Father Geek reporting in from Austin, Texas with another of Grozilla's great wondering, wandering reports of The Film Festival in CANNES, France. It's wandering in that he takes you with him to films, parties, cafes, line standing, etc... I love this type of coverage, it gives you the real feel of the fest, its crowds, the chaos, the dashed hopes, the joy of discovery, the overblown egos, and the overwhelming fatigue. It's all here for you to experience on AICN in Grozilla's daily Cannes' report... Check it out...
Grozilla here, just stomping around this beach resort a little more, trying to scare up some interesting CANNES news for all you weekend readers out there stuck at work, or in the house, or classroom .....
[masson.al] Sooooo I didn't see Aoyama's Desert Moon. On the way to its screening, I met five old pals of mine, with usually differing opinions, different tastes, and all of them say to me the same thing: "Not a film to be seen here, but to be rediscovered in a few months, out of the Cannes' world." That's some advice I will follow. So I went instead for one of the few real live dinners I've had here, with good friends. You can tell very good friends from the other type in Cannes when after half an hour in the restaurant you can chat on topics other than movies or cinema.
Next morning, 8.30 am. Time to see the last French movie in competition, François Dupeyron's The Officer's Ward. There was a very huge buzz on this periode piece, so many here thought it could be their last chance to find a overwhelming good film. Two hours ten minutes later, I was still looking for one. The Officer's Ward is a tearripper movie for anyone who HASN'T seen Johnny Got His Gun and/or Elephant Man. A young lieutenant is hurt by a bomb during WWI. He's got no face ,and can't speak anymore. He stayed in an hospital cared for by a nurse whose son is gone to fight. Most of the material here has been in Trumbo and Lynch movies, the voice over, the parabole on War, bla-bla-bla... This could have been interesting if not made in a very clean way. How can one get empathy with characters who are written only on the clichés of the genre? An Officer with no face wandering throughout the hospital , discovers that other soldiers are dying, so he bursts in tears... Pff, let me laugh. Soldiers chatting over how harsh and cruel war can be. Oh they didn't know? This film is this year's Dancer In The Dark, except that Dupeyron spends to much time checking if his photo is beautiful, if all the extras will fit in his cinemascope image, or if the military outfits are well worn. I hate Von Trier movie because it was kind of blackmailing for tears, I can't hate The Officer's Ward because it's just plain silly. Anyway it seems to fulfill its duty: at the end of the screening, more than half of the screening room was crying... blubbering away. This will sure stand on top of the box-office when it'll be released in France in the fall, just because it tells people what they wanna be told. A Marshmallow story without any purpose.
Yesterday was definitely a Disappointing day when I saw Human Nature. Charlie Kaufman is to my opinion, the most exciting guy in movies. I heard of the Human Nature's script a few days after being mindbroken by Being John Malkovich. A woman with a body covered in hair, a scientist with the smallest penis in world who wants to bring back to the civilized world an ape-man. And a love triangle between them. Wow!!! Then I learnt that Michel Gondry, one of the genius of music video and ads, will get from this story his first directing effort. I screamed of joy. Two years later, the results are as lousy as my enthousiasm was high. No hint of Gondry's sparkling ideas seen in his previous works are here. Its as if he was shy in front of this script. So are the actors, except Rhys Ifans, truly great in the ape-man part. Patricia Arquette, but above all Tim Robbins seems to be AWOL. No directing, no actors acting. Michel Gondry where were you on the set? Even the sour, the dark stuff of this script has been softened to a very light comedy. Of course there's some funny moments, but this story wasn't about making you laugh, but was supposed to be some twisted and mean tale about Darwin's theory. Now it's just a sort of Greystoke spoof. The only thrill I felt was to hear about the coming to town of Kaufman: he refused to make TV interviews, to stand with the crew on photocall, and if some photos were taken during the press conference he attended, not only the film might have been immediately destroyed but the conference would have immediately stop. This guy sure knows how to entertain mystery. Human nature is a deception, but I keep having true faith in Adaptation, Spike Jonze is shooting these days.
Sorry I missed Shohei Immamura's Tide Water Under A Red Bridge. This Japanese guy is one of the best of the Japanese old-school directors. His two last films, Eel and Kanzo Sensei were far better than many films from young directors of his country. The press badges system here (one day I'll explain this non-sense protocol thing to you) made even by waiting one hour before the screening, I wasn't allowed to get in. Instead I went to Avalon - I couldn't wait to see Oshii's film at the midnight screening of the day of the party which was held in a very very strange villa around 45 minutes down the road from the Croisette. Except this location, this party wasn't at all a success. It was kind of journey to get back from there. Leaving the party at 2 A.M, I arrived in town at 6A.M. Making it Impossible to get awake two hours later to see Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Millenium Mambo, the last film in competition. Met some people later who all told me, they couldn't stand it all along, all left after one hour, some, telling me it was very beautifully made, but even so, most boring.
Besides the golden palm for movies, there's also one given to short film. So I saw this afternoon, the dozen of that kind who stand in competition. Average quality, but two great films : Pizza Passionata, some animated (Ã la Aardman) film from Iceland about the loneliness of a shy guy. Has the bluesy feeling of Russian animation cinema. Fun, but sad in the same time. And the very great Truth In Advertising (sorry, I can't remember the name of its director) kind of fake documentary on the creative process of an ad campaign. Film follows all the steps from the idea born in Publicist's agency to the release of a spot. But with a very smart twist : the characters say their dialogues in the licking ass way it's surely told in life, but they just say what they really think. For example : boss of the agency enters the brainstorm room : "Hi, was just comin'in to humiliate you. Any one want to lick my ass and suck my dick ?". As funny as it is dark.
Tomorrow the awards will be given. So it's time for bets. If you believe the word of mouth, Nanni Moretti's The Son's Room will get the golden palm. I always hate Moretti's egotistic cinema, so I didn't see this one yet. The last day in Cannes, all films in competition are played again. So I guess I'll have to see The Son's Room just because I have to comment on the palmares on French radio tomorrow evening. Hoping I'm wrong for once about Moretti's cinema.
If not, I'll end this Cannes edition with a certain amount of anger. I'll let you know on Monday with the results of this "so-so" festival edition. Grozilla out for now.....
