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- 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS Cristian Mungiu, Romania
- L’AMOUR CACHÉ Alessandro Capone, Italy/Luxembourg/Belgium
- BUDDHA COLLAPSED OUT OF SHAME Hana Makhmalbaf, Afghanistan
- DANS LA VILLE DE SYLVIA José Luis Guerín, Spain
- DEATH IN THE LAND OF ENCANTOS Lav Diaz, Philippines
- DR PLONK Rolf de Heer, Australia
- ENCARNACIÓN Anahí Berneri, Argentina
- IMPORT EXPORT Ulrich Seidl, Austria
- M Lee Myung-se, South Korea
- MANGE, CECI EST MON CORPS Michelange Quay, France
- NIGHT Lawrence Johnston, Australia
- PINK Alexander Voulgaris, Greece
- PLOY Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thailand
- SILENT LIGHT Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands
- SILENT RESIDENT Christian Frosch, Austria/Germany/Luxembourg/Hungary
- SOUS LES TOITS DE PARIS Hiner Saleem, France
- A STRAY GIRLFRIEND Ana Katz, Argentina/Spain
- THOSE THREE Naqi Nemati, Iran
- TIME TO DIE Dorota Kedzierzawska, Poland
- THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS Bruce McDonald, Canada
- YOU, THE LIVING Roy Andersson, Sweden/France/Germany/Denmark/Norway
15 comments:
Assuming that Claire Denis doesn't magically appear with a new feature this year, Silent Light will surely be my most highly anticipated film. All of the other filmmakers in the first batch of Visions announcements will be new to me, though. I've queued up Songs from the Second Floor and Last Life in the Universe from Netflix. Are there others I should track down before September?
Songs from the Second Floor is one of my ten favorite films of the decade, so the Andersson is a must-see for me. The word out of Cannes was that people who didn't like Battle in Heaven liked Silent Light a lot more, so it's possible we might flip our opinions on Reygadas. The only Seidl film I've seen is the documentary Jesus, You Know, which was interesting but not entirely successful. Anyway, just a few thoughts.
Susan Weeks-Coulter said Silent Light was "transcendent." I trust her judgment.
After watching both Songs from the Second Floor and Last Life in the Universe this weekend, You, the Living has dropped a few notches on my to-see list and Ploy has risen.
I'm sorry you weren't as keen on Songs, but if there was ever a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen, it's that one. Not that you had that option, of course.
Well, I recently watched Guerin's "En Construccion," and it is indeed quite good. It's a documentary about the construction of a Barcelona high-rise and Guerin touches on problems of class and gentrification without hectoring. His visual style, especially his composition and editing, is flawless. Eerie, in fact, since he frequently presents four or five different picture-perfect views of the same brief action, leading me to wonder how one achieves such thorough coverage in a documentary. At any rate, he's definitely one to watch.
I've seen one of Christian Frosch's experimental shorts, and I thought it was okay. Nothing earthshattering.
I was not impressed with Saleem's debut, "Vodka Lemon," and his last few pictures have reportedly been so bad that they vanished from the face of the earth. (Although in all fairness, opposition to his film "Kilometre Zero" seems to have been partly political. Saleem, a Kurd, made the faux pas of praising the American invasion of Iraq.)
I thought Lee Myung-se's "First Love" was okay, and his ultra-stylish "Nowhere to Hide" shallow but highly diverting. But I couldn't finish his last film, "Duelist." It's one of the most hideous things I've seen in ages.
That's all I got.
That's some good jerkey to chew on, Michael, thank you. As an aside, I just watched Kilometre Zero yesterday afternoon. Do you think he had a political critique buried in that Kurdish praise of the American invasion?
Good question, Michael. I should note, I haven't seem KM 0 myself. When it premiered at Cannes in 05, the pro-US sentiment was generally taken at face value by critics, but that's certainly not to say they didn't miss some sly commentary. Groupthink does congeal pretty fast in those situations.
In any case, the new one sounds like it's essentially a French film, with post-colonial accents. I suspect the stakes will be much different.
A little under a week ago, Todd at Twitch also offered up an announcement, website and trailer for Rolf de Heer's Dr. Plonk.
I haven't seen any Lav Diaz films yet, but he got a lot of attention for his nine-hour Evolution of a Filipino Family a few years back.
I liked Saleem's Vodka Lemon outright, and I didn't think Kilometre Zero was a disaster, though it didn't work for me. I'm surprised that people are surprised that a Kurd would cheer the downfall of Saddam.
Variety has a review of the Saleem film:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934384.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
Sounds as if the Variety critic just didn't want to see a film that grim.
Darren, I wasn't a big fan of SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR either (and I saw it on the big screen), but I really, really enjoyed YOU, THE LIVING at the NZ Film Festival. It's a lot of fun, particularly the first half, there's goofy bits that I think of that still make me smile and there's jawdropping bits that I still can't believe.
(I think a lot of people who loved SONGS were disappointed by the relative light-weightness or something of LIVING, though.)
Todd at Twitch recommends The Tracey Fragments and offers up the website and a trailer.
As for You, The Living, that's the first film that came to Jonathan Marlow's mind when I asked him to recommend his favorites from Cannes. Endorsement enough for me.
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