CANNES FILM REVIEW: Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Polytechnique’

Posted on May 23, 2009 by admin

polytechnique x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – Denis Villeneuve’s “Polytechnique” is a dispassionate retelling of the massacre of 14 young women at a school in Montreal by a deranged young man with a high-powered rifle in December 1989.

Filmed in black and white, the French-language film, which screened in Directors’ Fortnight, does not set out to comprehend the crime other than to suggest that the shooter (played with a vacant stare by Maxim Gaudette) was a pathetic loser who chose to blame women for his empty life.

The focus is on what happens to two survivors of the incident. Jean-Francois (Sebastien Huberdeau) is the only person in the huge, crowded building who appears to do something to help, while Valerie (Karine Vanasse) is an engineering student who somehow survives being shot at point-blank while her fellow students die beside her.

The impact on them is quite different and as they are composite characters it could be said that they represent the guilt of the men, who were not targeted, and the determination of the women who survived to honor their dead schoolmates and push on with their lives.

The 76-minute film, produced by Remstar and Don Carmody Prods., and handled by Wild Bunch, is as much a memorial as it is a docudrama and as such it will interest educators and students, and make for sober television. It’s a pity, though, that more of an attempt wasn’t made to understand the killer and explain such things as why no one apparently thought to phone for help or hit the fire alarm.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Michel Franco’s ‘Daniel and Anna’

Posted on May 23, 2009 by admin

daniel and anna x600By Ray Bennett

CANNES – Michel Franco’s prurient and off-putting little film “Daniel & Ana”, which screened in Directors’ Fortnight, is about a teenage brother and slightly older sister in Mexico City, who are kidnapped and forced to have sex with each other for a video camera.

The camera lingers unnecessarily on the attractive characters as they are made to disrobe and couple at the risk of death from three hoodlums. The siblings are released afterward and do not report the crime.

They deal with the event differently, as soon-to-be-married Ana (Marimar Vega) seeks help from a psychologist to put it behind her and formerly shy and caring 17-year-old Daniel (Dario Yazbek Bernal) develops a raging lust for his sister. A scene in which Daniel brutally rapes Ana also is overly indulgent.

Suspense builds as Daniel becomes increasingly possessive of Ana and jealous of her fiance, and the youth goes to their wedding ceremony and reception bearing a newly purchased and deadly looking knife.

Produced by Alameda Films, with Fortissimo handling sales, the film’s titillating subject matter and sex scenes could find some boxoffice return but audiences will puzzle over such things as an absence of motive for the kidnappers.

Using the video for blackmail seems the most obvious, but the kidnappers are never seen or heard from again.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’

Posted on May 22, 2009 by admin

imaginarium x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – The first big question about Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” involves how the filmmaker managed to complete the film when his star Heath Ledger (below) died in the middle of shooting. The answer is with great imagination and skill.

The second big question is whether Gilliam has produced something to rank with his great fantasies “Time Bandits” and “Brazil,” and the answer is sadly no.

A carnival show with a mirror to the imagination allows Gilliam to employ his remarkable gift for imagery, but the worlds he creates will not take the breath away of children or grown-ups. The combined star power involved will generate a plentiful boxoffice return, but the film is neither intelligent enough nor silly or grotesque enough to become a lasting favorite.

imaginarium2 x325Filled with phantasmagorical images with the occasional echo of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” the picture involves a classic duel between the forces of imagination, led by Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), and the architect of fear and ignorance, known here as Mr. Nick (Tom Waits, pictured with Plummer).

Andrew Garfield and Lily Cole provide youthful love interest, and Ledger is again the joker in the pack as a stranger who is not what he seems.

The setting is a horse-drawn carnival sideshow in modern London, an attraction in which Dr. Parnassus, who claims to be immortal, invites ticket buyers to enter a world of their own imagination by stepping through a large mirror. Once beyond it, faces change and fates vary, which is how Gilliam gets away with having Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell step into the Ledger role.

Ledger makes his entrance as a man being hanged from London’s Blackfriar’s Bridge with his arms tied at his back. Saved and named George by the members of Dr. Parnassus’ troupe, he claims to remember nothing and joins the players. The doctor and Mr. Nick have a lifelong wager in which the soul of Dr. P’s daughter (Cole) is the prize, and he suspects the devil has placed George there to make trouble. The rest of the film involves various plunges into the mirror’s vast wonderland, with George changing physiognomy along the way.

The visual effects are colorful and entertaining without ever becoming a coherent force. The score by Mychael Danna and Jeff Danna has the required flair and sweep.

Plummer and Waits are the twin rocks of the film, and they enter the spirit of playfulness with typical skill. Garfield continues to expand his considerable range, and model Cole makes a pretty picture. The three stars that came to Gilliam’s rescue also make amusing contributions, but it’s hard not to wonder how much better the film would have been with a complete performance by the charismatic, adventurous Ledger.

The film is dedicated to Ledger and producer William Vince, who died after filming was completed.

Venue: Festival de Cannes, Out of Competition; Cast: Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell, Andrew Garfield, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Lily Cole, Verne Troyer; Director, producer: Terry Gilliam; Screenwriters: Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown; Director of photography: Nicola Pecorini; Production designer: Anastasia Masaro; Music: Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna; Costume designer: Monique Prudhomme; Editor: Mick Audsley; Producers: William Vince, Amy Gilliam, Samuel Hadida; Executive Producers: Dave Valleau, Victor Hadida; Production: Infinity Features Entertainment, Poo Poo Pictures, Davis Films; Sales: Mandate International; Not rated; running time, 122 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES FILM REVIEW BRIEF: Juraj Lehotsky’s ‘Blind Loves’

Posted on May 21, 2009 by admin

'Blind Loves' 2008 x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – Love is blind, the poets say, and the blind also love but it’s not so easy to clink glasses of celebratory champagne when you and your partner cannot see.

Slovakian director Juraj Lehotsky observes this charmingly in his heartwarming documentary “Blind Loves”, screened in Directors Fortnight at the Festival de Cannes.

Filmed in the half-light of claustrophobic living quarters that do not bother those without vision, this look at several blind people getting on with their lives sends an unsentimental but optimistic message. Destined for strong showings on the festival circuit, the film also should thrive in educational circles.

Lehotsky has a keen and compassionate sensibility and he uses classical music to great effect. Even at a trim 77 minutes, the film makes the characters come alive and some of the small moments are deeply affecting.

These include blind lovers losing each other momentarily on a crowded dance floor; a sightless woman hanging up the laundry to dry on a line; a young boy asking his now-blind mother what she used to see; a blind woman describing why her favorite color is orange because of all the senses primed by the fruit; and a teenaged girl tapping into the Internet and dreaming of love.

It’s a film that puts a smile in your heart and you don’t need eyes for that.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Ken Loach’s ‘Looking for Eric’

Posted on May 19, 2009 by admin

Looking for EricBy Ray Bennett

CANNES – The term “crowd-pleaser” is not often attached to the work of Ken Loach, the British Palme d’Or-winning director of films of social realism, but his latest Festival de Cannes Competition entry, “Looking for Eric,” is exactly that.

At the press screening, there was laughter throughout, frequent clapping and sustained applause at the end. Loach regular Paul Laverty’s script is filled with great gags and the director does his typically polished job of bringing out the best in his actors.

They include former soccer player Eric Cantona (pictured right with Steve Evets), the Frenchman who was unheralded at home but called King Eric at Manchester United, the world’s biggest football club.

With Man U having just won the English Premier League title once again and heading to the Champions League final in Rome on May 27, the film’s football connection could not be more advantageous. If only the club’s millions of supporters around the world go to see it, and they will all want to, the movie will be a hit.

But “Looking for Eric” should connect with moviegoers who enjoy clever comic writing with a touch of fantasy plus fans of any sport that has legendary heroes. It looks set to be Loach’s biggest mainstream hit.

The footballer materializes in the home of a sad-sack postal worker also named Eric, played with great energy and flair by Steve Evets, whose latest panic attack leads to him repeatedly driving the wrong way round a roundabout until the inevitable crash.

He escapes unhurt and no one else is harmed but Eric is chastened by his latest attempt to flee the unhappy realities of his life. His second wife split seven years earlier and his two stepsons, Ryan (Gerard Kearns) and Jess (Stefan Gumbs), ride roughshod over him at home.

His mates at work, led by portly Meatballs (John Henshaw), do their best to cheer him up, and there’s a hilarious sequence in which they go one at a time to try to make him laugh, but it doesn’t help.

Retreating to his own room, which is full of Man U memorabilia and pictures, including a life-sized poster of Cantona, to whom he confides his worries, Eric is startled to discover the genuine article has shown up to listen.

More than that, the iconic star, who was known for quoting obscure sayings, has brought a bunch of his favorite aphorisms and proverbs to help Eric clean up his life and find some happiness. This involves setting his kids straight and trying to make amends with his first love, Lily (Stephanie Bishop), whom he abandoned with their baby decades earlier.

There’s a moment in the picture when a shift from high comedy to grim reality, caused by Ryan’s involvement with a local hoodlum, is a bit abrupt and some may find the themes incompatible, but it wouldn’t be a Loach film without some of that. With Lafferty’s help, he manages to achieve a balance. In the end, with Cantona’s wisdom and the help of his pals from the post office, Eric finds the courage and wit to win the day in a hugely entertaining final sequence.

Very funny and a bit sentimental, it’s naturalistic comedy of the highest order, with Evets and Henshaw standouts among a terrific cast. Cantona too shows great comic timing and is both imposing and self-effacing, playing off his reputation for being a proud and temperamental man.

Not only Man U supporters will enjoy the splendid clips showing some of his classic passes and goals, and his dialogue is a constant delight. “Sometimes we forget you’re just a man,” Eric tells him. Comes the reply: “I am not a man. I am Cantona!”

Venue: Festival de Cannes, In Competition; Cast: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, John Henshaw, Stephanie Bishop, Lucy-Jo Hudson, Gerard Kearns, Stefan Gumbs; Director: Ken Loach; Screenwriter: Paul Laverty; Production designer: Fergus Clegg; Music: George Fenton; Costume designer: Sarah Ryan; Editor: Jonathan Morris; Producer: Rebecca O’Brien; Executive producers: Eric Cantona, Pascal Caucheteux, Vincent Maraval; Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd; Production: Cantos Bros. Prods., Sixteen Films, Why Not Prods., Wild Bunch; Sales: Wild Bunch; Not rated; running time, 116 minutes.

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Olivier Cohen’s ‘Invisible Eyes’

Posted on May 19, 2009 by admin

invisible eyes x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – Olivier Cohen’s intelligent mystery “Invisible Eyes” has all the conventions of a thriller about a woman alone in a house but confounds expectations by moving pleasingly into “Twilight Zone” territory.

The offbeat story, which stars German catwalk veteran Pia Mechler (pictured) as an over-the-hill supermodel who starts to believe the walls have eyes, also has echoes of the themes explored by Charlie Kaufman in “Adaptation,” with a puzzle about who’s really writing the script.

Marketed smartly, the handsomely made film could go beyond its obvious youth audience to draw in fans of classic film and television mysteries. It also features a late Peter Cushing-like appearance by the fine English stage actor Michael Mears as a key instrument in the plot.

The setup is simple. Gaby (Mechler) arrives at a large, remote English country home to spend time watching DVDs and reading scripts in order to move on from being a top model. Her manager/lover Dan (Simon Merrells) enthuses about her future but his manner suggests his words are artificial as he departs to the city.

Gaby soon claims to sense another’s presence in the empty house and begins to fantasize about her first lover, a young man who died in a motorcycle accident. Visibly unsettled, she starts to hear odd noises and receive weird notes. Answering her pleas for help, Dan suspects she’s losing her mind, not least because the notes are in her handwriting.

The French director establishes an unsettling tone that tickles the imagination in the mood of that wonderful word eldritch, but along with the requisite shocks, he delivers a smart and intriguing payoff.

Merrells, who has won plaudits in the Brando role in a stage production of “On the Waterfront” in London’s West End, makes his character ambiguously sinister and Mears nails his small but vital role.

Mechler’s German-inflected accent when speaking English at first suggests the attractive young actress will wobble when things get spooky but her ever-so-slightly stilted delivery serves the character well. It heightens the evocation of classic suspense movies, along with Damien Salancon’s music, which plays with the genre’s traditions while hitting all the right notes.

Venue: Festival de Cannes, Market; Cast: Pia Mechler, Simon Merrells, Michael Mears, Mark Tintner, Ross Armstrong; Director, screenwriter: Olivier Cohen; Director of photography: Darran Bragg; Production designer: Gaelle Lindingre; Music: Damien Salancon; Costume designer: Nadya Lubrani; Editor: David Laurence; Producer: Liz Rosilio; Production company: HiDe Films; Sales: HiDe Films; Not rated; running time, 107 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Kamen Kalev’s ‘Eastern Plays’

Posted on May 18, 2009 by admin

eastern plays x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – Uneven but gripping, Kamen Kalev’s “Eastern Plays,” which screened in Directors’ Fortnight, is a portrait of a young drug addict artist caught up in the violent racial strife of present-day Bulgaria.

There’s a sudden crime not long into the picture, a savage beating that drunken artist Itso (Christo Christov) witnesses. He also takes some blows even as he sees that his younger brother Georgi (Ovanes Torosian) is among the gang running amok.

The film touches on the brothers’ relationship, but it’s more an exploration of the artist’s feelings of desperate alienation in Sofia, a seemingly tranquil city in which street thugs are paid by slick politicos to stir up unrest.

Many scenes take place in darkness and some go nowhere, but its sympathetic portrait of a young man who knows he’s gone off the rails amid the travails of an Eastern Bloc nation grappling with racism will make the picture of interest to festivals and special interest audiences.

Kalev takes his time introducing the central characters up to the point when Itso stumbles upon a gang assaulting a Turkish man and woman and their daughter, who are visiting from Istanbul. Georgi acts as a lookout for the hoodlums but it’s not until the next day when Itso shows up for a family meal that it becomes clear they are brothers.

Itso, who has broken up with his tearful girlfriend Niki (Nikolina Yancheva), is attracted to the dreamy Turkish girl Isil (Saadet Isil Aksoy, pictured), but her father, in the hospital recovering from his beating, forbids her to see him.

Although Itso is on methadone and drinking too much, he forms a bond with the girl while Georgi fights his own demons and their struggles form the rest of the story.

Christov, who died after the making of the film and is given a dedication at the end of it, was a nonprofessional, but his acting shows both range and depth. A scene in which he expresses his emptiness to a witless psychiatrist is touching and he and Aksoy have much chemistry in their scenes together.

Venue: Festival de Cannes, Directors’ Fortnight; Cast: Christo Christov, Ovanes Torosian, Nikolina Yancheva, Saadet Isil Aksoy

Director, screenwriter, editor: Kamen Kalev; Director of photography: Julian Atanassov; Production designer: Martin Slavov; Production: Waterfront Film; Sales: Memento Films International; No t rated; running time, 89 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Caroline Strubbe’s ‘Lost Persons Area’

Posted on May 18, 2009 by admin

lost persons area x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – The setting of Caroline Strubbe’s “Lost Persons Area”, which screened in Critics Week, is a wide flat plain populated by vast pylons bearing power cables that dwarf the human beings below.

The symbolism is the best part of the film, however, which tells of a family and a stranger dealing with an accident that affects all their lives.

Impressive exterior cinematography by Nicolas Karakatsanis is not matched in the interior scenes and, while the actors are plausible, Strubbe’s dialogue is not and too many scenes are fatally dull. The picture may find interest at a few festivals but hopes beyond that appear slim.

Lisbeth Gruwez and Sam Louwyck play Bettina and Marcus, a couple that operates a cafe close to the pylons, while Marcus runs the company that maintains and paints the giant structures. Their young daughter Tessa (Kimka Desart) is a strange, obsessive child who collects found objects and makes quirky objets d’art.

The dynamic changes when charming Hungarian painter Szablocs (Zoltan Miklos Hajdu) signs on and Marcus is injured, resulting in the amputation of a leg.

Strubbe strives to make the couple’s ramshackle relationship convincing and spends much time observing the eccentric child, but interest in their mutual fate soon dissolves.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Mathias Gokalp’s ‘Nothing Personal’

Posted on May 18, 2009 by admin

nothing personal x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – It’s been said of some Hollywood studios that executive competition was so bad that colleagues stabbed you in the front. That’s pretty much what happens with the suits at a pharmaceutical company in Mathias Gokalp’s corporate satire, “Nothing Personal”, which screened in Critics’ Week.

All the action takes place during a cocktail party held at a fancy museum where the employees are drawn into role-playing that some take more seriously than others. As the rumor spreads that each staff member is being evaluated and the company is up for sale, behavior worsens.

Director Gokalp, who co-wrote the film with Nadine Lamari, repeats several sequences in order to reveal what actually happened in key encounters, but the repetition becomes tedious rather than amusing. The picture is unlikely to travel beyond domestic consumption.

It makes observations about the way big companies treat employees and how they treat each other that are common to all countries, and the infighting is sophisticated. But the humor is almost too dry and Gallic, and the static situation soon palls.

There are some familiar faces from French movies in the cast including Zabou Breitman and Bouli Lanners (pictured) along with Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Melanie Doutey, and Pascal Greggory, plus Gilles Bergerat from Comedie Francaise, but their moments to shine in the crowd are limited.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

 

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CANNES FILM REVIEW: Keren Yedaya’s Jaffa

Posted on May 16, 2009 by admin

Jaffa x650By Ray Bennett

CANNES – “Jaffa,” directed by Keren Yedaya, whose 2004 film “Or” won five awards at the Festival de Cannes including the Critics Week Grand Prix and Camera d’Or, is an absorbing and touching family drama set in the Israeli seaside town of the title.

Well-acted, especially by Dana Ivgy (pictured below with Mahmoud Shalaby) in the central role of a young Jewish woman who falls for an Arab mechanic at her father’s garage, the film deals with a familiar set of circumstances in plausible fashion with an undercurrent of the ancient conflict between Arab and Jew.

jaffa2 x325Festival and specialised audiences will respond to the way Yedaya and co-writer Illa Ben Porat set up and develop the universal story and to the performances they have drawn from their players.

Mali (Ivgy) is the taken-for-granted member of the Wolf family, as her father Reuven (Moni Moshonov) and mother Osnat (Ronit Elkabetz) give all their attention to her brother Meir (Roy Assaf).

Lazy, sullen and resentful, Meir is a walking argument keen to disagree with everyone and quick to temper. While Reuven worries about keeping his garage in profit and how is son will possibly learn enough to run the family business, Meir antagonizes everyone, especially the Arabs who work for his father.

The object of most of his aggression is a young Arab named Tawfig (Mahmoud Shalaby), who works hard while Meir shirks and is respectful to both his own father and Reuven.

What nobody knows is that not only are Mali and Tawfig in love and planning to run off to get married, but Mali also is pregnant. Tawfig’s hourlong absence from work to make their travel arrangements sparks a violent reaction from Meir, who is hungover after he was kicked out of the family home and sleeping in the garage. The conflict leads to violence and that sets the course for the subsequent events.

Yedaya does well to establish Mali’s subservient place within the family as she is seen often cleaning up while others go about their business and she is ignored at the dinner table while the parents berate Meir for being irresponsible.

Ivgy gives a fine performance as a young woman who is overjoyed to be in love and expecting but whose life is turned upside down and utter despair beckons.

Shalaby is appealing, Moshonov and Elkabetz (pictured top) turn in typically insightful performances, and Assaf renders the detestable Meir with great magnetism. The cinematography is matter-of-fact until the moving final scene, when it genuinely enhances the drama, but Shushan’s score is a touch too mournful throughout.

Venue: Festival de Cannes, Out of Competition; Cast: Dana Ivgy, Moni Moshonov, Mahmoud Shalaby, Ronit Elkabetz, Roy Assaf; Director: Keren Yedaya; Screenwriter: Illa Ben Porat, Keren Yedaya; Director of photography: Pierre Aim; Production designer: Avi Fahima; Music: Shushan; Editor: Assaf Korman; Production companies: Bizibi, Transfax, Rohfilm; Sales: Rezo Films; Not rated; running time, 106 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

 

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