International Feature Race - Part 2: The Auteurs

by Nathaniel R

To broaden your appreciation of this year's Best International Feature Film Oscar race we already looked at some overall trivia. Now let's look at some stats involving the artists behind the camera. We'll highlight 14 of the directors in the mix this year from legends, to debuts, to queer artists, to a handful of filmmakers that we've interviewed already....

LEGENDS & MASTERS

Park Chan-wook. Photographed by Oh Suk Kuhn

• Park Chan Wook (South Korea's Decision to Leave) 
Remarkably this 59 year-old auteur and Academy member has never been submitted by South Korea before despite a rich filmography with classics like The Handmaiden, Thirst, Lady Vengeance, Oldboy and Joint Security Area behind him...

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Review: Skolimowski's "EO" is a miracle!

by Cláudio Alves

Can donkeys dream of heaven? One hopes so, for they need not search for hell in sleepy fantasy – they live it every day, wide awake. A world defined by human cruelty demands dreams of something better, something beyond the pain. Is it peace, love, a state of joy? Maybe it's red.

EO all starts in red. Bathed in scarlet light, skin touches fur, human hands over the animal's body, a trance-like choreography that's both intimate and public. There's a closeness to these touches that transcends their physical softness, a beauty that's more than mere performance for circus audiences – it's that heaven we spoke about, but maybe it's hell, too. Red will linger, a memory, perhaps a reverie. Dreams are nightmares by another name, and so is EO, both nightmare and dream right from the beginning…

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Cannes at Home: Day 3 – Innocence Lost

by Cláudio Alves

New films by James Gray and Jerzy Skolimowski have hit the Croisette, leading to many a Belfast mention and plenty of donkey talk. Armageddon Time, a memoirist exercise that purports to evoke Gray's childhood, has been met with mixed reactions, including here at The Film Experience. However, the consensus leans towards warmth, and, as a longtime James Gray devotee, I couldn't be more excited. After all, nearly every film the man directed faced some negative critiques, yet I love most of them regardless. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about Jerzy Skolimowski. His filmography has been a dependable source of disappointments. By reading some reviews (including Elisa's), his new project, EO, sounds like the cynical bastard child of War Horse and Au Hasard Balthasar. That being said, I doubt the Bressonian comparison will do EO any favors.

For Cannes at Home, today's topics are the film that should have won James Gray the Palme d'Or and Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End…

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Cannes Diary #3: A stubborn wife, a great grandpa and... a donkey?

by Elisa Giudici

While I was on screening duty, Hollywood glamour was on shift-change with Tom Cruise out and Julia Roberts in. Roberts was here to hand the Chopard Awards to new promises of world cinema (Jack Lowden and Sheila Atim) and to enjoy a marvelous party, as I've heard from friends that witnessed it firsthand. But as for the movies, I am happy to report that on the second day of the competition (the third since opening nightl) we already have a soon-to-be infamous scene with the immense Isabelle Huppert as a momentary protagonist. Some weird festival stuff is coming, brace yourself...

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