2006 Cannes film festival, not a bad vintage
Kuo Kwan Leung, UNOG
The Palme d’Or award at this year’s
Cannes international film festival
as usual turned out to be a surprise,
especially for the many film critics
who were betting on Almodovar’s “Volver” or
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Babel”. But
since critics, especially the French ones, seldom
agree among themselves and often surprise
the general public with their strange
prognostics (one of which this year was Sofia
Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette”), why should
the jury not to have its own favourites?
After all, “The wind that shakes the
Barley” is not such a bad choice. It is true
that Ken Loach’s films are always made in a
very classical way and lack the innovation
and the element of surprise that critics look
for these days. It is to the credit of the
President of the Jury, Hong Kong film director
Wong Kar wai, that he opted for this
rather straightforward film. Wong is himself
a rather unconventional filmmaker and
only became known to the general public
not so long ago through his box office hit “In
the mood for Love”. As with the subject matter
of most of his other films, Ken Loach as a
cineaste engage is always defending the just
cause and the underdogs, and this time it is
the story of Irish Independence. But most of
the critics think this film lacks the intensity
of his two earlier films of the same nature:
the “Hidden agenda” and “Land and freedom”,
the former about British policy in
northern Ireland and the second about the
Spanish Civil War.
Bruno Dumont’s “Flandres” got the
Grand Prix, which is the second most important
prize. When his film “Humanity” won
the same prize in Cannes a few years back,
it created a polemic among film critics.
Likewise, this ambiguous film gives the
spectators an uneasy feeling; you don’t really
know what he is aiming at. It seems that
those scenes of brutality and sex are intended
to transmit certain religious sentiments.
Dumont has his followers. You have to be a
sadomasochist to appreciate this kind of
film- definitely not my cup of tea.
“Volver” only got the best screenplay
award, which is a big disappointment for
Almodovar admirers. Undeniably it is one of
his most enjoyable films, hilarious and
extravagant. It is on the screen now – go and
see it instead of wasting your time and money
on the “Da Vinci Code” and you will not
regret it. Probably because of his preference
for the company of man in real life, in his
films Almodovar depicts the sentiment of his
feminine characters much better than those
of the men. And Penelope Cruz is such a good
actress. (Who can forget her acting in Italian
director cum actor Sergio Castellitto’s “Non ti
muovere?”). No wonder she and Carmen
Maura and the other actresses of the film got
the best performance award.
Personally I would have awarded this
year’s Palme d’Or to “Inarritu’s Babel”. The
Mexican director’s first film “Amores
Perros” was a big discovery for Cannes a
few years back. The story of Babel (screenplay:
Guillermo Arriaga) takes place almost
simultaneously in three different parts of
the world. Morocco, Japan and the Mexican-US border region, interrelating three different
sets of people. It is a reflection on our
society. At the same time as the world is
becoming a global village, the misunderstanding
between different civilizations is
becoming ever more important.
Other films of interest include
Chinese director, Lou ye’s “Summer
Palace”, which depicts life among
university students before, during and
after the event of Tian An Men, their
love, aspirations and frustrations. It is
an interesting film and some of the
scenes remind one of the student revolution
in May 1968. Belgian writerdirector-
actor Lucas Belvaux’s dark
social comedy “La raison du plus
faible” resembles the socially realistic
films of his compatriots the Dardenne
brothers (Rosetta, L’enfant) and
also Ken Loach’s films. It shows the
frustration of the working class, who
are the left on the scrap heap in this
world of rapid globalization. One very
beautifully made film which has been
ignored by the critics and the jury is
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s
“El laberinto del Fauno”. It is a fairy
tale, in which a young girl invents a
fantasy world and goes through a rite
of initiation amid post-civil-war
Fascist repression in Spain. One of the
great disappointments among the films
in competition is Nanni Moretti’s
“Caiman”, which is supposed to be a critique
of Silvio Berlusconi. But Moretti
got lost in his over- complicated scenario.
All in all this year’s Cannes film festival
is not a bad vintage. Among many not
so exciting films one can always find
some real pearls. After all, different
people have different tastes; one man’s
meat can be another man’s poison. After
12 days of intense screening and some 40
films, I am still in the process of digestion,
it will take me some time, and for
the moment I can only offer you a first
general impression, perhaps when the
films are released this autumn, I will be
able to give you more detailed feedback
on each film.
© 2006 UN Special |