Festival Circuit 2021

[Omensetter]

It'd be a fantastic winner of the Jury Prix or perhaps in the competitive Screenplay, but the last unknown to win the Palme right out of the gate was Cristian Mungiu. Kuosmanen winning would be the boldest choice possible, outside of Penn and Moretti, I feel.

The Moretti that debuted yesterday is getting a thrashing—even Cahiers hated it. There appears to be some disconnect between the Brits/Americans (Robbie Collin called it on the best films he'd ever seen!) that goosed Bergman Island to an 87 on Metacritic and the various grids from the Germans, Russians, Chinese, etc. I'd compare it to the Trier, but there seems to be something more ambiguous in Hansen-Løve's film. It debuts with a 2.2 on the Screen Daily, but will probably move toward a 2.3 or 2.4 whenever Peter Bradshaw sees it.

The Hamaguchi debuted with a 3.5 on the Screen Daily (the same score as Carol and Parasite) and perhaps can be safely labeled the best received so far regardless of some of the names changing on the SD grid. Hamaguchi now has two 2021 films looking to debut in other territories; if one is interested, Happy Hour and Asako I & II are streaming on Kanopy.

Today: Serebrinnikov and Wes Anderson

[Pavel]

It'd be a fantastic winner of the Jury Prix or perhaps in the competitive Screenplay, but the last unknown to win the Palme right out of the gate was Cristian Mungiu. Kuosmanen winning would be the boldest choice possible, outside of Penn and Moretti, I feel.

Penn winning would be absolutely hilarious. Moretti winning would be a 50/50 mix of bold and boring. Bold and exciting would be, assuming they're great, Titane and Red Rocket

[yoloswegmaster]

There is going to be no press conference for 'The French Dispatch'.

[Omensetter]

The festival was fortunate to have this premiere here, anyhow. There hasn't been much reporting on the other press conferences, so I don't know what would have come out of it. It seems chiefly news for Variety, Anderson stans, and Oscar bloggers.

[Never Cursed]

Which of course means that AW is having a meltdown over the news

[JabbaTheSlut]

Kuosmanen's film is a harmless, nice film, that nobody has any strong feelings pro or con. Some prize it'll surely get. Just saw Petrov's Flu, it's the by far the best of the competition films I've seen this year. I have missed Hamaguchi though. And Moretti and Penn, but those two don't count, right? Petrov: a crazy plunge. I doubt it'll get Palme though, too crazy for it. Farhadi and Enyedi coming up, I have a feeling the big winner will be either of them.

[Omensetter]

Well, I'm glad you saw Petrov's Flu! I had to extract reactions for that from unknown places since the Wes Anderson film positively dwarfed it. Bosch seemed to be a common comparison point although just in me (lightly) reading about it, it seemed from the same cloth as Loznita's last two features and maybe Muratova. I stopped reading reviews as soon as the author launched into the style, but it seems substantial, a work of the artist emerging from confinement into a world ravaged by a pandemic. I think it'll find some love somewhere on the jury.

The American and Brits seemed to be more for the Anderson with the reception muted elsewhere. Regardless, his film will be fine.

I love that Farhadi's back in Iran and that his films break box office records there, but it doesn't seem like Farhadi deviates much with his latest which just debuted. Screen International liked it, Peter Bradshaw found it messy—I'm sure in many ways its laudable, but we'll have to see where others land. Rewatching The Salesman two days ago, I was surprised at how melodramatic the film, how talented Farhadi is at placing his narrative beats but without actual dramatization. His films are always visually unremarkable, too. Ducournau seems to be the headliner today, and I'm sure she'll give Twitter something to talk about.

[Pavel]

A friend of mine went as part of the 3 Days in Cannes program, though I think he got around 5 days. Will talk to him in more detail later, but so far he hated Petrov's Flu and the new Louis Garrel and thought Flag Day was halfway decent. He's had a pretty difficult time getting tickets for the movies he's most excited for

[JabbaTheSlut]

Well, I'm glad you saw Petrov's Flu! I had to extract reactions for that from unknown places since the Wes Anderson film positively dwarfed it. Bosch seemed to be a common comparison point although just in me (lightly) reading about it, it seemed from the same cloth as Loznita's last two features and maybe Muratova. I stopped reading reviews as soon as the author launched into the style, but it seems substantial, a work of the artist emerging from confinement into a world ravaged by a pandemic. I think it'll find some love somewhere on the jury.

The American and Brits seemed to be more for the Anderson with the reception muted elsewhere. Regardless, his film will be fine.

I love that Farhadi's back in Iran and that his films break box office records there, but it doesn't seem like Farhadi deviates much with his latest which just debuted. Screen International liked it, Peter Bradshaw found it messy—I'm sure in many ways its laudable, but we'll have to see where others land. Rewatching The Salesman two days ago, I was surprised at how melodramatic the film, how talented Farhadi is at placing his narrative beats but without actual dramatization. His films are always visually unremarkable, too. Ducournau seems to be the headliner today, and I'm sure she'll give Twitter something to talk about.

Agree with Farhadi and melodrama, the new one is no exception on that front. But it's a solid film, little stiff and hard edged in its metaphors as the previous ones, but still engaging in it's storytelling. Hard to see it winning the Palme though. Ducournau could be something to look forward to. Raw was quite promising. The trailer looks fun. Unfortunately I will miss the screening, at least tonight.

A friend of mine went as part of the 3 Days in Cannes program, though I think he got around 5 days. Will talk to him in more detail later, but so far he hated Petrov's Flu and the new Louis Garrel and thought Flag Day was halfway decent. He's had a pretty difficult time getting tickets for the movies he's most excited for

The discord for Petrov's Flu does not come as a surprise. It's a noisy, disrupting film. I still like it the best of all the films, the majority of competition films I've seen seem strangely slight (and I think this is not only my opinion): Ozon's new, Compartment no 6, Bergman Island, Trier's Worst Person.

Benedetta, Annette, Lingui, A Hero were fine, but no masterpieces. Not the strongest year, I must say. I hope still catching Hamaguchi on this trip. I hope still catching a film I will love. Audiard's trailer looks promising.....

[Pavel]

I hope still catching Hamaguchi on this trip. I hope still catching a film I will love.

Oh he also saw the Hamaguchi. Absolutely adored it. Seems to be one of the festival's standouts

[Pavel]

Twitter reactions to Titane seem very positive, with most people emphasizing its alleged insanity. 4.5 (A-) from Ehrlich, haven't read other professional reviews yet

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah, I read Ehrlich's initial few paragraphs on Letterboxd and am totally sold, but don't want to know any more about it- sounds exactly like my kind of horror movie

[Pavel]

When I saw the Titane trailer I jokingly said to a friend "Imagine if this wins the Palme" and now IndieWire is predicting it. Still rooting for Sean, whose film screens today, but this'd be one of the coolest choices

[Omensetter]

A friend of mine went as part of the 3 Days in Cannes program, though I think he got around 5 days. Will talk to him in more detail later, but so far he hated Petrov's Flu and the new Louis Garrel and thought Flag Day was halfway decent. He's had a pretty difficult time getting tickets for the movies he's most excited for

If his five days landed at the end, he could have had the day where they replay competition. I believe there are multiple days of three films forthcoming; hopefully, he can manage the Audiard or whatever falls in his lap.

I had Ducornau at director (I also bafflingly had The French Dispatch at Palme) before the festival started, but this year looks as good as any for a well-received film directed by a women to win. (I would have given Marie Antoinette the 2006 Palme, but I digress.) There's no Parasite meteor, certainly, which had high-brow and middle-brow appeal. It doesn't matter ultimately, but it'd be nice if they didn't award back-to-back films that concern themselves heavily with genre. With Ducornau's prime scheduling slot and this jury (especially with Filho, who disappointingly turned in a straight genre film last time), it does seems like hers to win.

Farhadi does seem like something enough individuals can agree on, though, and I suspect this jury wishes to get along. I'd frankly just give it to Hamaguchi, Serebrinnikov, or Hansen-Løve.

[Pavel]

Farhadi does seem likely and I don't actually think Titane will get the Palme. But I'd be pleased.

I'm even more pleased to report that Red Rocket is getting excellent reactions — I've mostly read tweets, but it's currently #2 on the first poll Omensetter linked (which is the easiest to navigate and the one I go to most often; weirdly, #1 is Annette, which I don't think got that much acclaim). Another 4.5 (A-) from Ehrlich. People on Twitter are praising Simon Rex to no end, so my prediction for Actor seems reasonable, since American indies don't seem like the type of films that win major Cannes prizes

[ianungstad]

Hopefully Criterion releases Titane as part of their relationship with NEON. I really enjoyed Raw.

[soundchaser]

Enyedi's Story of My Wife has not gone down as well as I was expecting (or hoping, since I was interested in it). I suspect either Farhadi or Hamaguchi will walk out with the Palme. I just can't see the jury giving it to Titane.

[Omensetter]

Regardless of where the covid Cannes selection lands, it's enough to know that there are at least twenty films watching in Competition (I shamelessly haven't paid much attention to UCR) and further that it's nice to have a film to look forward to again. A lot of these films panned or shrugged off will, of course, play better outside the same sleep-deprived critics. Personal Shopper was slagged off here, and it was the best of the 2016 edition (alongside Cristi Puiu, whose film actually got great reviews but who has since gone off into unpalatable territory). Todd Haynes and Sergei Loznitsa in 2017, etc.

All the same, it was nice to waken to good notices for Weerasethakul and Hong, who, of course, should be in Competition. I'll watch one of his films today from my always growing unwatched Hong pile, and maybe have him be my entire personality by dinner.

[Ribs]

It’s interesting it seems to be the overall weakest official selection in several years - it seems really unlikely one of the remaining titles will challenge Drive My Car’s spot at the top of the Screen Critics Grid with a 3.5 (maybe Red Rocket will come around there, but I just can’t see it being topped based on what’s left) and, unlikely enough as it seems, Annette is the second-highest and the only other film even hitting the 3.0 mark. It’ll be interesting to see how the fall fests respond with some of these titles I would have assumed as shoo-ins getting decidedly weak receptions from many.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

A surprising and very late addition to the Cannes lineup: Hong Kong doc Revolution of Our Times

Per the article, this was held back to protect the filmmakers, and I have no doubt that was a genuine consideration. But I'm sure another was the possibility that some of the mainland films in the lineup would've been pulled if it had been known in advance that they would be playing alongside a movie like this—recall what happened in 2009 when the Melbourne Film Festival programmed a documentary about Uyghur activist Rebiya Kadeer and every Chinese film in the lineup was subsequently pulled. Rotterdam doesn't seem to have been penalized for programming multiple films of this type (including an entire sidebar in 2020), but Cannes is a much higher-profile venue, so I don't know if the powers that be in Beijing will just shrug it off.

[Finch]

Competition films with U.S. distribution:

Annette — Amazon
Benedetta — IFC
Bergman Island — IFC
Flag Day — MGM
The French Dispatch — Disney
A Hero — Amazon
Memoria — NEON
Paris, 13th District — IFC
Red Rocket — A24
Titane — NEON
Everything Went Fine — Cohen

You can now add Compartment No 6 to the list; Sony Pictures Classics got rights for the US, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

EDIT: And just in from Deadline: Neon bought Trier's The Worst Person In The World.

[FrauBlucher]

Is it me or does it seem like IFC is more aggressive this year than they’ve been in recent years?

[Omensetter]

Competition films with U.S. distribution:

Annette — Amazon
Benedetta — IFC
Bergman Island — IFC
Compartment No. 6 — SPC
Flag Day — MGM
The French Dispatch — Disney
A Hero — Amazon
Lingui — MUBI
Memoria — NEON
Paris, 13th District — IFC
Red Rocket — A24
Titane — NEON
Everything Went Fine — Cohen
The Worst Person in the World — NEON

You can now add Compartment No 6 to the list; Sony Pictures Classics got rights for the US, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

EDIT: And just in from Deadline: Neon bought Trier's The Worst Person In The World.

Prior to all those, too, MUBI took on Lingiu. Indeed, MUBI appears to have taken on a lot of the Competition for a lot of central/north Europe, as well. If they want to pick up Arnaud Desplechin's film from 2019 for the States while they're at it, please. The main festival films appearing on U.S. MUBI are Justine Triet's not-as-bad-as-advertised Justine and Cristi Puiu's Malmkrog which intimidates me and which always remains unseen by myself because there are other three-plus-hour films I could watch.

It's perhaps more trivial than trying to suss out reactions to films at film festivals, but I wonder if SPC will change the title of Kuosmanen's film to Compartment #6.

IFC had their three films prior to the fest, but if they want to start to get aggressive, it'd be welcome! Petrov's Flu, the film most likely to be left without U.S. distibution could be theirs for a few hundred euros!

[Omensetter]

I didn't mean to double post, but the reactions to Audiard's film are respectable (2.5 on the Screen Daily, .1 off the Farhadi and Kuosmanen), and IFC's trio are sufficiently commercial, so it seems like they know what they had. Memoria debuted on the Screen Daily grid with a sea of threes and fours averaging a 3.4, making it the third and likely last film to average a three alongside Annette and Drive My Car. I like and respect Michel Ciment (especially on Rosi and Kubrick), but he's the sole critic—and one of the few to have apparent tenure on this grid—to have slapped Memoria with anything less than a three.

It seems that with the new Dumont, those who like his films are fine with France, and those who are neutral, don't. It seems like he's chosen a more interesting satire target this go-round with the modern French media than the early twentieth century aristocracy of Slack Bay, at least.

Nabil Ayouch's competition debut Casablanca Beats is being uniformly portrayed as a feel-good cool teacher movie (1.7 on the apparent talismanic grid), so at least I know which one of these twenty-four films I'll unambiguously skip.

Justin Kurzel's Nitram and Joachim Lafosse's The Restless screen today, the last, with Lafosse's film screening last redolent of Fremaux's boomer humor.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Prior to all those, too, MUBI took on Lingiu. Indeed, MUBI appears to have taken on a lot of the Competition for a lot of central/north Europe, as well. If they want to pick up Arnaud Desplechin's film from 2019 for the States while they're at it, please. The main festival films appearing on U.S. MUBI are Justine Triet's not-as-bad-as-advertised Justine and Cristi Puiu's Malmkrog which intimidates me and which always remains unseen by myself because there are other three-plus-hour films I could watch.

On the non-competition front, Mubi has also picked up Kira Kovalenko's Unclenching the Fists, which just took the big prize from the Un Certain Regard jury.

It's not a Cannes title (it won the Tiger Award at Rotterdam 2020), but Zheng Lu Xinyuan's excellent The Cloud in Her Room will be on Mubi U.S. (not sure about anywhere else) sometime this fall. I hope it also gets some theatrical outings, maybe at Lincoln Center since they selected it for last year's online-only New Directors/New Films.

The Wrap's review of France is about as insightful as one would expect from the source, but it still deserves special mention for genuinely entertaining the possibility that Emmanuel Macron did a cameo specifically for the film.