do not know why there is not a Best Actress award. I assume the exact makeup of the prizes each year is up to that particular jury.

Posterized: Xavier Dolan

Mommy, which spurred spirited conversation at Cannes (and really wowed our woman on the ground, Diana) and could walk away with a prize this weekend (as literally all of director Xavier Dolan's previous features have but for Tom at the Farm, which went the Venice/Toronto route instead).

Xavier Dolan at the photocall for "Mommy" at Cannes, 2014

I remain perplexed that an international star with this much critical cachet and this many easily marketable elements (young, hot, queer) hasn't found a deep pocketed patron in the world of US distribution, in the way many auteurs do. Think of how Miramax used to favor certain directors or the way Sony Pictures Classics really invested in building the Pedro Almodovar brand. I keep hoping a younger edgier disribution company (my dream: A24) will fall in love with him because with the right promotion and cultivation, he'd have a devout following Stateside. For now, if only here, he'll have to make do with critics and really hard-working cinephiles who attend festivals regularly.  

The Canadian wunderkind just turned 25 and Mommy is his fifth feature in five years. If he keeps up this pace he could have a filmography that's impossible to be a completist about later on. Get in early and sample the goods. They're yummy. Distributors might not have made it easy for you wherever you live, but at least Netflix has been kind. How many of his previous features have you seen?

I Killed My Mother (2009)
Dolan's debut won much acclaim at Cannes including two prizes and became Canada's Oscar submission (it was not nominated). Much film festival chatter and an international release in major cities around the world, EXCEPT THE US, kept the buzz going for another year. Supposedly it hit US theaters this past March (yes, in 2013, four years after taking international cinephilia by storm) but I want proof that it actually happened because it seems like every year since 2009 we were told it was opening. [Available on Netflix Instant Watch]

Heartbeats / Imaginary Lovers (2010)
This unrequited love triangle, available on Netflix Instant Watch, won the "Regards Jeunes" at Cannes and was released in the US briefly in 2011 under its new boring title. [Nathaniel's Review at Towleroad]

Laurence Anyways (2012)
This trans epic, Netflix to the rescue again, ran nearly 3 hours, and was the first that Dolan didn't star in himself. It took another two prizes at Cannes ("Queer Palm" and "Best Actress") and a brief US release in 2013. [Glenn's love for this movie is huge.]

Tom at the Farm (2013) 
This thriller about a young man (Dolan) attending his lover's funeral in the country, only to discover that the lover was closeted and the family virulently homophobic, is still awaiting US release. [Nathaniel's TIFF Review]

HOW MANY HAVE YOU SEEN?