Red carpets squeezed to get the rain
out, astonishing fashion creations back on the pegs, this year's
Cannes Film Festival is over. But what does it tell us about the
world's movie industry?
Worthy but not wonderful
The movies at Cannes 2012 were often
quite good, with worthy themes and interesting ideas, but there were
no real jaw-dropping moments. Take for example “Pirogue”, a film
about African migrants floating across the Mediterranean. It's a
horrific tale of woe, backed up by terrifying statistics about how
many of these poor people die trying to get to Europe, but it isn't
very creative or artistic.
Old and age and death
Yes that's the main theme for this year
– the winner was Hanneke's “Amour”, a superbly crafted piece on
an old couple living out their final years. Old age is a shipwreck,
and we only put up with it because the alternative is worse. “Eye
of the Storm”, a great Australian film with Charlotte Rampling and
Geoffrey Rush took the ageing theme further and showed an elderly
lady's final days and all the flashbacks, family tensions, and human
weakness. Rush is the famous actor son who cannot face emotions
except by turning them into a stage play. Rampling is the old lady
thinking back to her feisty past. It's superior cinema with a
Bergmanesque theme. Catch it if you can.
Guilt and responsibility
Possibly the nearest we got to wonder
this year was the Russian tale of World War Two, “In the Fog”.
It's a tightly constructed story of one man who is inexplicably
spared by the Nazis when saboteurs are hanged, and who spends the
rest of the film trying to clear his name among the Russian villagers
who suspect him of betrayal. So many reversals, internal conflicts
and flashbacks. Yes it's a grim theme, but this was the best movie in
Cannes this year. I also loved a version of “Crime and Punishment”
called “Student”, a great moment from Kazakhstan.
Depressing themes win prizes
Jury president Nanni Moretti is known
to suffer from depression, and some of the winners reflect this
darker side. Take the unbelievable pompous “Post Tenebras Lux”, a
Mexican film that has plenty of special effects and incomprehensible
scenes, with apparently no connecting themes. Jury member Andrea
Arnold said “He dared to fail” - oh really? Is that what we give
prizes for these days? Failing?
No women directors in the selection
The main controversy a the beginning of
the Festival was that the guy that gets to pick the films had not
chosen any directed by females. Thierry Frémaux justified this
decision by saying “there are many more men directors, it's not my
fault”. By the way why is it always the same person that makes the
selection? No women, and also a whole bunch of the same names,
including some who frankly ought to have retired by now. Last year
Manoel De Oliveira at 101 years old, and this year Alain Renais at 89.
What about some new blood?
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