Father Geek here again, with Grozilla's report on his second day at Cannes. I'll just post this up before my narrow little limited window of opportunity allowed me by the onslaught of AOTC fans closes down... Here's our guy from the streets of Paris and his experiences from the sunny beaches in the south of France...
Day 2
Hmm, weird stuff today.
Intacto
Spain is proving again to be THE country of different stuff in genre films. Amenabar is hip, you can bet that this year will bring the same kind of world recognition for Jaime Balaguero (heard that some big US major has bought "Darkness", his new effort after "The Nameless", and it is expected to become this year's "The Other's" kind of hit), and while I am waiting to see first features from Paco Cazas( "Second Name", screens here later in the week) and Nacho Cerda ("Oblivion", currently shooting), I went see this Juan Carlos Fresnadillo bizarre thriller.
To analysize Intacto isn't easy. Just say in a nutshell, it's about good and bad luck. And how some can increase their own by stealing it from others. Some champion of luck wants revenge on an old boss who withdrew his power. He's leading the only survivor of a plane crash in some weird games cycle. At the end there can be only one. Yes just like in the Highlander stuff, except here there is no head to decapitate, just win up on the other one by betting more and more dangerously. From having a bug choosing to step on which betting location; to a cross-country-run in a pine woods, blindfolded, with hands tied in the back, trying to avoid the trees; to the more classical Russian roulette.
To be honest I'm still not sure I get the point here, other than to just catch what was a kind of Faustian twisted tale mixed with Freudian figureheads and events like the killing of ones Father. Nonetheless at the end of the screening I stand as totally puzzled as I was the first time I saw Abre los Ojos. Even if I might have missed something here at this screening, Intacto has got one the most powerful atmospheres that I've been sucked into for a long time. Beautifully shot and directed, it's really a unique piece of Cine, one of a kind.
Please Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise, stay away from here.
Le Pays du Chien qui Chante
Do you know Jura ? Me neither. I never went to that French place. In the first effort from Yann Dedet, well known here as an editor for directors with very strong personalities (Maurice Pialat, Manuel Poirier, François Truffaut, Jean François Stevenin), a Japanese couple goes to that place.
He's a musicologist, she's working on a study comparing Japanese ancient farmers to French ones. This is about cultural differences, or more how in fact there's maybe no difference between them. Those Japanese people will in fact get closer to their roots, by mixing their influences and those of Jura's.
At first it's just as much fun to see those strangers discovering french traditions as it is to see the French intrigued with the Japanese ones. Little by little, it becomes a different journey about getting free, leaving any inhibitions to live at the pace of mother nature. Maybe not convincing from beginning to end (the second part about the guy imagining an affair between his wife and a neighbour is a bit boring).
"Le pays du chien qui chante" isn't
a typical film, more of a poetic essay, that has many charms. The biggest of which is being
this taste for freedom, and the result of escaping any conception of classic cinema. Of course
this is for a small arthouse niche, but it's kind of an unexpected breath of fresh air.
May
Since Carrie we all know about that kind of seclusive girl who desperately wants to get friends and then unleashed chaos when she felt betrayed. May is made from that stuff, but with some sick twists. Since she's young May has only one friend : a doll bequeathed to her by her mother. She's now an adult workin' as a veterinarian assistant, and very fond of sewing. Of course she is seen as a freak by everyone, but some, as with her lesbian co-worker are attracted to her. Once she met a beautiful guy, she was sure he would be her Romero. Until he noticed she's got some bizarre needs and alot of envy. Then the madness is introduced.
May is a tale that's been told before except it goes down some very nasty paths to tell this ugly little duck story. Some of them are gross, like this blind child part, or this three legged dog, very disturbing stuff that avoids casting May into another Carrie-like mold, or if it is, that's more in a dark gothic slant.
The cast is amazing, but not in the way expected : Anna Farris at last proves she can be way more intriguing than her dumb parts in the Scary movies as a peverse lesbian. Angela Bettis as the title role is sometimes too obvious as the nutty one before being very moving and terrifying at the same time. In fact here she just looks like some female character drawn by Tim Burton in his "Melancholy death of Osyter boy", being as repellent as she is attractive. Besides what if Tim Burton had just been an small independent horror filmmaker ? May and its very surprising last minute is probably a very good answer to that question.
